The Holiday Classic: Top AZ Players
The Holiday Classic was hosted by Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. There were a lot of very talented teams in attendance, especially from Arizona. Here are the top AZ players from the tournament:
Jaelen House (Shadow Mountain 2019):
Does this kid ever get tired? He was all over the place! I am always so impressed by the pure passion and heart this kid plays with, it is really impressive and admirable. House had a great game, scoring 34 points and getting a ton of steals.
Jovan Blacksher (Shadow Mountain 2019):
While House is the heart and soul of that Shadow Mountain team, I would argue that Blacksher is the most important piece in their offense. He has a great ability to move the ball around as well as moving his teammates around and getting them open. He had some amazing passed that led to open looks for his teammates. Size has always been what has held Blacksher back, in terms of recruiting, however he was absolutely working much larger guards. Size is not an issue with how this young man plays.
Jalen Graham (Mountain Pointe 2019):
Graham looked very solid today, scoring the ball at will down low. He struggled to find his jump shot, but worked his defender on the block all game long. He finished with 28 points.
Khalid Price (Mountain Pointe 2019):
I really like the combo of Graham and Price. Price is a very smart guard and he demonstrated that again. He looked very good as he tried willing his team back from a massive deficit. They eventually cut it to single digits but fell short, the huge comeback would not have been possible without Price’s smart guard play.
Evan Nelson (Salpointe 2020):
Nelson really impressed me with his efforts on the boards. He is super athletic and has great leaping ability and it was on full display. He was out jumping the other team and gathering boards left and right. He also shot the ball extremely well, as he is quick to get hot from deep.
Majok Deng (Salpointe 2019):
Deng showed by he is a D1 player. He was in full control of the game and could score at will. Often would he call for the ball and absolutely work his defender. His jump shot looked very pretty, having a very high release, making it very hard to guard his shot.