The Race for Mr. Basketball
The Race for Mr. Basketball is one month in. Who is the favorite to win it? Who is the favorite to be in the final five? The top ten? The Favorite Jalen Suggs. Suggs has three state titles to his…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe Race for Mr. Basketball is one month in. Who is the favorite to win it? Who is the favorite to be in the final five? The top ten?
The Favorite
Jalen Suggs. Suggs has three state titles to his name already and his Minnehaha Academy Redhawks are the Class AAA number one at the moment. A fourth state title for a top ten ranked player in the country – a player that also won Mr. Football – results in the player being the heavy favorite. This weekend you can watch Jalen and his team play Park Center at Minnehaha (6pm tonight) and then play at the Target Center on Saturday night. Jalen will announce tonight if he is going to play at Gonzaga next year or play professionally.
The Final Five Favorites
Suggs. Is there an open door for others to step in? Minnehaha Academy has lost two games so that at times can open the door for others. But in the Hopkins loss Suggs was outstanding with 41 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out, and in the loss to CDH Jalen had 30. That was not his best all around game at all, but Suggs still had 30 on what you would call not a great day for him. So is the door open for others? If it is I would say it’s half way latched. It would likely take a state title performance from a player and a Minnehaha Academy post-season slip.
Dawson Garcia. Garcia’s Prior Lake squad is 4-3 on the season winning the three games they were favorites in, beating East Ridge in a game where Garcia and Carlson are in similar situations of inexperience around them, and then Prior Lake lost to deeper teams from Park Center and Eden Prairie (Garcia didn’t play in the loss to Champlin Park). Dawson is the metro’s second leading scorer at 31.4 points per game highlighted by the 12 of 24 shooting and 30 points Garcia had against Carlson (Carlson had 42 vs Rosemount, and 39 vs Apple Valley and vs Tonka). Where Garcia gets held to a bit of an unfair standard is having to score against so much attention against deep teams. Despite a double-double of 22 and 15 against Park Center but he shot 8 of 25 against Dain Dainja and the help he had from PC.
Ben Carlson. Carlson is averaging 23 points and 13 boards a game for the 5-4 Raptors. Ben has been able to face some of the best bigs in the state so far. How did he do? Had 19 against Garcia in a rough loss for the Raptors, scored 40 points with nine boards against Dain Dainja as East Ridge knocked off the number one team in the state, and then held Steven Crowl to 13 points while scoring 24 in a one score loss to Eastview. Overall Ben has out-played two of the three other top senior bigs in the state.
Dain Dainja. The edge Dain has over Carlson, Garcia, and Crowl is a deeper, more experienced team around him. That said, he doesn’t get as many shots as the other big name bigs because his team is deeper so Dain is averaging 21.9 a contest which is of course still quality. Dainja will have the chance to win a state title this year which gives him an edge plus he’s had big games versus Hopkins (28 points), shot a higher percentage for his 21 points and 13 boards against Dawson Garcia, but wasn’t able to slow down Ben Carlson in the Pirates lone loss of the year.
Kerwin Walton. Walton is the other player on this list with a state title (joining Suggs). If Kerwin was able to earn a second state title AND his team got the better of Minnehaha Academy in an overtime win a few weeks ago there will be people throwing his name out there for Mr Basketball in the same was JP Macura’s name was mentioned when he won the state title. The Royals are 7-2 and Walton is averaging 24 a game with the headlining performance being the amazing second half and overtime he had against Suggs and Minnehaha (most of his 29 points and 13 boards came after the half).
On The Heels.
Nathan Heise. If somebody is able to take a spot from those five above right now I would say it would be Nate. Heise has his team at second in the state after scoring 39 in a win over Minneapolis North, 34 in a win over St. Charles, 35 against Noah King in a loss, and 34 against Mayo in a win going against the Cincinnati committed Madsen brothers.
Steven Crowl. Eastview is ranked second in the state at 8-1 and Crowl is leading the way with 25 points a contest. Crowl is working for his second straight trip to state and at the moment the only blemish is number one Eden Prairie. Steven had 34 in a key win over Chaska as well. Where Crowl is behind was his 15 against EP and then head to head with Ben Carlson, Crowl had only 13 while giving up 24. Games against Shakopee, Lakeville North, and Prior Lake are coming up this month.
The Top Ten Favorites
Suggs, Garcia, Carlson, Dainja, Wlaton, Heise, Walton.
Gabe Madsen. At 29.4 points and 8.5 boards a game Madsen has Mayo at 6-1 on the year including a very important win over Austin.
Drake Dobbs, EP is so balanced it’s hard to pick one guy but they certainly deserve a top ten guy. For me the playmaker of the team deserves it.
Fighting for spot #10
Noah King of Caledonia. Noah would be 10 for me if the decision was made today. His team is #1 in Class AA and he won the head to head battle with Heise scoring 29.
J’Vonne Hadley. Leading scorer of the 5th ranked team in Class AAAA.
Austin Andrews. Leading scorer and rebounder of the #1 ranked team in Class AAAA and the number one ranked team overall.
Henry Abraham. Henry leads the state in scoring at nearly 35 a game, his team is 7-1 and they are the favorite to make state for the second year in a row.
Jacob Hutson. A 20/12 a game guy from Edina that had his team in the top ten until recent.