It was my first viewing of Hill and the downhill guard made himself known in both of Pallotti’s matchups. They split on the night by getting a win against Maret before losing to Georgetown Prep, but Hill asserted himself as a downhill powerful guard who can finish around the rim with either hand. Despite his bullish approach when he puts his head down to drive, Hill is light on his feet and showed nice twitch using euros or quick bursts to evade or freeze defenders. He was the engine to their win over Maret as he led the way with 14PTS.

16p 4r 4a 1b vs NC GBB

-It was fun watching him relentlessly attack the rim in new threads with Pallotti after transferring from NHA this summer. Hill does a good job of setting up second attempts at getting to the rim well with reverse dribbles and hesi moves that allow him to utilize an explosive first step to expose late help rotations. Hill hit threes off the catch, drove baseline from the wings to hit shooters in the opposite corner with skip passes, hit several hanging layup attempts by releasing on the way down to avoid the shot-blocker, and hit a huge AND1 runner going east-west across the paint. Love the way that he uses a stocky frame to create space and shield the ball on layup attempts to score over his own matchup as well as helper bigs at the rim.

-A new name that will debut in our next set of updating rankings, the Howard transfer stood out as a developing 2/3 tweener that plays simple but effective basketball. His finishing bag around the rim has really improved as both his footwork and hands around the basket has taken a leap to score in traffic around the rim. Smith turned in productive 11p 5r and 15p 5r performances in matchups with Georgetown Prep and Archbishop Carrolll, cementing himself as a name to know in the 2028 class.