Northstar Daily: AAAA New Senior Names to Know
With the season opening tonight it’s time for NHR to start shining a spotlight on some players that have earned our attention but may not have received it. NHR Daily talks AAAA Seniors to Know.
1AAAA. Stephen Douglas of Rochester Mayo. The 6-foot-2 guard from Mayo scored 11 a game last year. The Spartans were 11-16 a year ago and with Douglas back defending and knocking jumpers down things are looking up. With Gabe and Mason Madsen taking care of the ball and Adam Leary inside pay attention to the Spartans flipping their record at least.
2AAAA. Matt Eliason of Chaska. The Hawks lost a lot of senior talent but they are looking around at other teams thinking “we can beat them” even though expectations seem to be higher for others. The Hawks are still going to be fine. Cole Nicholson could be a near 20 point per game scorer, Parker Bjorklund will be solid and then you have Eliason who is one of the best defenders in Class AAAA basketball. Matt is a 6-foot-1 guard who is a great leader and when it comes to defense few are at his level.
3AAAA. Jaren Tschetter of Eagan. As a 6-foot-5 combo forward Jaren was having an excellent junior year before tearing his ACL. We don’t know how Jaren has recovered from his injury (it’s only been 11 months) but before he went down Jared was skillfully giving his team a dozen a game. Cam LaChance is one of the toughest workers out there, fellow senior Jackson McCullum defends hard too, and Jaylen James has the potential to be a really good 1-2 punch with Jaren if Jaren is healthy. Watch for Eagan, they should improve to double figure wins.
4AAAA. Andre Jenkins-Whitmore of Tartan. What will Tartan be this winter? They lost so much from a year ago it’s tough to really know. That said, speedy 5-foot-9 Jenkins-Whitmore was noticed at a few off-season events and he led the Titans JV last year as their main playmaker. He could be a key to their season.
5AAAA. Drew Adams of Roseville. Some things are starting to happen at Roseville that may have gone unnoticed. Junior Mario Dukes can do a lot of different things, Gary Smith transferred there from St. Agnes, Nolan Wald should be dependable, and then there is Adam who scored a dozen a game last year and rebounded six a night at 6-foot-1. Drew gets after it defensively playing a tough man’s game plus he can produce points.
6AAAA. Gavin Yares of Washburn. Between Terrell Adams, Charles Cook-Gordon, and Isaac Lotz the new staff of the Millers has some senior backcourt players to work with plus a 6-foot-7 big named Gavin Yares that a few people have talked about as a player to watch. Yares isn’t very experienced but it sounds like he’s improving enough that people may want to check out his potential for the future.
7AAAA. Conner Knoepfle of Andover. One of the reasons Andover was able to turn an 8-18 season into a state tournament appearance was the play of Conner. The 6-foot-1 guard is a foxhole kind of guy that will defend hard and to whatever his team needs to get an edge. He scored 9-10 a game last season and is the returning leader for Andover in every category that people talk about.
8AAAA. Trent Meyer of St. Cloud Tech. People in the St. Cloud area know who Meyer is but those not quite as familiar are thinking “another Tech talent?”. Trent led Sartell in scoring last season and was an all conference player for them but he’s know joined the depth of the Tech Tigers for his senior year.