Breakdown Tip-Off Classic Thoughts

What a day at the 2009 Breakdown Tip-Off Classic.  20 of the 24 boys teams were ranked and 3 of the 4 unranked teams had stars to follow.  Some thoughts on what I saw.

Session 1: #4A Sebeka vs #2AA New London-Spicer
"Moose" Johnson for NLS was just that.  Sebeka had no answer for him.  Sebeka's Joey Cuperus and John Clark are a duo that any class A team would be glad to have.  Sebeka with a 3 point lead with 1:40 left and the teams trade turnovers.  Moose with a putback and then a steal to give NLS a chance for the lead but they turn it over.  Ryan Sharp with a layup and Sebeka is back up 3 with 30 seconds left.  Jayme Moten with 2 FTs with 8.4 left and then NLS forces a turnover.  They get the ball with 2.9 left at their free throw line.  Motem catches the inbound takes 2 dribbles makes a good but slow pass to Erik Tengwall who knocked down the left corner 3 at the buzzer for the thrilling win.  He beat the buzzer but I thought it took more than 2.9.  Great finish.

Session 2:
Waconia broke open a close game with a 18-2 run over the last 8:30 of the 1st half for a 39-21 halftime lead.  Waconia rolled from there for a 75-55 win.  Marshall Bjorklund with 28 and 15 but he had no help in this one.  Great job creating space with his strength, particularly by using the left shoulder.  Shelby Moats on the other hand had help.  Really like what Danny Fischbach is doing for them and Ben Korteum can knock down 3s in a hurry.

#1AA Plainview-Elgin-Millville was down 3 at half to Minneapolis North.  Cole Olstad quiet but he hit a 3 at the halftime buzzer for 10 first half points.  He finishes with 24 as PEM wins 81-74.  No Pengi Mboma or Malik El-Amin for North which definitely would have helped.

Session 3:
Great game between #4AA Staples-Motley and #4AAA Columbia Heights.  22-16 Staples with 6 to go in the first half before a 19-8 Heights run.  35-33 Heights at the break.  Columbia Heights continues the spurt into the 2nd half.  Jacob Thomas with a 3 and a bucket for push the lead to 53-42 with 14:25 left.  The lead gets to 13 before Staples gets hot.  Derek Wolhowe with a pair of triples in a big Cardinals run.  74 all with 4:15 left.  Staples-Motley star guard Jordan Riewer with a pair of assists and then a continuation 3 point play.  82-76 Staples-Motley with 1:38 left.  Columbia Heights with 5 straight turnovers trying to hold the ball vs the Staples 1-2-2 in that stretch.  Thomas right back with a tough triple to cut the lead in half.  Harold Rainey strips Riewer for a layup and then another Staples turnover.  Thomas with 2 FTs at 36.8 and Heights is back on top 83-82.  Staples with a miss but Thomas misses the front end of the 1 and 1 with 13.8 left.  Riewer fouled and makes 2 FTs with 8.4 left.  Heights pushes to half-court and takes time with 4.8 left.  Thomas gets a decent look in the corner but its blocked.  Gerard Bapiste finds the rebound and puts it back at the buzzer  for the thrilling 85-84 Columbia Heights win.  Riewer has committed to Jamestown and he'll be a very good player for them.  Despite the 2 late turnovers, he was clutch down the stretch.  Jacob Thomas with another huge performance.

Session 4:
#2AAA De La Salle vs #10AAAA Osseo.  Strange game as it just felt like D was winning the entire way but Osseo was ahead on the scoreboard.  Tight all the way though.  Aaron Anderson with a great pass to Chris McMorris for a backdoor dunk at 3:50 and Joey Sonnefeld (playing post with 8th grader Ian Theisen) on the post for 2.  56-50 Osseo with 2:47 left.  De La Salle not going away.  John Hertle with a steal for 2 and a Bretson McNeal bomb give D the 57-56 lead with 1:10 left.  John Rowland tips in a miss with 40 seconds left and Osseo is back on top.  McNeal misses and Chris McMorris is fouled with 17.9 left.  He makes the first and misses the 2nd.  No timeout for D as they call a standard set play for Jalen Jaspers.  As he attempts to come off a screen from the low post to the top of the key he gets absoluted mugged and tackled.  No call for the 2nd time in the game on that.  Not to mention it was right in front of the D bench.  WOW.  Its a broken play and D misses.  60-57 Osseo wins and coach Thorson stares down the refs as they leave.  You can't blame him either.

I saw the last 12 minutes of Lakeville South and #1AAA Benilde-St. Margaret's.  Soph PG Isaiah Zierden was outstanding in the time I saw.  And wow is Benilde deep.  Sophs Will Dunn, Sanjay Lumpkin, and Danon Briggs with Zierden all seeing minutes.  BSM wins 99-87.

Session 5
#3AAAA Henry Sibley vs Cloquet.  The matchup of bigs was entertaining as Jake Kreuser played about as well as I've ever seen him play.  7 points and 7 rebounds in the first half against an overmatched Cloquet squad.  Jimmy Ryan continues to shoot well with another pair of triples.  37-16 Sibley at half and they roll.

Talk about a rebound.  #10AA Minnehaha took #7AA Braham behind the woodshed for a 81-51 win.  Didn't see any of it but I wouldn't have expected that.

Session 6
1st half #3A Minnesota Transitions vs #7AAA Minneapolis Henry.  MTS playing zone, Kevin Noreen getting his.  23-7 MTS over the last 6:15 of the first half for a 51-35 halftime lead.  But MTS needed OT to hang on 85-83.  Disturbing trend for MTS as they let Minnehaha back in on Tuesday and now gave up a lead to Henry.  And how does MTS only score 34 points in the last 22 minutes?

Then all of the big game of the day #1AAAA Hopkins vs #2AAAA Tartan.  Or it should have been.  Tartan with the 1st 4 points of the game and that's their highlight.  Hopkins scores the next 19 points.  Tartan fights back to within 5 in the first half.  34-23 Hopkins at the break.  More Hopkins in the 2nd half as they start the half on a 13-5 run.  Hopkins wins 81-66.  Joe Coleman with 31 points and again all within 2 feet.  Marvin Singleton was matched up with the Preiner twins most of the night in a very difficult matchup for Tartan.  He finished with 23 and 9.  Tim Lubke was the top scorer for Tartan with 14 points.

Session 7
#5AAAA Chaska at #7AAAA Minnetonka.  3 starters in street clothes for the hosts but they weren't going to lay down in this one.  Chaska's super junior Ross Travis left late in the first half with an apparent back injury.  42-39 Tonka at half.  Max Watts with a great hustle play for a 3 point play.  60-50 Chaska with 11:13 left.  Minnetonka comes all the way back.  Andrew Turnblad with a 3 point play to give the Skippers the 68-67 lead with 7:11 left.  74 in the last 2:30.  77-74 Minnetonka after a Blake Nelson 3 at 2:10.  Jake White with a putback and 2 free throws to keep Chaska within 1.  The teams trade free throws before a Jacob Meyer triple with 8.6 left ties the game at 83 and sends us to OT.  Max Watts with a big triple at the 1:33 mark of OT.  94-89 Chaska and they win 99-92.  Jake White with 29 points and Max Watts huge again for the Hawks with 26 points.  Chad Howard out of his mind stepping up for Minnetonka with 29 points.  Nick Latzke outstanding again as he also had 29 points.

Saw a few early minutes of the #8AAAA Cretin-Derham Hall vs #6AAAA Champlin Park game.  All 3 of the star sophs for CDH (Montero, Neumann and Tillman) all on the floor.  Interesting to see Raijon Kelly and Tillman on the floor at the same time.  Look for Neumann to have a bigger role now that Clay Horne has moved out east.  Too bad many people didn't see the end of this one as CDH held on 82-80 in double OT.

2 Minnesota Stars commit

2 of Minnesota's top players in 2010 made their commitments over the last few days. Chad Calcaterra of Cloquet committed to Colorado State. Jacob Thomas of Columbia Heights committed to Long Beach State. Both of these came after long talk about them attending Minnesota. Here's an interesting perspective from Gopher writer Marcus Fuller of the Pioneer Press on their commitments.

Here's David Lavaque's Star Tribune article on Thomas signing with Long Beach State. It also includes an update on Calvin Godfrey who's now at Cooper instead of Armstrong as was initially reported (see the original here)

For an entire list of commitments from the class of 2010, click here.

GopherHole talks to a pair of 2010 prospects

Last week GopherHole had the chance to catch up with a pair of possible 2010 Gopher recruits in guard Jacob Thomas of Columbia Heights and center Chad Calcaterra of Cloquet.

Jacob talks about the public reports around his interest in Minnesota along with a couple of tidbits on improvements in his game and what it was like playing against Rodney Williams. Read the Jacob Thomas interview here.

Chad talks about his season and his recruiting status with the Gophers. Read the Chad Calcaterra interview here.

Jan 2009 updates on Jett, Calcaterra, Bjorklund

Last Friday NY2LA Sports released comments on Marshall Bjorklund, Chad Calcaterra and Jordair Jett (I'm cheating calling him a 2010 kid since he'll do prep school for a year). They list a handful of offers for Jett and see Bjorklund getting high major offers this year (not sure if I personally agree with that due to Bjorklund's height, but you have to like his game.) They also project where a couple of these kids will play this summer. No huge surprises there but worth noting anyway.

They also reference Minnetonka sophomore Nick Latzke who I talked about when I saw Minnetonka take on Hopkins last week.

I saw Terry Taylor play at the start of the season. Nice player as a point guard. #4 Frosh in Wisconsin Tony Mayfield was also in that game and he'll be a nice player too.

It'll be interesting to see what role (if any) Phillip Nolan plays for Milwaukee Vincent in the East Metro Showcase (he's also mentioned in the piece). He was #5 in the class of 2012 rankings released by Wishoops last week.

Read the full NY2LA Sports article here.

Interviews and Thoughts from Midnight Madness

Gopher Hole did a couple of interviews at Tubby's Tipoff (midnight madness). One was with a couple of committed Gophers, Royce White and Rodney Williams. The other was with a couple of potential Gophers, Trevor Mbakwe and Chad Calcaterra.

Read the Royce and Rodney Intervew Here

Read the Trevor and Chad Interview Here

Also, if you didn't get a chance to see the Wisconsin midnight madness on the BTN they had each player come out and dance with a member of the dance squad. Jon Leuer did Minnesota proud. Jared Berggren came out and danced to "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. Joe Krabbenhoft and his cowboy hat win honors for funniest dance moment of the night.

Gopher Hole interviews Jake Kreuser

In an interview today with GopherHole.com, Sibley junior Jake Kreuser talked about his recruitment and game. He hits it on the head when he says he needs to get stronger. Talk is that he had a nice summer for 43 Hoops though I didn't get to see him play for them. I expected him to be a varsity regular last season based on his freshman season, but he had a load of talent in front of him. With Mike Bruesewitz, Chris Halvorsen and Mike Rostampour on the front line this season, he may be in a similar situation. But there are benefits to that. He won't be called upon to carry the offensive load, so he'll be able to defend, block shots and rebound which I think would maximize his effectiveness. Certainly a different situation than fellow 2010 big man Chad Calcaterra who needs to be the offense for Cloquet. Both of these players are scheduled for this season's Timberwolves Shootout (Jan 3, 2009) and it will be interesting to follow their progress.

Read the entire Gopher Hole Interview here.

Cloquet at Mounds View Observations

Dignitaries as far as the eye could see tonight. AAU staff from Howard Pulley, MN Magic, MN Select and MN Glory were all in the house. Stillwater coach Dennis Bloom and former Blaine coach Bill McKie in attendance (but no Jerry Kline of CDH which was surprising since CDH goes to MV on Friday). The basketblogger, my Twin Cities Hoops Insider and of course, yours truly made appearances. But none of that matters as Tubby Smith was in the house along with asst Ron Jirsa. I even got to meet Tubby after the game. All we were missing was Michael Much and we could have had the entire thing in pictures for all eternity, shucks.

As to game itself. Cloquet gets the last 4 pts of the 1st half to get within 30-24 at the break. They get as close as 33-28 early in the second half but a 12-5 MV run makes it 45-33 with 12:31 to go and Cloquet never threatens again. Mounds View rolls to a 73-51 win but it wasn't really that bad. Mounds View just has too many weapons and too many athletes. They're the type of team that just picks you apart and before you know it you're down 20.

As to Chad Calcaterra, here's his line for the night.

2 pts on 1-6 FG shooting
2 rebounds (1 Off, 1 Def)
1 block

His 1 field goal was a put back off his own miss. You could tell his game was still rusty from the time off.

He played 28 minutes and 50.4 seconds. Not counting the last 1:52 of garbage time after he left the game, Cloquet was a -16 with him on the floor and -1 with him on the bench (5:17.6). In the 1st half, they were -5 with him on the floor (12:42.6) and -1 without him (same 5:17.6).

Evaluation:

The Good
He played far more minutes than I expected and his stamina didn't appear to be an issue. He shows good mobility and athleticism and a nice outside touch. He played hard and demonstrated a good attitude by not being frustrated by the physical play used against him. He did display good lateral movement on the perimeter when defending the ball.

Areas I feel he can improve on.
Strength, I counted 3 occassions where he had inside rebounding position and was pushed under the basket. Mike Schramm was able to consistently front him and continue to stay in front as Chad didn't have the strength to hold him off, but the effort was there.

Quickness off the floor, I counted 5 instances where athletic MV players got the ball inside and were able to get off the floor and lay the ball in before he could get up to challenge them. Its totally possible that this could be attributed to his timing being off due to the long layoff.

Defense, there were 2 occassions where he backed off his man and didn't communicate or help on the screen his man set allowing the opponent to be wide open off the screen, one of these went for an open top of the key 3. I also felt there were 3 occassions where his help side positioning could have been better which would have allowed him to contest MV players going to the rim for layups. When closing out on the perimeter, on multiple occasions his hands were not active and high. 1 of these instances led to an easy pass to a cutter for a layup.

Setting screens. He tended to get tall and narrow (which everyone teaches so I don't fault him for this, only Park of Cottage Grove teaches this correctly from what I've seen over the years) instead of getting low and wide. Why is this bad? Think of playing tag and using a tree to not get tagged. Would you rather use a big tree or a small tree? Same thing applies here. While he was trying to head-hunt on his screens, he was also moving when he attempted to set many of his screens and he'll learn to hold the screens longer in the future.

The last 2 items are extremely minor and easily correctable with teaching. Overall you can see the talent is there. I had the good fortune of seeing Evan Anderson (top 10 overall 2010, 6'11 from Eau Claire, WI North, currently ranked #2 soph in Wisconsin) also play this year and I feel they're both in the same league as very capable D1 big men. He certainly was more impressive than what I saw out of Patrick O'Bryant of Blaine in one of his final games as a senior. I can definitely see him developing into a very good player who will play high D1. Tonight was an off night for him and he's still getting back into game shape and form. I really look forward to seeing how he performs in next year's TWolves Shootout.

The opinion stated is mine alone and completely unqualified. As stated previously, I was a point guard in my day so my knowledge of big man play is nothing to write home about. Young big guys are also difficult to evaluate as its not all about points. It was said of Anderson that one of his best performances of the year was a 12 pt 7 rb game which alone doesn't sound impressive but enough to make a UW asst happy. Remember, you can't teach size.