Nevada Live – Instant Reaction

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nevada Live has officially come and gone and with it goes the end of the June live scholastic period for college coaches and high school teams. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Across four locations in the city of Las Vegas, 129 teams including 28 from Arizona participated in the first year of the event. The plan for the future is for this event to take place every other year with So-Cal Live taking the place in between Vegas hosting.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With teams looking and playing completely different from just two weeks ago at Section 7 and from how they'll look at the start of the school year, there's many thoughts about what took place.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A more detailed and thorough breakdown of the event will release in the coming days, in the meantime here are a few instant takeaways from the event.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Canyon View is ready for 6A</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If one thing is certain after June, it's that the Canyon View Jaguars are ready for 6A. 2026-27 will see the Jaguars jump up from the 5A conference but they appear as a top eight caliber team already in the 5A conference. This is in large part to the senior leadership and skill of [player_tooltip player_id='1956217' first='PJ' last='Nowlin Jr']. Alongside Nowlin is fellow senior [player_tooltip player_id='2754862' first='Anthony' last='Stokes'] who is ready for a breakout senior year. The key will be the guard play of the roster led by [player_tooltip player_id='3259747' first='DJ' last='Charles'], [player_tooltip player_id='2759167' first='Taylan' last='Owens'], and the Edwards brothers.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Speaking of 6A... The race for the top will be fun.</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's not that it's a wide open race for the top, but rather there's a legit case for each of the big three of Basha, Millennium, and Sunnyslope to win Arizona's top crown.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Basha's duo of [player_tooltip player_id='2276223' first='Kingston' last='Montague'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2249943' first='Lleyton' last='Leonard'] control the game with the ball in their hands while [player_tooltip player_id='2552772' first='Tre' last='Terry'] is a big time shot maker with [player_tooltip player_id='2295693' first='Maddox' last='Lazor'] in the post. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Millennium has [player_tooltip player_id='1546987' first='Adan' last='Diggs'] running the show while [player_tooltip player_id='1555181' first='Adrian' last='Higuera'] sets him up with his passing. Adding [player_tooltip player_id='2412268' first='Maurice' last='Carter II'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2435389' first='Justin' last='Johnson'] into the equation while already having [player_tooltip player_id='2370259' first='Terry' last='McKinney III'] gives the Tigers a strong and athletic group.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>All while Slope returns [player_tooltip player_id='1555179' first='Darius' last='Wabbington'] and Delton Prescott. But transfers [player_tooltip player_id='2533651' first='Bentley' last='Elrod'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2552733' first='Donovan' last='Palmer'] are ready to add a punch to the Vikings along with [player_tooltip player_id='3226220' first='Linus' last='Turner'] ready to breakout.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Each of those teams have a real shot to win the open and pending potential moves before the season, the gap from No. 1 to No. 2 and No. 3 can grow.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">The 2028 class is special</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Simply put, the 2028 class could be the deepest Arizona has ever seen. There's the potential for nearly 30 prospects to go division one immediately following high school and multiple players showed why in Nevada.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What plays a role in that is how balanced the class is from top to bottom positionally in the AIA. There's guards such as Carter and Montague as mentioned above but also [player_tooltip player_id='2386978' first='Jaydon' last='Hayes'] at Willow Canyon. The wings are deep just like the previously mentioned Leonard but also [player_tooltip player_id='2457665' first='Viktor' last='Babic'] at Perry and [player_tooltip player_id='2301235' first='Rhys' last='M. Robinson'] at Pinnacle. Then there's the bigs such as [player_tooltip player_id='1956218' first='Marcus' last='Isaac'], Palmer, and [player_tooltip player_id='2693801' first='Dane' last='Montague'].</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With so much versatility and different prospects with different skills, there's something for every college to recruit from and it makes sense why the biggest class to gain attention this weekend was the 2028 group.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"></h2> <!-- /wp:heading -->