It has been almost like a mix-tape for star 6-foot-3 senior combo-guard Sammy Barnes-Thompkins, who has had to change his mind several times regarding his commitment to a college program. After recently verbally committing to St. John’s University, Thomkins considered re-opening his college recruitment, but then decided that he would stick with his college pick. On Sunday evening, Thompkins decided to change his mind and re-open his college recruitment once again. The decision came after Thompkins and his family thought things over. “After thinking it over, (Chris) Mullin didn’t recruit Sammy originally, and we didn’t feel right playing for a coach that didn’t recruit him…
Author: Anthony Ray
Next weekend, the Arizona Preps recruiting staff of Anthony Ray and Chris Buchanan will take the road once again – this time to cover this year’s Double Pump Spring Classic. This year’s event will be held Friday through Sunday, April 24-26th at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. Last weekend our staff ventured to the same place, Las Vegas, Nevada and Bishop Gorman High School for the Pangos Spring Spectacular. The Spring Spectacular had a variety of different club teams last weekend from the West, and next weekend’s event will have an even different mix. We will be covering…
Gilbert Christian High School’s talented 6-foot-9 junior post Mitch Lightfoot is coming off a nice season where led his high school program to a Division-II state championship. It was a challenging year for him though, as he had to sit out the beginning to the 2014-2015 high school basketball season due to transfer rules. Lightfoot did have something to hang his hat on though, as he had already verbally committed to the University of New Mexico last summer. With a commitment already in place for him, Lightfoot continued to work hard and play through this spring evaluation period – looking…
Here we go again. In just as shocking fashion as when he committed to Arizona State last summer, and then also de-committed from the Sun Devils just recently, now Perry High School’s electric 5-foot-10, 165-pound sophomore guard Markus Howard has also decided to leave the state of Arizona. It almost seemed as just a matter of time for the explosive scoring guard prospect, who has been coveted over the past year by those in the state of Arizona, and definitely outside of it. As a result of the pressure to play against the nation’s best in a national schedule, and also the opportunity to…
Corona del Sol High School has become a major force in the state of Arizona. In a state that is still developing a feel and understanding for high-level basketball, Corona has given Arizona basketball enthusiasts a nice glimpse into what top-rated basketball talent looks like, and also how the game is played by great basketball teams that share the basketball. Corona captured their fourth consecutive Division-I state championship this year – finishing 33-1 and ranked No. 8 in the nation by MaxPreps. Corona also amazingly enough, went 127-7 during a four-year reign of state championships, and also won 70 consecutive games against in-state opponents. Well, this…
The NCAA evaluation period began this weekend around the country, and numerous Arizona teams this weekend traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to take part in the Pangos Spring Spectacular. Organized by recruiting expert Dinos Trigonis, the event featured many top-rated club programs from around the West Coast. With more than 120 different club teams from around the West in action this weekend, and loads of division-I college coaches in attendance , the competition was fierce and exciting. The Arizona Magic Elite 17U team came up big this weekend – blowing out much of their tournament competition, before finally losing their…
The NCAA evaluation period began this weekend around the country, and numerous Arizona teams this weekend traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to take part in the Pangos Spring Spectacular. Organized by recruiting expert Dinos Trigonis, the event featured many top-rated club programs from around the West Coast. With more than 120 different club teams from around the West in action this weekend, and loads of division-I college coaches in attendance , the competition was fierce and exciting. The Arizona Magic Elite 16U team is loaded with top-notch talent for the future, and this weekend they would put it all together…
With so much high school basketball being played in Las Vegas this weekend, the Las Vegas Shootout also took place this weekend in Las Vegas for unsigned junior college and high school prospects in the West. Organized by legendary top-rated national basketball scout Jerry Mullen and Area Codes’ organizer Chad Groth, this event was very good and involved many unheralded prospects that helped themselves this weekend. Here are my overall prospects from the day. Each of these prospects improved their college recruitment on the day, and earned some serious college interest as a result of the event. Mufaro Murinda 6-7 …
Recently, the NJCAA selected their national junior college Division-I and Division-II All-Americans for the 2014-2015 season. As a result, several members of the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC) were selected as part of the teams. This year’s members of the Division-II All-American teams were led by Phoenix College star 5-foot-10 sophomore guard Brandon Brown (Loyola Marymount commit). Brown earned First-Team All-American honors for his efforts this junior college season. Brown was also selected as the ACCAC Player of the Year this season as well. Also joining Brown as All-Americans were Ben Gershman of Pima Junior College (Colorado School of…
While we had reported this week that 6-foot-3 senior combo-guard Sammy Barnes-Thompkins was considering his options this spring, whether or not to re-open his college recruitment, the talented guard prospect has decided that he will instead hold on his commitment to the Big East program – signing this month with St. John’s University and new head coach and NBA legend Chris Mullin and his staff. I caught up with Thompkins’ father, Gary Thompkins, on Thursday and he advised me that the opportunity to play for such a legendary coach and an historic program in St. John’s was just too much…