LOUISVILLE – I had quite a “productive” Memorial Weekend in the Kentucky Exposition Center – evaluation-wise – during the third session of the Nike/EYBL spring season.
Here are 10 observations:
*The Boozer Twins: I got a long look at them (an entire game) and their Florida-base Nightrydas Elite 15U squad. And all the winter/spring hype generated by twins Cameron (6-foot-8) and Cayden (6-4ish) Boozer was, for the most part, spot-on.
Cameron was the best “power forward-type” I saw over the weekend, regardless of class. He was just as powerful but more skilled than his dad (former Duke and NBA forward Carlos Boozer) at the same stage of their careers.
The other members of the consensus “Top 3” in the national Class of 2025, Koa Peat (Gilbert, AZ, Perry) and Cooper Flagg (Newport, ME, Nokomis) are scheduled to attend the June 27-July 2 NBPA Top 100 Camp in Orlando. So, a definitive pecking order – at least for the time being – may be carved during that week.
The Boozer Brothers and their Miami Columbus High teammates will get four games against the best high school teams in the west during the June 17-19 Section Seven Team Tournament in Phoenix.
And you’re damn right I’ll be there from start to finish!
*The Jersey Boys: Three New Jersey Scholars seniors-to-be are projected as 2023 McDonald’s All-Americans in guard D.J. Wagner (Camden), forward Mackenzie Mgbako (Gladstone Gil St. Bernard) and center Aaron Bradshaw (Camden).
Wagner is currently the consensus No. 1-rated prospect in the Class of 2023. I’m a bit iffy on that.
And Mgbako has already committed to Duke and can be found in the Top 10s of most recruiting websites’ Class of 2023 rankings.
But Bradshaw impressed me more than his two teammates did over the weekend. At 6-11, his collective skill level is well above that found in most of even the very best prospects in that size-range
*California’s best team in 2022-23?: A strong case was already in place that the Studio City Harvard-Westlake squad is going to be the biggest threat to supplant Corona Centennial as the CIF Southern Section and State Open Division champion next spring – even with the Huskies’ Terrific Threesome of Jared McCain, Aaron McBride and Devin Williams set to return from a 33-1 squad.
But Harvard-Westlake (which lost to the Huskies in the CIF SS Open championship game and to Sierra Canyon in the State Open Regional semifinals) actually are set to return five of its top seven players.
Three of those had strong weekends in Louisville: 6-9 Jacob Huggins (Why Not/he recently committed to Princeton), 6-8 Brady Dunlap (Strive for Greatness) and 6-4 Trent Perry (Vegas Elite).
Huggins and Dunlap (one of the best jump shooters, at his size, in all of high school) were already proven commodities on the 17s level.
But Perry, a member of the Class of 2024, was moved up to the Vegas Elite’ s17s after a strong spring on their 16s club.
And he flourished against guards at least a year or sometimes two years older in Louisville.
He averaged 15.0 points and 3.4 assists in five game and made a nice case for being among the elite 2024 point-guard prospects in the west – and beyond – with his three-day performance.
*Next men up: The Why Not program won the 16s division of the Peach Jam last July.
The program’s 17s team was playing in Louisville without three key members of that squad: guards Jared McCain (at the USA 18U trials), Kylan Boswell (foot injury) and Tyler Rolison (recently moved to the Compton Magic program on the adidas circuit).
But the 17s won their first four games over the weekend before losing to Expressions Elite (46-45) in a Monday morning finale when a driving 5-footer by Dusty Stromer (bound for Gonzaga in 2023-24) rolled off the rim at the buzzer.
Why Not picked up strong efforts by “newcomers” in guards Tru Washington and Mark Brown (each from Phoenix Mountain Pointe), forward Curtis Williams (Etiwanda in SoCal) and post Elijah Price (a class of 2022 from Long Beach St. Anthony).
It will take a 9-4 record into the final pre-Peach Jam competition in Kansas City (July 7-10).
*Marvelous in the Midwest: Two of 10 or so players – regardless of class – that most impressed me over the weekend were a couple of forwards from EYBL programs located in the Midwest.
Six-eight Milan Momcilovic (Pewaukee High) of Team Herro was the most offensively skilled player, in his size range, that I saw over the weekend.
And 6-6 Devin Royal (Pickerington High) of All-Ohio Red demonstrated a remarkable combination of size, power, skill and efficiency – he averaged 23.4 points (while shooting .681 from the field and .777 on free throws), 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game as his team went 4-1.
There are NOT 20 better players in the national Class of 2023 than Momcilovic and Royal.
*Prime-time PGS: They don’t have quite the hype on the recruiting websites and in the national ratings as a lot of other 2023 point-guard prospects.
But Layden Blocker (Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel-Aire Kansas, just outside of Wichita) of Bradley Beal Elite and Jackson Shelstad (West Linn High in Oregon) of the Oakland Soldiers convinced me they are no worse than “Top 5” in my 2023 pecking order at the position.
Blocker (pictured) turned in one of the weekend’s best individual performances while handing the New Jersey Scholars just their second loss of the spring.
The 6-2 Blocker (originally from Arkansas) scored 27 points (including three 3s, one of those the win-cincher) with 10 rebounds, three assists and just one turnover in 29 minutes of the 62-56 victory.
My choice as the No. 1 PG in the class? Rob Dillingham (Donda Academy in Los Angeles) of CP3.
*EYBL’s best?: The two teams that most impressed me – and by quite a wide margin – over the weekend were Mokan Elite U and New Heights (NY) Lightning.
Each was 5-0 and moved their overall records to 12-1 and 11-2, respectively.
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