Signings 2023 Class

Last Thursday Gophers commit Kennedy Klick scored 10 in a win against Elk River. With that, Klick surpassed 1,000 points.

That game followed a 20 point performance by Klick in a win against Spring Lake Park.


 


I just discovered that Minnesota 2024 recruit Ajok Madol had made the 2022 Biosteel All Canadian Girls Roster. That's the top 24 seniors in Canada. As previously mentioned on this forum she also played for the Canada national team. She's interesting because she makes high targets and yet little news comes out of her area of Canada to give that context.



 

I just discovered that Minnesota 2024 recruit Ajok Madol had made the 2022 Biosteel All Canadian Girls Roster. That's the top 24 seniors in Canada. As previously mentioned on this forum she also played for the Canada national team. She's interesting because she makes high targets and yet little news comes out of her area of Canada to give that context.



Not going to lie…..I even forget about her. I don’t know why because I think she is a big get. I’m very excited for the next couple of years.
 

Any other basketball nerds interested in watching Dalan’s high school team. I just started watching this game, but it looks like there is a few on YouTube
 


Any other basketball nerds interested in watching Dalan’s high school team. I just started watching this game, but it looks like there is a few on YouTube
Looks like it says it is junior varsity. She isn't on the junior varsity and a division 1 recruit, is she?
 


The varsity one doesn’t show the whole thing unfortunately. But it goes into the 2nd half.
 

Any other basketball nerds interested in watching Dalan’s high school team. I just started watching this game, but it looks like there is a few on YouTube

The Gophers news release made this interesting comment on signing day:

"Dalan comes from an athletic family with her mother playing at the University of Washington (1999-03) where current Minnesota Associate Head Coach Shimmy Gray-Miller coached her for three seasons from 2000-03. Two of Dalan's Aunts, and three uncles played at the college level as well."
 



Watched another part of a game for Dalan, but the competition was terrible so I stopped.

What I liked.
She is physical, she really works to post up.

She seems to have a long wingspan

I could hear her both games I watched. Love kids who lead in communication.

Nice outside shot. Maybe not quite as pretty as Heyer, but decent.

Her game reminds me of Heyer’s. Excited to add post depth.

It will be interesting to see who gets playing time from this class. Right now I see Paurova getting minutes (Gradwells). Not sure how Madol fits in, as I haven’t seen her play. I don’t see Klick getting a lot, but then again she is a defensive stopper. Will that earn her some time?

Posts….that will be a toss up. 2 girls coming back from injury, Dalan, a possible transfer and seeing what Oberg does. NO idea how that will shake out.
 

Did some looking for Ajok Madol to get more of an idea of where she is at skill wise. She is clearly talented to make the Canadian U17 FIBA World Cup team but she played the 2nd fewest minutes on the team in world cup play @ 8.4 minutes/game https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u17women/2022/player/Ajok-Deng-Obed-Madol. As has been noted before there isn't a lot on the web about her. She plays both Soccer and Basketball and is quite good at soccer too as proven by her team's U15 provincial championship while she was named MVP. Both of her brothers are basketball players and both play at the University of of Regina and one of them played Division 1 NCAA at the University of South Carolina State and performed quite well before moving home. I suspect Covid lockdowns may have had an effect on him moving home.

You can rewatch her games from the FIBA world cup but since she averaged so few minutes I have not tried. Her best performance was either New Zealand or France but I would say France since the competition is so much better. The link for the France game is here: https://www.fiba.basketball/world/u17women/2022/game/1707/Canada-France.

There are a couple highlight videos of her:


Here is her commitment in her local news: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/a-big-mom...mmits-to-division-i-basketball-team-1.6154789

After watching her highlight video she looks to handle the ball very well and play good defense. Although I have to remember these are highlights too. I did think she was clearly more talented than the other players she was playing against and I think that may partially account for her lack of playing time on the national team. If she doesn't play day to day against as much talent as the national team she will need more adjustment to the speed. She moves well and clearly has long arms but I don't know if she is very fast. It can seem to me that thin long limbed people look to move a bit slower than they really are. Just a guess, I could be wrong but would like other peoples impression of her foot speed and speed up and down the court.
 







Klick, a 5-11 Brooklyn Park native, was the first 2023 commitment for Whalen. Playing close to home and in front of family was important to her. She told the Star Tribune on Friday that she still wanted to join the Gophers program next season.

"My heart is set to play for the University of Minnesota," Klick said. "Obviously Coach Whalen was a big part of my commitment, but my dream has always been to be a Gopher."
 


Glad to hear that. Now let’s get the freshman and Rose on board.
I am actually more concerned with the Czech, and Canadian players that have international experience on respective national teams, as well as the Washington State gal whose mom was coached by Shimmy. Klick is great to keep but she was the least likely to go given the family history of the U, in particular her desire to follow her deceased grandma’s wish to go to the U.
 








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