Border League: California Standouts (Part V)

<p>Last weekend’s Border League event featured many of the top programs on the west coast with state representation from teams in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and more. Games from the highest division, the Top Flight Division, were featured on ESPN 2 Sunday with the title game resulting in IMG Academy defeating Coronado (NV) led by University of Texas-commit Tamar Bates and highly-regarded center Moussa Diabate.</p> <p>The California representation featured two CIF Southern Section Open Division-caliber teams, which were not able to go by official school names due to the event being out of season, including “Big Red” based out of Santa Ana and “Husky Nation” based out of Corona. Other SoCal based programs included “Eagle Select,” “San Diego Falcons,” “MoVal Mustangs,” and “NC Mavs,” among others.</p> <p>In this piece we take a look at some of the California based players who put together strong efforts during the Border League event.</p> <p><strong>Mouhamed Gueye</strong>, Prolific Prep - The active, long and athletic big man proved to be a tough matchup for opposing defenses. At 6-feet-10, the class of 2022 forward has the ability to stretch the floor to the three-point line, attack straight-line drive opportunities and get to the rim and is a great rim-runner in transition who consistently beats his defender down the floor to earn high percentage baskets. </p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="680223" first="Luke" last="Turner"]</strong>, Eagle Select - The transfer from Rancho Christian looked very comfortable with his new squad. The 6-foot-7 wing was on all weekend from three-point range, hitting consistently on catch-and-shoot opportunities to go along with pick-and-pops and shots off of pin-down screens. There were a couple times where Turner showed great interior footwork and touch off the glass.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="747105" first="Alex" last="Wade"]</strong>, San Diego Select - Wade was another true point guard who put on a great display of pace control and finding teammates in their comfortable scoring areas. The 6-foot senior is a high level passer with a sharp basketball IQ and understands how to run a team efficiently. Offensively, Wade is a consistent three-point shooting threat off the catch, operates well out of high ball screen action and does a nice job of getting paint touches. His highlight game at this event was a 26-point, 14-assist effort.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="680249" first="Dillon" last="Wilhite"]</strong>, San Diego Select - Wilhite is one of few still-available senior big men who should make an impact at the Division I level. The 6-foot-9 center was a double-double machine at the Border League with his fundamental approach to rebounding the defensive glass and impressive low-post skillset complete with a deep package of back-to-the-basket moves.</span></p>