Border League Sweet 16 Top Performers, Part I
LAS VEGAS, NV - The Sweet 16 division had some of the very best games of the weekend at the loaded Border League. Let’s dive into part I of the top performers from our time in the gym with the division on Saturday at Bishop Gorman High School.
RELATED: Top Flight, part I | Top Flight, part II
Always a step ahead, Thomas plays the game like an offensive coordinator. He knows where hie teammates are going to be and he’s happy to see them get the bucket over himself. Don’t mistake it, though, Thomas can get a bucket. Plenty of them. His control and command of the game is tremendous. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re a fan of Chris Paul, you’re going to be a fan of what Thomas does on the court. He is what you hope your point guard is. Perhaps the biggest indicator of his talent is the amount of wins he’s been a part of during his prep career. The young man just wins. There is a reason why his top six include UCLA, UNLV, Florida, Houston, Arizona and Gonzaga.
If you look at Prolific Prep from the very top and try to single out just one player from the weekend and deem him the team’s MVP, that may be hard to do. The group worked well together and balanced out their production en route to the Sweet 16 championship. That said, if you look at Holloway’s impact from the backcourt and saw what he did as an engine of this offense, you can see his overall value really well. The future Auburn guard used his dynamic quickness to get to whatever spot he wanted and he created a tempo that really got this Prolific team in a good flow. Defensively, he’s a disruptor. Bruce Pearl certainly has a type when it comes to his guards and Holloway checks the right boxes. A good decision-maker in speed, a good scorer, a good ball-handler and a good defender, Auburn fans should be excited about him. For Prolific, they should be stoked about having him run the show this season.
He just keeps getting better and better. And for Harvard-Westlake, they’ll need him to be at his peak as they contend for a CIF championship. His shot-making has always been a weapon and we saw him drill some big ones against some high-level competition. This was a consistently good weekend for Perry. The class of 2024 guard looks like he’s ready for a more alpha role than a support role. He’s been good as a role guy on a very good team. From what we saw from him at the Border League, I think it is safe to say he’s ready for the bigger role this season. On the recruiting front, Perry recently took an official visit to Colorado. Vanderbilt went full staff on Saturday to see him play. Stanford is also a player here.
It could be a big senior season in store for the Kansas State-bound guard. Jones was the clear go-to option for the Utah powerhouse at the Border League. He played like the guy who is ready to be at the helm of the WA ship. When it comes to shot-making, the Texas native knows how to square up and pump it in. We could be looking at a major scorer during his tenure at Kansas State with Jones. He’s getting fine-tuned for a big role from the outset in college this season at Wasatch. We saw big shots and great command from him at the Border League.
It was a Duke-centric weekend with guys like Foster, Sean Stewart and Jared McCain all doing work in Vegas. Now in California, Foster is quickly making his presence felt in the Golden State. We are seeing the full bag from hiim so far in the preseason. Foster scored well at all three levels and played like a guy who knows exactly what to do to exploit a defense. He picked teams apart at the Border League. As we look ahead to the upcoming scholsatic season, two things come to mind with Foster: Notre Dame is a real contender in the CIF for a state title and Foster is making it hard to argue against him as a burger All-American.
This was the best I’ve ever seen the Vegas wing play in a big sample-size event. The 6-foot-5 wing looks like he’s really levelled up as a prospect and a player. This weekend was all about consistency for him. The motor never idled and he showed that he can be a threat on both sides of the floor. We saw him hold his own against the best players in the field and he never once shied away from a challenge. As a slasher, he did good work going right to the rim. As a shooter, he did a nice job of drilling the open shot with some consistency. You could argue he was the best stock raiser in the entire field.
