FanPost

I got to see some of our Basketball Recruits this weekend



I was fortunate enough to go see some games at a local High School basketball event this weekend, called "Holiday Hoopsgiving". The event featured some of the better Atlanta area teams as well as some very good National High School power teams.


On Friday I went to see Wesleyan against Gainesville Georgia (Deshaun Watson's High School). Wesleyan has a ton of talent including Maryland commit Aaron Wiggins.

On Saturday I went to see Montverde Academy against Westside from Macon Georgia. Montverde as most know is an absolute powerhouse and they are absolutely loaded this year. The talent includes Terp commits Makhi and Makhel Mitchell. They are only juniors so they are part of the 2019 class. Montverde also includes RJ Barrett the top ranked player in the 2018 class as well as a bunch of other high major players. I only stayed for the first half of the Montverde game as they were up 40 at the half. The team they were playing is actually a pretty good team with a very high 4 star of their own named Khavon Moore. That said, Montverde is just ridiculous (they look like a college team) and RJ Barrett is so darn smooth. The announcer doing the starting lineups also said where each starter is committed to, so I had to boo Barrett (Duke) loudly, and the people around me saw my Maryland pullover and laughed. Montverde had a starting lineup including Barrett, Mitchell as well as Andrew Nembhard a 5 star guard going to Florida, Filip Petrusev a high 4 star big going to Gonzaga and Michael Devoe a 4 star guard committed to Georgia Tech. They were also missing not only Makhel Mitchell but at least 2 other rotation players. They have to be the best High School team in the nation.

Now to the evaluations:

Unfortunately Makhel Mitchell has a broken foot so I was only able to see Makhi Mitchell, who happens to be the higher ranked of the twins. I was extremely impressed. He has a BIG body and he uses it well. He reminds me physically of a young taller Robert Carter. He is listed as 6'9. He is active on both ends of the court and has a nice touch and seems to have good hands. He is certainly a presence and has some "go get it" in him. He looks like a good rebounder and runs the court pretty well for a guy his size. Now he certainly needs to work on his body but he is only at the beginning of his junior year so he has time for that. Overall I was jumping out of my seat at times, saying out loud how excited I am about him.

Aaron Wiggins-in one word-unremarkable. If I wasn't there specifically to watch him, I wouldn't have noticed him. He certainly didn't stand out in any way. He scored by my count 7 points (2 baskets and 3 free throws). I am hoping it was just a day after Thanksgiving lull or malaise? He made a few bad decisions which put himself in foul trouble, and seemed like a good defender. Overall, I wasn't excited or impressed in the least, which was just extremely disappointing. Now his team has a lot of talent. Ironically Buzz Williams was in attendance to watch Wesleyan as he has ironically twins committed for the 2019 class Kobe and Keyshaun Langley (both very quick guards) and to me outplayed their fairly low 3 star rankings. Wesleyan also has a high 4 star commit named Jaylen Hoard who showed some nice flashes. Clearly though as least on this day Friday November 24th our guy Aaron Wiggins was the teams 4th best player. Hoping it was an off day (then again I wouldn't say he was bad, just unremarkable in every way).

As a side note, other than RJ Barrett one of the best players I have seen in a while was a kid named Ashton Hagans. He is a 6'4 junior point guard on Newton (GA). He is a 5 star and you can certainly see why. The kid has unbelievable vision, and just gets people in the right spot to make a play. Really good player, and it won't surprise me to see him in a Kentucky uniform come 2019-2020 season.

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