With the spring evaluation period now upon us, there are many Arizona prospects still on the recruiting board, as is common place in the state. With so many prospects still available, no available prospect is receiving more recruiting interest in the state than Shadow Mountain High School’s 6-foot-4, 165-pound senior guard prospect Craig Randall. Randall, a native of Ohio, is coming off a strong senior season for the Matadors, after leading the program to a 23-7 overall record on the season, while averaging 21.2 points, 5.6 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 2.5 steals per/contest. Randall would help lead the team to a…
Author: Anthony Ray
This season was an exciting one for women’s basketball in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC), as Eastern Arizona (27-5) and Central Arizona Junior College (24-5) both tied for the ACCAC regular season conference title. After both programs finished with a 20-2 regular season record, Central Arizona defeated Eastern Arizona in the conference’s tournament championship game, 87-72. Both programs would advance to the Division-I national tournament held at the Bicentennial Center in Salina, Kansas. Both programs would fall in their opening games of the national tournament. #14 seeded Eastern Arizona would lose to Wallace State (AL), 87-59, in the tournament’s first round. …
Cochise College and Phoenix College both advanced to their respective Division-I and Division-II national tournaments this month, after both programs won their region bids this season in the Arizona Community College Athletic Association (ACCAC). Cochise College (23-11) and head coach Jerry Carrillo won the Division-I, Region I tournament championship in the ACCAC this season after defeating Mesa JC, 83-74. Cochise would then lose to College of Southern Idaho in narrow fashion, 63-65, before falling in the first round of the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas, to Vincennes University – 90-60. For the 3rd consecutive year and the 7th time in 11 seasons,…
He was once rated as the top overall prospect in Arizona’s 2015 class, but things changed quickly for Red Mountain High School’s 6-foot-5 senior guard Jalen Jenkins after he decided to leave the state of Arizona during the summer of 2013. In 2013, while preparing to enter his junior season at Mesa High School, Jenkins instead decided to leave the state of Arizona and transfer to top-rated IMG Academy in Florida. After the move, and for whatever reason, Jenkins decided to return back to the state of Arizona after a short stint away. Instead of returning to Mesa HS, Jenkins instead came back…
Two of the best prospects in the state of Arizona are in the prep school ranks, and both attend Planet Athlete Academy. 7-foot prep post Lamous Brown and also 6-foot-7 prep forward Kwintin Williams have both become very good friends this year, while living in the state of Arizona and competing together daily. The two have worked against one another in practice, and also competed together while traveling around the country and playing against the nation’s top prep programs. Now they will continue that trend, as both prospects have decided to take their collegiate careers to the same college program as…
It was nice while it lasted – having talented 6-foot-1 sophomore point guard Marcus Shaver here in the state of Arizona for the past two years. That time has come to an end, as the gifted 2017 guard prospect will now leave St. Mary’s High School and will move to the state of Texas where, reportedly, he will land at Prime Prep. Prime Prep is widely known in the basketball community as having one of the top prep programs in the country, in recent years, but the program has had numerous problems with the NCAA as well. Recently, the program, which…
The annual AZ’s Finest Top 20 Showcase took place on Saturday at Inspire Courts in Chandler, Arizona. There were more than 130 different prospects in participation on the day, with the Top 20 all-star games for underclassmen and upperclassmen concluding in the evening. Arizona Preps was on hand to catch the final all-star games from this year’s event. While we did not catch everyone in the evening, since some prospects did not stay for the final game, here are my top individual performers that I witnessed in the evening . . . Top Upperclassman Prospects Mitch Lightfoot 6-9 JR PF …
One of the elite prospects in Arizona’s 2015 class of seniors is Tucson’s Sahuaro High School’s athletic 6-foot-7, 170-pound senior forward Nate Renfro. Renfro really helped himself last spring with his play and, as a result, saw his college recruitment take off – leading to a commitment and signing with Grand Canyon University in the fall. This week, Renfro and Grand Canyon decided to part ways – leading Renfro back to the list of unsigned recruits in the state’s 2015 class, and a hot prospect for mid-major college programs. According to sources close to the GCU program, Renfro and GCU…
After seeing his two club teammates, Sammy Thompkins and Lyrik Shreiner, give verbal commitments this weekend, Empire High School’s 6-foot-8, 210-pound senior forward Deion James decided to end his college recruitment as well on Monday. After taking an official recruiting visit to North Carolina A&T this weekend, and with several division-I programs looking to get involved, James decided to give a verbal commitment to the MEAC program and head coach Cy Alexander. In the final season of his high school career, James produced a great deal – averaging 21.2 points and 12.2 rebounds per/contest. In his junior season, James poured…
With the spring evaluation period coming in April and college coaches across the country looking to finalize their rosters for next season, college coaches are scouring the country for top-rated unsigned basketball talent. Two of the top unsigned guard prospects in America played together in the backcourt for the same club basketball program last spring and summer – the Arizona Magic Elite. Planet Athlete Academy’s 6-foot-3 senior guard Sammy Thompkins and Hillcrest Academy 6-foot-3, 200-pound prep guard Lyrik Shreiner have had very similar pasts and are forever linked together. Both prospects were almost forgotten by numerous college programs in the fall,…