Early next week Prep2Prep will unveil an in-depth feature on the European-style prep basketball program at Prolific Prep in Napa.
However, in the meantime, and just in case you’re in the Wine Country on Saturday, you might want to stop by Napa Valley College to see two of the nation’s top players square off when Josh Jackson of Prolific Prep faces DeAndre Ayton of Balboa City School-San Diego in a 6 p.m. contest.
Prolific Prep and Balboa City School are part of California’s version of a new trend in basketball for high school and fifth-year senior boys next week’s feature will reveal.
Jackson, a 6-foot-6 junior forward that is the composite No. 1 recruit from the class of 2016, will have his hands full with Ayton, a 6-foot-11 sophomore that not only is the No. 1 player from the class of 2017 but some experts think he might be the best player in the nation from any class.
“I saw DeAndre multiple times at the Real Fun Fall League, at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Las Vegas last July, and recently at the Take Flight Challenge, and it’s hard to say any player in the country is a better long term prospect,” said leading West Coast recruiting analyst and GrassrootsHoops.net editor Ronnie Flores.
In fact, Flores told Prep2Prep he rates Ayton as high as Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland star Ivan Rabb, generally regarded as the Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year leading candidate.
Rabb is currently tied as the No. 3 vote-getter in the Grassroots Hoops Mr. Basketball USA Tracker while Ayton is No. 6 in voting conducted by a panel that includes seven McDonald’s All-American committee selection members.
Jackson is not quite as high as Ayton in the analyst’s rankings but on the court he has unbelievable elevation and can light it up in a hurry as he did when the Prep2Prep caravan saw him go for 31 points, 29 rebounds and eight assists in a 129-91 win over Southern California Elite Prep in December.
The former Michigan resident before landing in Napa earlier last summer has a ton of top offers, including Arizona, Auburn, Kansas, Louisville, Ohio State, UCLA, and a college back home another famous Michigan resident Earvin “Magic” Johnson attended, Michigan State.
The bottom line is this will be the first time the nation’s top recruits from the junior and sophomore classes will appear on the same court in a game in Northern California, and it should be a real treat.
