The Bobcat Nation

Mslacat - what's the skinny with Kellen? Can't believe we haven't talked about the best recruit in Missoula yet!

Bleedinbluengold wrote:Mslacat - what's the skinny with Kellen? Can't believe we haven't talked about the best recruit in Missoula yet!

If you are talking about the best recruit in Missoula, then we should be talking Charlie Cox not Kellen Hasquet. Unfortunately undersized, but Charlie will make someone in the Frontier Conference incredibly happy. If he was 6-2, he'd already have full rides to EWU, UM and MSU to mull over.

I have mentioned Kellen quite a few times this year. Kellen took a trip to Bozeman last October and Durham is actively recruiting, as well as North Colorado, and Yale. In September the Griz told Kellen that they would love him to walk-on next year and that they would not be recruiting him last fall. If he has a good year this year they might reconsider this spring. -Remember Kellen's brother Jordan is a redshirt freshman this year for the Griz-. This stance has really pissed off Jordan’s and Kellan's Dad. As recently as a couple weeks ago I heard that the Cats still were hoping they could sign him. As a player Kellen, has far more natural basketball talents than even his brother, but he is a pretty passive kid on and off the court. He was just fine playing behind Henkle and his older brother the past two years, but now is his time to step out and show what he can do. I had a Hasquet family member say to me Kellen has all-star ability, but a roll player mentality. Kellen scored 26 pts in his first game this year and then 14 in his second.
As far as the pre season best player in Missoula and possibly the state you really have to look at Kellen and Missoula Hellgate's ..................... 6'-5" Sorry, Charlie Cox is a great high school player. He has been on Hellgate’s varsity since his freshman year, but McGillis's development has been exploding since last year. Last year he made great improvements from the beginning of the year to the end. Over the summer he grew two inches and had a great showing at a Las Vegas all-star camp, including a dunk contest winner. MiGillis is an athletic guard / small forward with great springs. Like I said before MiGillis is a late bloomer and a lot of people are trying to determine just how much more he is going to grow both talent wise and physically. Now add Cox (18 pts last year), McGillis (14pts) and then Missoula Sentinel # 2 score from last year Trevor Morris (14pt game @ Sentinel) to the Hellgate squad and you are going to have a team that can score points.
If you ask coaches there is not a clear consencous as to any can't miss D-1 prospects in the state but everyone agree that Both McGillis and Hasquet have oodles of potential.
Hellgate faces Sentinel this Saturday at Sentinel for the first time, I really want to go, but I believe I will be taking my wife out to dinner for her birthday!

BTW As far as I know no D-1 schools have offered Migillis a scholarship yet, although some have asked him to walk-on.

Ok, Kellen Hasquet (Missoula Sentinal Purple Turkeys) and Jack McGillis (The Mighty Hellgate Knights) went head to head Saturday with The Mighty Knights (as should be expected) coming away with the victory. The Knights were in control from start to finish steadily building on a early lead to win by 20+. Kellen is the more polished of the two with a more consistent outside shot, but is more of a spot up shooter, he scored 14 pts but could have scored alot more if he had the incliation. McGillis is raw but but far more athletic. He is 6'-6" and very aggresive he had 21 on the night 10 in the 4th quarter. McGillis can play a little ahead of him self, but scored from every where on the court; dunks to 3 pointers. He is a marginal 3-pt shooter at this point. McGillis is following the path of Dissley in many ways. He played football this year, something he has not done in a couple of years and is actually getting more D-1 feelers right now as a football player. He played wide reciever for the Knight.

McGillis is obviously a talented player, but he needs to keep his head in the game when things aren't going his way. He spent most of last night @ Capital High pouting, both on the bench (after fouls) and on the floor (after missed shots).

Did I see that score right last night? 63-51? Bill Pilgram really has those boys playing well over there (4-1 early start). Is Capital the new hoops presense in Helena?

And is Helena High the new football power in helena?

It looks like local sports are flip-flopping in the capital city.

wierd wild stuff.

The score didn't indicate how close and well-played this game was. Someone told me the AA was down this year, I'm not buying that statement. I made it over to Helena last night and from what I can tell Capital has about 8-9 guys, including 6-4 sophomore Clay Bignell (recognize that last name? Yes, he's Joe's son and apparently a stud in the making...hard to imagine, eh?) off the bench, who have good basketball skills and play hard. They don't have any superstars, like Cox, Morris and McGillis at Hellgate. Perhaps only one CHS starter, Miller, would even start for Hellgate, which is obviously a good team with that trio. McGillis just didn't hold it together or they could've easily won that game.
As for the town flip-flopping (I hate that term) I think it's just a one year thing for football as the Bruins will be very good (Bignell at tight end and def. end) again next year. The new coach at HHS (Schlepp?) is a good one, so I doubt they are down for long. The CHS boys have quite a few good underclassman, so Pilgeram could have something cooking for the long term.

Little off topic, but i wish there was a high school board dedicated to Montana Highschool sports. Rivals had one before they went belly up the first time. I thought about starting one but "I'm an architect, damn-it Jim" and really don't have the back ground. I got yelled at by some fans on Egriz because I talked Missoula highschool basketball over their. We seem a little more flexible here to drift off into highschool topics so that works, so thanks for indulging me from time to time.

BTW Nate Weidenaar, Jake Rios, from Bozeman High what year in school are they?

both are seniors .Nate W. has already signed to play baseball with his brother zach and northen colorado.

I know this is still a ways off in the future, but if you want to talk about pure talent in Montana high school basketball, you can't forget the Mark Henkel kid who is a freshman @ Sentinel. His brother Eric was a damn good player and is now playing @ Eastern, but Mark is light years ahead of where Eric was at his age. He and Garland, 6'3" frosh from sentinel, we definitely be forces in years to come.

The amount of basketball talent that has come through Sentinel recently is pretty astounding when you consider they have no championships. There is no question that if they had a more competent coach (a la Eric Hayes), Sentinel could have easily had 2-3 more championships.

I agree, 100% with you. It is amazing the difference in coaching in the high schooll ranks. Some times you get a really mediocer coaches ( to put it nicely) that coast on the talent while a very good coach gets fired because of circumstances beyond his control. Then you have the elite, coaches that win no matter what immediately I think of Eric Hayes, and Mike Cole. Anybody wonder why these coaches never tried to step up to college or bigger out of state schools?