The 2022 Pangos Frosh/Soph Camp sequence bought underway with the West being the primary of 4 stops throughout the nation. This yr, a plethora of recent faces emerged on the regional underclass-oriented camp that started 20 years in the past within the West. There was an abundance of expertise on show within the 2025 and 2026 lessons at McBride (Lengthy Seashore, Calif.), however one particular participant stood out among the many pack.
Every year on the Pangos Frosh/Soph Camps, a number of the nations’ greatest younger expertise is on show as they start their journey to taking part in on the highest ranges of the sport. The autumn calendar has heated up in recent times and with extra highschool workforce occasions seemingly each weekend throughout California and the West, it was a wait-and-see strategy to occasion organizers as to how most of the area’s prime ninth and tenth graders could be in attendance.
The expertise pool really turned out to be one which impressed total, with a superb group of wing guards and proficient scoring forwards. When the mud settled, nevertheless, the very best total participant by a wholesome margin turned out to be a participant well-known to West Coast scouts. That participant is 6-foot-6 sophomore (2025) small ahead Tounde Yessoufou of St. Joseph (Santa Maria, Calif.). The native of Benin was final yr’s Cal-Hello Sports activities State Freshman of the Yr after averaging 26.4 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 2.1 spg and a couple of.9 bpg for the CIF Central Part’s open division runner-ups and is vastly improved because the 2021-22 season ended.
Yessoufou has all the time been highly effective and fast across the basket, however he’s expanded his recreation with an improved deal with and deep vary. He additionally a superb outlet passer and offensive rebounder who is just too highly effective for anybody in his class on the West Coast to deal with. He had a 36-point efficiency (together with six 3-pointers) within the last set of camp video games on Saturday evening and ended the two-day occasion on Sunday with a game-high 28 factors (to go together with eight rebounds) to steer the Black-jersey workforce to a 119-113 win over the White-jersey workforce within the Cream of the Crop Prime 30 Sport reserved for the occasion’s prime performers. Yessoufou was about as easy a alternative for camp Most Excellent Participant as there was within the occasion’s 20-year historical past.
Abundance of Breakout Performers
Yessoufou was not solely the camp MOP; he was additionally the Prime 30 recreation MVP. Becoming a member of him as the sport MVP was 6-foot 2026 (freshman) combo guard Rashod Cotton of Modesto Christian (Calif.), a highschool workforce with the expertise stage to start the 2022-23 season FAB 50 ranked. Although Modesto Christian returns its roster en masse from a workforce that captured the CIF NorCal open title, it’s arduous to check Cotton not cracking the rotation and getting appreciable minutes. He’s that good. Cotton is wired to trigger havoc on the offensive finish together with his means to slash, shoot, and break down defenders. Cotton additionally had the very best crossover among the many camp’s 197 contributors, each in transition and within the half courtroom, utilizing it to blow by or create house for an open shot. He completed the Prime 30 recreation with 17 factors and 4 rebounds for the White-jersey sporting membership.
This sequence of fall showcase camps has served as a nationwide popping out celebration for a plethora of excessive caliber younger gamers resembling Trae Younger (South) and Evan Mobley (West). Cotton was amongst those that wasn’t well-known coming in among the many West’s prime scouts, however absolutely is now. That group included 6-foot-4 2025 wing Isaac Carr of Central Catholic (Portland, Ore.), 6-foot-2 2025 Caleb Versher of St. Bernard (Playa del Rey, Calif.) and his highschool teammate Tajh Ariza, a 6-foot-6 2026 wing guard with imaginative and prescient and recreation besides, 6-foot-8 2025 Juju Ervin of North Central (Spokane, Wash.), 6-foot-6 2025 Tae Simmons of Heritage Christian (Northridge, Calif.), 6-foot-1 2025 Noah Bendigner of Juan Diego Catholic (Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah), 6-foot-3 2026 Jalen White of Clark (Las Vegas, Nev.), 6-foot 2025 Braden Moore of Yuma Catholic (Yuma, Ariz.), 6-foot-3 2026 Caleb Newton of Birmingham (Van Nuys, Calif.), 6-foot-5 D’Andre Harrison of Perry (Gilbert, Ariz.) and 6-foot-6 2025 Marco Varani of Bellevue (Wash.). Each participant in that group (and maybe a couple of extra) at the moment are firmly entrenched within the minds and scouting studies of the West’s prime evaluators and made a positive sufficient impression to make one of many camp’s two all-star video games.
Westmoreland Heads Lead Guard Pack
School coaches in any respect ranges need a proficient and reliable lead guard. It’s been a very powerful place on the ground for a few years on the collegiate stage. Many packages play their two greatest guards and don’t assign labels to them. “Combo guard” is a well-liked time period because the level guard is required to shoot and rating in at the moment’s recreation, with the true lead guard a tougher commodity to come back by. Discovering a real lead guard at this camp was no completely different, because the pickings have been slim. Doubtless the very best one of many lot was 5-foot-10 2026 Rodney Westmoreland III of Dougherty Valley (San Ramon, Calif.).
Westmoreland is a real set-up, pass-first guard with a gradual deal with, imaginative and prescient, an unselfish demeanor and management abilities. He may preserve defenders trustworthy together with his change of tempo means and perimeter shot. Westmoreland’s recreation is a mix of two terrific collegiate level guards of the Nineteen Nineties: NCAA match hero Tyus Edney of UCLA and Dajuan Wheat of Louisville. Westmoreland clearly doesn’t know an excessive amount of about these two smallish level guards, however he has a terrific mentor and is a scholar of the sport.
He’s the apprentice to highschool teammate Ryan Beasley, a 2023 guard and one of many higher returning gamers in California. Westmoreland advised Ballislife.com he’s excited for his rapidly-approaching freshman season.
“I’m actually wanting ahead to it, as I’ve been coaching arduous with the workforce,” Westmoreland stated. “At this camp, I really suppose I may have performed extra. If I may have gotten the ball a bit extra, I’d have gotten others concerned extra and it might make others look good and me look good.
“So far as who I emulate on offense, it’s Kyrie Irving. Defensively, I actually research what Kobe Bryant did. So far as mentally, I attempt to have that Kobe and Jordan mentality on the ground.”
Among the camp’s different prime true lead guards included 6-foot-1 2025 Nick Jefferson of Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.), 6-foot-2 2026 Julius Worth of St. Joseph (Santa Maria, Calif.) and 6-foot-1 Zyon Harris of Clark (Las Vegas, Nev.).
