After year’s without a men’s and women’s junior college basketball program, and after many years of success in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC) and nationally, Yavapai Junior College has announced their return to men’s and women’s junior college basketball during the 2022-2023 junior college season. The program, which was once heralded among the top junior college programs in the country, discontinued their basketball programs in 2011, and have not competed since. The program recently announced, in exciting fashion, their return to basketball competition next fall, and have chosen to hire former Division-I Head Coach Jay Joyner to lead their newly-reinstated men’s basketball…
Author: Anthony Ray
Glendale Junior College is back this junior college season to compete for another Division-II title in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC), and have retooled with numerous new prospects since the 2019-2020 junior college season, after sitting out the season last year due to the COVID pandemic. Glendale JC won the D-II Conference title in 2020, before the season ended due to COVID. I have observed the Glendale JC program several times this season, and here are the top overall prospects thus far that have stood out to me. Adam Hamilton 6-9 SOPH PF Glendale JC – 2022 Class Glendale JC’s top…
South Mountain Junior College is back this junior college season to compete for a Division-II title in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference (ACCAC), and have retooled with numerous new prospects since the 2019-2020 junior college season, after sitting out the season last year due to the COVID pandemic. I have observed the SMCC program several times this season, and here are the top overall prospects thus far that have stood out to me. Elijah Melendez 6-2 SOPH PG/SG South Mountain JC – 2022 Class The top overall prospect for this year’s team – Melendez is a very athletic guard…
The 2021 Santa Cruz New Year’s Shootout Tournament will be held December 27 – 29, 2021, @ Santa Cruz High School, and will include (10) different boy’s high school basketball programs for the event. Our Arizona Preps’ staff will be in attendance to cover this year’s exciting event, to bring you complete coverage of this year’s top teams and players for the event. We are excited to cover this year’s event. Stay tuned.
Many of the state’s top overall prospects in the 2022 senior class decided to make their college decisions this fall – leaving some very good prospects still on the table for college programs to pursue and take a hard look at this high school season. One of the state’s elite overall prospects that will have a tremendous senior season is Mesquite High School’s gifted 6-foot-3, 170-pound senior guard Nate Calmese. Calmese is a superb talent and is coming off a strong spring and summer for himself- setting himself up to have a huge senior season. There is not a better overall…
Big things can come in small packages. This is definitely the case when you see Mesquite High School’s talented and hard-working junior guard Cohenj Gonzales perform. Standing at a mere 5-foot-8 in height, Gonzales gets everything out of his smaller size and is one of the state’s best overall guard performers and prospects for college coaches to take a very hard look at. Gonzales is a walking bucket as a player and is also one of the state’s toughest overall players in the state. Coming from an amazing basketball family, this young man is definitely one to watch in Arizona’s…
One of the elite overall prospects in the 2023 Class nationally that most college scouts and media do not know about yet is Dream City Christian Prep’s 6-foot-8, 215-pound junior wing David Tubek. A very well-put-together prospect physically and a very fundamentally sound performer, Tubek is a big-time national talent that many college programs have already jumped on, but will become one of the nation’s top recruiting targets over time. Upon first seeing Tubek on the basketball court this fall, I marveled at the fact that he is only a mere junior prospect. Like many other elite national prospects before…
One of the elite overall prospects still uncommitted in Arizona’s 2022 class is Brophy Prep’s 6-foot-4 senior guard Patrick Chew. With many other top-rated prospects in the class currently off the recruiting board, Chew is set to return for his senior season, which will be his most important season to date. This season Chew will look to lead a very talented Brophy Prep team in the state’s tough 6A Division, and also look to gain more recruiting interest for himself, and ultimately make his college decision this spring. Chew and his Brophy teammates had a strong season last year -…
In exciting fashion, and after numerous exhibition games, the regular season for the Arizona Community College Athletic Association (ACCAC) got underway on Wednesday evening around the state with numerous league games taking place. In a complete tale of two halves, top-rated Cochise College, led by legendary Head Coach Jerry Carrillo, got back to business, after a COVID-stricken season a year ago where many ACCAC junior college programs either did not play or played a shortened season. Cochise, under Carrillo’s leadership, always plays laser-focused basketball with a high level of intensity on both ends of the floor. This level of intensity…
With the 2021-2022 high school basketball season now upon us, and set to get going in a major way next week, as pre-season basketball tournaments will begin kicking off next week for boys and girls basketball in the state, there are numerous prospects that will look to have big seasons for themselves. This up-and-coming high school basketball season is already exciting, as it will be a much more normal experience, after a serious COVID-stricken season last year made it difficult for players, teams and spectators to navigate and observe. One prospect this season that is looking to build on his…