California Live: A Look Back (Standout 2027 Guards)

Rocklin, CA - At the end of June, NorCal hosted the 4th annual California Scholastic Live Event with Whitney High School as the main gym used for the top teams and games. This article takes a look at 9 of the standout combo and lead guards from the 2027 class (rising seniors) that performed well at the event. In this article you will find the following information: players name, height, position, school, stats from the event, and a breakdown of their skill sets. The players are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked order, and we begin with [player_tooltip player_id='2724586' first='Brady' last='Clugage'].    Clugage is a shifty and skilled lead guard that sets up the offense, makes plays for his teammates, and has the moves to create his own scoring opportunities. Clugage has good size and court awareness at the point guard position, keeps a strong handle on the ball, surveys the defense to find openings to attack, is a good positional rebounder, looks to push the pace of play in the open court, with precise passing to find teammates ahead in transition, as well as finding teammates off the drive and kick pass, or to the diver out of the pick and roll action. Clugage has the moves to create off the dribble, using the crossover, wrap-behind, hesitation, fade-away, and between-cross to get by his initial defender, has good body control on the mid-range jumper off the bounce, and is a crafty scorer around the basket, using the reverse and euro-step lay-ups, as well as the floater down the lane to score over height in the paint.     Fountaine is a high-skilled, shifty, and athletic lead guard with good positional size to see the floor, has the ability to create his own shot or make plays for others, and can score in volume from 3-levels when he heats up. Fountaine had a great showing at Cali Live and has established himself as one of the top rising seniors in NorCal, with a monster scoring output of 33 points in a win over Del Oro of Loomis and averaged 22+ points per game at the event. Fountaine has dynamic handles, keeps the ball on a string to survey the floor, the moves to create off the dribble to get by his defender, using the various crossover combos, hesitation, spin-move, and the fade-away to generate space from his opponent, has good body control and consistency on the jumper from the mid-range to the 3-point line, and is a crafty scorer around the basket, using the up-and-under, reverse, and euro-step lay-ups to evade shot blockers, as well as the strength to absorb and score through contact at the rim. Fountaine has active hands, good timing, and the lateral agility to stay in front of his opponent to jumps passing lanes, deflect the ball, or poke the ball out, as well as alter/block shots from the perimeter, has great court vision to find open teammates off the drive and kick pass, up the court in transition, or cross court to open shooters, and gets to his shot spots off the ball to get open looks off the catch.     Glass is a shifty and crafty guard that can light it up from beyond the arc, scores in volume to put up big numbers quickly, and is one of the best distance shooters in the West. Glass put on an impressive display of shooting from the perimeter his at the Cali Live event, with a total of 26 threes over the four games, a single game high of 11 three points and 37 points in a win over Torrey Pines, as well as connecting on 8 threes in a win over Clovis that I was in-person to see, making a strong case for the top 3-point shooter this side of the Mississippi, and definitely the top distance shooter at this year's Cali Live. Glass has great off ball movement, runs off screens, keeps moving to force his defender to chase him all over the court, squares his body and shoulders up, and gets to his shot spots for open looks off the catch from the 3-point line that he connects on at a high clip, uses the pump-fake and hesitation to get by his defender on over-pursuits on the perimeter, has touch on the floater, and has the court vision to make reads to open teammates off the drive and kick pass or to the diver out of the pick and roll action.     Gray is an athletic, highly skilled, and wiry lead guard that controls the pace and flow of the game, has a variety of moves to score the ball from 3-levels, and makes plays for others to display his versatility at the guard position. Gray was the top ranked player from NorCal at the event and he displayed why over his new team's four games of play, averaging 21 points per game, with a single game high of 34 points, connecting on 3 threes, where he drained shots from nearly every spot on the court with a high degree of difficulty on many shots. Gray has elite handles, keeps the dribble alive to weave through and probe the defense for openings to attack, has great body control and the moves to get his defender off balance, using all variations of the crossover combinations, the hesitation, step-back, fade-away, and spin-move to generate space from his opponent, has great lift on the jumper with accuracy from the mid-range to the 3-point line off the dribble, and has dynamic moves to score around the basket with the floater down the lane, as well as the euro-step, up-and-under, and reverse lay-ups to score among height in the paint. Gray has an elite burst of speed off the bounce, plays with fast but controlled on-court speed to change directions on dime to redirect his path of attack, has the court vision and decision making to find open teammates off the drive and kick pass, to the diver off the pick and roll action, cross court to open shooters, and up the court to open players in transition. Gray is active on the boards, has quick hands, instincts, and timing to deflect passes, poke the ball out, or jump passing lanes to get steals and push the pace in transition.     Johnson is a physical, skilled, and athletic combo guard that can create his own shots, make plays for others, and is a tough on-ball defender. Johnson was impressive during the Spring with Lakeshow 3SSB 17s on the Adidas Circuit and he kept up that high-level of play at this year's Cali Live event, averaging nearly 14 points per game, with an individual game high of 25 points against Lincoln of Stockton, connecting on 3 threes in the process. Johnson has a strong handle on the ball, moves fluidly off the ball to get to his shot spots, has a variety of moves to create off the dribble, using the crossover, wrap-behind, hesitation, the snatch-back, and fade-away to get space from his defender, is accurate with body control in the air on the the middy off the dribble, is efficient with the 3-ball off the catch, and has touch on the put-back off the miss, as well as the strength to absorb and finish through contact at the cup, is a good potential rebounder, and looks to push the pace or outlet the ball and get up the court to receive passes up the court for transition buckets.     Kalish is a crafty and skilled lead guard that can push the pace of play in the open court, controls the pace of play with the ball in his hands, and finds ways to score playing on or off the ball. Kalish had a strong showing at Cali Live, leading his team to a 4-0 record and winning over St. Ignatius of San Francisco in bracket championship play. Kalish has a great handle on the ball, keeps it on a string to survey the floor, has the moves to shake his defender, using the crossover, hesitation, toss-cross, fade-away, and wrap-behind to get to his spots, is accurate with the mid-range jumper off the dribble, is a crafty scorer around the basket to evade shot blockers, moves well off the ball to find his shot spots, and is efficient with the 3-ball off the catch. Kalish has good court vision, makes precise passes to open teammates off the drive and kick pass or to the diver out of the pick and roll action, as well as up the court in transition. He has active hands, quick lateral movement to jump passing lanes or deflect passes to turn defense to offense.     Okoh is a physical and skilled lead guard that plays with pace and control of the game, likes to get down hill to use his strength to bully players at the basket, and can space the floor from beyond the arc. Okoh led the charge at the helm for Brentwood, who would win the top bracket at the event, going 3-1 over the four games played. Okoh has a strong handle on the ball, keeps it on a string to survey the floor, has the court vision to make precise reads to open teammates off the drive and kick pass, to the diver off the pick and roll action, as well as up the court to push the tempo in transition, and is a tough on-ball defender with active hands and quick instincts to deflect passes, jump passing lanes, or poke the ball out to turn defense to offense. Okoh has a great burst off the dribble, gets paint touch routinely, absorbs contact around the paint with moves to create space in tight quarters, using the spin-move, euro-step, and reverse lay-ups to evade rim protectors, and has shifty moves to create shots from the perimeter, using the crossover, hesitation, toss-cross, and jab-step to get space to pull the 3-ball off the dribble with accuracy.     Rogers is a shifty and crafty combo guard with elite ball skills, can score it from 3-levels in a variety of ways, and opens up the floor from beyond the arc with range. Rogers had several prolific scoring games at the Cali Live event, which was capped off with a 28 point game, connecting a 3 threes, to win its bracket over Mira Costa and go undefeated for the 4 game weekend. Rogers has elite handles, keeps the dribble alive to probe the defense for openings to attack, insanely good footwork, shifty moves, and great body control to keep his defender off balance and guessing, uses the crossover combos, step-back, fade-away, hesitation, and spin-move to create space from his defender, is accurate with the jumper from the mid-range to the 3-point line off the dribble, and is a creative scorer over height with the floater, euro-step, up-and-under, and reverse lay-ups in his arsenal. Rogers moves well off the ball, gets to his shot spots, is efficient from the 3-ball off the catch, and keeps constant pressure on the defense to force the opponent to go one way with the ability to redirect on a dime to cut the other way.     White is a skilled and physical lead guard that looks to push the pace of play, makes good reads to open players, and can score from various spots to keep the defense honest. Cole had a strong showing at Cali Live, which was followed up by a strong Summer on the 3SSB Circuit, as he would average 12 points a game at the event, with a high of 15 points, connecting on 3 threes to help lead Riordan to the title game in bracket play. Cole has dynamic handles, surveys the floor to find holes in the defense, has the moves to get open looks off the bounce, using the crossover, hesitation, between-cross, spin-move, and wrap-behind to get his defender off balance, is accurate with great body control on the middy, moves well off the ball to get open looks for the 3-ball off the catch, and is a crafty scorer in the paint, with the euro-step into the floater, reverse and up-and-under lay-ups in his bag. White has good court vision, makes precise passes to open teammates off the drive and kick pass, out of the pick and roll action to the diver, and up the court off the steal to find players ahead in transition.

Rocklin, CA - At the end of June, NorCal hosted the 4th annual California Scholastic Live Event with Whitney High School as the main gym used for the top teams and games. This article takes a look at 9 of the standout combo and lead guards from the 2027 class (rising seniors) that performed well at the event. In this article you will find the following information: players name, height, position, school, stats from the event, and a breakdown of their skill sets. The players are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked order, and we begin with Brady Clugage Brady Clugage 6'4" | SG/CG Archbishop Mitty | 2027 State CA-N .