Big weekend set for Minnesota hoopers

In a year that could see between 16 to 20 Minnesota prospects go division one several of these athletes will be traveling next weekend around the nation. Official visits have been scheduled and that includes Osseo's Sam Dower traveling to Gonzaga. Already nine Minnesotans have made commitments to division one programs.

The most high profile visit could be that of Rodney Williams to Minnesota. This weekend Rodney said that he believes he is visiting the Twin Cities campus the first week of September and while it's not set in stone there is a good chance he could be there along with Illinois point guard Darius Smith and committed five star forward Royce White.

Also visiting a high major program this weekend is Hopkins power forward Mike Broghammer. The 6-foot-7 bruiser will take in Notre Dame and some feel there is a good chance he could make his decision after the trip.

Rivals 150 member Sam Dower went to Marquette last weekend and this weekend he will be going west to Gonzaga. This will be Sam's second trip to the Spokane campus. Next week he is going to George Mason and a trip to Minnesota should soon follow.

Eden Prairie's Ethan Wragge is headed out to Creighton this weekend for an official visit. The 6-foot-6 shooting guard recently saw the Marquette campus and was also recently playing in an open gym at Minnesota on an unofficial. While on the Twin Cities campus Wragge also took some time to sit down and chat with Tubby Smith.

Some feel St. Cloud Tech point guard Nate Wolters is a favorite to land at South Dakota State. Favorite or not going into the visit it sure speaks volume to the SDSU chances that Nate is visiting the Brookings campus first.

Henry Sibley's Chris Halvorsen was at Yale and Harvard last week and this weekend he has two more destinations panned for viewing. He will first take an official visit to Valpo followed potentially by a trip to Lehigh in Pennsylvania. Chris has also scheduled a visit to North Dakota State in early October.

NDSU could also see Emmanuel Addo on campus this weekend. The Northfield forward is scheduled to go to Albany on the 13th and then Northern Colorado the third weekend of September.

For sure this weekend the Bison have an elite junior event that will include eight Minnesota 2010 prospects. Those include Marshall Bjorklund of Sibley East, Dyami Starks of Duluth East, Jake Kreuser of Henry Sibley, Cole Steffan of Minnetonka, Taylor Filipek from Willmar, Max Rosenbloom of St. Paul Johnson, Ben Buchholz of Perham, and Tor Anderson from Prior Lake.