Minnesota Basketball: Jaden Henley commits to Gopher hoops

Unexpectedly, Gopher basketball received a new verbal commitment to their 2022 class when Jaden Henley announced that he is joining the Gophers after high school.

Jaden Henley

Pos: SG/PG
Ht: 6’5”
Wt: 180
High School: Colony in Ontario, CA

Ben Johnson and staff added a 4th player to their 2022 recruiting class. There was not a lot of chatter about Henley and the commitment is a bit of a surprise/bonus. Henley was in town last week and was at the Michigan State game on Wednesday, committed on Friday.

The word on Henley is that he has been more of a late bloomer who has flown under the radar. He played on Colony’s varsity team last year in a a Covid shortened season and then played on a non-shoe sponsored AAU team this past summer.

So there was not a ton of evaluation being done on Henley over the last year+ and he really only had scholarship offers from San Diego State and Minnesota. What he is going to bring to the Gophers is a ton of athleticism, the ability to play both guard spots and he may be very good defensively.

Currently playing for Colony HS which the LA Times has ranked as the #11 team in southern California and they are currently undefeated at 7-0. He is averaging 16.8 points per game with two games over 20 pts scored.

The 2022 Class

The Gopher’s 2022 class is taking shape and likely close to being complete, at least in terms of the high school players added.

G - Braeden Carrington

G - Jaden Henley

F - Josh Ola-Joseph

F/C - Pharrel Payne

Currently this is a class with high athleticism, length and bounce. Experience and ball-handling are the two primary areas of need for next year.

There are still 4 scholarships remaining that can be used for next year. I fully expect that most (if not all) of those will be used on transfers with ball-handling skills and height. The portal is just part of the game today and in the current situation the Gophers do not want to have a glut of players who are all going to be freshmen.

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