NORWALK, Ca. – I can’t account for all of the grade point averages or Advanced Placement Classes enrolled in by players who attended the Saturday-Sunday High Academic Fall Showcase/King of Kings that was put on by Julius von Hanzlik and the Ryan Silver-fronted West Coast Elite program at Cerritos Community College.
But I didn’t need to examine any transcripts to know what kind of basketball futures some of the 150-plus players on hand possess.
There were impressive prospects from each of the four high school classes in attendance but it was the freshmen and sophomore classes that were especially well-repped at the event.
Foremost in the classes of 2020 and 2019 on display were freshman point guard-deluxe Nico Mannion (Scottsdale, AZ, Pinnacle), possibly the No. 1 freshman hoopster in the western portion of the U.S. of A.
The 6-foot-1 Mannion is scheduled to participate in a USA Basketball “mini-camp” next weekend in Colorado Springs that, along with many of the best prospects in the classes of 2020 and 2019 will also included some of the best in 2017 – including a lot of likely McDonald’s All-American selections.
Riley Battin, a 6-7 junior who helped lead Oak Park to a California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section championship last spring, was the dominant post player in the Saturday action I watched, sprinting to the rim in transition for a nice assortment of dunks and layups (often via passes from Mannion) and knocking in a plethora of 15- to 18-footers
Some other standouts from the SoCal Class of 2018 on Saturday included 6-3 Wayne Arnold (Compton, CA, Dominguez), 6-4 Wes Slajchert (Oak Park), 6-8 Jacob Eyman (Los Alamitos), 6-3 Alpha Okoli (Bellflower St. John Bosco), 6-8 Jordan Guest (Santa Margarita) and 6-5 DeSean Allen (Santa Monica).
Arnold has been a varsity standout for two seasons for the Dons and is one of the best shooting guard prospects, regionally, in his class.
Slajchert will team with Battin (among others) to make Oak Park one of Southern California’s best teams in the coming season while Okoli, Guest and Eyman will blossom as juniors.
Allen was the best player in North Dakota for two seasons (he was the Most Outstanding Player in the Pangos Midwest Frosh/Soph Camp in Chicago last October) before heading west over the summer.
He and Battin were the two best “scorers” I saw on Saturday.
Fellows who impressed from the Class of 2019 included 6-3 P.J. Fuller (Seattle Nathan Hale), 6-5 Jaime Jaquez (Camarillo in Southern California), 6-5 Kyle Owens (Encino, CA, Crespi) and 6-3 Graham Cook (Carlsbad, CA, La Costa Canyon).
Fuller was a reserve as a freshman at Garfield in Seattle a year ago but has moved to Nathan Hale, where he joined University of Washington committed brothers Michael and Jonay Porter.
Nathan Hale is coached by former UW and NBA guard Brandon Roy.
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