PREP STARS MAKE DECISIONS
Despite no summer hoops play, locals scooping up offers
The COVID-19 pandemic laid waste to the AAU summer basketball season, leaving many high school players still searching for colleges.
Still, a pair of top players from last season — point guards Chris Howell of Torrey Pines and AJ Burgin of San Diego — have made commitments, Howell choosing to play at Saint Mary’s and Burgin committing to Idaho State.
Earlier this summer, first-team All-CIF point guard Wayne McKinney of Coronado announced he’ll play at USD, which like Saint Mary’s is a member of the West Coast Conference.
“The opportunities at Saint Mary’s are amazing,” said Howell, whose brother Mikey — a San Marcos High graduate — is a senior at UC San Diego and averaged 6.6 points and 6.9 assists last season. “Saint Mary’s is a super academic school. It puts me and my family in the best spot to be successful.”
The 6-foot-6 Howell was a second-team All-CIF selection last season as a junior, averaging 10.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists a game for Torrey Pines.
He said his final three choices were Saint Mary’s,
UCSD and UC Davis.
“I’m super pumped to get our high school season started,” Howell said. “We have a great program at Torrey Pines and a great coach in John Olive.
“The culture is amazing. I can’t wait to play a final season with my high school brothers.”
The 6-4 Burgin has been part of three straight San Diego Section championships at San Diego High — one each at Division IV, III and II.
A second-team All-CIF selection as a junior last year, he averaged 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists for the Cavers last season.
“Idaho State’s offense really fits me,” Burgin said. “They run the Wisconsin Swing, the same offense as Torrey Pines. It’s a really good offense for perimeter shooters and there are a lot of opportunities for backdoor passes.”
Idaho State is a member of the Big Sky Conference, which includes Idaho, Weber State, Northern Arizona and Sacramento State.
The Bengals are coached by Matt Looney, who in the 2018-19 season led Point Loma Nazarene to a 31-5 finish.
“Raiden Hunter, who played at San Diego, is on the football team at Idaho State, and he filled me in on everything about the school and the city of Pocatello,”
Burgin said.
“He had a lot of good things to say.
“Before COVID, recruiting was different. We would have played all summer and there might have been more offers.
“But with Coach Looney’s winning pedigree, what we saw on our visit and what Raiden said, there was no reason to wait any longer to commit.”
Cathedral Catholic has four players — three-star recruit Obinna Anyanwu and two-star players Alex Wade, a point guard, shooting guard Thomas Notarainni and 6-10 Dillon Wilhite — who are waiting.
“All the guys planned on having big summers in front of college coaches and big starts to their senior seasons,” said Cathedral Catholic assistant coach Steve Wade.
“Obviously, COVID has changed everything. They are getting recruited by a number of schools, but aren’t close to decisions yet.”
The 6-7 Anyanwu has Georgia Tech, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma. Colorado, USC and LSU among the schools on his list.
Alex Wade has drawn interest from Air Force, Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara.
Notarainni has drawn interest from Rutgers, Michigan State, Colorado State, West Virginia and Rice. His bother Marco, a linebacker at Torrey Pines, has committed to Boise State.
Wilhite has Army, Navy and Boston University on his list.
Some other senior-to-be players drawing interest are two-star recruit Melo Sanchez, a first-team AllCIF player who averaged 20 points at Mater Dei Catholic, 6-7 Francky Naguidebe, who averaged 17 points and 12 rebounds at University City, point guard Nick Herrmann of Torrey Pines, Santa Fe Christian’s Hayden Gray, and 6-10 Kai Burdick of Carlsbad, who might be leaning toward baseball with a fastball that touches 90 mph.
Notable senior players from last season who are headed to college include: CIF Player of the Year Chibuzo Agbo (St. Augustine/Texas Tech), Yassine Gharram (Foothills Christian/Yale), Brandon Angel (Torrey Pines/Stanford), Kimo Ferrari (Francis Parker/Brown), Maurice Holmes (Helix/Fresno State), Jailen Nelson (Carlsbad/Cal State Monterey Bay), Luke Haupt (St. Augustine/Point Loma Nazarene), Sam Dudley (Santa Fe Christian/Point Loma Nazarene), Kobe Sanders (Christian/Cal Poly-SLO), Kailen Rains (San Ysidro/ Cal State Northridge) and Beon Riley (Cathedral Catholic/Hawaii).