LONG BEACH and ORANGE, Ca. — Thursday was the first day of the first July NCAA “viewing period”, for men’s’ basketball coaching staffs.
And, from my courtside perspectives at McBride High and Santiago Canyon College, it was a productive one.
Many of the coaching staffs of the western-based college programs were on hand to take up-close looks at the players at two events I attended — the BallerTV/Pangos Premier 80 Showcase and the Cali-Live Summer Showcase (by way of James Johnson’s Hoop Circuit, the Elite Association Hoops, and ACES).
If you’ve paid reasonable attention to the California hoops scene in the past year, the identity of the top performer at the Premier 80 Showcase in Long Beach will not be a surprise.
Junior-to-be Nikolas Khamenia of defending California State Open Champion Studio City Harvard-Westlake, playing in the 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. games for the “Warriors” squad, demonstrated all the skills that make him, likely, the most versatile prep player anywhere in California — regardless of class standing.
The still-growing (he said he was measured recently at 6-foot-8, without shoes) Khamenia (pictured) hit three 3s and a mid-range jumper in his first five-minute stint.
And his jump shot was well down the list of things that were most Impressive about his performance in 25-plus minutes or so of playing time Thursday, before he headed north on the 405 Freeway to LAX for a 6 o’clock flight to Houston to join his Basketball Training Institute (BTI) teammates for the PRO16/NXT finals.
Khamenia’s handling and passing skill; his ability to post-up defenders or back them down and nail turn-around jumpers; on the defensive side, the way he stayed in front of smaller dribblers or deny passes into the low post; and, as a rebounder, the way he would pull the ball down in traffic and immediately start a fast-break, via his dribble or an outlet pass . . . you get the point.
Among the college head coaches on hand were Lorenzo Romar (Pepperdine), Russ Turner (UC Irvine) and Kyle Smith (Washington State), with assistants from among the staffs at Oregon, Oregon State, Gonzaga, UCLA, Hawaii, Cal State Northridge, Sacramento State, University of San Diego (Long Beach Poly’s and UCLA’s own, Tyus Edney!) and Loyola Marymount — apologies to those I missed!
And Khamenia — an easy choice for me as one of the Top Five Class of 2025 prospects in the west — was far from the only standout Thursday afternoon at McBride.
*Derelle Desire (6-9ish; Draper, UT, Juan Diego) and Ring Nyeri (6-8ish; Peoria, AZ, Liberty) put on strong demonstrations as to why they are among the best of the “post/power forward” prospects in the west’s Class of 2024.
Desire (who migrated to the U.S. from Great Britain less than a year ago), a still-growing left-hander, played well above the rim in both of his games — he was a teammate of Khamenia’s — with multiple crunching dunks and the best block of a dunk attempt I’ve seen this spring and summer.
And, like Desire, Nyeri continued to impress me more each time I’ve seen him this spring and summer. His non-stop effort at both ends of the floor was remarkable — no one played with more infectious energy over the eight games.
Desire (Salt Lake Rebels Red) and Nyeri (Factory) are standouts for club programs that are scheduled to play in the Pangos Summer Sweet 16, which tips off Friday afternoon at the Map Sports Facility in Garden Grove.
If their teams win their 8:10 openers Friday night (SL Rebels vs. Play Hard/Play Smart of Sacramento; Factory vs. Team Buildup of Ventura County), Desire and Nyeri could be going head up — which they didn’t do Thursday — Saturday afternoon at 1:10.
*Other “posts” (centers/power forwards) who had strong moments Thursday included juniors-to-be Dallas Washington (RSM, CA, Santa Margarita), Zane Gaul (Prescott, AZ) and Brady Wooley (Long Lake, MN, Orono), as well as Kenyon DeMuynck (San Leandro in NorCal).
*Four seniors-to-be in the 6-7 range who were productive Thursday afternoon were Kendyl Sanders (Playa del Rey, CA, St. Bernard); Chris Arias (Jacksonville, FL, Providence); Will Overton (Sun Valley, CA, Village Christian) and Ray Adams (Olympia, WA, North Thurston).
Sanders has been hobbled by a sore knee for the past month or so but was able to show off his ability to score via mid-range jump shots or, especially, left- (off-) handed finishes.
He was held out of his second with the Bucks to rest the knee.
Overton and Adams fit firmly in the “sleeper” category as “combo forwards”, ala Sanders. Arias has committed to signing with Jacksonville in November.
*Quality guards were abundance from the classes of 2025 and ’26.
Juniors-to-be in that category included Jaden Erami (Rosemead, CA, Bosco Tech); Jaylen Valdez (Sacramento Capital Christian); Malachi Knight (Lawndale, CA, Leuzinger); Nick Jefferson (Las Vegas Bishop Gorman); Chris Holland (Riverside Poly); Solo Bailey (Santa Monica Crossroads); Rocco Gaffoglio (Santa Ana Foothill); Tylan Lewis (Thompson’s Station, TN, Independence); Jeremy Jackson Jr. (Columbia, TN, Academy) and C.J. Shaw (Las Vegas Mojave).
Erami, Holland and Shaw are slipping out of that “sleeper” category for the Class of 2025 by way of their strong early-summer efforts, Thursday and with their high school teams in a multitude of quality events.
And Fresno was well-represented in this category by way of the San Joaquin Memorial duo of Silas Rodriguez (playmaker) and Abram Potts (terrific jump shooter); Derrion King (Hoover) and Varon Mitchell (Edison).
And two of the better guards in the west class of 2026 fit that description Thursday: 6-2 Kaiden Bailey (Irvine, CA, Crean Lutheran) and 6-3 Elias Obenyah (Richmond, CA, Salesian).
Among other ’26 standouts Thursday were 6-9 Tyler Bright (Henderson, NV, Liberty); 6-5 Trae Nunn (Waxachachie, TX); and 6-7 Christian Collins (St. Bernard).
About 30 miles southeast in Orange, the first night of the Cali-Live Showcase had multiple club team battles.
Among those were:
*Team Arsenal Elite 66, SBSHOWSD 49: The Northern California-based Arsenal squad got solid efforts for the San Jose Mitty Class of 2024 duo of guard Tyler Jones (who recently committed to UC Riverside) and 6-7 Gavin Ripp.
Mitty won all eight of its games (including bracket championships) during the Cali Live and Section 7 events in Orange County and Phoenix, respectively, last month.
Mitty beat San Diego Montgomery in both of those bracket finals and the team Arsenal beat Thursday night was led by multiple standouts from what could be the best team in San Diego next season, including twins Alek and JJ Sanchez.
*Cali Stars Elite Black 64, PFMB Elite 51: Cali Elite got outstanding offensive efforts from a couple of Class of 2024 standouts who have changed high schools for the 2023-24 season.
Six-four Jon Mani is leaving Beverly Hills for Palisades while 6-8 Jael Martin — who was knocking in 3s from all over the floor Thursday night — has checked out of Pacifica Christian in Santa Monica and is bound for Carlsbad in San Diego County.
With a large gathering of college scouts watching, each of those guys did more enough in that game to expand their post-high school options.
*NW Rotary Rebels EYBL 16s 63, Team Inland Elite 57: The Inland squad (with players based in San Bernardino and Riverside counties), behind the Oak Hills duo of DeShawn Gory and Ashton McCullough, hung close throughout.
But the Portland-based Rotary Rebels had too many players capable of responding to every challenge Inland presented.
Notable among those were Dallas Washington (who, like me, made the Long Beach to Orange trek), as well as players who attend high schools in the northwest in juniors-to-be Isaac Carr (Central Catholic in Portland and, at 6-3, one of the top guards in the class in the west); Winters Grady (6-7 Tualatin in Oregon; he’s transferring from Lake Oswego) and 6-4 Legend Smiley (Seattle Garfield).
*Cali Rebels 17s 73, Players Play 17s 69: The Orange County-based Cali Rebels got sizzling jump shooting from Jaden Hubbard (Orange Lutheran; he was at Mission Viejo last season) and Darnez Slater (Roosevelt in Riverside County’s Eastvale), and strong play inside the lane from Isaiah Bernard (Santa Ana Foothill) and Dylan Benner (Ventura St. Bonaventure) to prevail in the most competitive game of the night.
Among the best of the Class of 2024 “shooting guards” in the region, Hubbard — hitting multiple shots from the distance that made Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kyle Korver, etc., among the best to ever launch jumpers — and Slater, in large part due to his terrific mid-range, pull-up shots, sizzled throughout.
And that’s the only reason the Rebels were able to prevail while dealing with the play of guards Isaiah Rogers (Corona Centennial; among the best of the Class of 2026 prospects anywhere) and Deuce Sims (San Marcos in San Diego County).
Rogers and Slater were matched, head up, much of the game in one of the more compelling battles of the day at either of the events.
And there will be at least two of those confrontations during the 2023-24 season, since Centennial and Roosevelt are Big VIII League rivals — as well as being projected as two of the Top 5 teams in SoCal next season.
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