Recruiting Report: Jalen Dearring (2019)
Jalen Dearring transferred from Minnetonka to Hopkins, took to his role with the Royals, and helped lead Hopkins to a state championship. Jalen is the brother of Riley Dearring and son of Darren Dearring, two very accomplished basketball players in…
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Continue ReadingJalen Dearring transferred from Minnetonka to Hopkins, took to his role with the Royals, and helped lead Hopkins to a state championship.
Jalen is the brother of Riley Dearring and son of Darren Dearring, two very accomplished basketball players in the Twin Cities. Riley was a Mr. Basketball finalist from Minnetonka while Darren was a Mr. Basketball finalist from DeLaSalle that took his team to the state championship game.
The latest Dearring (Jalen) wasn’t a Mr. Basketball finalist this year but he did do something he can brag about during the holidays: win a Class AAAA state championship.
“I was the first in the family to get it,” Jalen said about the state championship. “So that was definitely the goal!”
Jalen averaged about 11 points a game this season with five assists and 2.5 boards a game. He had a 1.8 to 1 assist to turnover ratio plus Dearring shot 45 percent from the field and 40.1 percent from the three-point arc.
The numbers were solid but it was Dearring’s ball handling and ability to make sure all the weapons around him (Zeke Nnaji, Kerwin Walton) were scoring comfortably with high percentage shots.
“Coach Ken Novak has really helped me become a true point guard,” Jalen said. “He just needed me to get the ball moving. I know I can score but that’s now what this team really needed me to do. That wasn’t my role. Moving the ball and making shots when I need to. That was my role.”
“Jalen has been great, he really has,” Said Coach Ken Novak Jr. “He far exceeded my expectations.
“Part of it was his unselfishness. He has a lot of energy. He is very unselfish. We needed a guy that could control that flow a bit and Jalen has been that guy.
“He can hit the three, he can make the pass, he can beat the guards, and he can handle the pressure. That’s what we needed him to do. Jalen has been solid.”
Leaving Minnetonka after a 17 point per game All Lake Conference junior season and changing roles with what was around him at Hopkins wasn’t easy, but Jalen made the transition well.
“This has been the experience of a lifetime,” Jalen said. “I am so glad I made the decision to come here. I had to mold in and get things going but once I get things going it was real good. We have good teammates.
“At first we didn’t gel as well but once the second half of the season started that is when we started to mold together. Coach Novak talks about “as one” so that is how we break down after each huddle.”
Dearring isn’t quite sure what he plans to do after college as of yet.
“I have been thinking about prep school. I have had a few junior colleges talk to me but prep school is probably the move.”