COLORADO SPRINGS – The three-day, USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Minicamp wrapped up early Sunday evening with a display of just how tough it is for some of the best freshmen and sophomores in the country to hang tough against guys just one and two years older.
In the final competition, the Class of 2025 and ’26 camp team that came out in top of the three days of scrimmaging knock off its ’27 and ’28 counterpart in a 10-minute showdown, 24-10, at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center.
The 25-26 squad of seniors Darius Acuff, (6-foot-2/Bradenton, FL, IMG Academy), Nykolas Lewis (6-0/Washington, D.C. Gonzaga), Nikolas Khamenia (6-8/Studio City, CA, Harvard-Westlake), Trey McKenney (6-3/Orchard Lake, MI, St. Mary’s) and Malachi Moreno (6-10/Georgetown, KY, Great Crossing), along with juniors Brandon McCoy, Jr. (6-4/Bellflower, CA, St. John Bosco) and Cameron Holmes (6-5/Good Year, AZ, Millennium), had too much size, strength, skill and – of course – experience for its counterpart.
The frosh-soph group was within 10-8 about four minutes in, though, largely because of the play of sophomore point guard Beckman Black (6-0/Duncanville, TX) and freshman post Logan Chwastyk (6-8/Malvern, PA).
Black assisted on four of the frosh-soph buckets (three of those with Chwastyk, the other hooking up with sophomore forward Malachi Jordan of Branson, MO, Link Academy).
There were about 75 healthy and participating players – spread across the four classes – during the event which drew a lot of NBA scouting personnel as well as national “media-types”.
Here are the eight non-Western-based players (two in each class) that most impressed me over the three days.
College coaches wishing for more in-depth analysis of all the players at the camp are invited to subscribe to the BurlisonOnBasketball Scouting Service.
The Weekend’s Top Performances, by Class
*C/O 2025: Chris Cenac, Jr. (6-foot-10/Branson, MO, Link Academy).
Runner-up: Malachi Moreno.
*C/O ‘26: Caleb Holt (6-4/Huntsville, AL, Grayson).
Runner-up: Deron Rippey, Jr. (6-1/Blairstown, NJ, Blair Academy).
*C/O ‘27: Babatunde Oladotun (6-8/Silver Spring, MD, Blake/pictured, courtesy Farley Anunciacion).
Runner-up: Beckman Black.
*C/O: ‘28: Erick Dampier, Jr. (6-9/Ridgeland, MS, Madison Academy).
Runner-up: A.J. Williams (6-5/Hampton, GA, Dutchtown).
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