All Things Grayson Grove Recruitment Thread (Class of 2024, Alexandria, MN; 6-8, 190lb; Gophers Commit!

[fan of Ray Williams]

Basketball roundup: Alexandria boys dismantle Willmar in Grayson Grove's return

The Alexandria boys basketball team, West Central Area boys basketball team, and the Brandon-Evansville girls basketball teams earned wins on Thursday, while the Parkers Prairie girls basketball team and Minnewaska boys basketball team were dealt losses.

www.echopress.com

The Alexandria boys basketball team improved to 15-5 on the season with a dominant 88-46 win over Willmar at home on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024.

Thursday’s game saw the return of senior Grayson Grove. Grove, who will play college basketball at the University of Minnesota, had 12 points in his first game back since Dec. 30, 2023.

“It was nice to get Grayson on the floor in a game,” Alexandria head coach Forrest Witt said. “When you are out for an extended period of time like Grayson was, it will take some time to shake off the rust and get your body conditioned to compete at a high level. Our biggest focus will be getting our collective group acclimated to his return and re-establishing our understanding of each other on the floor. We have a good handle on our rotation, but court time and developing our continuity as a team will be critical.”

They must be a decent high school team when Grayson and Chase Thompson are both healthy.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

They must be a decent high school team when Grayson and Chase Thompson are both healthy.

Some body want to go lay next year - he’s got some !

Glad the Real Cards vanquished the faux ; that wasn’t a regular occurrence back in my day.

 

[fan of Ray Williams]

Some body want to go lay next year - he’s got some !

Glad the Real Cards vanquished the faux ; that wasn’t a regular occurrence back in my day.

The 1940’s?

 

[Slim Tubby]

Some body want to go lay next year - he’s got some !

Glad the Real Cards vanquished the faux ; that wasn’t a regular occurrence back in my day.

My grandparents settled in Atwater and Grove City. We always viewed Willmar as the Evil Giant.

 

[Dakota2]

don't want to say I'm old - but I saw Mark Olberding play when he was a Sophomore in HS. and he was the most physically imposing player on the floor by a wide margin.

You could say that most nights his freshman year with the Gophers.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

My grandparents settled in Atwater and Grove City. We always viewed Willmar as the Evil Giant.

Did you ever see Mike Kingery play in HS?

 

[Slim Tubby]

Did you ever see Mike Kingery play in HS?

I was always in school in the cities during the HS season. I spent most of every summer there but don't have any memories of watching him play town ball, either.

His family (Doug) owned the bowling alley in Atwater and I spent hours there tormenting the gutters and playing arcade games. My grandpa loved the Twins and bought tickets for about 60 people for Mike Kingery Day at the Dome when he and the Royals came to town. He was so proud that a kid from Atwater had made it to the big leagues.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

I was always in school in the cities during the HS season. I spent most of every summer there but don't have any memories of watching him play town ball, either.

His family (Doug) owned the bowling alley in Atwater and I spent hours there tormenting the gutters and playing arcade games. My grandpa loved the Twins and bought tickets for about 60 people for Mike Kingery Day at the Dome when he and the Royals came to town. He was so proud that a kid from Atwater had made it to the big leagues.

Great story and your gramps sounds like a great guy.

Gary Serum from Alexandria; my old man was good friends with his father, who was a JC AA and one of my employers. Gary got us some tickets a few times at the Dome.

 

[bga1]

Loved Olberding.

Musselman was interview during the state tournament when Olberding was a senior at Melrose. They asked him what he thought and Mussy said- he'd be starting for us right now!

 

[Slim Tubby]

Great story and your gramps sounds like a great guy.

Gary Serum from Alexandria; my old man was good friends with his father, who was a JC AA and one of my employers. Gary got us some tickets a few times at the Dome.

I met Gary a few times. He owned (still owns?) a bar in Anoka and the night of the Halloween blizzard, about 20 of us stayed the night drinking Moosehead and eating pizza.

He ran a promotion every night during Cheers at 10:30pm when Norm took a swig of beer, everyone at the bar got a free tap beer. Small world!

 

[jovs]

Musselman was interview during the state tournament when Olberding was a senior at Melrose. They asked him what he thought and Mussy said- he'd be starting for us right now!

Only guy that I think that was as physically imposing as Olberding in high school was Royce White when he wanted to be.

As much as I hated Richfield I would have loved to have seen them play against Melrose in the A/AA championship game in 74. Two physical talented teams.

 

[leftyslefty]

If i recall correctly, Bruce Hoffarber (Blake’s Pops) was a Richfield star!

Only guy that I think that was as physically imposing as Olberding in high school was Royce White when he wanted to be.

As much as I hated Richfield I would have loved to have seen them play against Melrose in the A/AA championship game in 74. Two physical

 

[Gopheritnow]

Did you ever see Mike Kingery play in HS?

Kingerys kids, Josh and ??? Play town ball for Atwater. Josh is maybe two yrs out of high school. I saw him notch 14 k’s and beat a very good local team with 4 college players as a draftee in the town ball tourney In his senior summer. You can see Mike must have coached him, as he is as polished an amateur pitcher ever was. Why he isn’t playing college ball is beyond me. His approach on the mound is far beyond his age. Look up his high school stats as a hitter and pitcher. IIRC hit over .500 with power and had approx a 182-4 SO/W rario. Averaged 2 k’s per inning through the year.

 

[Rex]

Article on Tuesday's (2/13) Alexandria vs St Cloud Tech game:

Alexandria takes control of Central Lakes with convincing 77-54 win over Tech

With Grayson Grove and Chase Thompson back in the fold, the Cardinals had little problem with containing Tameron Ferguson and the Tigers.

www.echopress.com

ST. CLOUD — The Alexandria Cardinals were a different team in the second half on Tuesday, Feb. 13.

After leading St. Cloud Tech 37-31 at halftime, the Cardinals' dynamic duo of Grayson Grove and Chase Thompson took over. Alexandria outscored the Tigers 40-23 in the second half en route to a 77-54 Central Lakes Conference victory at Tech High School.

The win helped the Cardinals (11-1 CLC, 16-5 overall) take control of the CLC with four conference games to go. Tech, which beat Alexandria 68-59 on Jan. 26 without Thompson and Grove in the lineup, were held to three field goals in the final 11 minutes, 23 seconds of the game.

A lot of that had to do with the inside presence of the 6-foot-9 Grove and 6-8 Thompson, along with the tenacious defense by the Cardinals' guards on Tech leading scorer Tameron Ferguson, who was held to 17 points.

Grove, who is headed to the University of Minnesota next season, finished with 17 points in just his second game back from a broken fibula. Grove, who admitted to feeling out of shape after six weeks away, felt his team started to come together after halftime.

"I'm sore, tired and definitely out of shape," Grove said with a laugh. "It's just fun to be back with the guys. We didn't compete as hard as we should in the first half. We played with a purpose in the second. That was the difference. We held Tameron down, which we knew we had to do. He's a great scorer. Our guards did a good job of pinching him into traps so he didn't get loose. He was our emphasis on defense."

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

Article on Tuesday's (2/13) Alexandria vs St Cloud Tech game:

Alexandria takes control of Central Lakes with convincing 77-54 win over Tech

With Grayson Grove and Chase Thompson back in the fold, the Cardinals had little problem with containing Tameron Ferguson and the Tigers.

www.echopress.com

ST. CLOUD — The Alexandria Cardinals were a different team in the second half on Tuesday, Feb. 13.

After leading St. Cloud Tech 37-31 at halftime, the Cardinals' dynamic duo of Grayson Grove and Chase Thompson took over. Alexandria outscored the Tigers 40-23 in the second half en route to a 77-54 Central Lakes Conference victory at Tech High School.

The win helped the Cardinals (11-1 CLC, 16-5 overall) take control of the CLC with four conference games to go. Tech, which beat Alexandria 68-59 on Jan. 26 without Thompson and Grove in the lineup, were held to three field goals in the final 11 minutes, 23 seconds of the game.

A lot of that had to do with the inside presence of the 6-foot-9 Grove and 6-8 Thompson, along with the tenacious defense by the Cardinals' guards on Tech leading scorer Tameron Ferguson, who was held to 17 points.

Grove, who is headed to the University of Minnesota next season, finished with 17 points in just his second game back from a broken fibula. Grove, who admitted to feeling out of shape after six weeks away, felt his team started to come together after halftime.

"I'm sore, tired and definitely out of shape," Grove said with a laugh. "It's just fun to be back with the guys. We didn't compete as hard as we should in the first half. We played with a purpose in the second. That was the difference. We held Tameron down, which we knew we had to do. He's a great scorer. Our guards did a good job of pinching him into traps so he didn't get loose. He was our emphasis on defense."

He sounds like another winner, Ike & Grayson, our future dynamic duo!

 

[BleedGopher]

Go Gophers!!

 

[XMan]

Seems like a really nice kid. Does he redshirt this next year or play right away?

 

[Holy Man]

Seems like a really nice kid. Does he redshirt this next year or play right away?

I'm guessing play right away unless there is more recovery from injury needed. Red shirt isn't completely worthless yet, but its getting close with free transfers. You're filling a scholarship for development that another team will reap the fruit from, I think.

 

[march madness]

I'm guessing play right away unless there is more recovery from injury needed. Red shirt isn't completely worthless yet, but it’s getting close with free transfers. You're filling a scholarship for development that another team will reap the fruit from, I think.

players from out state, smaller towns have seemed less likely to leave the state for greener pastures than inner city or suburban kids.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

Did Grove miss part of his Junior season and AAU between Jr and Sr year? Or am I thinking of someone else?

If it’s him, and he missed part of his senior year, I’m excited for him to get to campus and work with the training staff to work in preventing more injuries.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

Seems like a really nice kid. Does he redshirt this next year or play right away?

I think he can play right away; he’s added like 20-30 pounds from training and he has great feet as a soccer player and he’s got good hops.

 

[GopherBlood777]

Did Grove miss part of his Junior season and AAU between Jr and Sr year? Or am I thinking of someone else?

If it’s him, and he missed part of his senior year, I’m excited for him to get to campus and work with the training staff to work in preventing more injuries.

He missed this last AAU season and also part of this highschool season. Seems to be healthy now though.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

He missed this last AAU season and also part of this highschool season. Seems to be healthy now though.

All from one injury? Or were there multiple? Just curious. Clearly doing well and has been playing which is nice.

 

[fan of Ray Williams]

players from out state, smaller towns have seemed less likely to leave the state for greener pastures than inner city or suburban kids.

Treyton Thompson says hello from Florida. Joking aside, really not much to go on since this era Holy Man refers to is quite new and hasn’t been any out state players brought in here since the onset of it.

 

[Formerswish]

Only guy that I think that was as physically imposing as Olberding in high school was Royce White when he wanted to be.

As much as I hated Richfield I would have loved to have seen them play against Melrose in the A/AA championship game in 74. Two physical talented teams.

I played in that "74 State Tournament, we lost our 2nd game to the Bemidji team that Olberding and Melrose beat in the finals. Lost of "short shorts and big hair" back then, with very little muscle definition! Olberding was a freak-nobody came close the the physical domination and skill he had at the time.
He was also a nice guy who ended up with a nice career at San Antonio and a couple other teams over about an 11 year NBA career. There has rarely been a more profound example of a "man among boys" in Minnesota sports history..

 

[USAF]

players from out state, smaller towns have seemed less likely to leave the state for greener pastures than inner city or suburban kids.

Will Tschetter, the Madsen Brothers, Eli King also say "hi."

Who was the last outstate, small town kid who played for the Gopher basketball team?

 

[fan of Ray Williams]

I played in that "74 State Tournament, we lost our 2nd game to the Bemidji team that Olberding and Melrose beat in the finals. Lost of "short shorts and big hair" back then, with very little muscle definition! Olberding was a freak-nobody came close the the physical domination and skill he had at the time.
He was also a nice guy who ended up with a nice career at San Antonio and a couple other teams over about an 11 year NBA career. There has rarely been a more profound example of a "man among boys" in Minnesota sports history..

Sometimes people pass over Kris Humphries. He, along with another Tom Copa, were some seriously built high school basketball players.

Edit: Didn’t realize I used the word “pass” in that post when referring to Kris.

 

[MonikerSchmoniker45]

Will Tschetter, the Madsen Brothers, Eli King also say "hi."

Who was the last outstate, small town kid who played for the Gopher basketball team?

Treyton Thompson or Michael Hurt? Not really small town, but outstate I guess.

 

[Formerswish]

Sometimes people pass over Kris Humphries. He, along with another Tom Copa, were some seriously built high school basketball players.

Those are good examples. The difference with Olberding was that almost nobody during that earlier era had done a lot of work in the weight room, and he was incredibly strong. But Copa and Humphries were also both physical freaks who excelled and had NBA careers, although Copa's was only one year with the Spurs.

 

[Tucker32]

Will Tschetter, the Madsen Brothers, Eli King also say "hi."

Who was the last outstate, small town kid who played for the Gopher basketball team?

None of whom were recruited very hard by Pitino. Tschetter was a senior the year before Ben came here, and King had already committed to ISU by the time Ben could even get started. It looks like neither were a real miss by Pitino. The Madsen brothers? Again, not recruited.

Recently? Treyton Thompson and now Asuma and Grove are recent outstate kids. Ramberg a walkon currently on roster. Michael Hurt before that. Not much in the 2000s, but not a lot of "misses" who went to any P5 schoosl during that time from outstate either. If you go back to the Clem days and early 2000s there were quite a few outstate kids on the roster.