Prospect Spotlight: Doran Lutgen (2020)
South Hamilton guard Doran Lutjen looks like a regular guard, and then you see him jump.
The 6-foot junior has an extremely high vertical, one that allows to get up and slam as well as any 6-foot player in the state.
It was evident last weekend at the Battle at the Lakes in Minneapolis, that he’s adding some ball-handling and shooting prowess with the high-level athleticism.
“I’m an athletic guard and I can go two ways, I can play defense, too,” said Lutgen. “I obviously love my mid-range, I’m not really a spot-up shooter from three but I love to drive and use my athleticism to get my shot off.”
Dunking has always been something Lutgen was fascinated with. He broke his leg two years ago, but came back stronger after the physical therapy. His parents were both good athletes, too.
“It’s always been my dream to just be able to dunk, and I’ve had a lot of motivation, so I’ve worked on that a lot,” said Lugen.
He was dunking plenty with South Hamilton last season as a junior, helping them advance to the Class 2A title game. But it was his defense was what kept him on the floor.
“Usually we just had a target on offense that we’d want to shut down, and my role was to come in off the bench and help out with that,” he said. “And I started taking more of an offensive role right before state, and I got a little more confident and a little more minutes then”
This spring, Lutgen is playing 17u ball with new program, Iowa Chill. It’s a solid group of small-school players who could do a lot of damage this weekend at Kings of the Court in Des Moines.
“We have a pretty tough squad, a lot of offensive threats and people that can score on command. We have some issues with baseball and state track in terms of getting together for practices. But once we get together, we’re going to be pretty tough,” said Lutgen.
Recruitment: It’s been slow for Lutjen so far, he’s hoping that changes soon. “I’ve got no offers, I haven’t talked to any coaches, so that’s that,” he said. “I’m hopefully looking forward to talking to some (coaches) soon, because I want to play at the collegiate level.”