Top 250 Expos: New Names

Expos tend to shine spotlights on players more than any game or tournament, giving us new names to trumpet to scouts. The Top 250 Expo did that with amazing variety and quantity. Here are new faces to keep tabs on going forward. Ronald Kirk, 2021 - Dominican: Kirk dangled carrots for scouts on Sunday, showing flashes of a college-level potential. The biggest takeaway was his scoring, and the aggressiveness he showed while doing so. His willingness and comfort launching threes showed improvement since early summer, the last time I saw Kirk play in person. This time around, I got the sense of an established offensive toolset that was missing in grassroots play. If Sunday’s performance can dictate anything going forward, it’s that the junior has enough juice in him to make a push on the recruiting trail in the next two years. Adam Larson, 2021 - Fennimore: The lengthy forward raised eyebrows with an aggressive two-handed slam and a few skilled offensive plays. Larson, whose Expo performance was the first time I had watched him in person, piqued my interest enough for me to delve into his regular-season numbers. As a sophomore last season, the Fennimore product scored 17.5 points a night, drilling 42.5 percent of his threes, and blocked 66 shot attempts. He’s 6’8” entering his junior year, mind you. His dimensions alone could be the catalyst for college interest. Evan Glaser, 2020 - Appleton East: Glaser managed to send his stock into the stratosphere with a display of inside-outside scoring. He separated himself throughout the school season by shooting from outside, and he brought that skill to the fore on Sunday. Inside the paint Glaser was just as memorable, finishing over and around defenders with physical post play. Aiden Polzin, 2020 - Clintonville: On a roster helmed by three first-teamers in Zac Johnson, Jacob Newhouse, and Malik Abdul-Wahid, Polzin was thought to have been a complementary piece. But from wire to wire he was in contention for the top spot-up shooter and perimeter scorer at the Expo. Polzin proved himself as a knockdown three-point shooter, especially from the corner. It was blatantly obvious on Sunday that he has the shooting ability and size (6’4”) for a backcourt player to plug in impressive statistical performances. Asanjai Hunter, 2022 - The Prairie School: Being tweeted about once, then an hour later playing well enough to be tweeted about again proves that Hunter's play was article-worthy. My first tweet covered his ability to drive the ball into the gut of the defense and score. He was quick and agile when playing point guard, and managed to work through traffic with a series of body-contorting moves. My second tweet praised his jumper. Albeit not the cleanest form mechanically, it went down at a surprisingly high rate. Jalen Keago, 2021 - Oshkosh North: Keago has had his name dotted on tweets throughout the Prep Hoops Circuit season, appearing in games with Team 1848 as well as Wisconsin United. Those teaser performances all culminated this weekend, as Keago put out a well-rounded five hours of basketball deserving of recognition. Usually, his frame was sturdy enough to compete inside the lane. But for the forward, he relied quite a bit on mobility and an un-boxed playstyle. Keago floated out to the three-point arc for a good chunk of his points, but a lot of times he could sink back inside or attack the rim on the ensuing possession. Playing off-the-cuff, addressing every wound on a randomized roster, ultimately earned him a spot on this list. Mehki Shaw, 2022 - Eau Claire Memorial: Shaw fits the bill of a smaller, quick-footed point guard. The guard zagged through traffic on fastbreaks and slipped to the bucket for some nice isolation scores. His handle was noteworthy, and ultimately he played at a pace and level ahead of his peers. If he can emerge from the players of ilk — doing it in the manner that he did on Sunday — then he there are greener pastures ahead. Bryce Wallace, 2022 - Kenosha Indian Trail: The lengthy forward had one World Hoops staff member grinning wildly at his scoring abilities. In fact, I was just as excited. Wallace is a guy that pieced together an impressive move or two whenever I turned my head to watch his court. He found himself at the stripe quite a bit, drawing contact as if his arms taunted defenders, begging to be hacked at. He shot the ball with some nice consistency, but most of his impact was made in the trenches. I wouldn’t be surprised if the sophomore finds himself in the rankings sooner rather than later.