St. Mary’s High School’s 6-foot rising junior guard/forward Courtney Ekmark had an excellent sophomore season under her father, St. Mary’s head coach Curtis Ekmark. The season was perfect for the Ekmark family and also the St. Mary’s basketball program, as the team finished with a perfect 30-0 season record – winning the state’s Division-I state championship for the second year in a row and also capping off a season where the Knights were the #1 ranked team in America. The Knights would win this year’s national championship, while also winning the tournament championship in the top division of this year’s prestigious Nike Tournament of Champions. Could…
Author: Anthony Ray
We continue our new Summer Player Rankings with our next release – the 2013 class summer player rankings for centers. This position, while small in number, is loaded with some talented prospects, and has as many division-I prospects at the position as any other positions in the 2013 class. Leading the way for this spring’s rankings at the position is Brophy Prep’s 6-foot-9 rising senior post Tim Kempton. Kempton has developed a great deal over the past year and, as a result, he receives our top spot at the position. Kempton had his best season of his high school career for Brophy…
We continue our new Summer Player Rankings with our next release – the 2013 class summer player rankings for power forwards. This position is loaded with some talented prospects, and has as many division-I prospects at the position as any other positions in the 2013 class. Leading the way for this summer’s rankings at the position, as he has since he entered the high school ranks, is Mesa Dobson High School’s 6-foot-8 rising senior transfer Torren Jones. Once regarded among the top 50 prospects nationally, Jones has seen his national ranking take a hit since entering the high school ranks. After receiving his first big scholarship offer…
Scottsdale Desert Mountain High School’s talented 6-foot-7 unsigned senior forward Austin Cooke has decided on a college home – making his decision on a local junior college program. After carefully considering his recruiting options, Cooke has decided to take his game to Central Arizona Junior College next season – signing with head coach Jordan Dreiling and his staff recently. Cooke had considered many schools during his recruiting process, including Southeastern Oklahoma, Mesa State and Nebraska-Kearney before deciding to head the junior college route, in an effort to maximize his college recruitment before moving on to a bigger school. Cooke’s father Jeff Cooke…
Mesquite High School’s 6-foot-3 graduating senior guard guard Sami Bzai had a long wait during the recruiting period, but it is finally over for the sharp-shooting guard prospect. After a long recruiting period for himself, Bzai signed a national letter of intent this weekend while on an official recruiting visit for himself to Nebraska-Kearney – an NCAA division-II basketball program located in Kearney, NE. Assistant coach Kevin Lofton was instrumental in the recruitment of Bzai, and has worked hard in recruiting the state of Arizona as of late. Lofton also recently reeled in former Arizona State transfer and Fairfax High School graduate Pierre Newton.…
As we prepare to complete our rankings for post players among the 2013 class, one player that has made the most significant jump in the spring player rankings is Independence High School’s 6-foot-7, 195-pound rising senior forward Jonathan Wilson. While being a rather unknown prospect among the state’s top players just a year ago, Wilson has made a significant splash this spring – enough to make a significant jump into our player rankings for post players in the 2013 class. Wilson is currently receiving serious interest from Weber State, Northern Arizona, Southern Utah and Idaho State. Wilson is still a work in…
Brophy Prep 6-foot-9 rising senior post Tim Kempton is among the top post prospects in Arizona’s 2013 class. While the class is actually loaded with post talent, Kempton has developed into one of the top overall prospects. The son of former NBA veteran player and Phoenix Suns analyst Tim Kempton Sr., the younger Kempton made his impact felt this high school season – leading his team to a 23-8 record on the season and a Division-I state playoff quarterfinal finish. Kempton had his best season of his high schoo lcareer for Brophy head coach Tony Fuller this season, and, as a result, is…
We continue our new Summer Player Rankings with our next release – the 2013 class summer player rankings for small forwards. This position is also filled with some talented prospects. Although not many division-I prospects, there are many prospects for smaller college programs to take a hard look at. Leading the way for this summer’s rankings at the position is Paradise Valley High School’s 6-foot-6 rising senior forward Paul Watson. Watson, once regarded among the top 100 prospects nationally, has seen his national ranking take a hit since last summer. After a very good junior season at Paradise Valley, he has had a very…
We continue our new Summer Player Rankings with our next release – the 2013 class summer player rankings for shooting guards. This position is filled with some talented prospects – making it difficult to complete our player rankings this spring. Unlike the point guard position, there are more division-I prospects at this position for the class and many players that have proven an ability to play collegiately. Leading the way for this summer’s rankings at the position is Poston Butte High School’s 6-foot-3 rising senior guard Jalen Richard. Richard is a nice success story for this year’s rankings, as he was an almost unknown prospect a little over a year…
For some prospects in Arizona that were lesser known performers during the high school season, one player that has used the spring evaluation period to increase his exposure to college coaches and will benefit in this week’s Summer Player Rankings is Red Mountain High School’s 6-foot-3 rising senior shooting guard prospect Travis Meeker. An unheralded prospect before the spring, Meeker had a strong spring showing for himself while playing for his club program, the Arizona Stars – enough to make a jump into our rankings for the shooting guard position among the 2013 class. While I had not seen much of…