2019s Malik Hall and Blake Hinson standout for Sunrise Christian Academy
Sunrise Christian School took home the first place trophy this weekend after beating St. Benedict’s Prep on Saturday in the Saint James Invitational championship game. Their success in the three day highly touted showcase was largely in part because of two 6’7 2019 prospects on their team. We are talking about Malik Hall and Blake Hinson. I talked to both of them after they beat national powerhouse Findlay Prep on Friday in the semifinals.
“It is definitely big for our program and big for our year. We want to accomplish some big things this year and that win helped us get closer to what we want”, Hall said.
Malik is a prospect that lets the game come to him while on the court. He remains calm during adversity and doesn’t try to overthink situations. I was very impressed with his decision making in the win. He showed that he can shoot the ball and score inside around the basket. Multiple schools are in constant contact with Hall and he talked about his recruitment.
“Recruitment is going really well, I am blessed to have 15 offers so I am blessed to be where I am at and there are several other schools that are in the mix that have not offered me yet so it is a blessing.”
It doesn’t seem like there is a complete favorite right now for Hall after talking to him, “All of them stick out to me, they are all really good programs and they all have really good coaches and I am looking forward to getting on some visits this spring and summer.”
He discussed some schools that he wants to visit, “I definitely want to go to schools that I haven’t been to yet. I have not been to Oregon yet so I will probably go out there. I will probably go to Wisconsin and probably a bunch of other schools because I didn’t go but to one school this summer and I will definitely go to more this spring and summer.”
“I definitely get hit up from Oregon a lot, Coach Mennenga hits me up about two to four times a week”, he said.
He has been impressed with the success that Oklahoma is having this year, “It is nice to see how Coach Kruger is having success and how Trae Young is doing so well there. It is like a giant family out there and I really like it. It is a really good program and that staff does a really good job.
He visited Missouri this fall, “I visited Missouri this fall and I got to hang out with them and it is definitely a good school. The coaches are great and I love the whole staff. They are really nice and they take good care of the guys.”
There is still a lot to figure out with his future which is why we don’t expect a decision to happen anytime soon, “A decision will probably be made during the season next year or probably at the end of the summer.”
Like mentioned in the beginning, Blake Hinson had a very successful tournament and he came up huge in the final minutes before beating Findlay Prep.
“I am always feeling it, it is what I do, my teammates trust me, they get me the ball and I trust in myself to make shots.”
Blake demonstrated that he can pick his spots on the court very well. He is a magnificent three-point shooter and is very comfortable with the ball in his hands.
Right now it seems like it is a five team race in landing Hinson’s talents who also holds many high major offers in football, “Washington State is going hard, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Seton Hall, SMU and Wichita State make up the top six right now.” He broke down five schools for us.
Washington State: “Good program, extremely good program, they like me and I like them so it might be something in the future.”
Vanderbilt: “I like the recruiting class that is coming up, I like how it could be a big power move coming into the SEC and I would love to be a part of that also.”
SMU: “SMU, everybody knows historically good basketball program, always in the tournament so that is also a great program and it is obvious that they will always be an impact team in college basketball.”
Wichita State: “Wichita State is going to be Wichita State, they are going to run the same system, it is going to keep coming each year and they are going to be good going forward.”
Seton Hall: “I love that system, the system they run there is great for players like me and me and them talk a lot and just like every other school, we will plan a visit up there.”