XposureRuns: Chitown Showcase – Brooks’s First Team

Today I had the opportunity to attend the Second Annual XposureRuns: Chitown Showcase. This Showcase was an invite only event, held in the middle of the city featuring players from across four different states. (IL, IN, IA, PA) Out of the 39 athletes that were in attendance, 8 of them are committed to compete at the Division-1 level already while 11 others currently hold Division-1 offers.

This event had a little bit of everything. It had high-level players, great people, a welcoming environment, and an atmosphere that you would need to see to believe. This Showcase is rapidly becoming one of the best throughout the city of Chicago and it’s only going to become more popular as time goes on. With that being said, over the next few days I will be highlighting multiple players from this event that stood out to me. To start off I am going to cover the five individuals that will make up my First Team selections. Each player below displayed a superior skill-set/demeanor compared to the others around them throughout the entire event today. They played at a high level and because of their play, their team was successful.

Thanks for tuning in and enjoy!

Accounting for things like skill, athleticism, and knowledge of the game are very important when trying to find a leader for your team to run the Point Guard position. The guard who displayed the best overall mixture of those things today on the floor was Gianni Cobb Gianni Cobb 6'0" | PG Homewood Flossmoor | 2024 State IL . Cobb is a guard that can keep it simple or he can speed things up and put some pressure on the defense each and every possession. At this showcase that was on full display along with much, much more. There are a lot of impressive things that Cobb does but his best ability in my opinion is his change of speed and his knowledge of when to use it. He never seems to be rushed or in a hurry and he does a great job of understanding what his defender is trying to do across from him. Looking forward at the collegiate level, if he can tighten up some of the unnecessary TO’s and command a little more from the others around him, he could make a big impact at Columbia.

This pick may come as a shock to some people that were in attendance but I think that Kaleb Jackson Kaleb Jackson 6'2" | PG Carmel Catholic | 2024 State IL made the most 3’s on the day and he probably had the best percentage doing it. In this situation, Jackson does have to give his teammates a lot of credit for finding him but on multiple occasions, in multiple contest, he was hitting deep three after deep three coming down the floor. You could tell that this isn’t something new to Jackson as he understands his space and ability really well. He knows where he wants to let the ball go from and if he is overplayed, he has the discipline to pump fake and attack off of the dribble. Jackson maybe a city kid but I know a few college coaches that would take him as a shooter any day. Today though, he showed out as one of the best. No doubt about that.

For anyone that was watching, it was obvious that Chris Riddle Chris Riddle 6'5" | SF Kenwood | 2024 State #204 Nation IL was the best player in the gym today. Riddle, a 4 star ranking SF and DePaul Blue Demons commit, did a little bit of everything in his efforts throughout the Showcase. Offensively, he displayed that he can score from all three levels at a high and consistent rate, against anyone standing in his way. Defensively, he used his superior mix of athleticism and knowledge of the game to create a lot of deflections/blocks against opponents that were attacking the rim. All in all, DePaul got a HOOPER with this one. I think that over-time Riddles game can adapt to any role that he is given. He showed a great attitude even when things got tough throughout his contests and in the end, he has one of the highest ceilings of anyone that competed at this Showcase, if not THEE highest.

Debatably the most in-control player of the Showcase was Angelo Ciaravino Angelo Ciaravino 6'6" | SF Mt. Carmel | 2024 State #160 Nation IL of Mt. Carmel. Ciaravino may not have scored in double digits every game but each contest he displayed more and more as to why he is committed to play at Northwestern University after this high school season. There were several occasions coming down the floor that Ciaravino took control. He showed off his bounce, his high motor, his fundamental game-play, his rebounding prowess, his ability to create for others, and his knowledge of situational basketball. When you take all of this into consideration and add height to it, you get a Big 10 basketball player and that is what Ciaravino is. I may be located in Hawkeye country myself right now but you’ll definitely find me cheering for this kid moving forward. You can tell that he loves the game and he brings joy to the other around him. Not to mention, he can really ball. Plain and Simple.

The biggest and one of the most dominate players on the floor today was Lathan Sommerville of Peoria Richwood High School. Sommeville is a Rutgers MBB commit and I can clearly see why. You always hear the phrase, “you can’t teach height.” Well, this is a perfect example of that. Sommerville stands at 6’10 and is very skilled. On multiple occasions he was catching the ball at the three point line and knocking down a shot from deep or taking his opponent off of the dribble, finishing the play with a powerful dunk at the rim. Looking toward the future, Sommerville does have some tendencies that are going to be pointed out to him once he gets to the collegiate level. If he can clean that stuff up, he is going to be another player we see competing on the Big 10 stage in the next few years. Speaking on just today’s performance though, he was someone who stood out more than most. He was the definition of dominate.