#PHLive 15U Eye-Openers: Part 1
We descended on the greater Kansas City area this past weekend for a huge turnout at the Prep Hoops Live event. I was stationed in Overland Park at the very cool Drive5 Energy Center with the 15U division, and with…
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Continue ReadingWe descended on the greater Kansas City area this past weekend for a huge turnout at the Prep Hoops Live event. I was stationed in Overland Park at the very cool Drive5 Energy Center with the 15U division, and with 6 courts going there was no shortage of action and sounds of the game.
A few diamonds may have gotten past us, I was not able to see every team, but here’s an opening 10 of the must-see eye-openers from the action I was able to take in (in no particular order).
David Cobin | PG | KC Spurs Black | 2024
Among the most polished of a deep PG pool at the event, smooth and slick with ball, showed off an efficient and high % mi9d-range shooting game as he cut into the teeth of the D, no trouble even at 5-8 getting downhill to the basket either, among the best hands on D as he was 1/2 step ahead of most, dropped 22 pts on Friday night in impressive fashion.
Iziah Purvey | PF | Gateway Knights | 2024
Fit in perfectly with a group of dangerous wings ( Heath Landwehr Heath Landwehr 6'3" | SG Borgia | 2024 MO , Brayden Gardner among several) as he was able to get space and use it down low at 6-3, he was also adept off the 2-3 dribble drive either from the corner or the elbow, soft hands and quick feet resulted in 18 pts Friday night and he rim-ran and got finishes as well as many forward all weekend.
Kyle Jorgensen | C | MN Chill Elite | 2024
Nice group of big men on hand for the 15U division and few had better post acumen than Jorgensen, he was comfortable stationing himself on the block, knew what to do with it when he got it with seals and body position, showed off a variety of spin moves and pump fakes and then could draw you out where he had a nice touch from 12 feet and in.
JT Rock | PF | South Dakota Attack | 2024
At 6-10 with pretty good movement and a soft shooting touch you’d expect some level of dominance, Rock is clearly a ball-player and not a “tall project”, he looked very comfortable from 3-land, wasn’t adverse to taking his game inside where he was more agile than he looked with jump hooks and reverse lay-ups off the catch, naturally he was a big-time shot eraser at the defensive end but he used smart timing to accent his height advantage.
Daniel Mitchell | SF | South Dakota Attack | 2024
Nice luxury at 15U to have a 6-10 forward (JT Rock) as well as a skilled 6-7 player like Mitchell, more of a slasher than Rock, liked to face up and drive it into traffic where he could get up over defenders or use sly moves to go around, great length on defense and as a rebounder, loved his catch and turnaround jumper game as he showed off some really sweet feel and touch with the mid-range stuff.
Dalyn Jackson | PG | Alabama Celtics | 2024 (pictured above)
Among the best at any position I saw all weekend, physical frame and the game to match it, at 6-0 he played bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else, his 18-pt first half against SD Attack Friday night was one of the weekend superlatives, he knocked down four 3s and powered his way to the basket both in the halfcourt and off the break in that game, an absolute stud PG prospect to watch out of the deep and talented Celtics program.
Cedric Summerhill | PF | Alabama Celtics | 2024
His performance against the huge SD Attack frontline immediately garnered him a place the weekend’s excellence, at 6-4 he took it right at the size and showed off a savvy game near the basket, dropped 14 and was a terror on the glass as well as he often out-worked and out-hustled the opposition, did show some shooting range out top the arc as well making him an even tougher matchup for opposing bigs.
Justin Hayes | SF | Go Hard Basketball St Louis | 2024
One of the weekend’s best fighter as he put up 25 pts early on Saturday morning and went after it hard, was a quickness problem at a long 6-2 as he both put it on the floor to drive it by you and shot off the deck near the basket with tough finishes, excellent instinctive rebounder and despite being a little lean was an active defender on bigger posts.
Jalen Freeman | CG | Kansas 94×50 Elite | 2024
Shifted from PG to the wing all game Saturday against Go Hard and finished with 15 hard-earned points, handled pressure well with the ball in his hands and was one of the division’s best distributors once he got past his defender, showed off nice floater game in the lane and was a pest on D both on the ball with deft hands and slipping into passing lanes.
Isaiah Bickers | SG | 816 Varsity Harbison | 2024
Good size and frame at around 6-2 making him a tough matchup for smaller, leaner defenders, showed off scoring talent from all spots on the floor, good burst off the dribble and he was creative when he faced traffic getting to the hole, had to be marked closely past the line and dropped a cool 14 (with 2 triples) in the first half Saturday against NEBC.