Pangos: Steve’s Top 2029 Prospects

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This past weekend De La Salle High School hosted the Pangos Midwest Camp. A prestigious event that usually caters to the top freshmen and sophomores from the surrounding states. This year we had several 8th graders from the Chicagoland area who made a big splash at the event. Here are the standouts.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2767906' first='Ronald' last='Johnson'] 6'2 Amelia Earhart Middle School&nbsp;</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I was very impressed with the command and control that Johnson played the game with. He displayed sound passing as he looked to get others involved first before searching for his shot. Ronald is effective off-ball screens. He showed good feel and elevated into elbow jump shots when the opportunity presented itself.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Da'Kylen Heard 6'3 Beasly Middle School</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A name I kept hearing about made a big splash at the Pangos event. A big guard Heard is a bouncy athlete with a slick handle who likes to put pressure on the defense by attacking the basket. His size for an 8th grader lets him do a lot of things on the court. Da'kylen looked good shooting from the perimeter as he made a pair of threes in a game on Saturday. As he continues to mature his defense will be just as menacing as his offense. I expect Heard to be in the mix of top names for our 2029 class. He was also selected to play in the Top 60 game.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Isaac Smith 6'5 Huth Middle school&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Smith is an athletic wing player who has a tremendous wing span for a kid in middle school. He was very active in the open court finishing plays with layups and showing good body control against stronger defenders. Isaac's best play was when he grabbed a board and drove coast to coast for a one-handed slam then followed it up with a three. Smith was selected for the top 60 games and is a player to keep track of going forward.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Elijah McKinnie 5'9 Ariel Middle School</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Elijah is next in line for the McKinnie family. He showed a leadership role playing PG and used crisp handles and passing to keep the older guys involved. As a scorer, he shot surprisingly well over the much taller guards. McKinnie has a ton of confidence and I never saw him backing down from the older guys.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->