zach lofton
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JohnnyGopher
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He's had a solid performance at Tubby's Team Camp this weekend and almost pulled an upset of Tyus and Apple Valley last night in the playoffs but he's not under consideration for a scholarship. he is a D 1 player if he gets the grades up but not sure what level yet. He is a streky shooter.
gopherhoopsguy
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What a great game between apple valley and columbia heights. There is a kid from columbia heights who is the real deal. Not sure his name plays the shooting guard. I sure hope tubby is after this kid. He was by far the best player on the court.
Lofton is most likely the guy you are referring to. He's in the 6'3" range, wears a headband and can get a shot pretty much whenever he wants. There are times where that's a weakness for him, as his shot selection is probably something that could be improved a bit. If it helps, I believe he had bright yellow shorts on yesterday.
gopherhoopsguy
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Yes yellow shorts, all the gopher coaches were there watch this game along with ralph. He can get his shot off from anywhere, and get to the rim with ease. They better land this kid is all i can say.
GophersOnTheRise
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Good scorer, but I don't know how I would feel if we used a scholarship on him. I think it would be best used elsewhere.
JohnnyGopher
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I could probably post a huge recap of the past two days down at the U from Tubby's team camp to watching the current and new kids practice and scrimmage but I'm too tired so later this week.
Apple Valley upset Johnson this morning and then beat a tired Benilde team to basically win the title although they still had an average Eagan team in the final but they beat them too.
Players who most helped themself this week we're probably Ross Travis and Isiah Zierdon.
The one whose stock took a fall was Estan Tyler although I thought he played bettet than some others.
Apple Valley upset Johnson this morning and then beat a tired Benilde team to basically win the title although they still had an average Eagan team in the final but they beat them too.
Players who most helped themself this week we're probably Ross Travis and Isiah Zierdon.
The one whose stock took a fall was Estan Tyler although I thought he played bettet than some others.
Johnny, make sure you translate all those notes you took in your notebook. 
Here is what I posted on the Badger board. As they have both received some interest from UW, my comments were focused on Travis and Zierdan:
"Tubby Smith has his team camp going on this weekend on the Minnesota campus. There is not a great field, all in-state teams, but there were a few I had an interest in watching (most notably Benilde-St. Margarets, Chaska, Apple Valley and St. Paul Johnson). I made it down to campus for a few of the pool play games today, and may make it back for some tournament play tonight. Ross Travis was playing for Chaska, but their other 2011 prospect (forward Jake White) was apparently visiting Northwestern this weekend. Travis was easily Chaska's tallest player today, meaning he jumped center and defended in the post the entire game. On offense, he played a lot of PG and was very much a play-maker. I was again very impressed with his ball-handling and his ability to beat people off the dribble. He was able to get into the middle of the lane a number times on a variety of spins moves, and also baseline a couple times for layups. He got a little out of control a few times, but for the most part he made good decisions on when to get himself a shot and when to kick it out. I do not remember him shooting any 3s, but he did knock down a couple mid-range shots, including a really nice one where he just rose up over the defender's hand after Prior Lake had tied the game late in the second half. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I don't think UW is all that interested at this point, but I do hope they keep an eye on him in July if Jarrod Uthoff decides to go elsewhere. Travis is that long, athletic SF that has been missing from UW's roster in recent seasons. Perhaps they already have that coming in Sam Dekker, but Travis, with some refinement and more consistent production/effort, could be a very nice college player.
The other game I watched could end up being a preview of the 3A state championship game. Johnson was the best team in the state this past season, going undefeated (with a win over 4A champ Hopkins) and winning the 3A state title. Benilde was near the top of the 3A rankings all season and have much of their roster returning this coming season. This was actually a really entertaining game to watch, despite being a meaningless team camp game. Benilde got off to a fast start and led most of the way, but Johnson wore down Benilde and ended up winning 49-45. Johnson has some nice players (e.g. 2011 guards Estan Tyler and Roosevelt Scott), but their strength is their depth, as they play pressure defense all game long and typically wear opponents down. That was the case in this game.
My interest was due primarily to Benilde's 2012 guard Isaiah Zierdan. He is the son of Don Zierdan, who had a stint as the Minnesota Lynx (WNBA) head coach, but has spent a good portion of his career as a Flip Saunders assistant with the Timberwolves and now the Wizards. It's easy to tell that Isaiah is a coach's kid, as he always seems to make the right play. His hoops IQ and shooting stroke are his strengths, while size and relative lack of athleticism are probably the weaknesses. He was the primary PG for Benilde's HS team this past season, but he played off the ball quite a bit in this game. I will guess that is because they will need him to score more this coming season after losing a couple seniors. I had him for 20 of Benilde's 45 points, so it seemed to work today. He made a couple 3s and other mid-range jumpers, but he also did a pretty nice job freeing himself for runners or other shots going to the hoop. In addition, he knows how to draw contact and get to the line, as he was 6-7 in this particular game. However, he struggled down the stretch to even get the ball, as Johnson put what looked to be a football player on him to simply face-guard him. He did not get many looks when Benilde really needed a bucket late in the game, but I was impressed with his overall play. He looks to be about the size of Jason Bohannon, but not quite the athlete Bohannon is. Similar to Bohannon, he may be a guy who plays PG in HS but moves to SG in college. I say this because quick, aggressive defenders seem to give Zierdan trouble. I have heard good things about him from an attitude and work ethic perspective, so I will guess that he continue to improve and become more explosive over the remainder of his HS career. UW is obviously short on scholarships for the 2012 class, but like Travis, I am hoping the staff continues to monitor Zierdan. The UW staff had a nice opportunity to watch him in person last weekend at the UW team camp, and I know Coach Gard made a couple visits to Benilde this past winter, presumably to see Zierdan and Benilde's other 2012 prospects (wing Sanjay Lumpkin and big Kyle Washington). Zierdan may not be a sexy prospect from an athleticism standpoint, but he is absolutely a player.
Tubby and his staff were walking around watching games while I was there. Tubby and assistant coach Vince Taylor spent their morning between the court watching the 11am games, as Benilde and Apple Valley (with 2014 PG Tyus Jones) were playing right next to each other. I heard Zierdan played very well with Tubby watching last night.
I made it back for a couple more games this evening, another Chaska game and another Benilde game. Chaska was again without Jake White, playing against conference rival Lakeville South, which has a very nice team led by 2011 forward Alex Richter. Richter is a really nice finisher who is probably an MVC type of prospect. This was pretty competitive for most of the game, but South pulled away late for a 59-45 win. Travis was very, very good offensively in the first half, scoring 14 of Chaska's 29 points to keep them in the game. He showed more perimeter game tonight than I have seen in the past, while also scoring in a number of the ways. He made 2 of 3 shots from downtown, hit another deep jumper, scored on two really drives to the bucket, and put a great spin move on Richter to get to the basket and draw the foul (made both foul shots). Travis and Chaska seemed to run out of gas in the second half. As South pulled away, Travis seemed content to put up shots from the perimeter instead of continuing to attack. He had one really nice drive down the lane to draw a foul and got to the line a second time after a solid post up, but both of these came pretty early in the half. He did hit a nice 18' pull up, but it was late after South had essentially put the game away. Gopher assistant Vince Taylor sat and watched the whole game, looking rather impressed by Travis' first half performance. Ross really is an impressive package of size and skill set. I will be interested to see where he ends up and how he develops.
Benilde was a little sluggish in their game tonight (4th game of the day, I think), but they ended up winning 57-44. Zierdan was back running the point for Benilde in this one, with lots and lots of pick and rolls being run. He was very effective at times using the ball screen to get in the lane to find a shot he could make. There were a couple times where he was able to get all the way to the basket to finish, but he was also very good at making a little floater when the big man would not hedge enough on the screen. He scored 21 of Benilde's 57 points, with a pretty solid percentage from the floor (9-18 including 0-3 on 3s), but I think he was bit too aggressive on offense. I thought there were a number of times where Benilde would have gotten a better shot if he would have kicked it out instead of continuing his drive to the bucket. This Benilde team, continuing from last year's team, generally moves the ball very well and gets a lot of open looks. At times they did that tonight, with a number of very nice assists from Zierdan, but I just thought there were some instances where Isaiah was a little too quick with the trigger. Again, I think he is a really nice player who is going to make some program very happy down the road. For what it's worth, I heard from a very good source that the UW staff thinks very highly of Zierdan. It sounds like he is more than just a 2012 prospect to keep an eye on."
Here is what I posted on the Badger board. As they have both received some interest from UW, my comments were focused on Travis and Zierdan:
"Tubby Smith has his team camp going on this weekend on the Minnesota campus. There is not a great field, all in-state teams, but there were a few I had an interest in watching (most notably Benilde-St. Margarets, Chaska, Apple Valley and St. Paul Johnson). I made it down to campus for a few of the pool play games today, and may make it back for some tournament play tonight. Ross Travis was playing for Chaska, but their other 2011 prospect (forward Jake White) was apparently visiting Northwestern this weekend. Travis was easily Chaska's tallest player today, meaning he jumped center and defended in the post the entire game. On offense, he played a lot of PG and was very much a play-maker. I was again very impressed with his ball-handling and his ability to beat people off the dribble. He was able to get into the middle of the lane a number times on a variety of spins moves, and also baseline a couple times for layups. He got a little out of control a few times, but for the most part he made good decisions on when to get himself a shot and when to kick it out. I do not remember him shooting any 3s, but he did knock down a couple mid-range shots, including a really nice one where he just rose up over the defender's hand after Prior Lake had tied the game late in the second half. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I don't think UW is all that interested at this point, but I do hope they keep an eye on him in July if Jarrod Uthoff decides to go elsewhere. Travis is that long, athletic SF that has been missing from UW's roster in recent seasons. Perhaps they already have that coming in Sam Dekker, but Travis, with some refinement and more consistent production/effort, could be a very nice college player.
The other game I watched could end up being a preview of the 3A state championship game. Johnson was the best team in the state this past season, going undefeated (with a win over 4A champ Hopkins) and winning the 3A state title. Benilde was near the top of the 3A rankings all season and have much of their roster returning this coming season. This was actually a really entertaining game to watch, despite being a meaningless team camp game. Benilde got off to a fast start and led most of the way, but Johnson wore down Benilde and ended up winning 49-45. Johnson has some nice players (e.g. 2011 guards Estan Tyler and Roosevelt Scott), but their strength is their depth, as they play pressure defense all game long and typically wear opponents down. That was the case in this game.
My interest was due primarily to Benilde's 2012 guard Isaiah Zierdan. He is the son of Don Zierdan, who had a stint as the Minnesota Lynx (WNBA) head coach, but has spent a good portion of his career as a Flip Saunders assistant with the Timberwolves and now the Wizards. It's easy to tell that Isaiah is a coach's kid, as he always seems to make the right play. His hoops IQ and shooting stroke are his strengths, while size and relative lack of athleticism are probably the weaknesses. He was the primary PG for Benilde's HS team this past season, but he played off the ball quite a bit in this game. I will guess that is because they will need him to score more this coming season after losing a couple seniors. I had him for 20 of Benilde's 45 points, so it seemed to work today. He made a couple 3s and other mid-range jumpers, but he also did a pretty nice job freeing himself for runners or other shots going to the hoop. In addition, he knows how to draw contact and get to the line, as he was 6-7 in this particular game. However, he struggled down the stretch to even get the ball, as Johnson put what looked to be a football player on him to simply face-guard him. He did not get many looks when Benilde really needed a bucket late in the game, but I was impressed with his overall play. He looks to be about the size of Jason Bohannon, but not quite the athlete Bohannon is. Similar to Bohannon, he may be a guy who plays PG in HS but moves to SG in college. I say this because quick, aggressive defenders seem to give Zierdan trouble. I have heard good things about him from an attitude and work ethic perspective, so I will guess that he continue to improve and become more explosive over the remainder of his HS career. UW is obviously short on scholarships for the 2012 class, but like Travis, I am hoping the staff continues to monitor Zierdan. The UW staff had a nice opportunity to watch him in person last weekend at the UW team camp, and I know Coach Gard made a couple visits to Benilde this past winter, presumably to see Zierdan and Benilde's other 2012 prospects (wing Sanjay Lumpkin and big Kyle Washington). Zierdan may not be a sexy prospect from an athleticism standpoint, but he is absolutely a player.
Tubby and his staff were walking around watching games while I was there. Tubby and assistant coach Vince Taylor spent their morning between the court watching the 11am games, as Benilde and Apple Valley (with 2014 PG Tyus Jones) were playing right next to each other. I heard Zierdan played very well with Tubby watching last night.
I made it back for a couple more games this evening, another Chaska game and another Benilde game. Chaska was again without Jake White, playing against conference rival Lakeville South, which has a very nice team led by 2011 forward Alex Richter. Richter is a really nice finisher who is probably an MVC type of prospect. This was pretty competitive for most of the game, but South pulled away late for a 59-45 win. Travis was very, very good offensively in the first half, scoring 14 of Chaska's 29 points to keep them in the game. He showed more perimeter game tonight than I have seen in the past, while also scoring in a number of the ways. He made 2 of 3 shots from downtown, hit another deep jumper, scored on two really drives to the bucket, and put a great spin move on Richter to get to the basket and draw the foul (made both foul shots). Travis and Chaska seemed to run out of gas in the second half. As South pulled away, Travis seemed content to put up shots from the perimeter instead of continuing to attack. He had one really nice drive down the lane to draw a foul and got to the line a second time after a solid post up, but both of these came pretty early in the half. He did hit a nice 18' pull up, but it was late after South had essentially put the game away. Gopher assistant Vince Taylor sat and watched the whole game, looking rather impressed by Travis' first half performance. Ross really is an impressive package of size and skill set. I will be interested to see where he ends up and how he develops.
Benilde was a little sluggish in their game tonight (4th game of the day, I think), but they ended up winning 57-44. Zierdan was back running the point for Benilde in this one, with lots and lots of pick and rolls being run. He was very effective at times using the ball screen to get in the lane to find a shot he could make. There were a couple times where he was able to get all the way to the basket to finish, but he was also very good at making a little floater when the big man would not hedge enough on the screen. He scored 21 of Benilde's 57 points, with a pretty solid percentage from the floor (9-18 including 0-3 on 3s), but I think he was bit too aggressive on offense. I thought there were a number of times where Benilde would have gotten a better shot if he would have kicked it out instead of continuing his drive to the bucket. This Benilde team, continuing from last year's team, generally moves the ball very well and gets a lot of open looks. At times they did that tonight, with a number of very nice assists from Zierdan, but I just thought there were some instances where Isaiah was a little too quick with the trigger. Again, I think he is a really nice player who is going to make some program very happy down the road. For what it's worth, I heard from a very good source that the UW staff thinks very highly of Zierdan. It sounds like he is more than just a 2012 prospect to keep an eye on."
fan of Ray Williams
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UWOle, really a nice job reporting. Thank you. I appreciate it.
One other little tidbit from Saturday. As we were walking back to the Pavillion for the afternoon games, Coach Jirsa was walking with a prospect and his parents (I assume) towards the Williams Arena floor and presumably the Gopher locker room. I am not certain, but I think it was 2012 big Kyle Bauman.
underground629
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Thanks for the update on prospects
Real Deal
I seen a couple of players that interested me on saturday such as...
Zach Lofton
Ross Travis
Isiah Zierdan,
Sanjay Lumpkin, and....
2014 Phenom Tyus Jones
The players out of this group that stood out the most to me was Zach , he can create a shot from almost anywhere. Ross, at his size he has great handle and a lot of potential to become a high D1 prospect.Of course the son Don Zierdan former Minnesota lynx Head Coach Isiah, he is exciting guard to watch as the High School league comes back around. And last but not least Tyus he is already an high D1 prospect in eighth grade, he is humble on the court and just a mature guard its rare that you see that at a young age with the exception of Siryani...
I seen a couple of players that interested me on saturday such as...
Zach Lofton
Ross Travis
Isiah Zierdan,
Sanjay Lumpkin, and....
2014 Phenom Tyus Jones
The players out of this group that stood out the most to me was Zach , he can create a shot from almost anywhere. Ross, at his size he has great handle and a lot of potential to become a high D1 prospect.Of course the son Don Zierdan former Minnesota lynx Head Coach Isiah, he is exciting guard to watch as the High School league comes back around. And last but not least Tyus he is already an high D1 prospect in eighth grade, he is humble on the court and just a mature guard its rare that you see that at a young age with the exception of Siryani...