Minnesota is a basketball hotbed. That’s a fact, and Jalen Suggs is the new name to watch.
Suggs, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound combo guard, won’t graduate from Minnehaha Academy until 2020, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be leaving Minnesota to play on the national stage. On Monday he was named to the U.S. National Under-16 team that will compete at the FIBA Americas tournament in Argentina June 14-18.
According to KSTP, Suggs joins Tyus Jones, Tre Jones and Gary Trent Jr. as the only Minnesota high school players to make the Under-16 national team since the FIBA tournament began in 2011.
Tyus Jones went to Duke and Trent Jr. is going to Duke this fall. Tre Jones still has another year of high school and has yet to announce where he’ll play in college. Suggs, entering his sophomore season, already has an offer from the Gophers, according to Rivals.
“I know all about Minnesota,” Suggs told Rivals. “They are the hometown team and they are on the rise. A lot of people talk to me about them around here, but it hasn’t gotten too crazy yet.”
Minnesota is a basketball hotbed
Tyus Jones (Apple Valley), Reid Travis (DeLaSalle), Rashad Vaughn (Cooper) and J.P. Macura (Lakeville North) really put Minnesota on the recruiting map in 2014. Jones now plays for the Timberwolves and Vaughn is across the border playing for the Bucks.
In reality, Minnesota has been producing huge names on the high school level for more than 20 years now. These are some of the biggest names.
- Royce White (Hopkins) – Iowa State
- Siyani Chambers (Hopkins) – Harvard
- Alan Anderson (DeLaSalle) – Michigan State
- Joel Pryzbilla (Monticello) – Minnesota
- Isaiah Dahlman (Braham) – Michigan State
- Noah Dahlman (Braham) – Wofford
- Lawrence McKenzie (Minneapolis Patrick Henry) – Oklahoma, Minnesota
- Trevor Mbakwe (St. Bernard’s) – Marquette, Minnesota
- Blake Hoffarber (Hopkins) – Minnesota
- Rodney Williams (Cooper) – Minnesota
- Kammron Taylor (Minneapolis North) – Wisconsin
- Jordan Taylor (Benilde-St. Margaret’s) – Wisconsin
- Khalid El-Amin (Minneapolis North) – UConn
- Rick Rickert (Duluth East) – Minnesota
- Kris Humprhies (Hopkins) – Minnesota
- Amir Coffey (Hopkins) – Minnesota
No disrespect to the talented players left off the list (this is top of the head, so apologies if we missed some, which we’re sure we did).
