2017 Commits to Big12, Pac12, America East and MAAC Conference Schools

BEN CARTER (2018 Montana Commit in the Big Sky Conference)

6'10'' Power Forward, Class of 2018 Prospect

Plays like Boris Diaw

​

• February 2017 - U20 Australian National Championships with South Australia State Team.  Gold medal won.   Footage here.

• December 2016 - U18 FIBA Oceania Championships - Qualifiers for U19 World Championships in July 2017

• September 2016 - U19 "Baby Boomers" Australian National Team Training Camp

• July 2016 - Adidas Uprising Tour to United States

• April 2016 – South Australian u18 State Representative – Australian National Championships - injured in game 4.

• April 2016 - U17 National Team - Top 30.

​

featured athlete, 6'10'' Power Forward Ben Carter committed to the University of Montana in the Big Sky Conference.

Ben is one of the nation's best big men in the 2018 class.

He has played on winning teams throughout his junior career at club and state level;

Over the past 2 years he has won gold and silver, playing U20 national championships, coached by Scott Whitmore (blog here: Our story and journey to become National Champions https://bit.ly/2sGmVVu) and Paul Rigoni respectively.

Prior to that he competed in one of the most successful TeamLivon Asia Pacific teams in history at the Adidas Summer Championships, in Las Vegas, with Randy Livingston (Q&A with Randy Livingston, leader of Team Asia Pacific at Adidas Summer Championships and Nationshttps://bit.ly/2JmhoKK).

He came through the Sturt Sabres junior program, a program widely known as the top club program in the country for male youth player development, playing in teams with guys like Alex Mudronja (St Marys), Isaac White (Stanford), Lat Mayen (TCU), Jacob Rigoni (Quinnipiac), Uche Dibiamaka (UTRGV). In 2015 he competed on a Sturt team I coached, going 50-3 for the year, as one of the best teams in the country. A year later he played in Liam Flynn Coached Sturt team, winning a Silver medal at the prestigious National tournament, the Melbourne Classics.

Having coached Ben at Sturt, in the U18 SA Metro program and state's high-performance program (NITP) I can say that U of Montana are getting a proven winner. A young man that plays with a combination of physical toughness and basketball IQ I have not seen, finds ways to keep scores ticking over, be it helping others getting open, or scoring himself, makes buckets come easy for himself and his teammates. He can score all over the floor as a pick and dive or pick and pop big man. He is a physically tough defender, able to take space up around the rim, change shots, also moves well laterally, able to show and recover in ball screen defense. He is very coachable and determined to keep getting better as an athlete.

Coach Decuire and Coach Cobb know how to talent ID good Aussies for their program with Fabijan Krslovic, from Australia, having had a great career with the Grizz. He was a 4 year starter, able to get them to the NCAA tournament in his Senior year. Ben is a proven winner, joining a winning program.

Coach Cobb told us this about Ben and his new program; "We are very happy for the addition of Ben to our basketball program and family. He is not only a good basketball player, but fits our mission of bringing high character student-athletes who care about their degree. Ben is a great fit in our system and look forward to seeing the development over the next few years!"

​

ALEX MUDRONJA (2018 St Marys Commit in the West Coast Conference)

6'5'' Point Guard Class of 2018 Prospect

Plays like Ricky Rubio

• June 2016 – CURRENT Fulltime scholarship holder at Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence formerly called Australian Institute of Sport

• February 2017 - U20 Australian National Championships with South Australia State Team.  Gold medal won.   Footage here

• July 2016 - Elite Prospects Camp at AIS/COE

• June 2016 – NIKE/NBA Basketball without Borders All Asia Camp

• May 2016 – U17 World Championships National Squad member

• May 2016 – Visiting Athlete Australian Institute Sport – played with SEABL team

• April 2016 – South Australian u18 State Representative – Australian National Championships

Alex Mudronja (6'5'' Point Guard, Class of 2018) committed to Coaches Randy Bennett and Marty Clarke at St Marys in the West Coast Conference several weeks ago, as reported via Australia's FoxSports (https://goo.gl/zsk2ay).

Alex is www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com 6th division 1 NCAA Featured Athlete commit and throwing another commit from our state of South Australia, Uche Dibmiamaka, this makes 7 commits in the space of 2 years out of South Australia. This level of youth male talent production to the division 1 NCAA is unprecedented out of our state in history, something ALL athletes in South Australia should be aware of when setting their goals and aspirations (
https://www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com/single-post/2017/05/08/History-made-in-South-Australian-Basketball---FOUR-Athletes-Commit-to-NCAA-Div-1-Mens-programs-in-the-2017-class | By Andrew Jantke | History made in South Australian Basketball - FOUR Athletes Commit to NCAA Div 1 Men's programs in the 2017 class). 

Alex, along with his SA teammates at this level, represents the basketball excellence we will attempt to continue to uncover in future talent and youth prospects selected as Featured Athletes onwww.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com. 

Alex played club basketball at Sturt Sabres, including in 2015, teaming with Isaac White (2017 Stanford Freshman), Lat Mayen (2017 TCU Freshman), Jacob Rigoni (2017 Quinnipiac Freshman), Ben Carter (6'10'' Power Forward, Class of 2018 prospect). I was lucky to coach him in this team which developed into one of the club top teams in Australia. Alex helped drive and lead the phenomenal talent development of his teammates in this historic team in South Australian boy's basketball.

Also in 2015 he was selected to represent Australia at the U16 FIBA Oceania Championships coached by Mark Watkins, Justin Schueller and David Ingham. This team won Gold in these championships, qualifying for the U16 World Championships. Alex was the first player out of South Australia, at the time, to represent Australia in a youth team since Daniel Carlin in 2010 (https://www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com/single-post/2016/09/01/Daniel-Carlin-Focussing-on-what-counts-in-the-game-–-some-lessons-from-the-journey-so-far | Blogs by featured athletes By Daniel Carlin | Focussing on what counts in the game – some lessons from the journey so far).

I was again lucky to work with Alex in 2016 when he represented the state of South Australia at the U18 Australian national championships. He was elected team captain where he led the side to the Semi-Finals of the championships with a dominant display of silky guard talent, leadership and high basketball IQ. Watching from the crowd Joe Ingles (current player with the Utah Jazz) compared his ability to play out of pick and rolls with elite Aussie Point Guard Matthew Dellavedova (currently with Milwaukee Bucks) and we agree. His ability to play in narrow corridors, myriad of moves and skills out of pick and rolls, a combination of core strength to hold his line to squeeze out defenders, his skillset, vision and length in his position makes him a world class player in these situations.

Noted for his locker room intangibles, insatiable work ethic in the gym and leadership he soon found himself moving away from home to Canberra to join Australia's fabled Centre of Excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport run by Coach Adam Caporn. He played in the high-level SEABL team for this program, once again elected captain of his new program, like Dellavedova and Patty Mill before him who captained that team, he has continued to grow and develop in the high major, division 1 college-like daily training environment of the CoE.

Always a winner, in January 2017 he competed again for South Australia as a bottom-aged player in a Scott Whitmore coached South Australian U20 State team (https://www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com/single-post/2017/03/12/Scott-Whitmore-Our-story-journey-to-National-Champions | By Scott Whitmore | Our story and journey to become National Champions). As the starting Point Guard Alex joined Sturt teammates such as Ben Carter, division 1 commits Jacob Rigoni, Isaac White and also other featured athletes Brent Hank (Class of 2018, Albany Commit) and Owen Hulland (Class of 2018, Hawaii Commit) to again make history winning the National Championship gold for the first time in well over 20 years at this level.

In 2017 he competed in the July AAU Adidas series with LivOn Basketball (at Adidas Summer Championships in Vegas) and Asia Pacific (at Adidas Nations in Houston), led by Coach Randy Livingston. This gave Alex a taste against many top 50 prospects across from across America, particularly the West Coast. At the Summer Championships he took his team to the Final 4 and then at Nations, the Final game vs Zion Williamson, Romeo Langford, Immanuel Quickley (Kentucky Commit), EJ Montgomery and Jordan Brown (https://www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com/single-post/2017/08/13/Alex-Mudronja-QA-at-Adidas-Nations?fb_comment_id=1471110346276249_1471700419550575 | By Alex Mudronja Q&A at Adidas Nations). 

With his combination of work ethic, skill set, length, strength, leadership we feel he will fit perfectly into the Gaels, continuing their dominance as the number 1 mid-major program in the United States. We also feel that Alex will emerge over his time there as one of the best guards the school has produced.

OWEN HULLAND (2018 Hawaii Commit in the Big West)

6'11'' Stretch 4, Class of 2018 Prospect

Plays like Frank Kaminsky

• June 2016 – CURRENT Fulltime scholarship holder at Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence formerly called Australian Institute of Sport

• February 2017 - U20 Australian National Championships with South Australia State team.  Gold medal won.   Footage here.

• July 2016 - Elite Prospects Camp at AIS/COE

• June 2016 – NIKE/NBA Basketball without Borders All Asia Camp

• May 2016 – Visiting Athlete Australian Institute Sport – played with SEABL team

• April 2016 – South Australian u18 State Representative – Australian National Championships

Versatile, skilled stretch 4 man.

What others are saying: He will be a matchup nightmare for most at the camp – one of the best rim protectors going around with the ability to stretch the floor.

​

It is with great pleasure we announce the next division 1 college commit out of South Australia, featured athlete at www.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com, Owen Hulland.

As previously reported by external sources Owen has verbally committed to University of Hawaii who compete in the Big West Conference of the Division 1 NCAA.

Owen had developed a great, unique skillset for his size from U12 level through to U18s, with theNorwood Basketball Club Inc. As a 7footer he can shoot the ball very well out to the 3 pt line, has good ball handling skills and great versatility in defense as well.

Owen played for the Basketball SA state junior team I coached at the U18 National Championships in Adelaide, Australia 2016. Here he really had a breakout tournament which put him onto our Nation's elite pathways, after a dominant national championship campaign. He was a pleasure to coach, high basketball IQ, never backing down from a challenge.

He was quickly selected for the NBA Asia Pacific Basketball Without Borders camp (Blog here:https://goo.gl/D4HsHP) held in Melbourne in June 2016. Soon after that he received full scholarship to the internationally renowned Basketball Australia's Centre of Excellence (CoE) program. Here he moved away from home to join the CoE on the other side of the country, to train and develop in the top program for basketball player development in the country.

He was also part of the team which won the 2017 U20 Men's National Championships. The first time a South Australian had won these championshps since 1993. The team included the followingwww.highperformancehoopsnetwork.com featured athletes:
Alex Mudronja (6'5'' PG, 2018 Prospect), Ben Carter (6'10'' PF, 2018 Prospect), Brent Hank (6'10'' Power Forward, 2017 Commit, University of Albany), Owen Hulland (7' Stretch 4, 2018 prospect), Jacob Rigoni (6'6'' Wing, 2017 Commit, Quinnipiac University), Isaac White (6'1'' PG, 2017 Commit, Stanford)

Coach Eran Ganot has signed a number of tall recruits in the 2018 class and we feel this will be a great opportunity for Owen to continue to develop his perimeter game, making him a unique prospect for high level professional leagues, right up to the NBA, in the future. We wish Coach Ganot, Owen and the entire University of Hawaii basketball program all the best for future success.