Sunnyslope High School’s recent transfer, 6-foot-3, 185-pound junior combo-guard prospect Sammy Thompkins is coming off a strong sophomore season and an even stronger performance this spring and summer on the club circuit. As a result, Thompkins is now beginning to generate serious recruiting interest for himself among many college programs across the country. This week, Thompkins received his first official scholarship offer and it is a nice one for the talented guard prospect. While watching Thompkins work out this week at his high school program, San Jose State University assistant coach Jack Kennedy attended the workout and came away impressed with Thompkins’ ability enough to…
Author: Anthony Ray
In what was a very big surprise to basketball enthusiasts in the state of Arizona this summer, and in case you missed it, Mesa High School’s talented and gifted 6-foot-4 junior point guard prospect Jalen Jenkins has decided to leave his high school program in an attempt to land at another academic institution in the state of Florida. Jenkins was regarded as the state’s top overall 2015 prospect last season, and would have entered the 2013-2014 high school basketball season as one of the state’s elite overall prospects. Instead, Jenkins has left the state and now Arizona will lose one of our…
Pinnacle High School came up just short of winning last year’s Division-I state championship last season, after losing a first half lead to eventual state champion Corona Del Sol in the second half of a championship nail-biter. In the process, head coach Charlie Wilde and his team learned a lot about their group and saw the emergence of a couple key contributors for this up-and-coming 2013-2014 high school basketball season. One of these emerging prospects during a strong season where Pinnacle finished with a 26-7 overall record was skilled 6-foot-7 senior power forward prospect Ty Griffin. Throughout the high school season and…
Arizona’s 2016 class of boys prospects looks to be another talented class for the future within the state of Arizona, as many prospects in the class have already seen major minutes at the high school varsity level in the state. While many prospects in the class will begin to receive opportunities this fall on their respective varsity teams, one prospect that has already made his case among the elite overall prospects in the class is Westview High School’s 6-foot-1, 165-pound sophomore point guard prospect Kendall Barnes. The son of long-time former successful college coach Kip Barnes, Kendall is a nice young talented point…
We continue our new Post Summer Player Rankings with our next release – the 2014 class player rankings for shooting guards. This position is very loaded with some talented prospects, and while there are not many division-I prospects at the position, there are many very good basketball prospects that will play at the Division-II and Division-III levels of college basketball. Continuing to lead the way for these new rankings at the position is Pinnacle High School’s talented 6-foot-4 senior guard Dorian Pickens. Pickens is among the top prospects in the country at his position. While once regarded among the top 50 players in the…
On Sunday, September 8th, I traveled to the Avondale Sports Complex to catch the action in this year’s Desert State Elite 150 Exposure Showcase. Organized by Ron Coleman of the Southwest Showcase, this event was comprised of more than 80 different girls basketball prospects from the state of Arizona, and from many different classes. This was an excellent opportunity for me to catch a glimpse of some of the state’s top younger prospects. I really enjoyed observing the action at this weekend’s event, as there were many good prospects in action. Ron Coleman always does an excellent job of putting together his…
Mountain Pointe High School’s girls basketball program was among the most talented teams in the state last season, after posting a 26-6 overall record last season and an impressive 14-1 record in Division-I’s Section-III Class. A major reason for the performance of last year’s team was the well-balanced attack of the Pride. One member of this well-balanced attack proved to be a strong prospect for the future – 5-foot-9 sophomore forward Tilasha Oakey. Oakey, in her first season of high school varsity basketball and also her first high school season all together, proved to be one of Arizona’s top 2016…
While his individual college recruitment has yet to fully take off, Desert Mountain High School’s gifted 6-foot, 165-pound senior point guard Rolando Rhymes is among the best pure talents in the state of Arizona. While being a member of the state’s very loaded 2014 class, Rhymes has developed himself into one of the state’s top overall prospects, and also one of the state’s most difficult players to defend. No high school player in the state last season had a better season from beginning to end than Rhymes. After a season of sitting out due to AIA transfer rules, Rhymes returned to action last season and…
Arizona’s 2016 class looks to be another very talented class of prospects for the state of Arizona. While it is still very early in the process, there are many prospects that have already risen to the top of the class. One of the top overall prospects in the class has quickly become Brophy Prep’s 6-foot-3 sophomore combo-guard prospect Brock Brunkhorst. Among the elite scorers in the class already, Brunkhorst is coming off a strong spring and summer performance where he made his move up the 2016 class rankings. The first thing that comes to mind with Brunkhorst is his recognizable…
While many of the state’s top prospects looked to the spring and summer for an opportunity to raise their level of college recruitment, this was not the case for former Westwind Prep 6-foot-3 senior guard Tate De Laveaga (Northern Arizona commit). As a member of Arizona’s strong 2014 class of senior prospects, De Laveaga wrapped up his college recruitment very early in the process – giving an early verbal commitment to Northern Arizona University and head coach Jack Murphy and his basketball staff last fall. After giving his commitment, Tate simply focused on getting better and continuing his strong development…