NORWALK, Ca. – The two-day Full-Court Press All-West (presented by Pangos) offered up a nice mixture of the best of four classes of high school players in Southern California.
And there was a hefty spattering of non-SoCal-based prospects at Cerritos Community College, as well.
The last major “summer event”, prior to the first NCAA July valuation period (Wednesday-July 12) wrapped up Saturday afternoon with Top 50 and Top 25 all-star games.
Six-foot-five Omaje Smith (El Cajon, CA/Foothills Christian) made a strong case that he should have been selected to the Top 25 game while leading the “White” squad to an 82-59 victory over the “Black” team in the Top 50 game.
Smith, who seems to have grown a couple of inches since last fall, is one of the bigger “sleepers” in Southern California and, along with 6-9 T.J. Leaf (who is already committed to Arizona), will make Foothills Christian a candidate to go very deep into the California State Southern Open Division Regional next spring.
In the Top 25 contest, the White held off the Black, 72-68, behind the terrific jump shooting performance of one of the best in that area in the West, 6-2 Jordan Griffin (Corona, CA/Centennial).
Griffin’s effort in the Top 25 game him the edge over 6-5 Vittorio Reynoso-Avila (La Mirada, CA/La Mirada) as the best of the Class of 2016 over the weekend.
Reynoso-Avila, who sports a 4.8 grade point average, helped lead La Mirada to a California State Division III championship in March.
The Class of 2017 nod goes to 6-4 Zach Reichle (Wilsonville, OR/Wilsonville), a left hander who challenged Griffin for “best jump shooter at the event” honors.
Reichle, who plays for the adidas-fronted Team Fast travel program, has received strong interest from the likes of Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford and UC Irvine (whose staffed offered him a scholarship Saturday morning).
He, too, has an academic transcript to rival his jump shot (he said he will be enrolled in three AP classes in the fall) and should see the interest in his college services skyrocket over the next few weeks.
My sophomore-to-be props go to 6-5 left hander Jules Bernard (Los Angeles Windward), who might have been as good a prospect as was on hand over the weekend.
The comparisons to James Harden will commence in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 … seconds!
Top honors in the Class of 2019 – guys who will make their high school debuts, in some cases, on Thanksgiving week – go to 6-7 Isaiah Mobley (who will be a freshman at Temecula, CA/Rancho Christian).
A couple of other “non-California players of note at the camp who forfeited July 4 celebrations to make the trek to Southern California for the event were 6-7 Winston Nelson (Norman, OK, North) and 6-5 Jerell Springer (Las Vegas Shadow Ridge).
TOP 25 All-Star Roster
*Ike Anigbogu (2016/6-9/Corona, CA/Centennial)
Chris Barnes (2016/6-3/Compton, CA/Compton)
Jules Bernard (2018/6-5/Los Angeles/Windward)
Isom Butler (2017/6-2/Corona, CA/Centennial)
Kesean Davis (2016/6-5/Los Angeles/Price)
Maka Ellis (2018/6-4/Las Vegas/Sierra Vista)
Latrelle Franklin (2015/5-8/Temecula, CA/Great Oak)
Pepe Garcia Gonzalez (2016/6-3/Los Alamitos, CA/Los Alamitos)
Christian Gray (2016/6-5/Riverside, CA/JW North)
Jordan Griffin (2016/6-2/Corona, CA/Centennial)
Psalm Maduakor (2017/6-3/Harbor City, CA/Narbonne)
Wyatt Maker (2016/6-8/Salinas, CA/Palma)
*Robert McRae (2019/6-2/Los Angeles/Fairfax)
Johnny McWilliams (2016/6-5/San Marco, CA/San Marcos)
Michael Mensah (2017/6-2/Granada Hills, CA/Granada Hills)
Isaiah Mobley (2019/6-7/Temecula, CA/Rancho Christian)
Winston Nelson (2017/6-7/Norman, OK/North)
Isaiah Nichols (2015/6-5/Oxnard, CA/Pacifica)
Zach Reichle (2017/6-4/Wilsonville, OR/Wilsonville)
Vittorio Reynoso-Avila (2016/6-5/La Mirada, CA/La Mirada)
Robby Robinson (2017/6-6/San Diego/Kearny)
Jerell Springer (2017/6-5/Las Vegas/Shadow Ranch)
*Cassius Stanley (2019/6-4/Studio City, CA/Harvard-Westlake)
Kahri White (2016/5-10/Long Beach, CA/Rancho Dominguez)
Makani Whiteside (2019/6-2/Bellflower, CA/St John Bosco)
*Selected to the all-star game but didn’t participate.
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