Minnehaha Academy 102 Hibbing 81 – Five Prospect Points
This Saturday Prep Hoops took in the Minnehaha Academy and Hibbing game won by the Redhawks 102-81. Here are five prospect points: One. Prince Aligbe Makes His Case. One can take a first look at Minnehaha Academy sophomore and see…
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Continue ReadingThis Saturday Prep Hoops took in the Minnehaha Academy and Hibbing game won by the Redhawks 102-81. Here are five prospect points:
One. Prince Aligbe Makes His Case. One can take a first look at Minnehaha Academy sophomore and see that he’s 6-foot-6 and strong, and then one view of him running to the rim in warm-ups you see who well he moves and bounces. The physical gifts put him in the conversation to start but there is so much more to Prince than that. More and more we’ve seen Prince handle the ball including his time playing lead guard during the MBCA camp last June. With the Redhawks there aren’t many jumpers available but when Prince does shoot a pretty shooting stroke is visible. The biggest thing though is the Prince Aligbe defense. The sophomore will be one of the first names out of my mouth when people talk “Top Minnesota Defenders”. Aligbe combines his physical gifts with a work ethic and positioning knowledge that is a nightmare for others. Aligbe has quick feet and his discipline in stance and positioning ranks with the best. Few guys can keep a player in front like Prince has been able to throughout the school year. Aligbe is certainly making his case for top prospect in Minnesota and for a quality spot nationally.
Two. Elite Junior Shooter? I’ve had the chance to see Mayson Brown play three times in the Twin Cities this year and every time I say “this guy loves shooting in the metro”. Well, it’s more than the metro. The 6-foot-1 Brown (not 6’11 like the Hub roster says) has made an outstanding 63 of 132 threes this season for a percentage of 47.7 percent. Add in the 48 percent shooting overall and the 82 percent shooting at the foul line and that’s a top 2021 shooter. “But that’s just against Northern teams” is what I’ve heard. NOPE. Hibbing has had 11 teams from the metro on their schedule plus several top teams from northern Minnesota. And Mayson has scored on all of them! Let’s leave it like this, if you can score 26 points on five threes made against the Redhawks you can likely make those shots against anybody.
Three. The Elite Junior Can Shoot! Chet Holmgren had zero back to the basket touches on Saturday and the Redhawks scored 102 points. Think about that for a second. This a dangerous player touching with his back to the basket and he didn’t even have a touch there. So how did he score 18 points? Four threes and three dunks on a perfect shooting day (7 for 7). To get blocks Chet had to go out to the arc because Hibbing took about four deep paint halfcourt shots all game. I know everyone is aware of Chet’s shooting touch but I don’t think everybody understands that Chet is like Karl Anthony Towns in that, if Chet shoots a three it’s within the gameplan because he’s as good of a shooter as any player on the team.
Four. Nine Tough Makes. I started this article off with a pretty strong explanation of how good of a defender Prince Aligbe is. So when I tell you that Hibbing sophomore Ayden McDonald made tough shots, I mean that as much as I’ve ever meant the statement “made tough shots”. McDonald scored 28 points on 9 of 18 shooting. To get there Ayden made eight foul shots late, a couple deep threes, and about four very difficult high arcing attempts from 15 feet and out over the length of Aligbe. McDonald is also a top passer anticipating where players will be within the offense as well as any player I’ve seen anticipate all season. It’s easy to see how McDonald is averaging ten assists a game.
Five. The Elite Find Ways to Excel. In my time covering basketball in Minnesota one thing I’ve always felt is that our elite players are regularly elite, and in each game they find areas where there team needs them to be extra elite, and then they go out and do it. The top rebounders for the Hawks are Chet and Prince, but this was a different day. Prince was chasing the ball handler all game and Hibbing shot a ton of long jumpers so the ball was bouncing long out of the paint where Holmgren was. Who routinely chased down the long defensive boards? Jalen Suggs. And with each chase down Jalen turned the other way and started the break for his eight assists. Suggs grabbed a dozen boards plus scored 23 points on 10 of 15 shooting.