Fantastic 40 Recap: Local Standouts

<p>One of the best events of the season took place last weekend. The Fantastic 40 hosted by recruiting legend Dinos Trigonis began on Friday, March 19th, and ended Sunday, March 21st. The event featured some of the top grassroots programs from around the country. A few local teams made the trek down South to compete. In this article, we take a look at some of the standouts from the event. </p> <p><strong>Russ Gibson</strong> <em>6’1 SG Salt Lake Rebels 2024</em> - Gibson has a slick handle and showed some quickness driving to the rim. Plays with a little flair, and it shows up in his passing. Loved his hockey assist ability, his first side attacks collapsed the defense several times allowing the ball to swing quickly for open shots. </p> <p><strong>Dai’shaun Buie</strong> <em>6’4 PF Salt Lake Rebels 2023</em> - I admire the heart, energy, and toughness Bule showed. The long forward played with a good motor and was willing to protect the rim. His ability to grab out-of-area rebounds was his best trait. The lefty showed the ability to score around the rim with his strong hand. </p> <p>Eric Mulibea <em>6’8 C Team Kongo 2022</em> - A wide-body post, Mulibea spent a lot of time carving out position down low. He showed decent hands when going for rebounds, was able to score off putbacks and offensive boards. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="966026" first="Preston" last="Squire"] <em>6’11 C Salt Lake Rebels (featured image)</em> - Was fun watching Squires play. He falls under the skilled 5 category. At almost 7 feet tall, he showed he’s comfortable facing up and shooting the 3. He’s not a great R&amp;J athlete, however, he’s smart and did a good job of using fundamentals to keep more athletic bigs off the glass. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1057041" first="KJ" last="Miller"] <em>6’4 SG Salt Lake Rebels 2024</em> - Miller came into the event with the reputation of a shooter and did nothing but enhance it. The freshmen showed textbook form and a knack for getting his shot off over opposing defenders. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="755626" first="Jackson" last="Holcombe"] <em>6’6 SG Salt Lake Rebels 2021</em> - Holcombe proved that his 20ppg scoring average was no fluke. He has great size for his position to go along with a nice skillset. He’s comfortable handling on the perimeter and getting to the hole. While known as a scorer, I was impressed by his passing. He showed good vision and an ability to find teammates on the move. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/7outzbballclub1">Follow Prep Hoops</a></p>