Craig Wind has written for Rivals.com along with his own recruiting service . Wind weighs in on 810 Varsity events and Kansas City metro area players through the year.

These are the TOP 60 players in this event that I think have basketball scholarship potential at the William Jewell HS Holiday Classic in 2023 from NAIA to D2 to D1, at some level for each player. Players with an * Asterisk are written about below at the end of this article.

Read on and enjoy . . .

Top 60 Players with Scholarship Potential from Jewell Classic
*VERNELL HOLT, Columbia Battle HS 5’9” junior
*TATE MCCUBBIN, Columbia Battle HS 6’8” senior
KE’SHUN JACKSON, Columbia Battle HS 6’2” junior
TYLER PUTNAM, Columbia Battle HS 6’5” sophomore
BRANDON ROOKS, Columbia Battle HS 5’11” freshman
JACK PUTNAM, Columbia Battle HS 6’5” junior
CADEN LEWIS, Columbia Battle HS 6’4” sophomore
COOPER SHRUM, Belton HS 6’6” sophomore
KORDELL WILLIAMS, Belton HS 5’11” junior
MALIK LEWIS, Blue Springs HS 6’4” junior
LUCAS MACIEL, Blue Springs HS 6’4” sophomore
*SULLY MOHAMMED, Blue Springs South HS 6’7” junior
BLAYNE MARSHALL, Blue Springs South HS 6’1” sophomore
CHRIS ELLIS, Blue Springs South HS 6’2” sophomore
XAVIER BYERS, Center HS 6’6” junior
ISAAC WOODWARD, Fort Osage HS 6’6” junior
ELI HERBERT, Grain Valley HS 6’3” sophomore
TIM WOODEN, Kansas City Central HS 6’0” senior
JARED DEVINE, Kansas City East Christian HS 6’4” junior
*LANDON VAN PELT, Lee’s Summit HS 6’8” sophomore
JAYLEN LOCKHART, Lee’s Summit HS 6’5” junior
MEKHI MCNEIL, Lee’s Summit HS 5’9” sophomore
ZACH AGANOVIC, Liberty HS 6’7” senior
EDRIC BINAGI, Liberty HS 6’1” senior
KALE MORTIMER, Liberty HS, 5'11" junior
BRADEN KRACHT, Liberty HS 6’4” senior
JACK HUYSER, Liberty North HS 6’4” junior
JAKE WILLMANN, North Kansas City HS 6’6” sophomore
XAVIUS KIRKWOOD, North Kansas City HS 6’0” junior
HERB BASS, North Kansas City HS 6’3” senior
*SAMUEL DADA, North Kansas City HS 6’9” senior
ADAM TANNER, Oak Park HS 5’10” sophomore
JOSH KORI, Oak Park HS 6’5” sophomore
AEDIN FIELDS, Oak Park HS 6’1” junior
*CORBIN ALLEN, Oak Park HS 6’5” junior
ZEEK BROWN, Oak Park HS 6’4” junior
CALEB ESTES, Oak Park HS 6’3” junior
CAMERON JONES, Park Hill HS 6’4” junior
DONNOVAN FONVILLE, Park Hill HS 6’4” sophomore
DAMON STACKER, Park Hill South HS 6’3” senior
COLBY KIEDROWSKI, Park Hill South HS 5’9” senior
CARSON BJORN, Park Hill South HS 6’5” sophomore
*MAVERICK HAWKINS, Pembroke Hill HS 6’3” sophomore
CHARLIE SCHARF, Pembroke Hill HS 6’4” freshman
BOBBY NONEMAKER, Pembroke Hill HS 6’4” sophomore
HOLDEN KEPHART, Raymore Peculiar HS 6’5” senior
CANNON NORTHCRAFT, Raymore Peculiar HS 6’7” junior
BRANDON PERRY, Raymore Peculiar HS 6’3” sophomore
ASHTON JERMAIN, Raymore Peculiar HS 6’1” senior
*KEVIN SULLIVAN, Rockhurst HS 6’6” sophomore
ANDREW SPRAGUE, Rockhurst HS 6’8” senior (football commit at Michigan)
KEMPER ROBERTS, Rockhurst HS 6’4” freshman
XAVIER WILSON, Staley HS 6’7” junior
JACKSON SMITH, Staley HS 6’5” freshman
KENNISON STONE, Staley HS 6’4” sophomore
TRA MOORE, Staley HS 5’10” freshman
AVIAN WEBB, Staley HS 5’10” junior
JAYDEN CRAIG, Winnetonka HS 6’0” junior
RYAN BARNHART, Winnetonka HS 6’3” junior
JOHN WYATT, Winnetonka HS 6’6” junior
ANTONIO FOWLER, Winnetonka HS 6’3” junior

My favorite GREAT 8 players at the JEWELL HS HOLIDAY CLASSIC, December 27-30, 2023

CORBIN ALLEN
Every game that Corbin plays in and competes, he’s the Alpha Dog on the floor.
Nobody plays harder. His team inevitably always plays at a break-neck speed. And for as long and as athletic as he is, his game has some good ‘old school’ charisma about it. He’s learning how to make other players better. 810 Varsity has him ranked #84
Nationally in the Class of 2025 and that could go up later on next Spring 2024.

SAMUEL DADA
Samuel just got here maybe 10 months ago from Nigeria and while his offensive low post skills are still a bit raw like you’d expect, he’s an excellent passer in the post, has great hands, a GREAT shot blocker. He looks like he LOVES the game of basketball.
His stat lines for 3 games were outstanding, averaging maybe 13 ppg, 10 rpg, and blocking countless shots. He’s a very intriguing prospect at the next level.

MAVERICK HAWKINS, PEMBROKE HILL
This is a coach’s son and when your dad, Jeff, not only coaches you but played at the University of Kansas, gene pool and life experiences gives you some advantages on the basketball court. On top of that, he’s a gym rat and loves the game and VERY mature
and respectful on and off the court. He needs the weight room. His length and skills all suggest D1 basketball in three years.

VERNELL HOLT, BATTLE
Nobody on the basketball floor in Liberty at the Jewell was more explosively quick and energetic getting from Point A to Point B than Vernell. Let’s put it this way: if he was 6’2” instead of 5’9”, he’d already been identified as a Top 50 player nationally at the point guard position. Shoots it well. Good passer. Plays super hard. He’ll play somewhere, we’ll just have to see how much he grows and how high that leads him.

TATE MCCUBBIN, BATTLE
So he’s got Wyoming-South Dakota State-SEMO recruiting him and I’m wondering why everybody’s sleeping on this south central Missouri gem. He’s a 3.9 student and plays that way. Long and very bouncy, plays way above the rim. Versatile. Can probably play the 2-3-4 collegiately. Shoots it well, needs some consistency there. But he has great range. Played for Michael Porter Jr AAU. Love his game. Power 5 conference in time.

SULLY MOHAMMED, BLUE SPRINGS SOUTH
Sully is a bit of a project. But almost every coach in the USA would love to have the project. He needs to sell out to the weight room, get stronger. But he’s long and extremely bouncy, one step ‘boom’ slam dunks. His shooting touch around the rim is all doable. He loves the game, he’s a gym rat. Works really hard in the classroom with academics. Always a big smile on his face. He’s got a great chance to be really good.

BRANDON ROOKS, BATTLE
So the height and length, I don’t know about. He thinks he might have 6’2”/6’3” in him. I just met him. Know nothing about his gene pool. I know this. NKC was doing a great job hanging around with Battle on Saturday night when BOOM, Rooks was looking like an offensive machine and making shots. NKC lost by 14. Deep shots-mid-range shots. All went in. Plays AAU with MoKan. He’s what high D1 shooters look like.

KEVIN SULLIVAN, ROCKHURST
Similar to Rooks then, in the championship game against Staley, Kevin was making shots EVERYWHERE. Pull up mid range in the paint to deep treys. He did a great job in the weight room this off season. His body looks like a million bucks for a sophomore.
Always plays with such a high basketball IQ. Good inside-outside defender. If he doesn’t grow an inch, he’s a schollie guy somewhere. Give him 3 inches, Power 5.

Other notes …
MOST of those Great 8 guys played in championship games (not all of them).
ANDREW SPRAGUE from Rockhurst at 6’8” and 280 pounds has verballed to MICHIGAN to play left offensive tackle for the Wolverines. Great kid with NFL upside down the road. GO MAIZE! GO BLUE!
COOPER SHRUM from Belton at 6’6” sophomore has already verballed to TENNESSEE to play baseball. I told him if he worked at his game, of basketball, might be good enough to play in that conference in two sports. Very very good shooter.
LANDON VAN PELT from Lee’s Summit at 6’8” and a sophomore didn’t put up huge numbers at the Jewell but has huge upside because of his huge frame. He’s got a nice shooting touch around the rim. Very skilled. His team just didn’t excel. Good player.