Westwind Prep Academy’s National Team, while in their first year of operation as a team, has been blowing past much of their competition this season. After a two-week layoff over the holidays, the team returned to action on Sunday evening at the ARCH Recreation Center in North Phoenix in front of a nice-sized home crowd for themselves. Fresh off of the recent commitment by Westwind’s 6-foot-3 junior guard prospect Tate De Laveaga to Northern Arizona University on Saturday evening, and with Northern Arizona assistant coach Matt Dunn and Memphis University assistant coach Damon Stoudamire (former NBA player & U of A alum) attending the…
Author: Anthony Ray
It seemed like two different games on Saturday afternoon at Glendale Community College, as the depleted host Gauchos (5-9) took on visiting Tohono O’odham Junior College (6-12). Glendale JC went into Saturday’s match-up without the services of numerous players from this year’s team and losers of their last four games, while Tohono JC was looking for their first road win of their school’s young history. Glendale JC head coach Damin Lopez, a former division-I assistant coach from Pepperdine University and a former Arizona high school basketball legend, has worked very hard this season keeping his team together and also competitive, amidst having many…
Indian Hills Junior College (IA) has been regarded as one of the nation’s premier junior college basketball programs for as long as I have been covering men’s basketball and even longer – producing many professional players and loads of college basketball talent across the country. Historically, Arizona’s own Mesa Junior College has boasted the same results. So when the two storied programs came together on late Saturday evening, it made for a very interesting contest. Indian Hills (14-2) came into Saturday night’s contest as the nation’s #11 ranked team in the country (NJCAA poll), and sporting one of the most talented…
We recently reported that Westwind Prep Academy 6-foot-3, 185-pound junior combo-guard prospect Tate De Laveaga had two different division-I scholarship offers on the table for himself. Well, those two offers turned out to be enough for the talented 2014 guard prospect – enough for him to make his college decision. On Saturday afternoon, after speaking with the Northern Arizona coaching staff, De Laveaga decided to pull the trigger on his college recruitment – giving an early verbal pledge to Northern Arizona University head coach Jack Murphy and his hard working basketball staff. De Laveaga also held a scholarship offer from the University of Hawaii, but chose…
Highland High School (12-3) came into this year’s McClintock Holiday Shootout over the holidays with something to prove. After an early season 2-2 performance in the recent Fear The Hop pre-season basketball tournament, where they were blown out of the gym by a surging Corona Del Sol HS team in the event (66-39), Highland regrouped and won 7 of their next 8 games before entering this year’s winter tournament. While Highland was no one’s pre-tournament favorite to win this year’s McClintock event, the Hawks came together as a team at the right time of the season – confident they could get done. …
After posting two successful high school basketball careers in the state of Arizona and graduating from two different local high schools in 2011, Arizona products Sai Tummala and Cameron Forte would meet against one another in this year’s Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout at Mesa Community College on Friday afternoon. This time they would not be representing Brophy Prep and McClintock High School, but rather #2 nationally ranked Howard JC (TX) and Salt Lake City Junior College (UT). Forte and Tummala are two Arizona high school products with very different makeups, but with very similar paths. 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Cameron Forte,…
On day two of this year’s McClintock Holiday Shootout, there was more exciting action taking place as each of the top teams in the field looked to advance even further in the tournament – hoping to land in the tournament’s final game on Saturday evening. The best game of the day saw a very well-coached Mountain Ridge High School (7-7) team take on a gritty Highland HS (10-3) team for the opportunity to advance to the tournament’s semi-finals. Mountain Ridge, coached by valley basketball veteran Eli Lopez, has really developed as a team and as a basketball program quickly over…
The one good thing about the conclusion of Christmas day is the beginning of holiday basketball tournaments around the state. With each of the state’s elite boy’s basketball programs in competition, it is always a joy to sit in a gym for 12-straight hours and watch high school basketball, rather than working for corporate America – atleast for 2 or 3 days during the holidays. One of the state’s top holiday tournaments for the past 20 years has been the McClintock Holiday Shootout. While the tournament was once the elite basketball tournament in the state, the event has seen it’s struggles over the past 5 years attracting…
Arizona’s 2014 class of girls prospects is loaded with talent, although many of the names are not household names, as of yet. While the 2013 class of prospects was absolutely loaded with division-I talent, the 2014 class is still defining itself for college programs. One of the top prospects in the class is 3-time defending state champion, Seton Catholic High School’s 5-foot-10 junior post Julia Barcello. Barcello is among the state’s elite prospects in the class, although most college coaches are still evaluating her as a player. In our last summer player rankings, Barcello checked in as our #2 overall prospect…
After St. Mary’s High School (10-1) lost their first game in three seasons on Friday evening to eventual tournament champion Mater Dei HS (CA) in this year’s Nike Tournament of Champions, the lady Knights would return to action on Saturday evening in another major contest. Facing previous #1 nationally ranked (by MaxPreps) Bishop O’Dowd HS (CA), St. Mary’s would look to begin another win streak. Bishop O’Dowd would jump out to a 9-6 early in the first period, but St. Mary’s, playing in a much more fluid offensive style than their previous game, would come back to take a 14-9…