17U Post-Season Series: The Returning Line-Up
The importance/relevance of Grassroots Basketball has grown massively in the past ten years so the 2019 season is already on our minds. What do programs have back/coming up? We give you the rundown of next year’s returning talent with a 17u 2019 starting five.
***These line-ups are ONLY inclusive of players within their programs right now. Of course teams will add players in the future to strengthen their teams but that’s not what we are doing today. We are giving starting fives of what programs have coming back.
D1 Minnesota. Drake Dobbs/Kerwin Walton/Connor Christensen/Ben Carlson/Dawson Garcia
D1 Minnesota had a top ten line-up nationally last year, a team that was at point the top ranked team in the nation. Their group is highlighted by a pair of top 50 level players (Dawson adn Ben) as well Kerwin Walton giving them three top 150 level players. The group will step in having the talent to be a nationally ranked team once again.
Grassroots Sizzle. Terry Lockett/Jalen Suggs/Kaden Johnson/Dain Dainja/Chet Holmgren
You will notice that this line-up is 4/5ths of the starting line-up from this year. Jalen is a five star talent, Dain Dainja a top 75-80 level player nationally, Lockett and Johnson are both high major football prospects, and Holmgren will be someplace nationally ranked when the national Prep Hoops national 2021s come out. Grassroots year one was getting their feet wet, year two was going over .500 in UAA play with a young team, year three should be about going after a UAA title and a top spot nationally.
Minnesota Fury. Jaylen James/Zach Lea/Brady Williams/Charlie Katona/Cameron Steele
First off, I was going to add Jacob Hutson to this list because they are in the same program and often times programs pool their top players to the same top team when it hits 17u, but not always. I wasn’t sure on this one, so I left Hutson off the list. If I added Hutson, and when you consider that Williams and Katona a have ever improving ball skills, I love the big line-up of Williams-Katona-Steele-Hutson at times.
Howard Pulley. Trejuan Holloman/Lu’Cye Patterson/Blaise Beauchamp/Kendall Brown/Jalen Travis
Blaise and Lu’Cye helped the Panthers go 7-9 in EYBL since day one, Brown was added permanently in May, and Holloman played both 17s and 16s in the final five events. This is a surplus of talented, skilled, heady guards. Holloman is about to be ranked among the elite 2022s and Brown already is ranked among the elite 2021s.
Minnesota Comets. Noah King/Matt Willert/Eli King/Tony Dahl/Noah Puetz
It may have flown a tad under the radar headlines wise but the Comets 16u club had a really strong 2018 with the toughness of King and Dahl combined with the explosive shooting of Matt Willert. Matt Willert is the name we are putting on the “about to make headlines” list, Noah has a D1 offer already, Eli is one of the state’s best 2022s, and they don’t come tougher than Dahl.
WOTN. Ryan Samuelson/Nathan Heise/Reid Gastner/Tate Machacek/Steven Crowl
WOTN takes steps every year and they are set to have their most talented, most recruited team ever. Steven Crowl is at Northern Iowa this week on a visit and is about to become a highly recruited player likely getting a high major offer at some point down the road. He’s nationally about a top 300 player overall. Add in the size and skill of the rest of the line-up and good things look to be coming.
Gain Elite. David Injabimbola/Blake Remme/J’Vonne Hadley/Tyler Andrews/DT Frierson
I’m not sure if Gain Elite will go the route of playing talent up a class, or not. Tough to guess in that regard but they did have three of the top 5-6-7 guys in the 2021 Minnesota class at the end of year with Andre Gray, Treyton Thompson, and Davon Townley Jr. We decided to stay with just 2020s though just to stay on the safe side as this group will be strong in that regard too.
Minnesota Heat. Tait Nelson/Daydoor Phillips/Jared Walter/Jackson Nibblelink/Cole Chapman
This is the Heat Moberg team that has played many games together and with the Heat teams usually stick together up through the year. Nelson is as tough as they come, Walter is an experienced worker at CP, and Chapman is a big that people will have an eye on.
Team Get Shook. Deandre ‘DJ” Miller/Juwan Grant/Joseph Kearney/Armani Davis/Treyton Thompson
Grant and Kearney are both top 50 level prospects in the state of Minnesota with Grant about to embark on the playmaker role at Champlin and Kearney moving into the second scoring option at Tartan playing with Antwan Kimmons. You add Thompson up front as a now recruited high major big (he played with Get Shook and Gain Elite last year), quality potential Armani Davis, tough guy football prospect Carvon Gurley, and top 75 level prospect DJ Miller and it’s a good team.
Minnesota Matrix. Will Cordes/Jacob Stolzenberg/Dylan DeChampeau/Mason Miller/Jacob Jenniseen
This is a huge team, and a team we think could really surprise. Why? Cordes and Stolzenberg are tough, and really improving as guards. Then up front DeChampeau is set to make Greenway a top ten team in Class AA while Miller and Jenniseen are big men prospects that will draw scholarship looks. The frontcourt is all top 50 prospects in the class and the backcourt is tough.
Minnesota Select. Parker Nielsen/Joich Gong/Semaj Hart/Brody Kriesel/Danny McGraw
Select has a chance to have a really good 2019. Why? Nielsen is already a stud and if Joich Gong takes the steps you expect he will scholarship opportunity will come his way. Semaj Hart was outstanding in the state tournament playing up as a 2021 and the frontcourt guys Krisel and McGraw got better as the year moved on.