The Renaissance at Westlake HS: Standout Lead Guards Pt. 2

This past Saturday, I attended The Renaissance Showcase at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, which featured a 7-game schedule starting at 10:30 a.m. and going until 7:30 p.m., the start of the final game. The showcase featured some of the nation's top players, as well as some known names on the West and some up-and-comers that are making statements early in their high school careers. This article looks at 8 standout lead guards from Saturday's event, which is Part 2 of the look at standout lead guards. This will be followed by articles on guards/wings and wing/forwards. The players are listed in alphabetical order, not in ranked order. We begin this article with emerging national prospect guard [player_tooltip player_id='2646501' first='NaVorro' last='Bowman'] Jr. of Notre Dame.    Bowman is a skilled and athletic player that can score in volume, is a tough on-ball defender, and applies relentless pressure on both ends of the court. The 6-foot-4 combo guard keeps the ball on a string to survey the defense, has a low dribble to weave through the defense to find openings, uses the crossover, behind cross, and the hesitation to get by his initial defender, has a nice burst of speed off the bounce to get paint touches, with the body control and footwork to score through contact en route to the basket, and uses the spin move and reverse lay-ups to evade rim protectors at the basket. Bowman is a good positional rebounder, looks to push the pace of play, has the court vision to find players up the court, as well as in the half court setting, in particular making reads off the pick and roll action or the drive and kick pass attacking off the perimeter. Bowman is an elite on-ball defender with active hands, good timing and instincts to jump passing lanes, and looks to turn defense to offense on the regular. Bowman is accurate with the 3-ball off the dribble or the catch, gets to his shot spots, and had a monster scoring game with 31 points, as well as 6 rebounds, showing he will be a great perimeter scoring option to compliment fellow senior forward [player_tooltip player_id='1702934' first='Tyran' last='Stokes'] interior scoring.      Robinson is a lengthy and crafty player that has good positional size, is accurate beyond the arc, and can make plays for others in the open court or the halfcourt setting. The 6-foot-3 lead guard has good handles, uses the crossover and behind cross to create space from his defender, gets good lift on the jumper with efficiency from mid-range to the 3-point line off the dribble, and moves well to get open for looks off the catch. Robinson sees the court well, makes tough reads off the drive and kick pass, is a good positional rebounder, which allows him to advance the ball to players ahead of the defense for easy buckets in the open court. Robinson had a strong showing in his team's win over Campbell Hall, as he would go for 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists to display his ability to impact various aspects of the game.     Rogers is a shifty and crafty player that weaves through traffic, keeps constant pressure on the defense, and can make shots or plays for others to impact the game in multiple ways. The 5-foot-8 lead guard has elite handles, keeps the dribble alive to find holes to attack in the defense, has great court vision to find open players in tight windows off the drive and kick pass, and has great footwork to use the reverse pivot to find players cutting off the ball. Rogers has good body control on shots around the basket to the mid-range jumper, is accurate with the 3-ball off the bounce, and has nice touch on the floater down the lane over height and length. Rogers plays low to the ground and is a pesky on-ball defender to deflect or poke the ball out, which leads to transition buckets.      Richardson is a crafty and skilled player that controls the pace of play, is a tough perimeter defender, and can catch fire from beyond the arc, as was evident with the 3 threes he connected on in the Titans win over Notre Dame (SO). The 6-foot combo guard keeps the ball on a string to survey the floor, looks to use ball-screens to create mismatches, uses the hesitation, the crossover, and the toss cross to create space from his defender, has a quick burst of speed off the bounce, and has the court vision to find open players off the drive and kick pass or finding bigs rolling to the basket off the pick and roll action. Richardson moves well off the ball to get to his shot spots, is accurate with 3-ball off the catch, and is a creative finisher at the basket with the floater or the reverse lay-up to evade height in the paint. Richardson displayed his scoring and playmaking ability in his team's win over Notre Dame (SO), going for 15 points and 6 assists.     Sati-Grier is a skilled and silky smooth player that keeps relentless pressure on the defense, is a high-level playmaker with the ball in his hands, and controls the pace of play with poise and confidence running the show for the highly touted Trailblazers roster. The 6-foot-2 lead guard has dynamic handles, keeps the dribble alive to survey the floor and probe the defense for openings, plays with good pace and change of speed to keep his defender off balance, uses the between cross, behind cross, and low crossover to get his defender on his hip, has an elite burst of speed off the bounce to get paint touches, and the footwork and court vision to make quality reads to open teammates once the defense collapses. Sati-Grier has touch on the floater down the lane, uses the reverse or up-and-under lay-ups to evade length at the basket, and moves well off the ball to get open looks off the catch, with accuracy on the 3-ball. The court vision, body control, and decision making with the ball were all impressive to watch, and, despite the depth of talent on the Sierra Canyon roster, when Sati-Grier is at the helm the rest of the team seemed to fall into their rolls much easier, as he is a willing passer at the point.     Westmoreland is a crafty and poised player that plays with good pace and feel for the game, makes plays for others, and has the ability to create his own shots. The 6-foot point guard has a tight handle on the ball, uses the crossover and hesitation to get his defender off balance, has shifty moves to change direction with the ball, the court vision to find teammates off the drive and kick, as well as good timing to find bigs diving off the pick and roll action. Westmoreland moves well off the ball to get open looks off the catch, is effective with the 3-ball, has good touch on the floater off the bounce, and controls the pace of play to make for a solid backcourt with fellow senior [player_tooltip player_id='1956542' first='Kaiden' last='Bailey']. Westmoreland has good lateral quickness to stay in front of opposing guards, and the active hands to deflect or poke the ball out to generate steals, and finished with 15 points, as he earned several trips to the free throw line to up his scoring output.     Wansa is a shifty player that can score the ball in a variety of ways, and puts up points in volume. The 6-foot-3 lead guard has dynamic handles, shifty moves to create space from his defender, with use of the hesitation, the crossover, and the step-back, is accurate with the 3-ball off the bounce or the catch, uses the pump-fake to get his defender off the ground, which opens up lanes for him to attack, and has a smooth pull-up jumper from the elbows or the baseline. Wansa has a quick first step off the dribble, the strength to absorb contact in the paint, and uses the Euro-step and reverse lay-ups to score over height at the basket. Wansa had a strong showing in his team's loss to Inglewood, as he would drop 27 points, connecting on 5 threes, and showed he can put up points quickly with range beyond the arc.     Zeola is a skilled player that can score the ball in a variety of ways, as well as make plays for teammates, and has range from beyond the arc. The 6-foot-1 combo guard has a solid handle on the ball, uses the crossover and hesitation to get his defender off balance, gets downhill to get paint touches routinely, and is able to score through contact at the basket, with the use of spin-move and reverse lay-ups to evade height around the basket. Zeola moves fluidly off the ball to get open looks for the 3-ball off the catch, has active hands and timing to deflect passes, and excels in the open court off the steals to score in transition. Zeola had 18 points and 7 assists in Orange Lu's loss to Legacy Christian, connecting on a pair of threes.

This past Saturday, I attended The Renaissance Showcase at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, which featured a 7-game schedule starting at 10:30 a.m. and going until 7:30 p.m., the start of the final game. The showcase featured some of the nation's top players, as well as some known names on the West and some up-and-comers that are making statements early in their high school careers. This article looks at 8 standout lead guards from Saturday's event, which is Part 2 of the look at standout lead guards. This will be followed by articles on guards/wings and wing/forwards. The players are listed in alphabetical order, not in ranked order. We begin this article with emerging national prospect guard NaVorro Bowman NaVorro Bowman 6'2" | PG Notre Dame | 2027 State #44 Nation CA-S Jr. of Notre Dame.