Prep Hoops Top 250: Top Big Men
The annual Prep Hoops Top 250 took place in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon. Throughout the week, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best players in the gym, in a series of articles breaking down the top…
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Continue ReadingThe annual Prep Hoops Top 250 took place in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon. Throughout the week, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best players in the gym, in a series of articles breaking down the top scorers, defenders, passers, etc. In this article, we take a look at the top five big men we saw on Saturday.
2021 Blake Daberkow (Lincoln Pius X, NE)
The big fella from Lincoln, Nebraska had a really strong showing in Des Moines on Saturday, particularly during the last set of games. The 6-7 lefty showed a smooth jumper out to about 15 feet, routinely knocking down open looks. And he showed some good footwork on the block as well. He’s a little heavy footed on the defensive end, and needs to improve his lateral movement a bit, but he has a solid skill set, good feet and touch around the rim. There is definitely some potential here.
2022 Ian Duffey (Lewis Central)
Duffey is listed at 6-9, which made him the biggest player in the gym on Saturday. He’s raw and needs to improve his left hand and touch around the rim, but he has some tools to work with. He has good, soft hands. He rebounds at a high level on both ends of the floor, and he’s a solid athlete who runs the floor well. He has decent feet right now, a few go-to moves that feature his right hand. If he can improve that left hand, and develop a few more moves that he can use as a counter when teams figure out his moves and his right hand, he could become a real force for the Titans. He’s young, just a sophomore, and there are certainly enough tools here to make him a name to monitor moving forward.
2020 Lucas Hayes (Bettendorf)
Probably the most well known of the big men in the group heading into Saturday, Hayes had a solid performance. The 6-8 forward is a big, physical body in the paint who will bang anyone around on the block. He has soft hands and good touch around the rim, and he rebounds the ball well. The left hand is still a work in progress, and if he wants to become a legitimate threat on the block, that will need to continue to develop, so he can get some counter moves going against defenders when they try to stop the right. In this day and age as well, it would be nice to see him add a bit of range to his game, but he’s a force on the block and should have a big senior season for a Bulldogs team that will need some scoring punch after the graduation of DJ Carton.
2020 Max Lampe (Cedar Rapids Prairie)
The 6-7 Prairie product keeps improving every time I see him, and he was strong again on Saturday. He’s one of the best passing bigs I’ve seen in quite a while, and that has always been a strength of his, but now he’s adding other attributes to that passing ability. His ball handling is much improved, and he can now play some point-forward at times, bringing the ball up the floor and playing through him. That ball handling is also allowing him to attack off the dribble in the halfcourt. He has a solid jumper, good hands, and competes on the glass on both ends of the floor. Also a high character, energetic teammate, he’s someone that Iowa Conference and area NAIA schools should be monitoring very closely.
2021 Malichai Williams (Southeast Polk)
Williams started the day strong, going toe-to-toe with arguably the best pure big man in the gym (Lucas Hayes) in his first game. He did a nice job battling Hayes, who is a big, physical kid, on the block, not giving up anything easily. Williams is a highly athletic, 6-5 big man with long arms who runs the floor extremely well and rebounds at a high level on both ends of the floor. He handles the ball fairly well for a young big man, and could be really good if he can add some range to his jumper, a proposition that seems possible given the way his free throw stroke looks.