PARKER, CO – The “present” of the best of the high school basketball players in Colorado will be on display Sunday during the West Coast Elite Camp/Colorado at Legend High in this Denver suburb.
And the “future” showed off its collective promise Saturday during the elementary and middle school portion of the event.
Approximately 100 players – the vast majority of those in grades 7 and 8 – participated Saturday, with every camp team playing twice and the day culminating with Top 40 and Top 20 all-star games.
One point that was especially well made during the Top 20 contest is that – pun intended – there is a lot of quality point guard prospects in the state’s Class of 2019.
Christian Davis (5-7/Denver Waldorf School), Payton Egloff (5-10/Denver Blessed Sacrament), Stephen Hayes (6-0/Aurora Prairie Middle School), Jovon Nelson (Denver Martin Luther King Efficacy Academy) and Jamil Safiedine (Denver Graland Country Day School), listed alphabetically, were each outstanding both during the camp games and the Top 20 contest.
Hayes (who plays a lot like Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics probably did at the same age), Nelson and Safiedine all play like “true” point guards (more interested in setting up teammates and making the “right” passes instead of hunting shots or auditioning for “And 1” videos with their passes).
None of the three is a very good jump shooter right now. But, especially when that aspect of their skills improves, each has a chance to make an immediate positive impact on the varsity of the high schools they end up at a year from now as freshmen.
Davis and Egloff aren’t quite nearly the dynamic handlers and passers that the aforementioned Hayes, Nelson and Safiedine are right now but are superior jump shooters.
Frontcourt players and “wings” in the Top 20 game who were outstanding throughout the day were Jaedon Bowles (6-3/Aurora Prairie Middle School), Marshall Ehrlin (6-1/Eagleview Middle School), Kenny Foster (6-3/Aurora Falcon Creek Middle School), Simon May (6-1/Cherry Hills Christian) and Vaughn Stitt (5-10/Denver Blessed Sacrament).
Foster was the most consistently dominant player at both ends of the floor all Saturday. There are a whole lot of high school varsity squads – in Colorado and any other state – that he would be able to help right now.
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