Muscala makes his choice

Roseville's Mike Muscala is a 6-foot-9 forward who is more skilled then power in terms of the position. Mike's game has grown massively in the past four months playing with the MSB Roadrunners and he received interest from teams on both coasts and many places in between. However, this weekend he took a visit that sold him on the Patriot League.

"Mike went on a visit to Bucknell and committed to the school on Saturday," said Muscala's trainer and AAU coach Mitch Ohnstad. "I think Bucknell is a good fit. Academically it's a good school, Mike has developed a good relationship with the coaches and one of their coaches is from Rochester John Marshall (Dane Fischer) and that helped the relationship."

Bucknell is in the Patriot League, which is not quite the IVY League but is still one of the better academic conferences in the nation. And Mike fits the mold with his near 4.0 grade point average and 30 score on the ACT.

Several other teams were working Muscala hard before this decision was made. "He had offers from Santa Clara, South Dakota, North Dakota, Cal Poly, Denver, and many others," said Ohnstad.

The best parts of Muscala's game are still ahead of him and his size, ability, length, ball skills, and early college decision at a top academic school out east (with numerous schools just starting to come harder) reminds a lot of current Cornell standout Ryan Wittman. Listening to Ohstad describe Mike's game really makes one think of the former Eden Prairie standout.

"Mike is as skilled as any big around," said Ohnstad. "He can pass, he can shoot, Mike can use his left hand and his right hand out to ten feet, he can run the floor and the only thing missing is the physical strength but part of that is due to the fact that he's a full year younger then just about every player in his class. When he gets older he's going to be a lot stronger and he should be able to flush it through. Mike's upside is pretty good."