Central Cali Prospects Jr/Sr Showcase: Standout Guards

Last Sunday, August 24th, Central Cali Prospects hosted its 5th Annual Junior/Senior Showcase, an event that has featured some of the top upperclassmen in the Section the past 4 years, and this year's event was the best one yet as far as depth of talent, size, skill, and next level prospects. The showcase was held at Bakersfield High School, in Central California, and featured 60 players from various areas throughout the Section, such as Santa Maria, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford, Visalia, Reedley, Kingsburg, and Lemoore. Players were placed on preset rosters and made up five teams, using NBA team names as follows: Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Suns, and Kings. Each team, or player, played in two showcase games, which was set up in a 5 game format. The event also featured a recruitment discussion with JUCO players, to provide participants with information and knowledge of what the current recruiting environment is like. This article looks at 6 standout guards from the Junior/Senior Showcase, and provides their scoring and rebounding statistics, as well as a brief summary of their skill sets. This is the final article that will be part of the Junior/Senior showcase series of articles. The players are not listed in a ranked order, but alphabetically. I begin with lead guard Brock Beshwate.    Beshwate is coming off a strong Spring and Summer of club ball, and he brought his savvy lead guard play to the Junior/Senior Showcase. Beshwate had 9 points and 5 rebounds in his first game, which was followed by a 12 point and 4 rebound game. Beshwate keeps the ball on a string to survey the court, and has the court vision and precision passing to find open teammates from the top of the key, or off the dribble drive. Beshwate uses the hesitation, the toss cross, and the crossover to get by his initial defender, gets into his defender to use the spin move to evade his opponent, and has good body control through contact on shots around the basket. Beshwate is effective with the 3-ball off the dribble or the catch, and has touch on the floater down the lane.     Canales is a sharp shooting combo guard that can create his own offense, as well as make plays for others. Canales had a strong second game showing at the Junior/Senior Showcase. Canales has solid handles, uses the toss cross, behind the back cross, and between crossover to get his defender off balance, is accurate with the jumper from the mid-range to the 3-point line off the dribble, and is a creative finisher around the basket, with use of the up and under lay-up to evade the bigs in the paint. Canales has good court vision, finds open teammates off the dribble drive and kick out pass, and weaves his way through the defense to find openings to score the ball. His ability to score the ball at 3-levels makes him a tough assignment to defend and will likely be the go to guy for Reedley this coming season.     Coulton is coming off a huge junior season, which led to an appearance in the D5 State Championship Game. He continued his high-level of play over the Spring and Summer with What Wins club team, and Coulton continued his high-level of play at the Junior/Senior Showcase. Coulton scored 17 points and 5 rebounds in his first game, which was followed by 11 points and 6 rebounds. Coulton is a good positional rebounder, has the handle to push the pace of play in transition, and has the court vision to find players up the court, as well as make pin-point passes in the half court setting. Coulton continues to expand his scoring arsenal, with use of the behind cross, in-and-out dribble, and the between crossover to create space from his defender, efficiency on the jumper from the mid-range to the 3-point line off the bounce, and has touch on the floater from the baseline or down the lane. Coulton has good body control when taking contact on the jump shot, as well as through contact down the lane. Coulton will finish out his high school career at Immanuel, after parting ways with Fresno Christian.     Curtis is a physical and skilled lead guard that looks to push the pace of play, as well as applying pressure on defense to opposing perimeter players. Curtis has a strong handle on the ball, uses the crossover and the hesitation to get his defender off balance, has good body control on the mid-range jumper, and is effective with the 3-ball off the dribble or off the catch. Curtis has active hands on defense, gets into his opponent's dribbling space, and pokes the ball out to turn defense to offense and get out into transition. Curtis has good court vision, makes good reads coming off the ball screen, and has a relentless motor on both ends of the court.     Foster is a good sized combo guard that crashes the boards and can hit shots from beyond the arc to open up the court. Foster had two impressive rebounding games, with 8 and 6 rebounds respectively at the Junior/Senior Showcase. Foster showed he can alter shots on the perimeter, with good instincts and timing to close out on perimeter players, has nice touch around the basket on put backs or finishes around the rim, and can spread the floor with the 3-ball off the catch. Foster has enough handle to push the pace of play in the open court, and makes good reads from the top of the key.     Kellogg is an athletic and wiry combo guard that has elite bounce and is a ball-hawk on defense. Kellogg opened up the event with 14 points and a pair of threes, followed by 12 points and 5 rebounds, and may have had the highlight of the event, with the putback dunk to end the first half of play that had me out of my seat and running the baseline dapping up players on the baseline. Kellogg is a tough on-ball defender, with active hands to poke the ball out, and the timing to jump passing lanes, and turn defense to offense routinely. Offensively, Kellogg is accurate with the 3-ball off the dribble and off the catch, with the stepback jumper in his arsenal, has the moves to get by his defender, gets good lift on his jump shot, and is a creative finisher around the basket to evade height at the rim. He is able to absorb contact attacking down the lane, and has enough court vision to find players moving off the ball.

Last Sunday, August 24th, Central Cali Prospects hosted its 5th Annual Junior/Senior Showcase, an event that has featured some of the top upperclassmen in the Section the past 4 years, and this year's event was the best one yet as far as depth of talent, size, skill, and next level prospects. The showcase was held at Bakersfield High School, in Central California, and featured 60 players from various areas throughout the Section, such as Santa Maria, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford, Visalia, Reedley, Kingsburg, and Lemoore. Players were placed on preset rosters and made up five teams, using NBA team names as follows: Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Suns, and Kings. Each team, or player, played in two showcase games, which was set up in a 5 game format. The event also featured a recruitment discussion with JUCO players, to provide participants with information and knowledge of what the current recruiting environment is like. This article looks at 6 standout guards from the Junior/Senior Showcase, and provides their scoring and rebounding statistics, as well as a brief summary of their skill sets. This is the final article that will be part of the Junior/Senior showcase series of articles. The players are not listed in a ranked order, but alphabetically. I begin with lead guard Brock Beshwate.