Minnesota kids you really enjoyed watching

Donate To GopherHole
Paul Molitor, Jerry Boland, Bob Blake and Joe Lentsch for Cretin state champs 1974!
 

Kevin McHale
Kevin Lynch
Jim Peterson
Khalid El-Amin
 
Last edited:


jovs said:
Was Hunter the PG at Mechanics Arts in 1974. That guy was built like a barrel, had the quickness of a walrus, but because of his stout build he could create his own shot and he was deadly. Hard guy to defend.

Landsburger on the fast break was a force of nature. Let him get within 10 feet of the basket and you could forget it.


Smith was an incredible athlete, Rogers played at Central and what a scorer, Henderson is a Mnnesota hall of famer but the best of the bunch in my mind was Randy Williams at Washburn. His dad was the first African American to play for the Lakers. His combination of size, skill set, and athleticism just dominated.
Click to expand...
The high school team I played on played Washburn in the '74 State High School tournament for 3rd place. I guarded a guy who was a great football player, Ross Baglien, and he guarded me as well.

But at one point I drove the lane and made a shot fake, and Randy Williams got off a jump to block the shot and got higher than I've ever seen anyone get on a basketball court. The guy was an unbelievable athlete. I think he ended up going to Jacksonville to play?

Anyway, Mark Olberding played in that tournament as well, and he's still the best high school player (relative to the era) that I've ever seen. Size, quickness, strength. Man among boys, back during the era of short shorts and big hair!
 



MTBeaudry said:
Really did not like Mike Bauer, remember watching him play hs arguiing with his coach, huge ego.Add, Kevin Mchale, Mark Olberding, Steve Lingenfelter, Dusty Rychart, Randiy Breuer, Jim Peterson, Kris Humphries, Joel Pryzbella, Kit Carson, Jeff Stottlemeyer, Barry Wohlers,
Click to expand...
Yeah, I played against Bauer a lot growing up. He was kind of a complainer. My roommate at basketball camp was his PG (Steve Klein, a good LH PG).

The strange thing about Bauer was he was like 6'8" in 8th grade and kind of built himself into being a perimeter player. It was a strange 5 year perioid with Hastings athletics - Dan Welch, Mike Bauer, Jeff Taffe, Adam Gerloch and a number of other athletes (they also dominated HS wrestling at this time).

Lots of rumors about those Hastings teams.
 

I saw Mark Olberding play as a HS sophomore - and he was on a different level than anyone else on the court in terms of size, strength and athletic ability. Frank Wachlarowicz was another really strong player of that era - went on to a nice career at St. John's.

saw McHale play on TV in state tournament. you could tell he had potential, but he really developed physically during his college years into what he became with the Celtics.

on a different scale, I watched the Schilling brothers all play for Ellsworth. SW MN Christian had great teams as they won 4 consecutive Class A State Titles.

Isaac Fink was a lot of fun to watch at Springfield - moved on to Augustana.
 

Fun looking through the posts. Going real old school here. Have been in The Barn when the stands were shaking and it was a constant roar a few times. One of the most memorable was when Marshall beat Cloquet in 1963 for the state title. Tremendous game. Cloquet had two small quick guards that never stopped running, Mike Forrest and Dave Meisner. Marshall had Terry Porter, a really smooth player; and John Nefstead, built like a truck, who seemed to grab every rebound. Just a hell of a game; I'd guess most of us didn't sit down the last quarter. And he just reminded me of Bob Bruggers who played for Danube. And from that era, Terry Kunze from Duluth Central, another really smooth player.
 

A name I haven’t seen mentioned is Bob Zender from Edina. He was a dominant center back in ‘66-68 who helped the Hornets win 3 straight State titles in a row. Being from Minnetonka (my 3rd high school in 3 years) I was required to hate him. But he was very dominant and came through in the clutch. He died tragically on 2010 from heart failure during a knee replacement surgery. https://www.hometownsource.com/edin...cle_42d57dde-57bc-11e9-923c-ef5b5f36db27.html
 




Probably Olberding. As a freshman in college a man among boys. He could shoot that baseline jumper with either hand. The game appeared to be slow and easy for him.

Who knows what happens if he stayed. But as usual we can’t have nice things in MN.
 


Jalen Suggs and Chet Holmgren the years they played together at Minnehaha Academy. My grandson played against them. Very weird for a Class 2A team to have two players in adjacent years that would go #5 and then #2 in first round of NBA draft. Jalen was incredibly athletic and very skilled. Great court presence. Holmgren was mobile and great shooter and used both hands (and TALL). I watched the game where MA dominated Sierra Canyon (who had Bronny James and Zaire Wade among others). Sierra Canyon had won their first 12 games by double digits. MA won 78-58, was not even close. That was at Target Center in a holiday tournament.

But Jericho Sims was maybe my favorite recently. Played at Class A Cristo Rey. Incredibly bouncy. Had biggest vertical jump in NCAA at Texas and currently (with Knicks) has biggest vertical in NBA. (Vertical was 44.5 inches at NBA combine which is 3rd all time in combine history. (and is measured accurately). In high school was dominant. Court demeanor excellent at all times. Never argued or fussed. Always respectful to refs and opponents for that matter. Humble kid. Was always clearly most skilled player on court - whole different level. Highlight dunks and rebounds and blocks. Without showing off, playing within his game. Against higher level teams he also had to bring ball up court and run the offense. Usually stayed around after road games to chat up younger kids and sign autographs. I remember one game like that at Trinity High School in Eagan. The team bus left after the game but he stayed another half hour just talking to the younger kids and got his own ride home with his parents.
 
Last edited:



Ewert86PC said:
Kevin McHale
Kevin Lynch
Jim Peterson
Khalid El-Amin
Mychal Thompson
Click to expand...
Not Mychal Thompson. He played at Miami Jackson. In 1974 they had four players from Bahamas (including Mychal) and one from Cuba. They were called the Jackson 5 and were 33-0 (average winning margin was 30 points), won Florida state championship. Alas four of the five were eventually declared ineligible (all for falsified birth records) , including Mychal. Wonder if they had NIL money. Or some precursor.
 

jovs said:
Was Hunter the PG at Mechanics Arts in 1974. That guy was built like a barrel, had the quickness of a walrus, but because of his stout build he could create his own shot and he was deadly. Hard guy to defend.

Landsburger on the fast break was a force of nature. Let him get within 10 feet of the basket and you could forget it.


Smith was an incredible athlete, Rogers played at Central and what a scorer, Henderson is a Mnnesota hall of famer but the best of the bunch in my mind was Randy Williams at Washburn. His dad was the first African American to play for the Lakers. His combination of size, skill set, and athleticism just dominated.
Click to expand...
I only saw Randy Williams once. It was a game against Roosevelt and there was a Coleman on the Roosevelt team (I think it was Al Coleman, it was several years before Ben Coleman played for North). Great game. Really hard fought and Coleman and Williams were the focus. Williams was really smooth.

One guy I forget to mention who probably doesn't reach the highest rung is Elmer Bailey who played for Mechanic Arts. I saw him both in high school and at Macalester (before he transferred to the Gophers to play football). Just a stud athlete. I can't remember if dunking was allowed when he was at Macalester, but I do recall him making an unbelieveable play on missed free throw that he either tapped in or got called for offensive goal-tending when he leapt over everyone from his spot in the lane. He was about 6-0, but was an absolute monster of an athlete.
 

Love watching the guys that balled out in the State tourney…. El-Amin, Tyus, JP Macura and Damon Dragotis who was ruthless.. there is a video on YouTube of Dragotis highlights.. baller.. Redd Overton also was a rugged baller from North!
 

Randomly… loved the Eden Prairie 2020 team… they put the final nail in the coffin of the self proclaimed Greatest Mn High School team ever.. by beating up Minnehaha at Minnehaha and then letting the crowd know it.. CDH had already manhandled Minnehaha on a neutral court early in the year… put the HaHa hype to a rest .. 🤫
 

Mulligan said:
Fun looking through the posts. Going real old school here. Have been in The Barn when the stands were shaking and it was a constant roar a few times. One of the most memorable was when Marshall beat Cloquet in 1963 for the state title. Tremendous game. Cloquet had two small quick guards that never stopped running, Mike Forrest and Dave Meisner. Marshall had Terry Porter, a really smooth player; and John Nefstead, built like a truck, who seemed to grab every rebound. Just a hell of a game; I'd guess most of us didn't sit down the last quarter. And he just reminded me of Bob Bruggers who played for Danube. And from that era, Terry Kunze from Duluth Central, another really smooth player.
Click to expand...
Little known facts. My dad (the original lefty) refereed that Marshall/Cloquet game. Dave Meisner is uncle to Cory Millen, the great Lumberjack/Gopher puckster.
 



Todd Bouman in the 1989 State Tournament. Start at 7:45 for one of the best dunks in tournament history. Replays at 8:30.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:

Todd Bouman in the 1989 State Tournament. Start at 7:45 for one of the best dunks in tournament history. Replays at 8:30.
Click to expand...
Shouldn’t have even made the state tournament that year. Played and beat a Cedar Mountain team before that with at least three players that were sick.
 


CentralGopher said:
Shouldn’t have even made the state tournament that year. Played and beat a Cedar Mountain team before that with at least three players that were sick.
Click to expand...
WTF? Who is Cedar Mountain? RTR was undefeated and never trailed in a game that year until the state championship. Also, they didn’t play anyone named Cedar Mountain.

Anyway this thread is about players you enjoyed watching. And this post was about a sophomore in HS making a ridiculous dunk.
 

Mine was J.P. Macura and Tyus Jones. I grew up an out of state gopher fan and never really paid much attention to high school ball until Tyus jones came along. I went to a game between apple valley and lakeville north to check out the nationally syndicated Tyus Jones. It was one of the best games I’ve been to period. Watching Tyus go back and forth with this lakeville north kid that I had never heard of before this point was awesome. I remember telling my dad to watch out for this J.P. Macura kid and then he went on that legendary high school title run and I became a big fan of his.
 

Roland Brooks said:
Randomly… loved the Eden Prairie 2020 team… they put the final nail in the coffin of the self proclaimed Greatest Mn High School team ever.. by beating up Minnehaha at Minnehaha and then letting the crowd know it.. CDH had already manhandled Minnehaha on a neutral court early in the year… put the HaHa hype to a rest .. 🤫
Click to expand...
Yeah, that team was just a really good HS basketball team.
 



Roland Brooks said:
Randomly… loved the Eden Prairie 2020 team… they put the final nail in the coffin of the self proclaimed Greatest Mn High School team ever.. by beating up Minnehaha at Minnehaha and then letting the crowd know it.. CDH had already manhandled Minnehaha on a neutral court early in the year… put the HaHa hype to a rest .. 🤫
Click to expand...
They really gave Dawson Garcia problems his senior too I believe. Such an odd team, half the team had man buns and pink or purple shoes, but they pretty much beat everyone with Drake Dobbs, shooter that went to Sioux Falls, and post player that went to Duluth I believe.
 

Classof 66 said:
Not Mychal Thompson. He played at Miami Jackson. In 1974 they had four players from Bahamas (including Mychal) and one from Cuba. They were called the Jackson 5 and were 33-0 (average winning margin was 30 points), won Florida state championship. Alas four of the five were eventually declared ineligible (all for falsified birth records) , including Mychal. Wonder if they had NIL money. Or some precursor.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected and so does my post now.
 

Mbakwe represented the pinnacle of gophers ball for my generation as sad as that may seem lol, even though a little before my time for sure Kris Humphries, loved his game
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom