Take a look at the Blackman High guards (and others)

Early January is a perfect time to evaluate guards, the backbone of every basketball team. Most of the focus here will be on Blackman High Blaze guards, but some other guys will join the mix too.    1/5/25: Dorien and Blackman played one of the better Smith County teams Monday night. Dorien earned his way to the free throw line quite a bit. He is best when he lives at the line. This is an encouraging sign for the attacking guard. Blackman used Dorien as a second big against a smaller Smith County squad. He helped them establish positioning down low. There were some wrinkles in there. Beyond high school Lyles MUST be a guard because of his height. And historically he has proven to be a guard.     1/5/25: Sharp passer. Braden is a guy we were very high on two years ago. He is kind of the same player now in that he passes sharply, early, and on time. He is not bigger or stronger, which is vexing. As players get older they meet bigger guard defenders. Flowers must lean on his quickness to be effective, which is substantial. Bigger guards will probably be able to bully" Braden in order to get into the lane. Does not force shots. He is the kind of guard coach's love in that he does not make bad decisions.     1/5/25: Excellent young guard. He changes tempo at an impressive level. Solid stop-and-go guy. Williams is Smith County's primary ball-handler. With young guards you want to see skill development. Think [player_tooltip player_id='2236492' first='Kobi' last='Jackson'], [player_tooltip player_id='2278560' first='Bryce' last='Garnett']. Rodney Henderson III. Those guys put in the work early and just kept improving. Some get bigger and some don't, but skill is something Cooper already has in his pocket.     1/5/25: It was not always clear what position [player_tooltip player_id='2044071' first='Keller' last='Jackson'] would be by the time he graduated high school. He was so strong and stout as he entered. Also, Keller was an elite rebounder and scorer around the basket. He has made the adaptation to a wing, maybe wing guard now though his positioning away from the basket does sacrifice some of his rebounding prowess.     1/5/25: Wonderful size. Braylon is the kind of guard with a bright future as long as he does not lean on his size advantage and keeps developing skills. Bailey plays ELITE on-ball defense. From the Smith County game, "Tremendous on-ball defense by [player_tooltip player_id='2884178' first='Braylon' last='Bailey'] (2028). He fought through 3 screens and never relented." Looks destined to be a D2 guard someday. Again, the guard height mixed with his quickness is exciting. You are gonna hear about him a lot in the next couple of years.     1/5/25: Scrappy player. Tyler plays with great attention to detail and helps make the Smith County press work. He is a tad undersized against bigger teams.     1/5/25: Versatile guard. Michael might be a small college "1" or a "2". Bass earned a lot of time on the floor with Blackman last year because he defended consistently. You don't tend to play much if you do not defend within Barry Workman's program. In the intervening months Bass grew into a scorer and found his opportunities. He creates a lot of problems for defenders with his long arms and quickness.    <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/PrepHoopsTN/status/2008364492913004737?s=20 </div></figure>

Early January is a perfect time to evaluate guards, the backbone of every basketball team. Most of the focus here will be on Blackman High Blaze guards, but some other guys will join the mix too.