The Race for Mr. Basketball
Where can you see the state’s top prospects this week and who is playing well? The Race for Mr. Basketball gives you the needed knowledge. Best of the best!
The Leader: Matthew Hurt.
Hurt had 32 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and seven steals in the Rochester John Marshall 30 point win over Red Wing. Now Hurt is playing a pair of games in the Rotary Classic followed by a game in the Hoop City Classic in South Dakota this week. Catch him in Roch or Sioux Falls.
Final Five: Brown, Terry, Nnaji, Wahl, Roddy, Hurt
Dropping one of those six out is really going to be a tough thing to do. It’s part of the reason we are following it so closely. Here is the latest on each, and where they are this week.
Courtney Brown Jr: East Ridge is hosting their own event this week so catch the future Milwaukee Panther there. Brown recently became the all time leading scorer in East Ridge history.
Tyrell Terry: Tyrell returned from injury to score 21 against BSM. This week the Islanders are playing teams from around the country in the Hoop City Classic in Sioux Falls.
Zeke Nnaji: Zeke made a major statement by scoring 33 in a dominating win over a good team from Chicago that has multiple D1 guys. Nnaji’s 33 points vs Orr joins his performance vs Lakeville North as a pair of statement games. At the moment Zeke is the clear challenger to Hurt. Zeke is at Augsburg’s event this week.
Tyler Wahl: Wahl’s Lakeville North Panthers have fell to 3-3 on the year (vs a tough schedule) and Tyler was held to nine by Eden Prairie last week. North hosts their own event this week.
David Roddy: Roddy missed some games for Breck to play in the high school football all star game but came back to explode on Totino-Grace for 36 points in a five point loss. Roddy has Breck at 4-2 and should get several wins in the South St Paul event.
Top Ten
The race is open for the top ten ten. Jamison Battle and his 30 a game has to be the next name to talk about along with Isaac Fink and his number one ranked Springfield team. Fink is also scoring 30 a game! Battle and Fink are the two guys (along with The Bottom Line feature player from Edina) who will challenge the six above the most. Who else? Let’s look at some seniors that have their teams off to great starts:
- How about Jeremy Beckler and Samuel Schwartz of White Bear Lake? These guys are putting up numbers while beating CDH and Mahtomedi for an undefeated ranked team. If they keep winning games one or both have to be on the tip of the tongue. Both are top 30 level prospects and now it looks like you can say that about them as players. They are scoring 47 a night between them!
- Park Center is balanced and Tommy Chatman Jr is holding this number one ranked team in state together with the many things he does. Second leading scorer on the team.
- The guy I think who will crawl back in this is Wayzata’s Jacob Beeninga. A few rough moments early but Wayzata is back to wining and Jacob is scoring 17 a night.
- The sophomores around him are growing rapidly buy Malik Willigham is obviously crucial to what Waseca is doing as an undefeated top three Class AAA team.
- Jack Thompson and STA are 5-2 with some good wins to their name. Thompson is giving STA 20 points, 6.2 boards, 4.2 assists, and 3.8 steals a night.
- The Princeton balance is so so good, it’s why they are undefeated and #2 in state. Jon Stimmler has been a monster up front with his 19 and 11 a contest.
- Some Class A love should be sent the way of USF bound Jake Kettner of MVL and Carter Henry of BOLD. Both have their teams undefeated right now.
The Bottom Line. Finally Jack Middleton. Certainly not least. In fact he would be in my top ten right now scoring 26 a game and being one of the state’s best five defenders. Edina stud who I think is a complete steal for UMD.