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.

This wasn’t a ‘tournament’ per se. 6 teams, 2 pools. 1st, 3rd, and 5th place games on Saturday. Blue Valley North knocked off Topeka Shawnee Heights in the 1st place game 82-64 to win the 1st place trophy as head coach Ryan Phifer gave credit to his team’s pilgrimage through the EKL in winning his pool. This was actually a pretty good field of 6. I enjoyed it. The Mustangs field a VERY young team. Greg Ballard 2024 6’6”, Jaron Lashley 2024 6’4”, and Gavin George 2024 6’4” give BVN good size around the rim and their ONLY seniors in the 8-man rotation. Their leadership and ability to manage the rigors of the season will be crucial in determining how far North makes their run in the 6A state tournament.

Other ‘odds and ends’ at Shawnee Mission West High School …

Olathe West HS is a very deep and well coached basketball squad. They don’t have a boatload of size in the paint. They DO play really hard and well on the defensive end of the floor. That would be head coach Brad Ball’s mantra in his years as the inaugural West head coach. The one guy who has had everyone’s attention this far is Madut Bol 2024 6’3” left handed sharp shooter with good quickness and perimeter scoring skills. He’s putting up big numbers in his final Owl season. Good player. You talking young team, Carter Stuck 2024 6’7” is longest senior starter, and there will be some games where Bol and Stuck are IT for the Class of 2024 on the basketball floor. Very young …

Ozark MO came into the event with a good record, but laid an egg against Shawnee Heights. And THEY are very young as well with only four SRs on the roster and I think only 2 of them played. Hudson Roberts 2025 6’4” and Kylan Pickren 2027 6’3” are REALLY skilled shooters deep, Roberts from the LH side and Pickren from the RH side. They can really fill it up deep. Cohen George 2025 6’9” is usually their post presence in the paint …

The player performance for the week may well have been Jaret Sanchez 2025 6’5” from Shawnee Heights as he had to set all kinds of Viking Classic scoring records going 7-for-9 from the trey line in ONE HALF! Sanchez finished with 35 points, when he gets on a roll, he is streaky good with great range. Jaret has done a really good job of getting his body in better shape for the game of basketball (and all this scoring after the night before when his ankle was so swollen, he could not perform at all). Brennan Dodge 2024 6’1” is the ONLY senior in the starting lineup for the Thunderbirds, a solid combo guard with some scoring skills. Again … Shawnee Heights is VERY YOUNG.