Wins, interest, and offers for Robertson

Every winter there is a senior prospect or two in Minnesota who have break out senior years and they start to collect division one offers and interest by the load. Recent names of this variety include Alec Brown of Winona who is now at Wisconsin-Green Bay and the year before it was Nate Wolters of St. Cloud Tech who is now at South Dakota State. Is Eric Robertson of Wayzata that player this year?

Over the weekend Wayzata improved to 13-3 with an eye-opening 75-73 overtime win over Lakeville South. Tonight they followed that performance up with a 74-65 victory over Minneapolis Patrick Henry.

"I thought we did a number of things well," said Wayzata Coach Phil Ward about his team's weekend victory. "Lakeville South is a great team. They are very structured in their attack and so the first thing we tried to do was get them out of their patterns. We wanted to pressure the wings some, so that they had to start their offense in a different place than they normally do.

"We were not always successful but on their first pass of the game, Tanner Helgren (a 6-foot-3 senior averaging 9.3 points per game) stepped in front of their wing, stole it, and took it in for the dunk which got us off to a great start.

"Primarily, I thought we played hard and we were extremely patient in the second half. Eric scored at will down the stretch because as we moved the ball, they had to guard the whole court. Sometimes we attack a little too quickly and things can get clogged up."

Wayzata showed a lot of character Saturday as they had to come from behind to send the game into overtime.

"I thought we demonstrated great faith in each other and we never lost sight of what we had to do to win," said Ward. "Our ability to compete probably saved us.

"Eric Robertson played a fabulous game. He guarded Alex Richter all night and held him down. Eric also scored 33 points with shots from inside and outside. He also grabbed his share of rebounds (we had him for eight).

"Tanner Helgren was his usual versatile self, playing guard, wing and post. He hit two big threes, handled the ball at times, got an assist on the game winning shot and played great defense. Tanner added 14 points to the mix. Zach Robertson (a sophomore scoring 10.1 points a contest) chipped in with 19 points, a bunch of boards and some great defense, especially down the stretch."

The win was definitely a total team effort but once again Robertson stood the tallest. Robertson's play this winter has garnered strong interest from division one and two schools.

"Eric still has some offers on the table from the Citadel and (I think) West Point, and new schools are calling every day," said Ward. "He is really playing well. Western Illinois called today, Northern Colorado is interested, and Winona State contacted us."

In addition to Robertson's High School coach getting calls, his AAU Coach Jeremy Miller (Minnesota Pump N Run) is also hearing from interested parties on behalf of Robertson.

"Eric Robertson just picked up an offer from Florida Gulf Coast," said Miller. "They were in town when he put 33 on Lakeville South and Eric was at Florida Gulf Coast's camp in June. He had Liberty in last week to watch him play. They want Eric on campus I think before they offer. Virginia and Washington State called last week. Eric is much improved from the summer. He's a kid whose stock is definitely going to rise."

Will Robertson be that spring recruit building interest after interest and offer after offer? That is yet to be determined but he's off to a good start.

Also off to a good start, a great start if you will, is Wayzata. The Trojans worked their way to 14-3 this evening and now prepare for Friday's showdown with Hopkins who fell this evening to Eden Prairie.