-
Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts access private forums and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!
Dan Vandervieren ; Griz recruit
- Thread starter Mslacat
- Start date
Would love for him to be a Griz but when you have Purdue or Valpo those can be tough to contend with.
grizmatt13
Active member
Hey Kalamazoo,
Have you ever been to Valpo? We used to play them in Baseball, not a lot going on in the town. Not like what UM has to offer. But thanks to Bryce Drew, and his father, UM is now losing out to them on recruiting.
What school is in Kal?
Have a great day.....
Have you ever been to Valpo? We used to play them in Baseball, not a lot going on in the town. Not like what UM has to offer. But thanks to Bryce Drew, and his father, UM is now losing out to them on recruiting.
What school is in Kal?
Have a great day.....
Zirg
Well-known member
Too bad we couldn't land him when we were the only offer out there. Mpls Strib story below:
The ascension seems almost too rapid to be believed. The recruitment of Dan Vandervieren seems too implausible to actually happen.
The highlights go something like this:
• After playing junior varsity at Eden Prairie as a sophomore, the 6-10 Vandervieren transferred to state power Hopkins before his junior season. Few people seemed all that concerned.
• Last fall, several college coaches watched the Hopkins players work out. "They didn't think he could play," Royals coach Ken Novak Jr. said.
• During his junior season, Vandervieren steadily improved, and his playing time increased. By the end of the year, Vandervieren was a significant contributor during the Royals' run to the Class 4A state title. One Division I coach said Vandervieren was better than teammate and Valparaiso-bound senior Arden Skoglund.
Dan Vandervieren (center) at practice
Vandervieren (center) with Hopkins head coach Ken Novak, Jr. during practice
David Brewster
Star Tribune
• Vandervieren ended his junior season with a scholarship offer from Montana and increasingly received more recruiting mail.
If the story ended there, it would still be a pretty good one. The thing is, the story kept going.
After a good spring with the Minnesota Select club team, Vandervieren attracted more attention. Midmajor basketball programs started to show interest, and the number of scholarship offers grew.
Then July's open recruiting period arrived. That's when Vandervieren, as they say in the recruiting world, blew up. By the time the month was over, Vandervieren was a high-major recruit.
Purdue and Penn State have offered scholarships. The Gophers coaching staff has shown interest, as has Marquette. It seems likely that whichever school doesn't land St. Thomas Academy's Bryce Webster will offer Vandervieren a scholarship. In addition, schools such as Michigan, South Carolina and Boston College also have started recruiting him harder.
Not bad for a guy who entered last March's state tournament averaging 6.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
"The whole thing's been kind of crazy," said Vandervieren, who is receiving "stacks" of mail on a daily basis. "But it's a good thing.
"It's fun, but I'm to the point where I need to cut it down to six, seven colleges and start to figure things out."
On Monday, Vandervieren took an unofficial visit to Purdue. Today, he is expected to visit Illinois State unofficially.
So how did this happen? How did Vandervieren's stock rise so quickly?
In the simplest terms, it came down to a combination of hard work and Vandervieren getting more comfortable with his body.
"Big kids take longer, they really do," Novak said. "They're moving a lot more mass."
Vandervieren said his body, now 255 pounds, has significantly changed in the past 15 months. He's gotten stronger, he's lowered his body-fat percentage and he's in better shape.
Combine that with spending hour after hour of doing footwork drills, and Vandervieren has become much more effective inside.
"Before, I had trouble doing drop steps," Vandervieren said. "I wasn't athletic at all."
Since the beginning of last summer, Vandervieren has been a fixture in the Hopkins gym. Slowly, Vandervieren, who even took some ballet lessons to improve his basketball, started getting better.
"Once the season started, his confidence just started getting built up," said Vandervieren's mother, Debbie Millis. "I started seeing him want it more. After the first of the year, I saw him say, 'I can do this.' I can't even tell you how proud of him I am."
Said Novak: "His footwork is getting better. His center of gravity is getting lower. He's able to pivot better, and he's becoming much more efficient. The toughest thing to teach posts is leverage, and he's kind of picking it up. He's learning how to go to the basket rather than fade away."
Because of his size, his high school and his improvement, Vandervieren has been compared to former Gophers center Jeff Hagen. It's probably a fair comparison. Vandervieren, who is bigger than most stick-thin high school big men, probably is a beneficiary of Hagen's strong college career. If Hagen could go from Big Ten walk-on to a effective center, why can't Vandervieren?
"Is he ready to go and play in the Big Ten right now? No," Novak said. "But not many kids are between their junior and senior years. He's just got to keep working."
So far, that plan has certainly worked.
The ascension seems almost too rapid to be believed. The recruitment of Dan Vandervieren seems too implausible to actually happen.
The highlights go something like this:
• After playing junior varsity at Eden Prairie as a sophomore, the 6-10 Vandervieren transferred to state power Hopkins before his junior season. Few people seemed all that concerned.
• Last fall, several college coaches watched the Hopkins players work out. "They didn't think he could play," Royals coach Ken Novak Jr. said.
• During his junior season, Vandervieren steadily improved, and his playing time increased. By the end of the year, Vandervieren was a significant contributor during the Royals' run to the Class 4A state title. One Division I coach said Vandervieren was better than teammate and Valparaiso-bound senior Arden Skoglund.
Dan Vandervieren (center) at practice
Vandervieren (center) with Hopkins head coach Ken Novak, Jr. during practice
David Brewster
Star Tribune
• Vandervieren ended his junior season with a scholarship offer from Montana and increasingly received more recruiting mail.
If the story ended there, it would still be a pretty good one. The thing is, the story kept going.
After a good spring with the Minnesota Select club team, Vandervieren attracted more attention. Midmajor basketball programs started to show interest, and the number of scholarship offers grew.
Then July's open recruiting period arrived. That's when Vandervieren, as they say in the recruiting world, blew up. By the time the month was over, Vandervieren was a high-major recruit.
Purdue and Penn State have offered scholarships. The Gophers coaching staff has shown interest, as has Marquette. It seems likely that whichever school doesn't land St. Thomas Academy's Bryce Webster will offer Vandervieren a scholarship. In addition, schools such as Michigan, South Carolina and Boston College also have started recruiting him harder.
Not bad for a guy who entered last March's state tournament averaging 6.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
"The whole thing's been kind of crazy," said Vandervieren, who is receiving "stacks" of mail on a daily basis. "But it's a good thing.
"It's fun, but I'm to the point where I need to cut it down to six, seven colleges and start to figure things out."
On Monday, Vandervieren took an unofficial visit to Purdue. Today, he is expected to visit Illinois State unofficially.
So how did this happen? How did Vandervieren's stock rise so quickly?
In the simplest terms, it came down to a combination of hard work and Vandervieren getting more comfortable with his body.
"Big kids take longer, they really do," Novak said. "They're moving a lot more mass."
Vandervieren said his body, now 255 pounds, has significantly changed in the past 15 months. He's gotten stronger, he's lowered his body-fat percentage and he's in better shape.
Combine that with spending hour after hour of doing footwork drills, and Vandervieren has become much more effective inside.
"Before, I had trouble doing drop steps," Vandervieren said. "I wasn't athletic at all."
Since the beginning of last summer, Vandervieren has been a fixture in the Hopkins gym. Slowly, Vandervieren, who even took some ballet lessons to improve his basketball, started getting better.
"Once the season started, his confidence just started getting built up," said Vandervieren's mother, Debbie Millis. "I started seeing him want it more. After the first of the year, I saw him say, 'I can do this.' I can't even tell you how proud of him I am."
Said Novak: "His footwork is getting better. His center of gravity is getting lower. He's able to pivot better, and he's becoming much more efficient. The toughest thing to teach posts is leverage, and he's kind of picking it up. He's learning how to go to the basket rather than fade away."
Because of his size, his high school and his improvement, Vandervieren has been compared to former Gophers center Jeff Hagen. It's probably a fair comparison. Vandervieren, who is bigger than most stick-thin high school big men, probably is a beneficiary of Hagen's strong college career. If Hagen could go from Big Ten walk-on to a effective center, why can't Vandervieren?
"Is he ready to go and play in the Big Ten right now? No," Novak said. "But not many kids are between their junior and senior years. He's just got to keep working."
So far, that plan has certainly worked.
Zirg
Well-known member
I am just glad our guys are that on-top of potential recruits from Minny. That is a gold-mine state that we need to be hitting up hard. There are about 20 D-1 guys coming out per year these days, compared with 1 or 2 from Montana and only 1 D1 school in that state.
I just can't believe Purdue signed a kid that avereaged only 6.3 ppg last year. That is almost as low as Easley was.
I just can't believe Purdue signed a kid that avereaged only 6.3 ppg last year. That is almost as low as Easley was.
