Pangos Spring Live: Top Freshmen Performers
Cerritos, Ca. — There was no Dinos Trigonis in sight as his attention, and being, were firmly planted in Indianapolis for his Terrific 24 event, but the Pangos Spring Live event went off without a hitch at Cerritos College.
Below are the top freshman performers from the weekend:
David Elliot IV, Team Why Not 15s
Elliot is super athletic, 5-foot-11 combo guard who was best when attacking the basket in transition. The St. Genevieve High standout has a nice frame, complete with a built upper body and long arms, both of which help with his finishing ability in the paint. Elliot gets downhill quickly in transition and is difficult to stop with a full head of steam. The next step for Elliot is to get more confident with his 3-point stroke.
Truman Gettings, Team Why Not 16s
Gettings is one of the more physically imposing young big men in all of Southern California. At 6-feet-8 and a strong 215 pounds, the Harvard-Westlake product is mobile and coordinated for his size, rim runs on every change of possesion, plays with a high motor on both ends of the floor and rebounds well both in and out of his space. Gettings needs to continue to improve his finishing ability and touch around the basket.
There are few players in the 2021 class with as high a basketball IQ as Coastal Elite PG Chris Howell.Chris Howell, Coastal Elite 16s
We’ve written plenty about Howell and how his passing ability and basketball IQ allows him to control just about every portion of the game. There are few others at his age who have the court vision and command for the point guard position like he does. Howell, at 6-feet-5, plays with good tempo and pace, rarely makes a poor decision, and is extremely unselfish, sometimes to a fault. In order to take yet another giant leap forward, Howell needs to tighten up his perimeter shooting to avoid having defenses sag off and dare him to shoot.
Bryan Mex, Team Why Not 15s
Mex established himself as one of the best young spot shooters in his class after a solid first season at Leuzinger. But outside of his smooth shooting stroke, the 5-foot-9 off-guard has a really nice overall feel for the game. He rarely forces a bad shot, plays within the flow of the offense and uses the shot-fake to get into the paint and put pressure on the rim. Mex can take his game to another level by adding a floater into his scoring arsenal.
TJ Wainwright, Team Why Not 16s
Wainwright is another top freshman shooter in SoCal, but he’s been using the spring to add some more layers to his scoring arsenal. The 5-foot-10 lefty is putting the ball on the deck a lot more than he did during his first season at Culver City high school, attacking the paint and working on his finishing package of floaters and crafty layups. Don’t worry, though, Wainwright can still knock down the 3-point shot with regularity.