Why do Minnesota and Oregon produce so many great players? | The Boneyard

Why do Minnesota and Oregon produce so many great players?

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JstVisiting

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Reminded of this from the conversation about South Carolina HS basketball in the Joyce Edwards thread, but Minnesota's elite talent is incredible while Oregon consistently has multiple top 30 HS teams. Neither state is a hotbed of talent in any other high-profile national sport. (No, hockey doesn't count :p)

Can someone more familiar with those states try to help me understand how they do it?
 
I don't know about Minnesota, but I think Oregon is cyclical. They have certainly had some top level talent at times, but I don't think it's an every year kind of situation.
 
As a Minnesotan, I always thought that other states produced better players, especially in the South. I never thought that we (Minnesota) stood out more, except for hockey. For basketball, we would travel to Chicago and Detroit back in the day, to test our skills. Chicago and Detroit had some ballers. Same with Indiana and Ohio. Maybe it is our Midwest vibes :)

With me coaching high school basketball, now in my 24th year, developing feeder systems has been the thing for the last 10 years. Most high schools in the Minnesota work with their local middle and elementary schools and we are pretty cool with local AAU teams. Heck most of us coaches work with AAU teams over the summer, North Tartan here. But I don't think that we do anything different than other states.
 
JstVisiting said:
Reminded of this from the conversation about South Carolina HS basketball in the Joyce Edwards thread, but Minnesota's elite talent is incredible while Oregon consistently has multiple top 30 HS teams. Neither state is a hotbed of talent in any other high-profile national sport. (No, hockey doesn't count :p)

Can someone more familiar with those states try to help me understand how they do it?
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Why doesn't hockey count????? If that was said north of the border, you may be brought up on charges for treason! ;)
 
JstVisiting said:
I'm a South Carolinian. I already said it north of the border! :D
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As a Canadian, I need you to define your version of "north of the border". You're missing out on some great multi-sport athletes when you take hockey out of the picture, especially if you want some toughness :)
 
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cancontent said:
As a Canadian, I need you to define your version of "north of the border". You're missing out on some great multi-sport athletes when you take hockey out of the picture, especially if you want some toughness :)
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Even made a map! ;)

Edited - I'm so mad I didn't think of A'ja lives here! and then think of another name for NYC
 

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JstVisiting said:
Even made a map! ;)

Edited - I'm so mad I didn't think of A'ja lives here! and then think of another name for NYC
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This explains EVERYTHING! . You know maps like this doesn't help debunk the myth Canadians have about Americans and North American geography ;)
 
Minnesota really is a hotbed for WBB it seems, at least for his population. A lot of that is driven by Hopkins. Insane program.

Bueckers, Maya Nnaji (Arizona), Amaya Battle (Minnesota), Taylor Woodson (Michigan), Nunu Agara (Stanford), Liv McGill (Florida commit), Ava Cupito (elite 2027 prospect), handful of other D1 players in the last decade or so. All from one public HS.

There's certainly a ton of talent there still with Aaliyah Crump, Olivia Olsen, McGill, Maddyn Greenway, etc.

Mara Braun was bigtime and stayed home. Jenna Johnson and Gianna Kneepkens have had great careers at Utah.

A lot of talent in the surrounding states as well for not being as populated. Iowa, Wisconsin... good HS hoops in those states.
 
pk1234 said:
Minnesota really is a hotbed for WBB it seems, at least for his population. A lot of that is driven by Hopkins. Insane program.

Bueckers, Maya Nnaji (Arizona), Amaya Battle (Minnesota), Taylor Woodson (Michigan), Nunu Agara (Stanford), Liv McGill (Florida commit), Ava Cupito (elite 2027 prospect), handful of other D1 players in the last decade or so. All from one public HS.

There's certainly a ton of talent there still with Aaliyah Crump, Olivia Olsen, McGill, Maddyn Greenway, etc.

Mara Braun was bigtime and stayed home. Jenna Johnson and Gianna Kneepkens have had great careers at Utah.

A lot of talent in the surrounding states as well for not being as populated. Iowa, Wisconsin... good HS hoops in those states.
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Well, we Gamecocks love our freshman Minnesota guard, Tessa Johnson, who is an excellent shooting guard and a solid part of our 9player rotation. She’s a player getting real minutes - not just mop up duty. She was recruited as a shooter but is starting to show some solid defensive skills
 
cancontent said:
This explains EVERYTHING! . You know maps like this doesn't help debunk the myth Canadians have about Americans and North American geography ;)
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Oh, I know all about Canada! Read a very informative article when I was a kid and took it to heart.

www.theonion.com

Perky ‘Canada’ Has Own Government, Laws

It’s Monday morning, and Toronto resident Steve Dorman shares a quick breakfast of “eggs” (a native food) with his “wife” (an officially state-sanctioned mate), and discusses yesterday’s poor showing by the hometown team in “baseball” (a popular local sport). After a kiss on his wife’s cheek, he...
www.theonion.com www.theonion.com
 
JstVisiting said:
Oh, I know all about Canada! Read a very informative article when I was a kid and took it to heart.

www.theonion.com

Perky ‘Canada’ Has Own Government, Laws

It’s Monday morning, and Toronto resident Steve Dorman shares a quick breakfast of “eggs” (a native food) with his “wife” (an officially state-sanctioned mate), and discusses yesterday’s poor showing by the hometown team in “baseball” (a popular local sport). After a kiss on his wife’s cheek, he...
www.theonion.com www.theonion.com
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Gotta love The Onion.
 
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visitingcock said:
Well, we Gamecocks love our freshman Minnesota guard, Tessa Johnson, who is an excellent shooting guard and a solid part of our 9player rotation. She’s a player getting real minutes - not just mop up duty. She was recruited as a shooter but is starting to show some solid defensive skills
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Yes, completely forgot about her, but another great player from MN
 
Oregon gets great players in every sport because of their relationship with NIKE. I never post on the Woman's board but you guys should know this.
 
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Kaizen said:
The weather is cold so more indoor exercise, special basketball.
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Not only cold but the cold season is so long. It can be cold from Labor day to Memorial Day. I lived there for 5 years and said...I once took a nap in June and missed summer.
 
Palatine said:
Oregon gets great players in every sport because of their relationship with NIKE. I never post on the Woman's board but you guys should know this.
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Not talking about college recruiting, but high school talent that comes out of the two states.
 
From the State of Oregon:

Stanford: Katy Steding, Jillian Harmon, Lindsey Yamasaki, Trisha Stevens, Kailee Johnson, Tara Harrington

Tennessee: Mercedes Russell, Jaime Nared, Evina Westbrook, Jordan Reynolds

Louisville: Shoni Schimmel

Oregon: Brianne Meharry, Liz Brenner

Colorado: Aronnette Vonleh

Oregon State: Katie McWilliams, Donovyn Hunter (current Freshman PAC-12 Player of the week)
 
Palatine said:
Oregon gets great players in every sport because of their relationship with NIKE. I never post on the Woman's board but you guys should know this.
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Think you're missing the point of the thread. It's about athletes hailing from the state, not the programs they chose to play for.
 
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This thread is making me think about Washington. While more heavily populated than Oregon, still not a real big population. I would think you could come up with a similar list. I was thinking the same for OR, but WA has definitely been cyclical with the amount of talent it produces.
 
I've always thought Minnesota produced a good number of talented high school girls players. Hopkins High School has produced quite a few players in the recent years. If the Univ of Minnesota could keep all that talent in Minneapolis, they could become a powerhouse.

Could you imagine if all those great players from Iowa State instead played for Iowa, Iowa would have a National Championship by now...The midwest produces a lot of great players that may not get a lot of publicity that some get just by being in major cities like LA, NYC, Atlanta, Dallas.
 
LoTrader said:
From the State of Oregon:

Stanford: Katy Steding, Jillian Harmon, Lindsey Yamasaki, Trisha Stevens, Kailee Johnson, Tara Harrington

Tennessee: Mercedes Russell, Jaime Nared, Evina Westbrook, Jordan Reynolds

Louisville: Shoni Schimmel

Oregon: Brianne Meharry, Liz Brenner

Colorado: Aronnette Vonleh

Oregon State: Katie McWilliams, Donovyn Hunter (current Freshman PAC-12 Player of the week)
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Got a couple more.

Vanderbilt: Ashley Smith (can't find stats for her but I seem to recall she had a nice career as a PG there; was part of the powerhouse Oregon City HS teams; I keep forgetting she's married to Mark Campbell)

Georgia: Kara Braxton (mostly grew up in Michigan but was in Portland for HS)
 
Very interesting thread. If I were to look at it from a Canadian perspective, I'd be curious to see the trends. Believe the assumption is Ontario have the majority because of players like Edwards, Day-Wilson, Russell and Amihere. British Columbia (Koning,Wallack, Hamblin, Hanson) and Quebec (Propser, Te Biasu) can also claim great talent. Alberta, with the emergence of Ejim and Kyei are starting to get on the radar for coaches as well.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Got a couple more.

Vanderbilt: Ashley Smith (can't find stats for her but I seem to recall she had a nice career as a PG there; was part of the powerhouse Oregon City HS teams; I keep forgetting she's married to Mark Campbell)

Georgia: Kara Braxton (mostly grew up in Michigan but was in Portland for HS)
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Oregon also has a pretty high level of play across their top 30 or so HS programs.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Got a couple more.

Vanderbilt: Ashley Smith (can't find stats for her but I seem to recall she had a nice career as a PG there; was part of the powerhouse Oregon City HS teams; I keep forgetting she's married to Mark Campbell)

Georgia: Kara Braxton (mostly grew up in Michigan but was in Portland for HS)
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And TCU is one of Jazzy Davidson’s finalists.
 
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