Winston Neal, our in-house coach, spent the weekend at Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions and was looking for quality combo guards. He found some. Coach Neal breaks down his picks from the loaded event.

Grant Riller (Q6) – this long, athletic guard from Ocoee High School plays the PG but scores like a wing.   He’s got good length at the guard position and showed off impressive bounce with multiple dunks.   Opponents shouldn’t sleep on his jumper either, he’s got a good stroke and can make catch-and-shoot 3’s, as well as, pulling up off the bounce.   Per his coach he has offers from Kennesaw State and Abilene Christian with interest from College of Charleston, Wofford, Liberty, FIU, Gardner-Webb, La Tech, Mercer and Wyoming.  

Mike Stones (E1T1 Blue) – the talented combo just constantly makes winning plays.   He’s a coach on the floor, constantly talking and making sure his teammates are in the right place on Offense and Defense.   He has the ability to create off the bounce for himself or his teammates and has the range on his jumper to shoot it from deep.   He’s still a little bit of a sleeper this spring having not played in front of a ton of D1 coaches but he will be a hot name in July for A-Sun, Big South, OVC, and So Con schools.  

Barry Brown (E1T1) – this talented combo can really score the ball.   3’s, mid-range pull-ups, and getting to the rim, Barry can score at multiple levels.   He definitely has the pedigree of a scorer, his dad scored over 1,000 points in 2 years at the D1 level.   I would expect the MM+ programs to have to fight off HM schools for this young man’s signature in November.   He currently lists offers from Kansas State, Houston, FIU, and FGCU but got an offer from Western Kentucky during the tournament (sounds like there was at least one D1 coaching staff watching Gibbons on-line).  

Jaylen Fisher (Team Thad/pictured) – the guard from Memphis showed up late but once he got to Suwannee made his impact felt.   He can play both guard positions and just gets it done when he steps on the court.   HM programs in need of a talented playmaker should get on him ASAP. 

Winston Neal spent the last nine years as an assistant coach at Jacksonville University. He also coached at Southern Cal and Loyola Marymount. He played four years at Georgia Tech. You can reach him at coachwneal@gmail.com.