Minnesota Coaches to Watch Kingwood Talent

The Minnesota Gopher basketball staff will be in Houston, Texas this weekend to watch some of the top high school talent in the country, including several top Minnesota natives. The Kingwood Classic is the biggest spring AAU event and will host Minnesota teams Howard Pulley, Minnesota Magic Elite, 43 Hoops and the Minnesota Wolverines.

The Howard Pulley team finished in the Silver division Final Four at the Boo Williams Invitational two weeks ago. They finished 4-2 and are led by Trevor Mbakwe of Henry Sibley, who is being highly recruited by Minnesota. He was named second-team All-Metro by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and shined at the Boo Williams Invitational.

Angelo "Bear" Johnson, played at Minneapolis North and Henry before transferring to a prep school in Georgia. Johnson played well at Boo Williams as he demonstrated an improved jumper and added strength.

Jermain Davis of Robbinsdale Cooper will miss the event as he is visiting San Jacinto (TX) CC this weekend, but Matt Janning of Watertown-Mayer, who missed the Boo Williams to play in the Minnesota All-Star Series, is expected to attend. Janning was named first-team All-Metro by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, but has yet to gain much Division I interest, due to questions about his strangth. He is hoping a good showing in Houston will get him a D-I offer.

Howard Pulley has several other recognizable names on their roster, such as sophomore center Jared Berggren of Princeton, outside shooter Santino Clay from Richfield, Noah Dahlman of three-time defending champion Braham, outside bomber Jacob Driscoll from D.G.F., Anthony Humphrey from De LaSalle and Xavier Reed of Osseo.

Howard Pulley opens Kingwood play Friday at 8:50 p.m. against the Atlantic Celtics and on Saturday they play the Urban DFW Elite Gold at 3:00 p.p.

The championship playoffs start late afternoon on Saturday.

Minnesota Magic Elite is led by Minnesota commit Al Nolen of Minneapolis Henry, Blake Hoffarber of Hopkins, Kansas verbal Cole Aldrich, Jon Leuer of Orono and Eric Carlson from Shakopee. They open play versus Blessed IJN Elite of Indiana Friday at 6:30 and play the Alabama Challenge Saturday at 11:30.

43 Hoops is led by sophomore Anthony Tucker of Minnetonka. They face Houston Lynx Blue at 6:30 Friday and Arizona CTB at 12:40 Saturday.

The Minnesota Wolverines face T.J. Ford Elite at 7:40 Friday and Capitol City Ballers at 1:50 Saturday.