Best of SoCal Fall Showcase: The eighth graders
GARDEN GROVE, Ca. – You’re going to have to wait at least a year to see them make their debuts as “high school” players.
But Southern California’s boys’ basketball Class of 2023 (eighth grade) was well represented at the Pangos Best of SoCal Fall Showcase Saturday at Santiago High.
The six players who most impressed me – as “what they are now” and “high school/long-term potential” – were 6-foot-4 Brady Dunlap (Santa Clarita/PICTURED), 6-1 Maurice Wright (Palmdale), 6-2 Dusty Stromer (Northridge), 5-10 LaQwon Cole (Los Angeles), 5-10 Jack Turner (Temecula) and 5-11 Presley Bruskotter (San Diego).
Dunlap (whose dad, Jeff, is an assistant under Head Coach Mark Gottfried at Cal State Northridge), Turner and Bruskotter were the best jump shooters in the game.
Dunlap’s overall skill level was equaled by only Wright – the guy I thought was, easily, the best point guard-type in the game – and Stromer.
Turner’s brother, 6-6 Luke Turner (Rancho Christian), is one of the better sophomores in SoCal and played quite well later Saturday during the Top 20 Sophomore game.
Six-four Orlando Greenlow (Santa Monica) was too strong – literally – for anyone in this game to check him or keep him off the glass.
The performances of Dunlap and Greenlow earned them playing time in the Top 20 Freshman game.
Dunlap’s skills carried over into that contest with the older fellows and he was a standout in that setting, as well.
Greenlow wasnt as able to “bully” older and stronger guys in the Freshman game and wasn’t nearly as effective as was Dunlap.