Prep Elite Showcase to Spotlight 2027’s Elite

When the spring Edition of the Buckeye Prep Elite Showcase tips off on March 9^that Otterbein University, Ohio’s most elite 4^th graders will command the big stage.  For the first time ever, the class of 2027 will have the opportunity to participate in the prestigious Ohio North vs South All-Star Games.  Also, for the first time ever, and because the class is so loaded with elite talent, and many of the top players have already expressed a significant interest in the game, a 3^rd team will be added to the mix. For this event, the top players from northern, central and southern Ohio will compete to determine not only the best players in the state, but also what region of the state has the best 4^th grade players.

Below is a tentative list of players who have been invited to participate in the Saturday morning North vs South All-Star games. This list was compiled based on feedback we received from the coaches of the top travel teams in the state and other individuals who are familiar with the top players in this class.  Although 39 player names appear on the initial rosters, only the first 30 players to register  (10 players per team) will get to participate in the games.  Below is a registration link for the event, as well as a link to the event’s Information Page. 

For those 4^th grade players who did not make our initial list, there is still the opportunity to participate in the elite showcase and play your way to the final all-star games at the end of the event. Also, a Although the spring showcase has primarily been used to highlight the girls slate of Ohio North vs South games, we added 4^thgrade boys division this year so that we could get an early look at this class.  There will also be North/South games for 6^th-8^thgrade girls as well, as we will be building rosters over the next several weeks. 

This event will not only provide the best players to emerge from the pack and to receive early exposure, it will provide us with the opportunity to see the best players in the class and to begin posting features and tracking their progress.  As one final note, if someone from Michigan, Indiana or Kentucky is interested in putting together an all-star team for their respective state, lets us know and we will add it to the slate of 2027 all-star games! Moreover, we would also add a 3rd grade boys game if we can identify and make contact with the coaches parents of the top 3rd graders in the state. So, Coaches/parents, let make it happen! Finally, for more information about this great opportunity, you can contact us at either buckeyeprep@yahoo.com or 614-502-9359. 

North vs South All-Star Game Rosters (Tentative)

North All-Stars	Central All-Stars	South All-Stars
Keeran Stokes	Amir Clark	Joshua Tyson
Tyson Clay	Michael Daniels	Leshawn Hill
Lincoln Lee	Landon Evans	Chris Washington
Jaylen Billingsley	Tony Cornette	Ricky Isham
Shawn Foster	Dion Johnson	Darius Dennis
Jaylen Gunther	Tasii Davis	Jayshan Coffey
Brody Durham	Luca Filia	Woo Crane
Chad Rusinko	Albert Moore	DeShan Harris
Isaiah Mack	Rico Scott	Micaiah Ehirim
Mali Pearson	Bryce Wells	Kameron Mercer
Jeremiah Chapman	Jett Jerwers	Bryson Payne
David Seibert	Casey Brickner	Braylen Settlemeyer
Hasani Lamb	Caden Ivery	Braden Mack

Registration Link

Information Page

2027 Player Watch List

2026 Probound Wins Indiana Title

5th Grade Pro Bound Silverbacks-Gym Rats Bullseye Tournament Champions

Coach Mike Daniels’ 5^th grade Probound Silverback team finished 2-2 in route to the Sliver Division Championship of the Gym Rats’ Bullseye Tournament in Westfield, Indiana over the weekend.  After losses to the North Coast Bluechips (54-30) and R4L Pioneers (52-48) in pool play, Probound finished the event with wins over C2K 2026 (56-54) and 365 (56-50) to claim the title. 

For the record, the North Coast Bluechips went on to win the Gold Division Championship with victories over Carlos Davis' R4L Pioneers (46-23), Pro Bound Silverbacks (54-30), St. Louis Knights (56-47), Much Greater Elite (48-31) and CU (52-33).  In the 6^thgrade division, Superfriends finished 5-0 and claimed the Gold Division title.  Congratulations to Coach Daniels, his players and parents on the win!

Merry Christmas

On behalf of the staff and management, the Buckeye Prep Report family would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas! Take this opportunity to enjoy time with friends and family.

Buckeye Prep Elite Showcase Alums Excel in Middle School Ball

Kamryn Grant & Berry Wallace

From our experience, players who excel at our elite showcases go on to star for their respective middle school teams.  Case in point, according to Team Knockdown Coach Ron Bess, 2 of his best players, Kamryn Grant and Berry Wallace, both of whom made the finial all-star game and were selected for Top 5 Awards at our March elite showcase have enjoyed tremendous success with their respective middle school teams so far this season.  

Specifically, just last week, Grant went off for an eye popping 39 points in a game as her undefeated Berwick Middle School squad got by South Middle School.  In that game, Grant knocked down 4 treys.  In another game a week later, Grant went for another 22 points and 12 rebounds.  Wallace also has her Pickerington Ridgeview Middle School team undefeated, and she recently logged in an impressive performance with a 25-point outburst. 

This upcoming travel season, both Grant and Wallace will return to their highly successful 2024 Team Knockdown team, who we had ranked #3 in the state in our final Buckeye Prep Power Rankings last season.  Also, look for both players to make the roster for our 2019 Ohio North vs South All-Star game on March 9^th!  As always, we are committed to following the success of our elite showcase alumni all the way through their basketball careers.

In addition, word has it that Jalen McElroy ( 5’8”/WF/2024/Canton) had a big time performance last night, as he led his Crenshaw Middle School team to a 56-30 win over North Canton Middle School with 41 points in only 18 minutes of play. According to his travel team coach, McElroy scored all of his points “…on drives to the bucket, in the midrange, and free throws. McElroy runs with Ohio Phenom Academy in the spring and summer.  Finally, we also heard that John Mobley Jr. went off for 40 plus points last week for his middle school team as well!  Stay tuned for more updates as we get them.

Shock Claims Title

5th Grade Cincy Shock 2018 Turkey Shootout Champions

This past weekend, Coach David Svoboda’s 5^th grade Cincy Shock squad finished 4-0 on their way to the championship of the Turkey Shootout in Beavercreek, Ohio.  The Shock’s trek to the title included wins over Tip City (twice), Beavercreek Stars and Carroll.  Standouts for the Shock included Drew Duvall (5’5”/ WF/2026/Beavercreek), Grayson Davis ( 5’1”/SG/2026/Beavercreek), and David Svoboda (5’2”/PG/2026/Beavercreek). According to Coach Svoboda, the Shock’s success was attributed to “…ball movement and good defense.” It should be noted that the core of this Shock team runs with Dayton Metro during the spring and summer travel season. Congrats to Coach Svoboda, his players and parents for the win.

Happy Thanksgiving From Buckeye Prep

The Buckeye Prep family would like to extend Happy Thanksgiving wishes to you and your family. During the holidays it's important we all take the time to enjoy our loved ones. Oh yea, there should be a lot of great college basketball on TV today! God Bless!!

Probound Goes Undefeated in COBA Preview

2026 Probound

As the winter basketball season approaches so does the season for preview type events.  On Saturday, Mike Daniels’ 5^th grade Probound squad finished 3-0 at the Central Ohio Basketball Association’s annual preview event which was held at Worthington Kilborne High School near Columbus. Probound won each of their 3 games (against Grandview Navy, Berlin Eagles & Big Walnut) by double digits, 2 of which were by 20+ points. According to Coach Daniels, his team executed on their primary pre-event goals. “We came out real scrappy looking to take early leads. Our offense ran through our defense as we got a lot of steals and easy transition buckets,” said Daniels.

Probound has a high-powered roster which includes some of the top 4^thgraders in the state including: Casey Brickner (4’9”/SG/2027/Galloway), Mike Daniels (4’7”/SG/2027/Hilliard), Tansai Davis (4’5”/SG/2027/Columbus, and Tony Cornett (4’8”/PG/2027/Columbus), all of whom are featured in our recently published 2007 Player Watch List, and also represent the nucleus of the Team Dose AAU team that was ranked 2^nd in our final Power Rankings last season.  In addition to the 4^thgraders, the Probound roster includes a group of 5^thgraders including: Mitchell Wheeler  (4’9”/WF/2026/Gahanna); Cole Naegele (5’0”/PF/2026/Gahanna); Tayshon Smith (4’8”/SG/2026/Columbus); and Cole Shope (5’6”/C/2026/Columbus).  

Probound’s season opener will tip off on December 1^st.  Congratulations to Coach Daniels and his team for a fast start to the 2018/2019 winter season!  We intend to keep an eye on this year’s winter season and we invite coaches and parents to send us updates on their team’s progress so we can update our website. Please send information and team pictures to us at Buckeyeprep@yahoo.com.

IBT Middle School Showcase Loaded with Talent

Mobley, Holyfield, Carter, Mills-Smith, Henson & Milton

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the 6^th Annual IBT Academy Middle School Showcase at the Wellington School in Columbus. Renny Tyson and his staff did a fantastic job of attracting many of the top middle school programs in the central Ohio Area.  In fact, the event featured 15 games and 30 boys and girls 7^th and 8^th grade teams.  In terms of the format, each game consisted of two, ten-minute quarters and ran every 45 minutes. As has been the case every time we've attended the event, there was loads of talent with both the boys and girls teams.  Below are the team results and a list of the standout players we saw at the event.

In the 6 games we watched, Bexley's 8th grade girls deleted Mechanicsburg 15-8; Linden McKinney's boys got by Our Lady of Perpetual Help 24-8; Walnut Springs' 7th grade boys beat Reynoldsburg Waggoner 18-13; Marysville Bunsold's girls defeated Reynoldsburg 8-4; Reynoldsburg Baldwin's 7th grade boys beat Horizon Science 26-16; and Olentangy Orange's 8th grade boys beat London 22-14.

Standout Performers

John Mobley Jr.	Brady Carter	Sir Donald Milton	Shamar Mills-Smith	Rycheous McKinney
Abdiaziz Mohamed	Lloyd Kelly	Christopher Austin	Noah Smith	Nino Phillips
Kalen Boone	Simone Holifield	Mia Murry	Reason Cotner	Maddie Hanson

Standout Performer Pictures

Event Photo Gallery

Warriors Prepare for Upcoming Season

When the 2018/2019 winter basketball season tips off later this month, Coach Scott Bradley’s New Birth Warriors team will have several new faces.  In fact, this season, the Warriors will only return 3 players from last season’s squad, including Arness Lawson (2025), Mykell Murphy (2025) and Darius Graves (2025). New to the team this year are Jaylen Sims (2025), Brayden Torgrimson (2025), Amari Hodges (2025), JR Bates (2025), Laz Lawson (2025), Maurice Hamrick (2028), Deon Johnson (2027), and Jeriah Golden (2025). 

Because they’ve only had 3 practices to date, when asked what his team’s potential is for this season, Coach Bradley was cautious. “I don’t know.  We’re going to be competitive, but it’s not going to be like last year,” in terms of success, said Bradley. In addition, the addition of Westerville’s Jaylen Sims has Bradley a little more optimistic. “Sims is going to be good,” added Bradley.  

In addition to Sims, Arness Lawson’s play will be key to the Warriors success this season, as he has established himself as one of the best players in the state in the class of 2025. The Warriors will open their season at the Thanksgiving Shootout at the Kingdom Sports Center in Franklinton.  We intend to follow this Warriors’ progress this season so stay tuned!

Get Out and Vote on Tuesday!

We at the Buckeye Prep Report urges everybody to exercise their right to vote this Tuesday. The stakes could not be higher for our country!  

Buckeye Prep Stock Risers

Much like stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange, a player’s basketball stock often ebbs and flows throughout the course of a season, and from season-to-season. In an effort to be as inclusive as possible, while providing broader exposure to the greatest number of players, we have decided to highlight a few players who we believe have the potential to see their stock rise over the course of the upcoming season.  

In terms of our methodology, we have considered several factors in selecting these players. First and foremost, these 64 players are not necessarily the most highly ranked players on our various top player lists, but rather players who have tended to fly a little under our radar; are on the cusp of breaking out, and/or have a chance to break into and/or rise up on our lists.  In addition, they tend to be players who we have not seen very much of, we may have only caught glimpses of during certain events, or heard positive comments about from credible sources.  With that said, some of the players we lis below are well known to us, but still see their stock rise.  Enjoy!

Buckeye Prep Stock Risers

Lawrence Rice-2023	Mason Shrout-2024	Gwen Jenkins -2024	Brayden Fogal-2026
JaVaughn Jones -2023	Demarr Foster-2024	Kamryan Grant-2025	Derek Whitfield-2026
Brandon Rose-2023	Willie Williams-2024	Kelly Ernest -2023	Mali Pearson-2026
Josh Jones-2023	Lee Bruner IV-2024	E'moni Finch-2023	Rasheed Reed-2026
Tyler Williams-2023	Jarred McCoy-2024	Kendall George-2023	Nate Mile-2026
Ramone Jones-2023	Shared Barnes-2024	Taylor Haynes2024	Levi Davis-2026
Anthony Benard-2023	Durrell Brooks-2024	Cici Green-2024	Cantrell Hughes-2026
Nick Williams-2023	Stewart Hamilton-2024	Zhieyah Rolack-2024	Athens McCillis-2026
Najih Wright-2023	Arness Lawson-2024	Ann Hurst-2024	Brayden Fogal-2026
LA Hayes-2023	Jahleel Wakeel-2024	Tristen Williams-2026	Treyton Schroeder-2026
Kellen Smnith-2023	Jaylon Rigdon-2024	Taylor Haynes-2024	Tejuan Barbour-2026
Kaden Stephens-2023	Jordan Johnson	Sparkle Leigh-2021	Drake Ahrens-2026
Gavin Geisel-2023	Jeremiah Hughes	Sole Williams-2023	Shane Foster-2027
Sam Brown-2023	Karl Burroughs-2025	Gigi Bower-2024	Elijah McCree-2026
Sean Jones-2022	Joseph Boddie-2024	Grace Thomas-2024	Khani Thomas-2026
Mike Bova-2022	Isaiah Robinson-2024	Madison Greene-2023	Ayden Snuder-2026

Pearson Determined to Make Impact

Malsi Pearson 4'8" PG 2026 Akron

He prides himself on making an impact every time he steps on the court, and from what we saw at our Buckeye Prep Elite Showcase in September, and his 2018 highlight video featured below, Malsi Pearson (4’8”/PG/2026/Akron) is true to his word! What’s also extremely clear from what we’ve seen of Pearson’s game so far is his elite skill set, which includes an ability to shoot, pass and dribble at an elite level.  Let me be clearer; this kid is a wizard with the rock in his hands, and his ability and willingness to find open teammates and deliver pin point passes is nothing less than impressive.  

Moreover, Pearson is a 3-level scorer who can both light up the score board while also making teammates better with his ability to break down defenders and to get into the paint for drop off passes and easy layups.  That’s not all, he changes speed and direction at a high level, he has a high basketball IQ, he drains deep treys off the bounce or in catch and shoot situations, and he is brimming with confidence and swagger. 

Although he has not decided where he will play basketball when the 2019 season tips off in March, Pearson was a standout for the Columbus based Miller Factory and several other big-time programs, such as Mac Irvin Fire and Louisville United, last season.  According to Pearson’s coach at the Miller Factory, Pearson has a chance to be good going forward.  “I think he has a chance to be a top 5 point guard in his class in Ohio,” said Coach Wallie.  Pearson is not just a basketball standout, as he also wrestles and plays soccer at an elite level.  That’s not all, from what we’ve heard, Pearson is an excellent student as well.

With his all-star performance at our last elite showcase, Pearson is easily among the top 5 players in the state in the class of 2026.  With his talent and the number of games he has logged over the past few years we’re a bit surprised that Pearson’s name is not yet listed among the best nationally, as we can’t believe there are 25 better 5^thgraders in the country than the Akron product.  We look forward to seeing more of Pearson at our March 9^thelite showcase.

Malsi Pearson 2018 Highlight Video