Collins Jr. is someone we were early on in terms of getting him into our rankings and highlighting his game. On Sunday, he provided more evidence that not only were we correct in doing so, but also that plenty of layers of his game left to be developed.

The son of former Maryland/Loyola (MD) guard, Collins Jr. is starting to see the game more as a lead guard who brings balance as a scorer and distributor. For his local teams, he needs to take on more of the scoring role but at The Expo, he showed what he can do with other capable scorers around him.

More in-depth breakdown of why he got the nod for Third Team here.

My first viewing of Collins was at our event this weekend and I came away impressed with a balanced set of contributions at both ends of the floor. Collins used a quick set of hands to rip his matchup at halfcourt several times, possesses a really smooth change of gears in the halfcourt to get downhill in a hurry with or without a ball screen, had the IQ to turn the corner and get the ball up on the glass to draw the goaltending at a key point late in one of the 5 on 5 games, had a great closeout from the paint to block a corner 3, and stayed down on the spin move to punch a layup attempt later in the same game. Collins understands defensive help rotations well and switches onto perimeter players well after forcing his matchup to give up the ball on drives to the rim. Collins should make a case for the best player in the Bayside Conference this season.

I was excited to see that Collins Jr. decided to register and prove himself among a nice pool of guards who will be in attendance. Playing his ball on the Eastern Shore, our evaluations of the 5-foot-11 lead guard have been limited, but in each viewing, he’s shown promise as a long-term prospect. The 3v3 portion of the event will allow to see how he can operate in space, ball screens and other actions with significant space on the floor as an initiator. The 5v5 portion will be the time to evaluate his floor vision, IQ as a table-setter and how he guards his yard against shifty, crafty point guards.

I mentioned Collins Jr. in the day one notebook, but had to include him in this article as well given that we only had the one-game sample size. The crafty lead guard left quite the impression as he led Crisfield (MD) to a win in the opening game of the event, putting up the most impressive stat line for a freshman thus far with 24 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Collins Jr. comes from a strong bloodline, so he will be a name we keep tabs on moving forward.