J'Vonne Hadley (@jvonnehadley) 2018-19 Highlights

2020 shooting guard is playing CDH this season.@NorthstarHoops @PrepHoops @mnbasketballhub pic.twitter.com/gR9UpwoDTt

J'Vonne Hadley (@jvonnehadley) of Cretin Derham Hall Highlights vs Minnehaha Academy at @BreakdownUSA December 7, 2019

2020 Wing has 2 D1 offers@PrepHoops @NorthstarHoops @mnbasketballhub pic.twitter.com/9av8diMQIA

— StreetHistory (Ryan S) (@streethistory) December 12, 2019

J’Vonne Hadley is a 6 foot 6 inch wing from Cretin-Derham Hall high school. Hadley played his Freshman through Junior years of high school basketball at Mahtomedim where as a Junior he averaged 27.7 points per game. Mahtomedi made it to state under Hadley’s leadership, however, they suffered a first round lost to Princeton.

For 2019-2020 Hadley transferred to 4A powerhouse Cretin-Derham Hall to play with fellow Howard Pulley running mate Trejuan Holloman (#1 Prospect in Minnesota for the 2022 class). While playing for Howard Pulley this summer, Hadley led the team in minutes (according to d1circuit.com) and averaged 8.8 points per game. Howard Pulley plays on the Nike EYBL Summer Circuit.

Hadley has two Division 1 offers currently from Colorado State and South Dakota, Former Howard Pulley forward David Roddy is at Colorado State. Hadley also has interest from Nebraska Omaha, Iowa, Minnesota and UNC Greensboro.

Overall, Hadley is rated nationally as 2-Star player, but he is uniquely gifted at 6 feet 6 inches as that enables him to guard multiple positions. He’s not afraid to throw down a dunk when in the open court, as scenes in his his Junior Year highlights (above) shows.

I was able to connect with J’Vonne via Twitter DM and he was nice enough to give me some time. Here’s what he had to say about the state of his recruitment right now and what it’s like to be tasked with stopping one of the best players in the state, Minnehaha Academy’s Chet Holmgren.

Q: First, according to 24/7 you have 3 offers, is there interest there for you for those schools?

A: Yeah definitely, I am currently open to all my options right now. Just playing out my senior year to see what comes my way during the year!

Q: Have you heard from other schools that haven’t offered you?

A: Yes, I am hearing from tons of schools both mid major and high major. From my understanding they would like to see how I perform my senior year at a higher level than last year.

Q: Is that why you transferred to Cretin-Derham Hall?

A: No not completely, my mom got a new job and we felt like transferring to Cretin-Derham Hall would be the next big step in my career. We felt that it was a better fit for me to completely show the State and beyond what I can really do at the highest level.

Q: Congratulations to your Mom on the new job. How’s it been transitioning playing at CDH? Holloman and you played AAU together last year right?

A: Appreciate it! It’s been amazing, I love everything about it. The academics and athletics are everything we had hoped. Yes me and Tre Holloman played summer ball together with Howard Pulley and I loved playing with him. At CDH its really helped relieve the stress of not only me with the ball but him as well, because you can’t really focus in on one of our starting 5 and try and take them away because we have 4 others and more that are ready to step in and takeover.

Q: The Minnehaha game was intense. You guys showed you guys are a team to beat in 4A. For much of the game you were responsible for Chet, and you definitely held your own. What did you do to limit him?

A: Very fun game! Especially since we were playing against some of our good friends. We knew coming into the game that we would have to try and slow down one of their 2 really big hitters, we had prepared extremely well for the game. Once we got our matchups I knew that I was gonna have to be the guy that would step up and try to eliminate Chet the best I could. I knew he loved to dribble the ball and that he has good shot so I knew that I would have to eliminate those two components of his game. He got a couple layups in the paint, but we knew coming into the game that was gonna happen no matter what and our plan was that we would have to turn right back around and push it back down the floor and get a bucket of our own!

Q: It’s one thing to have a plan, another to execute. You guys definitely executed that plan. — Lastly, are you taking any visits this winter or will they all be in the Spring?

A: Definitely! As of right now I will be taking most of my visits in the spring.

Q: Sounds good. Thanks for the time. Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

A: Appreciate it!

Ryan Schmidt | Minnesota Sports Fan

Minnehaha Academy features an absolutely stacked front line of Jalen Suggs, Chet Holmgren, Prince Aligbe, Chase Carter, Donovan Smith and 4 Star football player Kaden Johnson, who just signed to play for the Badgers (football) yesterday. 

Suggs is the most well known out of this star-studded cast, as he has Overtime following him since 8th grade and is now covering every game of his Senior year.  The 2020 Senior is the #1 recruit out of Minnesota and #6 nationally, according to ESPN. All six schools he’s narrowed his list down to, are still in the running for his services come 2020.

Holmgren is a 7 foot unicorn that shoots the 3, blocks shots, and runs the floor like a gazelle. He’s been #1 in Minnesota for a while, but recently caught internet fire for crossing Steph Curry and dunking at a UA camp. He is #2 Nationally after last summer made evaluators shoot him up to a 5 Star.

7 footer Chet Holmgren hit Steph Curry with the SAUCE and then dunked it! #SC30Select @ChetHolmgren @StephenCurry30 pic.twitter.com/xjHZxb4bus

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) August 6, 2019

Aligbe and Carter both have various Division 1 offers, including offers from Minnesota. Aligbe is another high-end recruit on the national scene too. He’s an extremely long, athletic kid, who projects as a good “3 and D” wing. Aligbe is a Top-60 recruit, via 247Sports.

Cretin-Derham Hall features 2022 top-ranked player in Minnesota Trejuan Holloman (according to Future150.com), a pair of 6’6 wing’s in J’vonne Hadley and Amari Carter, and shooter Curtis Jones,

Holloman has played with various Team USA camps in the summer, and when he was a freshman, he showed out at the CP3 camp. Future 150 rates him as a 4-star and he has offers from Minnesota, Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Baylor, and Texas.

Hadley transferred from Mahtomedi to CDH for his Senior year. PrepHoops.com ranks him 13th in Minnesota overall. The 12 players ahead of him on PrepHoops.com prospect list have all committed to Division 1 schools. Hadley has offers from Colorado State, South Dakota, and a few other Mid-Major and high majors keeping tabs on him.

Jones has a serious stroke from the outside and could definitely help some up-tempo schools at the next level.

Overall, Cretin-Derham Hall did an excellent job at limiting Minnehaha and turning them over. The Redhawks committed 20 turnovers and they kept Holmgren to just 10 points on 7 shots mostly from tough defense by Hadley. Holmgren manage to make his presence felt on defense though, finishing with what I counted as 4 shots. Two of those were at the rim to deny lay-ups. One spectacular block came early in the first half on a beautiful lead pass by Holloman.

Jalen Suggs did his best to keep the Redhawks in the game and provided nearly half of Minnehaha’s points, scoring 30 in total with 5 made 3’s but he committed 7 turnovers. 16 of the 20 Minnehaha turnovers were steals by CDH, and Holloman secured 6 of those alone, while also providing 17 points and setting the table for the Raiders with a game-high 10 assists.

Ryan Schmidt | Minnesota Sports Fan