The mission is now complete. This is how I personally felt this week after covering Arizona basketball for (29) years and entering my 30th and potentially final high school basketball season covering the state of Arizona's basketball. When I started in the industry at the ripe young age of (22) years old in 1995, my mission was to create major recruiting opportunities for Arizona's top basketball prospects, while also establishing and developing an Arizona basketball culture that could compete with other dominant basketball states such as California and Texas in the West, and to make Arizona a hotbed for basketball talent one day. On Thursday evening, after the completion of this year's NBA first and second rounds of the 2024 NBA Draft, I truly felt, for the first time in all of my years, that I had reached my goal(s).
Today, Arizona top-rated high school basketball prospects are getting recruited more than ever, as more college coaches than we have ever seen now recruit the state. While the state continues to still be well under recruited for sure, the elite prospects in the state now get much more and higher recruitment. There still continue to be many prospects that soar well below the recruiting radar, or have not generated anywhere near what they ultimately deserve in college recruitment, but it is certainly and immensely better than it was in 1995. The emergence of elite national prep schools in Arizona over the past decade, as well as the addition of many national basketball circuits, camps and events in the state, as a result of the COVID pandemic, have been the instruments responsible for the true development of the Arizona basketball culture. Like it, love it or hate it, it is what it is now, and the current basketball culture in Arizona is now here to stay, and will only continue to soar to new heights over time.
The 2024 NBA Draft was a nice shot in the arm of the Arizona basketball culture, as (3) different former Arizona high school star prospects were selected in the first and second rounds of the draft. Former Perry High School graduate and University of Colorado's Cody Williams entered the NBA Draft after only one season of college, which was hindered by injuries. Williams, who previously was predicted as high as the top overall prospect in this year's NBA draft, would go #10 in this year's draft to the Utah Jazz. Williams' #10 selection was the highest draft selection for an Arizona prospect since Mike Bibby was drafted #2 overall in the 1998 NBA Draft. Williams now joins his older brother, NBA star Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder) in the NBA - becoming one of the rare combination of brothers in the league throughout NBA history.
Former Millennium High School standout and AZ Compass Prep product DaRon Holmes would also be selected in the NBA's first round, as he would be selected with the #22 pick in the draft by the Phoenix Suns, who would make the pick on behalf of the Denver Nuggets, who had acquired the pick in a trade. Holmes now lands in Denver and will suit up for the former NBA Champions next season, an excellent opportunity for him. The University of Dayton star forward had an excellent career for Dayton, and climbed up the NBA Draft board considerably throughout NBA workouts. The selection of Holmes into the NBA was a culmination of many years of hard work for Holmes, who earned his draft status through his play in college. Holmes was more than prepared to make an impact at Dayton, after a big senior season with AZ Compass Prep, as they won the Grind Session League Championship during his senior season, as Holmes teamed up with current NBA guard Ty Ty Washington (Milwaukee Bucks).
Former Desert Vista High School star and Marquette University standout Oso Ighodaro would cap off this year's 2024 NBA Draft for Arizona on Thursday, after he was selected in the second round of the NBA by the Phoenix Suns. With the #40th pick in this year's NBA Draft, the Suns would draft Ighodaro after making a trade to move up from the 56th pick to the 40th - a move made to land Ighodaro, a rim-running and athletic big to help the Suns for next season. After scouting Ighodaro since middle school, as a result of his relationship with former Desert Vista HS head coach Gino Crump, it was amzing to see this young man get drafted. While he was once a project as a middle schooler, Ighodaro, like former University of Arizona product and St. Mary's HS star Channing Frye, worked extremely hard to develop throughout his high school and college career to earn this opportunity.
The drafting of these (3) Arizona former top-rated performers proves that the state of Arizona has now officially arrived nationally as a hotbed for basketball talent. After recent and previous year's where many other former Arizona prospects were also selected in their respective NBA Drafts, including the 2022 NBA Draft when (5) different Arizona performers were selected, this year's selection of (3) more Arizona prospects takes Arizona to another level among the nation's top state's to produce NBA first rounders over the last (10) years. Arizona once was not even ranked among the top states in this category, and now we have risen to the upper half of the list.
While we still have a long way to go for sure in our development of the Arizona basketball culture, as the current NCAA Transfer Portal has definitely stifled the growth and development of the recruitment of Arizona's top high school prospects. Prep schools will look to sustain this new basketball culture of recruiting, until our local junior colleges get back to also creating more exposure and recruitment opportunities for our top juco prospects. We still have a long way to go in the recruitment of Arizona's top junior college prospects, but it will certainly continue to improve as well - it will just take time.
