Merrill's Jesperson enjoys unofficial visit to Wisconsin
posted by Mark Miller at 10/7/2008
One of the most highly sought after recruits in Wisconsin from the class of 2011 recently took an unofficial visit to the University of Wisconsin.
Paul Jesperson, a highly skilled 6-foot-5 wing player from Merrill, spent last weekend on the Wisconsin campus and had the chance to compete with and spend time with the current players in the UW program.
“Paul had a great visit to Madison,” Merrill coach Kurt Soderberg said. “He really liked the campus and he was impressed with coach (Bo) Ryan’s message of the need to be very skilled. The most important thing he got out of his visit was coach Ryan’s message of making sure his academics are in order. As a high school coach, I really appreciated that coming from a person of coach Ryan’s stature.”
Jesperson maintains a 3.0 grade-point average and is beginning to receive strong recruiting interest from a number of NCAA Division I schools.
Coaches from Creighton, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State and UW-Green Bay have been on the Merrill campus this fall to watch Jesperson compete in open-gym sessions.
“Paul is in the process of setting up unofficial visits to Creighton, Iowa State, Green Bay and South Dakota State,” Soderberg said.
Jesperson averaged 10.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game as a freshman starter for a Merrill program that finished the season with an 8-13 record.
Currently ranked No. 7 among state prospects in the class of 2011 by Wishoops.net, Jesperson is an accurate perimeter shooter with excellent size, length and ball handling skills.
Mason opts to re-open recruitment
Madison East junior Marquis Mason has decided to re-open his recruitment and is no longer verbally committed to play college basketball at UW-Milwaukee.
The athletic 6-foot-4 forward took an unofficial visit to Milwaukee last August and gave the Panther coaching staff a verbal commitment to play for the Horizon League school at that time.
However, Mason has since had a change of heart and he told the Wisconsin State Journal last week that his recruitment remains wide open.
Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay have offered scholarships to Mason for basketball, but he is starting to generate plenty of recruiting interest in football as well as a wide receiver.
Green Bay to host Coaches Clinic The Green Bay men’s basketball program will host a free coaches clinic on October 29 from 3:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the school’s new Kress Events Center.
The clinic lineup includes a Green Bay practice session from 3:30-5:30 p.m., followed by Phoenix head coach Tod Kowalczyk, Cedarburg coach Lance Randall and former Green Bay assistant coach Dale Race.
Please contact Green Bay assistant coach Brian Wardle at
wardleb@uwgb.edu if you plan to attend the clinic.
Quick Hitters … Corey Behnke has been hired to replace Karl Morrin as the varsity basketball coach at Chilton. Morrin left Chilton last summer to take a principal position with the Suring School District ... Lou Chapman has officially stepped down as the varsity basketball coach at Milwaukee Bay View. Chapman plans to finish his master's degree in December and hopes to get involved with coaching at the collegiate level in the future ... Wisconsin Lutheran coach Ryan Walz said coaches from Green Bay, Northern Iowa, Oregon State, Purdue and Saint Louis have stopped by this fall to watching class of 2010 prospect Flavien Davis in open gym workouts.
Comments 0
You must be logged in to post comments.