The Sophomore Showcase: Guards to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The event had tons of guards. Guards from wall to wall. Here is a group of sophomore guards that caught my eye this weekend!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2915244' first='Alinur' last='Abdulkadir'] of Minnetonka. This six foot guard might have had the biggest flurry of baskets that I saw from any guard outside of KJ Wilson. The truth is I saw him attack to score, fade away to score, and transition score to finish the game, and just minutes earlier he a perimeter jumper as well. Doing my homework, this is a young man that has some fantastic ball handling skills and he had a nice season with Minnesota Gold 15u. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2891464' first='Anthony' last='Armstrong'] of Cretin-Derham Hall. This guard was moving through defenders like a crafty motorcycle moves through traffic. He was just changing direction to find a new angle over and over and over to playmake. Nice touch on the move, heady sense when he gets to space, and a player that I feel can help CDH as an upperclassmen, and maybe this year as well (that's a heck of a deep backcourt over there, and Anthony makes it deeper). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2452936' first='Paxton' last='Engelby'] of Andover. Now this is a crafty player at 5'10. He had a basket right in front of me with a could moves into an extending shot on the left side off the glass into a touched in finish. Really like his release, its quick and textbook and Paxton seemed to really understand positioning with the ball screen as he used the small windows really well to get that quick attempt off. He has a chance to be pretty good. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2560433' first='Braxdyn' last='Male'] of Esko. This is one of the toughest dudes that was at the camp. Defensively he used his positioning and strength to stop guys, and offensively he just went at people. He made angles to attack when they didn't appear to be any. Male played varsity last year and I think he has a chance to be sophomore all state for Class AA. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2560537' first='Tyriek' last='Martin'] of Hope Academy. I liked the aggressiveness of this 5'8 guard. When I saw him play Martin got down hill and did some good playmaking. As a freshman last season he was the 4th leading scorer for Hope Academy and he should have a big three years coming ahead of him. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2417228' first='Liam' last='Oakland'] of Northfield. Liam is likely more of a shooting two at 6'1/6'2, and I think he is going to keep doing that at a high level. Liam had some pretty big shooting games at the end of last season and then with the Fury this 15u season. He doubled down on that at the showcase with another couple big shooting performances. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2814493' first='Jayden' last='Symiczek'] of Esko. Keep an eye on this young man. As a 5'11/6'0 guard he played junior varsity last year and a little varsity from what we can see. He is a quarterback, a shooter and a guy that was confidently doing things with the ball without dominating the ball. Hit some shots but tried to play smart in a scenario where the ball didn't move out of some hands. I think he can help the varsity soon. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2954040' first='Zachariah' last='Turner'] of White Bear Lake. I really liked what this 5'11 guard did in both the 3 on 3 and in the full court stuff. When it comes to guards six foot and under at a young camp, they are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. So you have to find a way to separate yourself and I thought the aggressive and balanced attacks finished by Turner really stood out to me. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->