Ahjany Lee Offered, Class of 2022

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mkAz

mkAz

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Ahjany Lee offered by Minnesota today.

 



I also watched him on Sunday at breakdown. Super athletic, good jumper, needs to fill out very lean. Would be a great get for the gophers. I agree the amount of quality big guys especially in Minnesota is amazing.
 

paulser21 said:
I’m not sure what’s in the water lately in SE MN (Stewartville (Tschetter), Caledonia (King), now Byron (Lee) but keep it flowing.
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Byron at least could be considered a bedroom community for Rochester.
 


paulser21 said:
I’m not sure what’s in the water lately in SE MN (Stewartville (Tschetter), Caledonia (King), now Byron (Lee) but keep it flowing.
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From a native of SE MN, it's been quite remarkable to see the development of D-1 basketball talent in the region, including Rochester and Austin. While the region has had strong small school basketball programs for years (Rushford, Lake City, Caledonia, for example), it hasn't been a region where D-1 talent has blossomed. Prior to the Hurt brothers, the last major college D-1 scholarship player that I can recall is Longar Longar who went to Oklahoma from Rochester JM back in 2004 (and prior to that. . . .Randy Breuer, maybe?)

Some of the development can be attributed to shifting demographics (Both Gach, Longar) and coaching migration (the Madsen twins, who came from Wisconsin with their father getting the head coaching job at Rochester Mayo), but to have the likes of King, Tschetter, Lee in the range of Top 150 recruits along with the likes of Nathan Heise (Lake City) going to Northern Iowa is quite eye-opening.
 

But also, all of those guys play for Cities-based club programs? That probably has something to do with it.
 

MplsGopher said:
But also, all of those guys play for Cities-based club programs? That probably has something to do with it.
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I'm sure it does-I know in speaking with friends who were prep players and now have sons/daughters playing whatever sport, it's an entirely different experience than it was 25-30 years ago-that rings true everywhere, but the off-season experience of getting together with your teammates for open gyms and summer league play once a week is a far cry from what happens today.
 

mkAz said:
Ahjany Lee offered by Minnesota today.

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Aren't posts like this supposed to include the recruiting class in the title? It saves a lot of people a lot of bother.
 



coolhandgopher said:
I'm sure it does-I know in speaking with friends who were prep players and now have sons/daughters playing whatever sport, it's an entirely different experience than it was 25-30 years ago-that rings true everywhere, but the off-season experience of getting together with your teammates for open gyms and summer league play once a week is a far cry from what happens today.
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There is no time off, having a son going through it now. Summer camps, lifting programs, Concordia league, breakdown games, etc hoops is a year long commitment.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I'm sure it does-I know in speaking with friends who were prep players and now have sons/daughters playing whatever sport, it's an entirely different experience than it was 25-30 years ago-that rings true everywhere, but the off-season experience of getting together with your teammates for open gyms and summer league play once a week is a far cry from what happens today.
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100% agree.

Club sports are a booming business. "Come on Mom & Dad! Don't you want your kid to get a sports scholarship to play in college?? Just give us a few thousand per year!"

The facilities too, I would think. And the strength & conditioning "centers" too. All of it.
 

abrams said:
There is no time off, having a son going through it now. Summer camps, lifting programs, Concordia league, breakdown games, etc hoops is a year long commitment.
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And none of it is free. $$$$
 

An interesting aspect of the whole process to consider (and I don't have the answer to this, but I'll throw out a random hypothesis), I wonder if the amount of players making college basketball a short-term proposition, the grad transfer rule, the skyrocketing transfer rate, and the vast number of teams (I believe there's approximately 70 more D-1 teams now than there were in 1985) has created a huge uptick in players receiving scholarships year to year. Combine those factors with the AAU scene and more exposure for small school kids, both the visibility and the opportunity have provided a pathway that the Tschetters, Kings, Lees, etc. likely did not available to them a generation ago.
 



Calgoph said:
Aren't posts like this supposed to include the recruiting class in the title? It saves a lot of people a lot of bother.
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Updated, it was in the second post though.
 

Intrigued by Lee as one of the bigs in that 2022 class.

By all accounts, his growth in the last year and change has been insane - from a guy who couldn't walk and dribble at the same time to now trying to handle the ball, shooting jumpers etc.

In seeing him a few times, I think he should be viewed as a very moldable piece of clay. There are (to my untrained eyes) some IQ/feel for the game things that need development (not surprising given he's 16) and while I like the report that he's grown his game a lot - I also see some potential tendencies that I would be leery of as a coach (floating, falling in love with perimeter jumpers, defensive fundamentals).

Definitely worth monitoring and would be a nice get given his perceived upside.
 

coolhandgopher said:
An interesting aspect of the whole process to consider (and I don't have the answer to this, but I'll throw out a random hypothesis), I wonder if the amount of players making college basketball a short-term proposition, the grad transfer rule, the skyrocketing transfer rate, and the vast number of teams (I believe there's approximately 70 more D-1 teams now than there were in 1985) has created a huge uptick in players receiving scholarships year to year. Combine those factors with the AAU scene and more exposure for small school kids, both the visibility and the opportunity have provided a pathway that the Tschetters, Kings, Lees, etc. likely did not available to them a generation ago.
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It is a lot more than just having more schools to offer scholarships. The players that Minnesota produces are much better players than long ago.
 


phew, at least he doesn’t fit in with the badgers but Marquette is out there.
 

coolhandgopher said:
An interesting aspect of the whole process to consider (and I don't have the answer to this, but I'll throw out a random hypothesis), I wonder if the amount of players making college basketball a short-term proposition, the grad transfer rule, the skyrocketing transfer rate, and the vast number of teams (I believe there's approximately 70 more D-1 teams now than there were in 1985) has created a huge uptick in players receiving scholarships year to year. Combine those factors with the AAU scene and more exposure for small school kids, both the visibility and the opportunity have provided a pathway that the Tschetters, Kings, Lees, etc. likely did not available to them a generation ago.
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If you are good no matter where you are from the opportunities have always been there, the most successful native Minnesotan's to play in the NBA in the last 50 years hail from Melrose and Hibbing. What is different is that the marginal D1 players are getting more exposure and opportunities.
 

Let’s look at the player to recently leave the badgers cager team. Oh......
 


If Ahjany is patient, he will get more HM looks in the spring, maybe sooner if some programs don't land their Plan A guys. So much potential if he gets the right coaching. I think the Gophers like him, they just like Payne more. Be a great get for UST if they can pull it off. Between him and Blue that's a great class for a Summit League team
 

Fleckoff said:
If Ahjany is patient, he will get more HM looks in the spring, maybe sooner if some programs don't land their Plan A guys. So much potential if he gets the right coaching. I think the Gophers like him, they just like Payne more. Be a great get for UST if they can pull it off. Between him and Blue that's a great class for a Summit League team
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Real coaching? Anyways…. Gophers have Zero interest in Lee along with any HM in the country. That’s not a knock on the kid. I believe the powers that be oversold him. Still a good D1 prospect just not HM. But would be a huge get for UST.
 
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SoMpls said:
Real coaching? Anyways…. Gophers have Zero interest in Lee along with any HM in the country. That’s not a knock on the kid. I believe the powers that be oversold him. Still a good D1 prospect just not HM. But would be a huge get for UST.
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I disagree, happens every year teams circle back to their Plan B guys in the spring or late fall when they strike out on their top targets, someone will offer Lee if he's patient, will see how it plays out, he might just want to be done with recruiting. Gophers got their Plan A guy, so of course they're not interested, but they were recruiting him, going to his games right up until Payne committed
 

SoMpls said:
Real coaching? Anyways…. Gophers have Zero interest in Lee along with any HM in the country. That’s not a knock on the kid. I believe the powers that be oversold him. Still a good D1 prospect just not HM. But would be a huge get for UST.
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High majors are getting smart. Why spend the time developing him. Let UST do it and get him as a transfer if he pans out.
 






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