Cameron Boozer (Mac Yocum Photo)
Mac Yocum just retired after serving as assistant athletics director and broadcasting instructor at Frankfort High School where one of his students was current vaughtsviews.com intern Lilia Saxena-Smithson.
He’s vacationing close to North Augusta, Ga., with family and went to Peach Jam, the final stage of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) that features many of the nation’s best high school players — and numerous UK recruiting targets for coach Mark Pope.
“I’m not a recruiting expert but I’ve coached for over 30 years and I know big-time players,” Yocum, a long-time UK fan, said.
Here are the players he watched who have attracted the attention of Kentucky and their Peach Jam averages:
— Tounde Yessoufou—47% fg, 46% 3pt, 67% ft. 5 rpg and 22 ppg
— Hudson Greer—46% fg, 83% ft, 6 rebs and 14 ppp (he had only played two games so far)
— Jerry Easter—51% fg, 34% 3pt, 84% ft, 7rebs, 2 to 1 assists to turnover, 22 ppg
— Caleb Wilson—61% fg, 9 rebs, 2 blocks a game, 17 ppg,
— Cameron Boozer—63% fg, 60% 3 pt, 90% ft, 10 rebs, 2 asst, 23 ppg
— Cayden Boozer—52% fg, 6 assists, 2.4 to 1 turnover to assist, 10ppg
— AJ Dybantsa—53% fg, 80% ft, 22 ppg
— Tyran Stokes (class of 26)—60% fg, 50% 3 pt, 61% ft, 10 rebs, 5 assists, 19 ppg
— Jasper Johnson 40% fg, 30% 3 pt (he had 1 game where he was 0-for-11), 4 assists, 20 ppg
“Any combination of these guys (minus Stokes). and (Great Crossing center) Malachi Moreno for next year and Pope has a great class,” Yocum said. “ I’m calling Greer the steal of the class for whomever gets him. He’s a Montverde (Academy) guy, so his stock will go up.
“We will be wintering very near Montverde (in Florida) and I plan to go watch him several times.
“Outside of Dybantsa there aren’t any superstars but a bunch of solid players from what I watched.”
2 Responses
I have been saying Kentucky needs to get Hudson Greer. He’s a phenomenal athlete and very high IQ. He held his own against Cooper Flagg. I think he went for 35 points against him. He plays different for whoever he’s playing against very underrated trait. Hudson Greer would be my first choice off this list. His 3 point shot looks beautiful perfect rotation on the ball. He can shoot it from past 3 point range efficiently. If you play up to close he will blow by his defender and pull up from 12 feet where he shoots it like 70% from that range it’s quite incredible. Another thing he can do is get off the ground fast. He’s always the first one at the ball. You can tell his mind works very fast because he’s always a step ahead. Back to off the ground fast. He can also win the dunk competition. He’s a better dunker than Malik Monk already. He will dribble once from the volleyball line pick up his dribble take his 2 steps and do a windmill dunk on a defenders head. He is the one recruit we need to lock down. Also Malachi Moreno. Kaden Magwood is better than advertised. I would love for him to come to Kentucky. Great article, and lucky you. You get to watch a highlight reel if you are going to watch Hudson Greer. If we do get him which I hope we do. He would be excellent with Chandler, Perry, Noah, Garrison, and Owah. Those are the pieces that your probably going to building around for next year. I think Hudson can come in and be the 6th man off the bat. You could play Perry at the 1 Chandler at the 2 Hudson or Noah at the 3 but I think Greer will play before Noah. There is a reason he is a consensus top 25 recruit. Just having all these great shooters will be great.
Cameron Booser looks like a superstar. Johnson looked like a superstar until he went 0-11 in one game, but I would still like to see him at UK.