All Things Isaac Asuma Recruitment Thread (Class of 2024, Minnesota's Top In-State Target)

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UpAndUnder43 said:
I actually think I read Cherry got 2 or 3 transfers this year. To an already stacked small school squad. Sad, really.
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Already stacked!? LOL, Cherry came down to State last year with Isaiah Asuma as the oldest starter as a Sophomore. His two brothers in 9th and 7th grade and his two cousins in 8th and 7th grade. Beyond that they didn't have a kid who could walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Last year they brought in a sub who literally threw the ball at the basket like he was tossing a soccer ball back into play.
Cherry has two families and those kids know how to play ball. Everyone else was awful. So, a couple kids from the Range chose open enrollment at Cherry to play ball and hope to get to State. They still aren't the best team in Class A. New Life beat them by 7 in a holiday tournament in St Cloud.
So, "stacked" is just a moronic statement on your part. Here in the Cities you have teams like Hopkins, Totino, DeLaSalle, etc., poaching kids left and right and you want to call Cherry "stacked." Goodnight that's just stupid.
 

MennoSota said:
Already stacked!? LOL, Cherry came down to State last year with Isaiah Asuma as the oldest starter as a Sophomore. His two brothers in 9th and 7th grade and his two cousins in 8th and 7th grade. Beyond that they didn't have a kid who could walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Last year they brought in a sub who literally threw the ball at the basket like he was tossing a soccer ball back into play.
Cherry has two families and those kids know how to play ball. Everyone else was awful. So, a couple kids from the Range chose open enrollment at Cherry to play ball and hope to get to State. They still aren't the best team in Class A. New Life beat them by 7 in a holiday tournament in St Cloud.
So, "stacked" is just a moronic statement on your part. Here in the Cities you have teams like Hopkins, Totino, DeLaSalle, etc., poaching kids left and right and you want to call Cherry "stacked." Goodnight that's just stupid.
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For an iron range team... Maybe that is stacked.... Idk... Don't follow that areas teams close enough.. or at all....
 

MennoSota said:
Already stacked!? LOL, Cherry came down to State last year with Isaiah Asuma as the oldest starter as a Sophomore. His two brothers in 9th and 7th grade and his two cousins in 8th and 7th grade. Beyond that they didn't have a kid who could walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Last year they brought in a sub who literally threw the ball at the basket like he was tossing a soccer ball back into play.
Cherry has two families and those kids know how to play ball. Everyone else was awful. So, a couple kids from the Range chose open enrollment at Cherry to play ball and hope to get to State. They still aren't the best team in Class A. New Life beat them by 7 in a holiday tournament in St Cloud.
So, "stacked" is just a moronic statement on your part. Here in the Cities you have teams like Hopkins, Totino, DeLaSalle, etc., poaching kids left and right and you want to call Cherry "stacked." Goodnight that's just stupid.
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Chisolm still wins the transfer in game anyways. They got kids for years
 

MennoSota said:
Already stacked!? LOL, Cherry came down to State last year with Isaiah Asuma as the oldest starter as a Sophomore. His two brothers in 9th and 7th grade and his two cousins in 8th and 7th grade. Beyond that they didn't have a kid who could walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Last year they brought in a sub who literally threw the ball at the basket like he was tossing a soccer ball back into play.
Cherry has two families and those kids know how to play ball. Everyone else was awful. So, a couple kids from the Range chose open enrollment at Cherry to play ball and hope to get to State. They still aren't the best team in Class A. New Life beat them by 7 in a holiday tournament in St Cloud.
So, "stacked" is just a moronic statement on your part. Here in the Cities you have teams like Hopkins, Totino, DeLaSalle, etc., poaching kids left and right and you want to call Cherry "stacked." Goodnight that's just stupid.
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So Cherry adding multiple rotation guys to a state tournament squad that returned every meaningful player (per your analysis) is more virtuous than the metro teams doing it cause ??? Of course they aren’t as deep as Hopkins. They are playing A and have 250 kids in grades 7-12. I’ll donate $50 to your favorite charity of Cherry doesn’t finish in the top 4 at state. Just message me where you want the funds to go.

I’m not advocating for anyone to do it. But to act as if this is not the same is foolish.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
So Cherry adding multiple rotation guys to a state tournament squad that returned every meaningful player (per your analysis) is more virtuous than the metro teams doing it cause ??? Of course they aren’t as deep as Hopkins. They are playing A and have 250 kids in grades 7-12. I’ll donate $50 to your favorite charity of Cherry doesn’t finish in the top 4 at state. Just message me where you want the funds to go.

I’m not advocating for anyone to do it. But to act as if this is not the same is foolish.
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They have the chance, but North Woods came down for 3 years straight and took 2nd all three years so getting 4th in small school isn't "stacked."
And, yes, Bob McDonald exploited open enrollment on the Range with his youngest son, Joel. It's actually humorous that Joel would lose a kid he coached at Hibbing to have that kid go to Cherry. Karma.
 


MennoSota said:
They have the chance, but North Woods came down for 3 years straight and took 2nd all three years so getting 4th in small school isn't "stacked."
And, yes, Bob McDonald exploited open enrollment on the Range with his youngest son, Joel. It's actually humorous that Joel would lose a kid he coached at Hibbing to have that kid go to Cherry. Karma.
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Joel resigned the same year the kid left, but your point stands lol
 

MennoSota said:
They have the chance, but North Woods came down for 3 years straight and took 2nd all three years so getting 4th in small school isn't "stacked."
And, yes, Bob McDonald exploited open enrollment on the Range with his youngest son, Joel. It's actually humorous that Joel would lose a kid he coached at Hibbing to have that kid go to Cherry. Karma.
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Well my $50 stands. And I don’t expect to pay it.
 

MennoSota said:
They have the chance, but North Woods came down for 3 years straight and took 2nd all three years so getting 4th in small school isn't "stacked."
And, yes, Bob McDonald exploited open enrollment on the Range with his youngest son, Joel. It's actually humorous that Joel would lose a kid he coached at Hibbing to have that kid go to Cherry. Karma.
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So top 4 with guys who don’t know how to play basketball is expected? Interesting. Not sure which side you’re on. Did they gain transfers to become good or do they only have two families?

I remember a team with a couple families that did pretty well in Litchfield and Braham. Maybe they’ll be OK
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
So top 4 with guys who don’t know how to play basketball is expected? Interesting. Not sure which side you’re on. Did they gain transfers to become good or do they only have two families?

I remember a team with a couple families that did pretty well in Litchfield and Braham. Maybe they’ll be OK
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The Dahlmans moved to Braham from Ely. Braham also pulled kids from Cambridge, Rush City, and Mora. Vaughn was a notorious recruiter
 



Gopherfan84 said:
The Dahlmans moved to Braham from Ely. Braham also pulled kids from Cambridge, Rush City, and Mora. Vaughn was a notorious recruiter
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They moved. They didn’t open enroll. And they moved early. I played against them in 6th grade and both Dahlmans were there.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
They moved. They didn’t open enroll. And they moved early. I played against them in 6th grade and both Dahlmans were there.
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You don’t think the move was sport related and dad seeing his boys and daughter were going to be tall? What’s the difference in them moving in 5th grade vs 9th?
 

Gopherfan84 said:
You don’t think the move was sport related and dad seeing his boys and daughter were going to be tall? What’s the difference in them moving in 5th grade vs 9th?
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One-they moved. They didn’t open enroll

Two-if dad had the foresight to see what his kids would be as 2nd graders or whatever age Rebecca was when they moved—he should be the head coach for the gophers.
 





UpAndUnder43 said:
So top 4 with guys who don’t know how to play basketball is expected? Interesting. Not sure which side you’re on. Did they gain transfers to become good or do they only have two families?

I remember a team with a couple families that did pretty well in Litchfield and Braham. Maybe they’ll be OK
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Sure they'd be okay.
If you want to blame someone, blame former Governor, Rudy Perpich (a Ranger) who signed open enrollment into law. Many schools in the Range lost students to Virginia because it was perceived that Virginia had a better education system than the smaller towns around them. This didn't just affect sports.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
What was your stat line vs. theirs?
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My buddy does have the scorebooks somewhere. I was really good in 6th grade. My brother is 3 years older so I played with him and his friends a ton. We beat them once, they beat us twice. I peaked around 7th grade. Everyone caught up to me and I became above average for high school.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
The Dahlmans moved to Braham from Ely. Braham also pulled kids from Cambridge, Rush City, and Mora. Vaughn was a notorious recruiter
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UpAndUnder43 said:
They moved. They didn’t open enroll. And they moved early. I played against them in 6th grade and both Dahlmans were there.
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Their dad, Nate, was a Science Teacher. He got a job teaching in Braham. Nate was originally from the little town of Orr where his dad was the State DNR game warden. Nate played on the 1976 Orr Braves team that beat Chisholm in the Region finals and won the consolation at State. In AA, Hibbing came down with a decent center by the name of Kevin McHale. That Hibbing team had a fantastic point guard who got hurt in the State semi-finals, which I believe was the reason that Bloomington Jefferson was able to beat Hibbing in the State Finals. Nate Dahlman's team lost in their first State game by 2 points. Had they won that game they likely would have made it to the finals and then Minneapolis Marshall University school would have pounded them. Talk about a "stacked" team. That Marshall University team was one of the best teams I have ever seen at the high school level in Minnesota.
So, there's the history behind how the Dahlman's ended up in Braham.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
My buddy does have the scorebooks somewhere. I was really good in 6th grade. My brother is 3 years older so I played with him and his friends a ton. We beat them once, they beat us twice. I peaked around 7th grade. Everyone caught up to me and I became above average for high school.
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Still good times and I never peaked at buckets- I was 6’ PF with limited everything, except aggression in the paint.
Great that your buddy still has the scorebooks.
 

Rockraven said:
Good post. With todays surgeries and rehab quickness recovery is mental. If Ihnen has his quickness back with his wing span he would be a game changer for us at the 2. A lot of ifs.
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Sorry the Ihnen post should have had a sarcasm imogi! I along with most on these Boards think Ben mentioning playing a 6-9 guy with average lateral quickness at the 2 as a recipe for disaster. We need quick players like 3-4 that are 6-5 and under ASAP. Hopefully Asuma is one of them.
 

MennoSota said:
Their dad, Nate, was a Science Teacher. He got a job teaching in Braham. Nate was originally from the little town of Orr where his dad was the State DNR game warden. Nate played on the 1976 Orr Braves team that beat Chisholm in the Region finals and won the consolation at State. In AA, Hibbing came down with a decent center by the name of Kevin McHale. That Hibbing team had a fantastic point guard who got hurt in the State semi-finals, which I believe was the reason that Bloomington Jefferson was able to beat Hibbing in the State Finals. Nate Dahlman's team lost in their first State game by 2 points. Had they won that game they likely would have made it to the finals and then Minneapolis Marshall University school would have pounded them. Talk about a "stacked" team. That Marshall University team was one of the best teams I have ever seen at the high school level in Minnesota.
So, there's the history behind how the Dahlman's ended up in Braham.
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Henderson was very good, quickest player I ever faced, I just don't remember the rest of the Marshall team being that dominant but by the time they were seniors I guess they dominated. The whole team was from the northside, talk about recruiting and open enrollment but for desegregation purposes. Can you imagine what North would have been like had all the kids that played at various schools around the city had stayed at North.
 

Forgot to add a couple of points from my visit to Cherry.

Ike (I guess he goes by that locally) missed his first shot, a 3-point attempt from the left corner. His brother, Noah, got the rebound, and quickly went up for a put-back and an "and 1" attempt. The first person to dap him up was his brother, and the smile on his face seemed so genuine, and he appeared to be so happy that his brother stepped up to help the team and got in the mix early. It's a small thing, but those are things I like to look for in a player.

I also found out that his name is pronounced AH-su-ma, when I mistakenly thought it would be pronounced ah-SU-ma.

There is a sign in the gym that lists all the 1,000 point scorers in Cherry history, and there are two Asuma ladies who both reached that point in 2001 but I forgot to take a pic.
 

MennoSota said:
Sure they'd be okay.
If you want to blame someone, blame former Governor, Rudy Perpich (a Ranger) who signed open enrollment into law. Many schools in the Range lost students to Virginia because it was perceived that Virginia had a better education system than the smaller towns around them. This didn't just affect sports.
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Any examples of that, kids moving to Virginia? Common over in Grand Rapids with Blandins.
 


Unregistered User said:
Forgot to add a couple of points from my visit to Cherry.

Ike (I guess he goes by that locally) missed his first shot, a 3-point attempt from the left corner. His brother, Noah, got the rebound, and quickly went up for a put-back and an "and 1" attempt. The first person to dap him up was his brother, and the smile on his face seemed so genuine, and he appeared to be so happy that his brother stepped up to help the team and got in the mix early. It's a small thing, but those are things I like to look for in a player.

I also found out that his name is pronounced AH-su-ma, when I mistakenly thought it would be pronounced ah-SU-ma.

There is a sign in the gym that lists all the 1,000 point scorers in Cherry history, and there are two Asuma ladies who both reached that point in 2001 but I forgot to take a pic.
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Finnish names have a hard start and ending. For example: Toivonen is pronounced TOY-voe-NEN. Therefore Isaiah Asuma's last name is pronounced AH-sue-MA.
I read in an article that his mom and aunt were good ballers. They may be the only two as Cherry was just awful when I lived on the Range and played ball. There were (surprisingly since hockey is so big) some really good teams up there with some height. Before Dahlman, Orr had a 6'11" center. Eveleth had the two 6'10" Krebs brothers. Hibbing had McHale. Chisholm had the McDonald's. Ely had the Podominicks (sp). In 81 Ely, Chisholm, and Orr were all rated in the top 10 for the State class A. Chisholm survived that gauntlet to get to State. The 82 Chisholm team was stacked. The starting 5 was 6'8, 6'8, 6'7, 6'3, and 6'2 with a 6'6 kid coming off the bench. They averaged around 90 points per game. Had there been a 3 point line, I am convinced Tom McDonald would be the all time Minnesota scoring champ. He was better than Joel.
The economic hard times at the mines have taken their toll on the level of athletes across the board as so many of us "Rangers" moved down to the Cities to make our way. I recall, about 15 years ago, dropping into the local gym and seeing a Krebs playing for Stillwater. Up in the stands there sat 6'10 Stan Krebs, cheering on his daughter.
 

RockChalk said:
Any examples of that, kids moving to Virginia? Common over in Grand Rapids with Blandins.
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With open enrollment there is no need to move. All you do is pick your school and then get someone to drive you to the school of your choice. If you stay within the district, the bus will pick you up. I heard of parents driving their kids 50 miles, one way, to school in Virginia because they thought the education was so vastly better than one of the small "county" schools that were closer. Plus, some of those small schools only had graduating classes of 9 or 10 kids. The economic downturn on the Range is very real and the options for open enrollment has been a game changer.
 

MennoSota said:
Finnish names have a hard start and ending. For example: Toivonen is pronounced TOY-voe-NEN. Therefore Isaiah Asuma's last name is pronounced AH-sue-MA.
I read in an article that his mom and aunt were good ballers. They may be the only two as Cherry was just awful when I lived on the Range and played ball. There were (surprisingly since hockey is so big) some really good teams up there with some height. Before Dahlman, Orr had a 6'11" center. Eveleth had the two 6'10" Krebs brothers. Hibbing had McHale. Chisholm had the McDonald's. Ely had the Podominicks (sp). In 81 Ely, Chisholm, and Orr were all rated in the top 10 for the State class A. Chisholm survived that gauntlet to get to State. The 82 Chisholm team was stacked. The starting 5 was 6'8, 6'8, 6'7, 6'3, and 6'2 with a 6'6 kid coming off the bench. They averaged around 90 points per game. Had there been a 3 point line, I am convinced Tom McDonald would be the all time Minnesota scoring champ. He was better than Joel.
The economic hard times at the mines have taken their toll on the level of athletes across the board as so many of us "Rangers" moved down to the Cities to make our way. I recall, about 15 years ago, dropping into the local gym and seeing a Krebs playing for Stillwater. Up in the stands there sat 6'10 Stan Krebs, cheering on his daughter.
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Virginia had a solid team during the years of McHale. Slim Garrett, all the way from New York City. At the time the only black kid on the range
 

MennoSota said:
With open enrollment there is no need to move. All you do is pick your school and then get someone to drive you to the school of your choice. If you stay within the district, the bus will pick you up. I heard of parents driving their kids 50 miles, one way, to school in Virginia because they thought the education was so vastly better than one of the small "county" schools that were closer. Plus, some of those small schools only had graduating classes of 9 or 10 kids. The economic downturn on the Range is very real and the options for open enrollment has been a game changer.
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Kids may move around now for academics (my nephews drove into Virginia from Fraser Bay) up there but back in your time the only school people talked about year in and year out regarding pulling kids from other schools for sports was the Rapids hockey program
 

RockChalk said:
Virginia had a solid team during the years of McHale. Slim Garrett, all the way from New York City. At the time the only black kid on the range
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And Pat Foschi. Pat originally committed to play at Kentucky and then ended up at Minnesota. Those two on the same team we're dynamic, but they couldn't seem to make it a solid team. As individual talents, those two were great.
 

RockChalk said:
Kids may move around now for academics (my nephews drove into Virginia from Fraser Bay) up there but back in your time the only school people talked about year in and year out regarding pulling kids from other schools for sports was the Rapids hockey program
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One of my friends moved to live with a family in Eveleth to play hockey. Eveleth was terrible, but he ended his career as the Iron Range Conference goalie of the year and got a full ride scholarship to play at Alaska Fairbanks. Another friend switched residency to play at International Falls. He ended up playing at UMD. So, yes, there were creative ways of "building" a team. Doug Woog drew kids from the area to play at South St Paul in the 70s.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Still good times and I never peaked at buckets- I was 6’ PF with limited everything, except aggression in the paint.
Great that your buddy still has the scorebooks.
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I was a 6’ SG that couldn’t shoot but I made up for it by by being a poor rebounder and a defensive liability.
 

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