Recruiting percolates for Minnesota’s boys basketball class of 2026 during spring AAU season

Entering the spring, Delano’s Max Iversen had no Division I scholarship offers while playing on an AAU basketball team that featured seven D-I prospects, including Gophers recruit Cedric Tomes.

Iversen missed most of his junior season because of a back injury, but he fully recovered just in time to impress coaches during the first live recruiting period.

In mid-May, North Dakota State was in attendance to watch him shine at the Adidas event in Omaha. The 6-3 sharpshooting point guard finished among the tournament’s breakout players.

After picking up his first Division I offer from the Bison, Iversen could’ve waited, like many players, to see if a good spring could turn into a great summer with more offers.

But Iversen committed last week since NDSU grew on him ever since an unofficial visit to Fargo last year.

“I really needed to have a great AAU start this year because they hadn’t seen me play healthy in a bit,” Iversen said. “Originally, I was going to wait until the July period, but I had a great conversation with [NDSU coach David Richman] and my parents. My relationship with the coaching staff was special for almost a year. The campus was special. So I was like, ‘What am I waiting for?’ ”

Iversen was the third player in Minnesota’s talented 2026 class to make his college decision since the high school season ended in March. Recruiting picked up for him and others who made a splash in the spring.

Hopkins guard Jayden Moore is making noise playing AAU ball out of town for Team Herro in Wisconsin. Moore had 18 points and eight assists in an upset of the Oakland Soldiers, including the No. 1-ranked player in the country, Tyran Stokes, at Nike EYBL last week in Kansas City.

Moore doesn’t have any new power conference offers yet, but he’s receiving interest from DePaul, Marquette and USC.

Cretin-Derham Hall guard JoJo Mitchell, who plays for Howard Pulley, is one of the eight players in the state’s 2026 class with D-I offers, including from Drake and South Dakota State.

Iversen’s D1 Minnesota teammates Tomes from East Ridge, Christian Wiggins from Wayzata (committed to Iowa State) and Jaidyn Coon from Storm Lake, Iowa, (Creighton) were the biggest announced commitments from local AAU teams this spring.

“I have a lot of fun with the guys on my team,” Tomes said. “I love how we play and the coaching staff. It’s just an amazing program.”

Playing on the state’s top 17U AAU squad also boosted the recruitment for Faribault big man Ryan Kreager, who received his first D-I offers last month from Nevada and Miami (Ohio). He’s also getting high-major interest from Boston College, DePaul, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

“He’s an extremely good athlete at 6-10,” D1 Minnesota 17U coach Al Harris said about Kreager. “He’s gotten taller, stronger and a lot more skilled around the rim. He shoots the ball good from midrange. It will be interesting to see how his stock goes.”

Wayzata wing Nolen Anderson, who won a Class 4A state title with Wiggins this year, continues to build up his offer list. Toledo joined other midmajor offers such as Drake, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois State, Montana and Northern Iowa. The Gophers and Iowa are the power conference programs watching him the most right now.

Two Class of 2027 prospects are playing up on the D1 Minnesota 17U team this spring: Maple Grove’s Baboucarr Ann and St. Michael-Albertville’s Jack Thelen. Ann had been offered a scholarship by the Gophers staff before Ben Johnson was replaced by Niko Medved. The 7-foot Thelen picked up his first D-I offer last month from Murray State.

Totino-Grace’s Dothan Ijadimbola dealt with injury during the year, but he has high-major offers from Iowa State, Oklahoma, Xavier and from the previous Gophers staff.

“This is probably the deepest D1 team since Dawson Garcia’s group,” Harris said. “Christian and Jaidyn Coon are really good. They should be top-50 kids in the country. Dothan, now that he’s healthy and in shape, will be much better. Cedric is a problem for sure.”

A year ago, Iversen was hoping to prove himself as a starter on his AAU team, but he doesn’t mind playing behind Tomes now. He still became a D-I recruit.

“It’s nice playing on such a stacked team,” Iversen said. “Officially, our whole team has Division I offers now, so that’s a cool thing. You get to play in front of a ton of coaches. You get a lot of notoriety.”