Gopher Hole Interviews Calvin Godfrey

As a follow up to me seeing Cooper play their last 2 games against Hopkins and Columbia Heights, GopherHole.com's Nadine Babu has an interview with Cooper's Calvin Godfrey and coach Dave Johnson.  Click here to read their thoughts on Calvin's recruiting and more.

Bob Gibbons updated 2010 rankings

Noted recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons came out with an updated top 200 for the class of 2010 this week.  Kevin Noreen moves up to #157 from #172 and in a surprise Jacob Thomas drops out after being #143 in the last rankings.

The entire Bob Gibbons rankings can be found here.

For the list of ranked Minnesota players, check out my Minnesota player rankings page.

Duxbury makes his choice

Stillwater's Ryan Duxbury committed to MN-Crookston this week. I had a chance to chat with him about his recruitment and why he chose Crookston. Minnesota Preps Subscribers can read the article here.

Bigger issues on his mind though as he's also the starting Tight End for the Ponies and they play in a section final vs Mounds View tonight. Duxbury had a 35 yd TD catch in the 19-7 win in their 1st meeting.

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.

Scout.com's latest top 100 for 2010

No Minnesotans in this edition of the Scout.com top 100 for 2010. No surprise there but the rankings aren't totally bare for Minnesota as we do have a player in the positional rankings. Drumroll please.

Kevin Noreen is the #26 Power Forward.

Here are the notables in the Scout.com list

Harrison Barnes #1 (no change)
Josh Selby #10 (no change)
Joe Jackson #17 (no change)
Vander Blue #27 (up from #47 in July)
Dwight Powell #45
Trevor Releford #50 (up from #72)
Tobi Oyedeji #68 (down from #58)
Alex Kirk #80 (down from #66)
Evan Anderson #90 (down from #70)
Anthony Johnson drops out

Two MN Players in Bob Gibbons Top 175

Bob Gibbons (one of the nation's longest running recruiting analysts) just released his post summer 2009 top 175 (more like 200) for the class of 2010. Jacob Thomas comes in at 143 and Kevin Noreen comes in at 172. Other players who have appeared locally

#2 Harrison Barnes
#13 Joe Jackson
#14 Josh Selby
#34 Tobi Oyedeji
#65 Evan Anderson
#76 Trevor Releford
#93 Alex Kirk
#100 Brandon Spearman
#101 Vander Blue
#103 Cody Larson
#104 Dwight Powell
#120 Ahmad Starks
#124 Anthony Johnson
#150 Zach McCabe
#175 Jesse Berry

Read the entire rankings here

Rivals.com also came out with their post summer 2009 top 150 for the class of 2010 today. No Minnesota players in the list. Here's the list of those who have appeared locally and the comparison to where they were ranked at the start of July.

Harrison Barnes #2 (no change)
Josh Selby #4 (up from #7)
Joe Jackson #12 (up from #18)
Vander Blue #22 (up from #31)
Dwight Powell #23 (up from around #50 if I recall correctly)
Tobi Oyedeji #81 (up from #108)
Trevor Releford #97 (up from #150)
Anthony Johnson #99 (down from #88)
Alex Kirk #108 (down from #106)
Brandon Spearman #115 (down from #100)
Brandon Peters #118 (new)
Ahmad Starks #131 (new)

Read the new Rivals rankings here

DiLoreto and Stefan Updates

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News featured Anthony DiLoreto (former Hopkins center) and Cole Stefan in a recent look at Las Vegas action. (Read it here). Stefan for the 2nd straight year was hot in Vegas. Very different than the struggles I saw from him in Denver back in April. Scout.com's Dave Telep views Stefan and Jacob Thomas as mid-major guys.

Speaking of rankings, what's with the huge number of votes for "Other" on the poll for best 2010 prospect? Throw some comments on this post to chime in with who you think is the best of the MN class of 2010. Do we have an outstate riot for not listing guys like Marshall Bjorklund, Taylor Filipek or Dyami Starks? How about other guys from the metro like DJ Peterson or Mike Rostampour.

As to DiLoreto, the article references a scholarship offer from St. Louis despite court proceedings that are scheduled for next week. What I find interesting though is that all the writers I've seen refer to DiLoreto as a lefty and I seem to recall he was a righty. I can understand the potential confustion though since all he shot in high-school were lefty jump hooks. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Take your pick.

43 Hoops Rocks Milwaukee

The 43 Hoops 16s won the NY2LA Summer Jam in Milwaukee. Jake White with a 15 footer at the horn to win it. Thomas Schalk named the 16U MVP. Coach Al Harris and the 17s lost to Team Detroit in the final by 3 points as they continued their hot streak (probably the hottest 17U team in Minnesota right now). They got revenge for their loss in Chicago by beating All Iowa Attack Red along the way. Net Gain lost in the semis so MN fans didn't get the profile matchup desired. Cole Stefan still struggling through an injured knee for them.

Recruiting Notes
Jordan Reetz with a big tournament. He now has D1s on his trail. Montana, Quinnipiac, UNI, Loyola, UW-Milwaukee on his trail and earned an offer from Northeastern (where Watertown-Mayer's Matt Janning is playing).

Clay Horne earned an offer from Mankato but D1s are now after him. Denver especially but also Western Michigan, Western Illinois, and Quinnipiac are showing interest. Winona State is very interested but with the possibly of CJ Erickson coming back from Evansville, that's a wrench. Personally, I think they've probably given up on getting Alec Brown with the handful of D1 offers he's received in the last week.

Vinard Birch also with a wonderful tourney in Milwaukee. Western Michigan, Drake, Western Illinois, Bucknell and Southern Indiana on him.

Southern Indiana is also after Brett Ervin, but his good play at the end of the period is also pushing him to D1 status.

The name that has flown under the radar is Elliot Owusu. He was even better in Milwaukee than Chicago according to coach Harris. He held down Iowa commit Zach McCabe in Milwaukee. Western Illinois and especially Mt. St. Mary's are now interested in him.

New Scout 100 also omits Thomas

Scout.com also kept Jacob Thomas out of their pre-open period top 100 for the class of 2010. (I talk about this more in my previous post about the Rivals rankings, read that here) Here are the notables in the Scout.com list

Harrison Barnes #1
Josh Selby #10
Joe Jackson #17
Vander Blue #47
Tobi Oyedeji #58
Alex Kirk #66
Evan Anderson #70
Trevor Releford #72
Anthony Johnson #97

New Rivals 150 doesn't include Thomas

Rivals released their going into the open period rankings for the class of 2010. It was widely believed that after ESPN put Jacob Thomas at 75 in their last ranking, that the other services would follow. That's due to the big summer he's had for Howard Pulley. However, that didn't happen with the new Rivals rankings and their 2010 and 2011 rankings both have no Minnesota players (I'll make a prediction that that won't be the case in 2012 or 2013). Here are some kids that have played locally.

Harrison Barnes #2
Josh Selby #7
Joe Jackson #18
Vander Blue #31
Anthony Johnson #88
Brandon Spearman #100
Alex Kirk #106
Tobi Oyedeji #108
Evan Anderson #149
Trevor Releford #150

Add in Flavien Davis at #141 and there's 3 Wisconsin players. Iowa down to 1 player as Jordan Dykstra drops out. Cody Larson has been out of the rankings and doesn't make it in this cut either from South Dakota.

Jacob Thomas named to ESPN top 100

ESPN.com came out with their 2010 rankings last week and for the 1st time, we see a Minnesota player in the rankings. Thanks to a big spring for Howard Pulley, Jacob Thomas of Columbia Heights comes in at #75 on the list. No Minnesota players in the Scout.com or Rivals.com rankings currently but it will be interesting to see if that changes by the end of the summer.

Read the entire ESPN.com top 100 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.

Gonzaga blog update on Dower and Stefan

The Kennel Report had a chance to catch up with Net Gain coach Marquis Watts for an update on Sam Dower and Cole Stefan. A couple noteworthy items from the interview. Coach Watts thinks Sam should average 25 and 12 and Stefan's visit to Gonzaga for the Idaho game got cancelled. In addition they have a nice update on the schools looking at Stefan.

Read the entire interview 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.

Scout.com interviews Cole Stefan

Chris Monter of Scout.com interviewed Cole Stefan of Minnetonka today. He lists a handful of mid-major offers. After seeing him play last season and this summer, not to mention his expanded role this year, I expect him to get bigger offers as time goes on due to his shooting. Sam Dower's recruitment helped him as the teams looking at Dower were able to see him too.

Basketblogger's Chat with Kevin Noreen

The Basketblogger got a chance to chat with Minnesota Transitions star Kevin Noreen recently and was kind enough to share it with me. For more interviews like this, including chats with Minnesota Preps publisher Michael Much and 2007-2008 Maranatha star David Hanson, check out the Basketblogger's site.

Here's a transcript of that conversation reprinted with the Basketblogger's permission. I've added formatting for clarity. You can read the original here. My comments follow.

Basketblogger: No, Kevin Noreen does not have a Facebook account, but through a trusted source and confidant of Noreen, I was able to briefly chat with him on Saturday night via the Facebook chat. I was getting ready for a movie with the Mrs. when a friend of mine sent me a chat message, "Hey Kevin is over, you should do an e-interview."

I initially decided against it, given that I usually prepare my questions, but who could pass up 15-20 minutes with the best player in Minnesota's Class of 2010? Noreen made more headlines and highlight reels with his summer league and AAU play. He was winner of a one-on-one contest in Denver against some of the top ballers in the nation. At 6-8 in the small forward role, colleges have made recruiting him a priority.

Kevin has also proven that he's not just a summer ball or regular season wonder. Last season, he beat my beloved Maranatha Mustangs and Hanson brothers en route to an unforeseeable state tournament run, only to fall to defending champion Ellsworth in the title game.

Kevin Noreen: The key was beating Maranatha, that really gave us confidence and propelled us to the championship game... Ellsworth just had too many weapons for us, me and Kyle did not play well enough for us to win. Ellsworth had more experience than us, they had been there 3 years in a row.

Basketblogger: Maranatha was Noreen's school for grades 1-6. Had he (and Kyle) enrolled in Maranatha's high school, we would have been talking about the Maranatha dynasty about now.

My one and only time seeing him play was that section championship against MCA. He was an offensive machine the first half, hitting four 3's beyond the arc. In the second half, Coach Wall made adjustments by assigning David Hanson to guard him. He described the experience of that second half and the excitement of playing against one of his longtime friends, Milos Ristanovic.

Kevin Noreen: That was really fun...I think that was first time that I have ever played against him in a real game...Yes, he was a big part of that comeback... he shot the lights out in that second half!

Basketblogger: When asked about the player he is most like, he mentioned Isaiah Dahlman - formerly of Braham and now with Michigan State. Dahlman also held the scoring record until last season.

Kevin Noreen:...but I have a long way to go to get to be as good as him.

Basketblogger: With two more seasons, there's potential that MTS could be the next Ellsworth with Noreen's leadership and play. Don't worry, Kevin. In a couple years, people will be asking, "Isaiah, who?"

Noreen also mentioned that the toughest player he's ever faced was Royce White-formerly of De La Salle and now Hopkins. He'll have another chance to test his game against Rodney Williams, Jr. and the Minneapolis Gamblers as his fall league squad plays this Sunday at Minnetonka High School.

He's undecided on a college, which is expected given that he's just a junior, but when he decides, I hope to be the one to break the story!

I asked questions about the "lighter side of Kevin Noreen." He takes his academics seriously. When he's not on the court, you'll probably catch him studying. His favorite food are ribs and favorite film is 300 (I think the Breakdown already went down this route). I suggested that he try Rudolphs BBQ in Minneapolis. Hopefully he can squeeze in a visit for some well deserved ribs.

On the question of the three most influential people in his life, he named Coach (John) Sherman and his parents. The Noreens are very well known in the basketball community. Sharpshooter and brother Kyle received an offer to play for Liberty University. The scouting report says that you don't ever want to leave him open on the outside. He will hurt you there.

I wasn't able to find MTS's schedule, but it looks like the Minneapolis Roosevelt Teddies are the team that Noreen has his sights set on. Last season, the Wolves lost a nailbiter to the Teddies at Roosevelt. (See http://tchoops.blogspot.com/2008/02/minnesota-transitions-at-roosevelt.html) He hopes to reverse his fortune this season in the new gym and with the help of the infamous drumline.

Kevin Noreen: Yes, big time!!! They are extremely loud and give us a big advantage at our home games.

Basketblogger: MTS is a Class A school, but they manage to remain competitive against some big schools. Last season, Noreen dropped 41 in a close contest against Arlington. (See http://tchoops.blogspot.com/2008/02/mn-transitions-stuns-arlington-at.html).

If you're looking for a stellar contest, check out any game where MTS plays a AA school or above. The Wolves will be back and hungry for another chance to play for the state title.

-------End Interview

Czar's Comments:
Noreen's performance vs Arlington was one of the better individual displays I saw all of last season. 41 points and he was clutch in that game. The link in the interview will give you all the details so I won't rehash them here.

I've seen the MTS schedule. They open their new 250 seat band box on December 12th vs Minnehaha Academy in a very good opener. Expect the crowd and the drum line to be deafening in that building. They've also upgraded the schedule (an annual bug-a-boo, even last year when I was critical of it) with road games at Spring Grove, Holy Family, Becker and annual class A powerhouse Park Christian to end the regular season. Not to mention their tough rivalry games vs Roosevelt and CHOF in their new building.

Noreen does often get compared to Isiah Dahlman and Noreen will likely take over the all-time state scoring record from Cody Schilling. (Cheap plug, you can follow his progress with the tracker in the left column). That's not a bad comparison since both are high scoring, not super athletic players from small MN schools. Personally, I've gotten away from that comparison. I compare him instead to another former MN Magic star, Jon Leuer (Orono HS, now at Wisconsin). He's not as athletic as Leuer, but he's a better shooter. Both are skinny "power" forwards who can stretch the defense.

NY2LA Sports comments on local players

NY2LA Sports released comments on a few players this week. Their article includes comments on Rodney Williams, Billy Giddings (Blaine), Cole Stefan and Nick Latzke (Minnetonka) along with a couple of Wisconsin players that I saw last season and one of the sons of the best player ever. The entire article can be read here.

It also mentions the 2008 Full Court Fall Showcase camp that will be held at Minnetonka on Oct 11 and 12th. This is put on by Net Gain Sports. More info can be found on the Net Gain Sports website.

The article mentions Tyler Brown and Brett Meinecke from Wisconsin. Brown plays in the shadow of 2010 star Evan Anderson (committed to Wisconsin, ranked #37 Rivals.com, #17 Scout.com, #24 ESPN), but he's the best scorer on his Eau Claire North team. Can play inside and has the ability to step all the way out to the 3 point line and make shots. Nice pickup for Central Michigan. I'll get another chance to see him play December 2nd for their big game at the Swamp vs La Crosse Logan and one of Wisconsin's top 2011 prospects, Trevor Jorgenson (offered by UW-Milwaukee). Its a matchup of some of the best big guys in Wisconsin.

Meinecke is also in the shadow of another star Kameron Cerroni (26.5 PPG last year as a sophomore, committed to UWGB). He's part of a young and small Sussex Hamilton squad that is building to be very dangerous in 2009-2010. He's a small guard but can shoot it. A nice compliment. He struggled with injuries this summer. They play De La Salle in the Border Battle in Owatonna on Saturday January 24th, 2009 in a compelling matchup.

Giddings has sufficient physical tools. Playing without the ball and his defense are areas he continues to work on. But he can definitely score.

Latzke is a lot like his older brother Andrew who played for the Skippers this last year. Another sweet shooting lefty who will be a big contributor down the road.

And what more needs to be said about Cole Stefan. His stock continues to rise and with a full year to shine now that all of the Tonka seniors are gone, expect him to have a monster year.

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.

Interview on Sam Dower's Signing and Cole Stefan's Future

Gonzaga student blog The Kennel Report did an interview yesterday with Net Gain Sports coach Marquise Watts regarding the signing of Osseo standout Sam Dower and the future for up and coming Minnetonka junior Cole Stefan. Nice job by TKR as this provides some nice insight on both players. It was interesting to see that Stefan may be a better baseball player as Ryan James of Minnesota Preps just wrote an article that Stefan may be the top junior basketball player in the state. Should be interesting to see how he performs in front of at least 5 schools at an open gym tonight. With Wazoo hard after him and watching Tony Bennett play at UWGB when I was young, I'd be happy to see another Minnesota player end up in the Pacific Northwest. Stefan could really light it up in that system.

Read the entire TKR interview here.