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 looking to get a jump on their recruiting of the 2016 class. While many college coaches around the country often look for post talent late, this year division-I college programs seem to be most interested in signing a quality point guard prospect. As a result, the state of Arizona has not disappointed, as there are several high-major division-I prospects at the guard position still available in the 2015 class. Planet Athlete’s 6-foot-3 senior guard Sammy Thompkins, Hillcrest Academy 6-foot-3,…
Author: Anthony Ray
Elite 1 Academy is a newer prep school located west of Phoenix. Quickly emerging as a top-rated program in the valley under the leadership of Tamika Goree – a hard-working female focused on raising the level of basketball in Arizona. Elite 1 Academy has developed rapidly into a serious basketball program for aspiring college basketball prospects. Brian Ali recently took over the men’s basketball program as head coach. A native of Chicago, Illinois, where he still has many strong basketball relationships, Ali now leads a rising basketball program with loads of talent. Here are my player evaluations of some of…
Cesar Chavez High School (25-3) came into Friday evening’s sectional playoff matchup with St. Mary’s High School as winners of their last 21 games in a row, an amazing accomplishment this high school season. But you would not have known that by the looks of the Division-I, Section-4 Championship game on Friday. St. Mary’s (16-11) has peaked as a team at the right time of the season, and it showed in their match-up with Chavez, as the Knights comfortably defeated Chavez from almost start to finish, for a nice 66-46 victory. Make no mistake about it, the St. Mary’s ballclub is led by the play…
Cesar Chavez High School is always one of the most athletic and talented teams in the state – each year. Regardless of what team head coach Gary Lee places on the floor, look out as the Champions are almost just that – champions. This season, Chavez (25-2) has been terrific. The team went into Wednesday night’s Division-I, Section 4 Playoff game as winners of their last 20 games on the season – an amazing effort by Coach Lee and his team. While Lee has received some criticisms in the past by basketball enthusiasts across the state for not winning it all…
Arizona’s 2016 class of prospects looks to be a strong class in the state, as two prospects in the class have already popped with verbal commitments to division-I programs. One prospect in the class that continues to improve and climb up the ladder among the other prospects in the class is Dysart High School’s 6-foot-10 junior post Malik Ondigo. While still developing a great deal, Ondigo has developed quickly and has emerged as one of the elite post prospects in the class. After an excellent spring and summer (2014) for himself, Ondigo showed excellent improvement as a player and became a serious division-I college…
The 2014-2015 junior college basketball season in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC) is now in full swing. Here are this week’s Players of the Week in women’s basketball in the conference . . . ACCAC D-I Player of the Week: Kandiss Barber – Central Arizona Central Arizona’s Kandiss Barber averaged 18 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in wins over Scottsdale and Phoenix College last week. ACCAC D-II Player of the Week: Melody McLaughlin – Pima Pima’s McLaughlin averaged 17 points and 8 rebounds per game – including a 26 point and 11 rebound performance against Cochise College. Join the Forum discussion…
It has been a great week for my former schools. First my alma mater, Madison Meadows Jr. High, won this year’s conference championship and went undefeated, and then I had an opportunity on Thursday evening to observe my high school alma mater, the Moon Valley Rockets, compete on the road at Arcadia High School (18-8). Moon Valley (13-9) came into the game as winners of 3 of their last 4 games on the season, and looking to build some momentum before the state playoffs. The Rockets team is now fully healthy and playing their best basketball of the season, and at…
The Madison Meadows 8th grade boys team finished off an undefeated season (22-0), the first undefeated season in the school’s history. The Madison Meadows team, coached by Gary Thompkins, won the Valley Junior High Athletic Conference Championship (VAC) this week with a 68-35 win over Wig-Wam Creek Junior High (13-2). Madison Meadows won two different 8th grade tournaments this season – the MLK and Greenway HS tournaments. The team was led by the play of 7th grader Zeke Thompkins and also 8th graders – Zack Paloma, Moses Johnson and Ivan Palomar. Palomar was also selected as this year’s Team Most Valuable Player. “Who ever gets these 8th graders as high…
Shadow Mountain High School’s 6-foot-4, 165-pound senior guard prospect Craig Randall burst onto the Arizona high school recruiting scene immediately after moving to the state of Arizona this summer. A native of Ohio, where he played for several high-profile club programs and made a good name for himself, Randall has quickly developed into one of the elite unsigned senior prospects in the state this season. Randall, a high-scoring combo-guard prospect, immediately became an elite performer for the Matadors. With junior guard Michael Bibby Jr. out for the season with an injury, Randall has teammed up with 6-foot-4 junior J.J. Rhymes (21.3 ppg) to make…
Corona Del Sol High School’s ultra-talented 6-foot-1, 170-pound sophomore point guard prospect Alex Barcello is having a terrific sophomore campaign for himself – raising many eyebrows in the state amongst basketball enthusiasts. Barcello has quickly gone from a young contributor for the Aztecs last season, to the team’s leader and catalyst this season. In fact, there are some that believe that Barcello could now be the best individual player in the state. This week, Barcello did his part in proving to the state just how good he really is, after he poured in a career-high 51 points in his team’s high-scoring 106-92 victory…