Throughout the July evaluation period, the team at Recruiting Nation and ESPN basketball insider Jeff Goodman will provide news, notes and rumors from all the top events. Check back throughout July for the latest from around Recruiting Nation.
Las Vegas events (Las Vegas)
While four of the top five ranked point guards in the country continued to battle it out for national supremacy at the Adidas Uprising Summer Championships, a few miles down the road at the Las Vegas Classic and The 8, Malik Monk was making a case for why he should be considered within that group. Monk is best known for his ability to fill up the scoring sheet, and as such he's been considered a shooting guard for virtually his entire career. But coming off an MVP performance at last week's Nike Global Challenge, when he played exclusively with the ball in his hands, Monk continued to show the instincts to eventually slide over. His passing ability and overall feel for the game are both drastically underrated, and on Thursday he even handled the ball and made decisions against pressure. Will he ever be a prototypical point guard? Maybe not, but he's not as far away as we may think either. From a recruiting standpoint, he's been followed by John Calipari, Bill Self and Roy Williams, among others, while Arkansas and Oregon are also very real contenders. -- Adam Finkelstein
Most out West knew Lonzo Ball had the talent and intangibles to compete against any guard in his class, and he is finally able to prove it in Las Vegas. His matchup with Dennis Smith was difficult to evaluate because Smith's team (Team Loaded Virginia) dismantled Ball's (Big Ballers VXT), though both exhibited their talents in different ways. However, Ball had another chance to prove his worth on Thursday in his matchup with the Atlanta Celtics and their five-star point guard, Kobi Simmons.
This time the outcome would be much different for the Ballers, as they pulled off the major upset over the Celtics 102-93. Ball dazzled the crowd to the tune of 36 points, 13 assists, 9 rebounds and 5 steals with 3 turnovers. The difference for Ball in this game was he didn't settle quite so much for the jump shot and knocked in 13 of 14 free throws, getting to the line thanks to his attacking style. The Celtics utilized a number of different defenders (Simmons, Braxton Blackwell, Michigan State commit Josh Langford and Kamar Baldwin) against Ball, but the collective group effort was not enough to slow him down. Also attracting attention were Lonzo's brothers, with LiAngelo Ball proving a terrific jump-shooter and 13-year-old LaMelo Ball dropping 32 points against these same Celtics.
Simmons did have some highlights of his own, dropping in 24 points, usually of the spectacular variety. He showed an innate ability to finish in the lane while speeding up the court at a breathtaking pace, and he dropped off a few nifty dimes as well. Simmons' teammate, the aforementioned Baldwin, has been one of the better jump-shooters in Vegas. The lefty gets great lift on his jump shot and his release is tight. -- Joel Francisco
In front of a who's who of college coaches, including John Calipari and Roy Williams, superfrosh Marvin Bagley III and his talented We All Can Go All Stars 2018 exhibited a startling combination of skill and athleticism. Bagley is a Lamar Odom type who is blessed with an inside-out skill set that is rare to find at any level of basketball, let alone a sophomore-to-be in high school. Bagley was not to be outdone by his running mate Darius Garland (No. 10 in the ESPN 25), who has a marvelous combination of facilitating and scoring.
While most of the prospects on WACGAS 2018 are incoming freshmen and sophomores-to-be, there is also a rising junior, John Petty (No. 5 in the ESPN 60 for 2017), who is a household name. Petty is the Malik Monk of this class due to his pogo-stick bounce and jump shooting ability. In addition to Kentucky, Alabama was three-deep, including head coach Avery Johnson watching the proceedings. -- Joel Francisco
New York Rens U16 point guard Jose Alvarado was the toughest man in the gym Thursday. The 5-foot-11 point guard took a violent hit late in the final game of the day that took his legs out from under him and sent him crashing to the ground chest-first. Incredibly, Alvarado got up under his own power and continued to play, even as college coaches started yelling for him to sit down. Alvarado has been one of the best guards in the 10th-grade division through the first two days and already owns an offer from Indiana. In fact, Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean was watching on the baseline, only about 10 feet away from Alvarado, at the time of the fall. -- Adam Finkelstein
Team Loaded lived up to its name on Thursday, with both the North Carolina and Virginia squads advancing to the finals of the Creators Cup, an eight-team bracket including the top seeds in the Adidas Uprising Summer Challenge that is a precursor to Sunday's championship. The North Carolina squad continues to be led by the one-two punch of Dennis Smith Jr. and Edrice Adebayo, while the Virginia squad might just have the best frontcourt of the summer with Javin DeLaurier, Mamadi Diakite and Sacha Killeya-Jones all in the running for the top half of the ESPN 100 when we next update our rankings. Rather than play out Thursday's final, the first championship was awarded to the collective Team Loaded, with both individual squads figuring to be among the top contenders for the big championship on Sunday. -- Adam Finkelstein
Live in AC (Pleasantville, New Jersey)
While most of the best U17 teams from around the country are in Las Vegas, the Live in AC event scattered across southern New Jersey was loaded with talented U16 teams. It started with Team Final, which features top-10 2018 prospect Cameron Reddish. The No. 8-ranked sophomore in the country, Reddish always looks smooth and under control. At the USA Basketball U16 tryouts back in June, Reddish seemed to defer to his teammates too often and didn't take matters into his own hands. But when he is aggressive, there are few in the 2018 class more talented than Reddish. He can score at the rim and handle the ball effectively, and he creates matchup problems with his skill set and 6-foot-6 size. Villanova was the lone high-major in attendance on Thursday morning, and the Wildcats are looking to make an early impression on Reddish's recruitment. By this time next year, all of the nation's big programs will be involved. As a side note, Villanova was also keeping an eye on Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, a 2017 prospect who had a great week earlier this month at the Nike Peach Jam. Cosby-Roundtree is slightly undersized, but he's a hard worker and is consistently productive. -- Jeff Borzello
Georgetown got off to an early start with its 2017 class in early June when Baltimore guard Tyler Foster pledged to the Hoyas. Although the energy level wasn't at its highest on Thursday, Foster showed flashes of the talent that made John Thompson III want to wrap up his recruitment quickly. He has a knack for scoring and finished in traffic effectively because of his body control and athleticism. Foster was one of the top 2017 scorers on the Under Armour circuit during the spring, and that didn't change on Thursday. He's got great length, which helps on the defensive end, and showed good instincts with the ball. The four-star prospect will play at South Kent (Connecticut) next season after spending this past year at Gilman School (Maryland). -- Jeff Borzello