Adidas Summer Finale: Five Thoughts on 1st 24 Hours
It’s been 24 hours since the open period started and Prep Hoops has been following the Minnesota teams very closely. Here’s a quick run through of what we’ve observed thus far.
One. Matthew Hurt. Yes Matthew Hurt. You spent past summers hearing about Cole Aldrich, Royce White, Tyus Jones, Gary Trent Jr, Rashad Vaughn, and Tre Jones and this is the five star summer of Matthew Hurt and it’s going in the same way that those other five star superstars went, with a lot of big time moments in big time events against big time players.
Hurt led his team to the 17U Adidas Gauntlet Finale championship last weekend and he hasn’t slowed down the first 24 hours in LA. Hurt scored 15 last night going about 70 feet in three dribbles for a game winner against Garner Road. Then today facing the OSA Crusaders – a team that has to be sick of losing to Minnesota’s best by now – Hurt scored 20 points in 20 minutes. The long range touch was on and the OSA squad had nobody that could step to Matt at the arc.
Before moving on we also have to mention that Tyrell Terry and Patrick McCaffery have also been fantastic plus Jamison Battle, Robert Jones, and Tyler Wahl have key moments, and Zeke Nnaji is constantly near that double-double.
Two. Why is D1 Minnesota crushing teams with 4-5 high major players on it? Why are they making a recruit that Coach K was watching look, well, bad? Why are they the #1 team in the country? Is it talent? Yes, but it’s more than that. Sure Dawson Garcia and Ben Carlson are top 60 level players nationally, and yes Drake Dobbs, Kerwin Walton, and Dalton Banks are D1 offered guys, but it’s more than that. Look at the D1 Minnesota 16s bench. Do you see many guys sitting? The kids are bouncing off the floor cheering for their team. And the defense. Oh the defense.
Al Harris knows how to coach some defense and he’s proved that over and over. But the way guys were fighting back to their man, and the way players were battling to not get screened, and then way that D1 Minnesota players attacked their help defense, it was all special. All that energy led to a 20 point win over Game Elite Gold. Team Woodz wants to talk smack that they are number one but right now this is the true number one 16U in America at the moment. Now let’s see that hunger remain through July.
Three. At one point a really big guard backed down Drake Dobbs and the officials blew the whistle angering Drake. That is going to happen when you are giving up several inches and are aggressively fighting back. What really grabbed my attention though was Drake’s response. With talent all around him an angry Dobbs blew by a very athletic Georgia team and scored at the rim using a level of quickness I didn’t know he had. Then, Dobbs used that quickness flying around screens to catch and score a number of times. The quickness of his cut lost the defender, the bounce into the shot made me think of Luigi in Super Mario Brothers 2, and then the touch is of course beautiful. The competitive fire and the speed of Dobbs in this game is something I took away.
Four. Gain Elite crushed a team called Tokyo Samurai and while the team name is super cool, it wasn’t exactly a close game to enjoy (30+ differential I believe). But even in a blowout there are things you can pick up on. Here are a few
- Amir Whitlock definitely opened up teammates for high percentage chances with the timing on his passes.
- When David Ijadimbola has a step on people he has a fantastic ability to make shots. Was really good today when catching against a rotating defense
- My first viewing of J’Vonne Hadley was him being an athletic and much more physical player than others so he was constantly doing things around the basket. He has since developed as a handler and a shot creator but it was also cool to see the back to the basket game is there too.
- Odier Olange ran the floor and put down a two hand dunk that caught my eye. Sure the quick bounce to slam was cool but the way he ran the floor really caught my attention. If he can run like that, and get off his feet the way he does, the potential is there. Has to find some consistency and then many doors will open.
Five. I unfortunately tuned in to see 44 Elite have a seven point lead evaporate into a three score loss down the stretch last night, and I saw Mentality Minnesota give up a lead and loss their game out west in overtime. Bad luck for sure. What I did see was Curtis Jones do a wonderful job moving off the ball to hit a couple impressive shots. The former Minneapolis South, and now CDH 2020 is looking more and more like an impressive combo guard every day.