Longhorn 5-Star Showcase – Six-Pack Of GA Guys Who Shined

MILTON, GA – We looked at out-of-state top performers from Saturday’s Longhorn 5-Star Showcase hosted by Milton Basketball, we now look at homegrown guys who couldn’t be missed, as the many of the stars on the local scene borough their A-games to North Fulton.

By: Keith Agran

Jeremiah Wilkinson | 6-2 | CG | Hillgrove | 2024

Was looking forward to seeing Wilkinson after last seeing him suit up early with his new Hillgrove teammates back at the June Live Period camp, all that I’d heard about the kind of season he was having was confirmed moreso in the quality of his overall play than in the numbers he posted on the day, handling predominantly the PG-duties he’s looking stronger and more polished coming off a freshman campaign last year with Campbell where he was super impressive, physical and yet cat-quick with a shooting touch that needs constant attention from defenses he has a real knack for getting at the basket as a scoring lead guard, a real climber for sure both in-state and in region rankings and attention.

Brandon Rechsteiner | 6-1 | PG | Etowah | 2023 (pictured above)

The day’s overall star performer continues to post production across the spectrum and wow onlookers with the ease at which he does his work, what more can we say – speed and power of the bounce, great vision, and one of the prettiest 3-pt strokes in the state are just some of the high-level positives Rechsteinr brings to a highly entertaining Eagles bunch that is hitting a stride after going through a heck of a schedule to this point.

Dylan Gary | 6-4 | SG | North Gwinnett | 2022

We’ve said it previously and it bore its head once again Saturday how critical a component to the Bulldogs success is Gary, RJ Godrey and Thomas Allard can be on any given night monsters in their production but when one or both are off or bottled up Gary has been the go-to guy with his shooting and athleticism in the open floor, his 18 points were key as NGHS was locked in a tight battle with a good North Mecklenburg team in which the Dawgs prevailed 54-50.

Airious “Ace” Bailey | 6-7 | SG | McEachern | 2024

Bailey too since getting out of the boot on his foot has become a regular on roundup pages with his excellent all-around play, the size, quickness, shooting, leaping ability, the overall understanding on the floor and how fluid his basketball acumen is, the Indians were already both one of the state’s surprises breaking in so many new faces in key roles and yet they have also remained one of the most entertaining teams to watch from day one, now with the versatile excellence of Bailey added in and their team play against a seriously competitive schedule they have vaulted to a definite 7A contender.

Isaiah Collier | 6-3 | PG | Wheeler | 2023

Get’s the slight edge here over Newton’s Stephon Castle (30 pts) and Marcus Whitlock (19 pts) due mostly to the clutch nature and pure physicality with which he imposed his will on the win over the Rams in the late stages, Newton was without Jakai Newton but still the Rams forced themselves at several junctures into positions to threaten a Wheeler bunch that wasn’t completely on top of their game, but Collier was there late to control the ball and use his great speed and skill to get key buckets in tight and knock down enough FT’s to help seal it.

Kanaan Carlyle | 6-4 | SG | Milton | 2023

I’d pay just to watch Carlyle play defense as he remains the best on-ball defender I’ve seen this year, it’s a treat to see a 5-star kid go so hard on that end of the floor and with good size and plenty of strength the recent Stanford-commit can make anyone from 6-0 to 6-6 look pretty bad, his offensive traits are nothing short of dazzling in spots with the leaping ability and the sweet stroke and it all spells trouble with an Eagles team that hasn’t dropped a game to a Georgia-opponent since December and is playing some really high-level basketball right now.

Keith Agran has lived in Georgia since 2011 and joined OTR as a National Evaluator in 2021. He previously scouted for Prep Hoops dating back to 2019 and has both a championship-coaching background on the HS-level and daily newspaper writing experience, both from New Jersey. You can reach him at keithagran1@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @BracketSage.