Top 20 Boys Point Guards Entering 2022 High School Basketball Season

High school basketball season is here.

As states open competition over the next month, SBLive Sports will be highlighting some of the top players at their position entering the new year.

We’ll start out with the ones who bring the ball up the court and run the offense.

Here are 20 point guards in high school boys basketball with sky-high expectations for the 2022-23 season.

TOP 20 BOYS POINT GUARDS IN THE COUNTRY

(The list is in alphabetical order.)

Layden Blocker, Senior, Sunrise Christian (Kansas)

Blocker burst onto the national scene after averaging 20 pints per game as a sophomore at Little Rock Christian. The 6-foot-2 Arkansas commit transferred to Sunrise Christian prior to his junior year, and he’ll run point for the No. 4 team in the preseason SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25 national rankings.

Elliot Cadeau, Junior, Link Academy (Missouri)

247Sports’ No. 1 overall player in the class of 2024, Cadeau transferred to Link Academy from Bergen Catholic (New Jersey) after missing his sophomore year with an injury. The 6-foot-1 junior impressed over the summer at the Nike Peach Jam, averaging 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds per game.

David Castillo, Junior, Bartlesville (Oklahoma)

Castillo will be a name to watch for the next two years and beyond. The five-star junior surpassed 1,000 career points in just 41 games, and he already holds offers from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and more of the nation’s top college programs.

Isaiah Collier, Senior, Wheeler (Georgia)

The No. 1 overall player in the nation, according to 247Sports, Collier is an electric playmaker for the No. 19 team in the nation entering the 2022-23 season. SBLive’s director of recruiting Andrew Nemec recently predicted the 6-foot-3 senior will choose the USC Trojans over other finalists UCLA, Michigan and Cincinnati.

Silas Demary Jr., Senior, Combine Academy (North Carolina)

Demary made the move from Liberty Heights (North Carolina) to Combine Academy for his senior year. The 6-foot-4 combo guard recently became the USC Trojans’ first commitment for the 2023 class.

READ THE FULL STORY ON SBLIVE SPORTS

6 Jun 24 Jimm Sallivan

New Mater Dei Football Coach Raul Lara Preaches Structure, Discipline

Raul Lara has been the busiest man in Santa Ana over the past month.

Mater Dei announced Lara as its new football coach on April 26, and since then, he’s been getting acclimated to life as a Monarch. He’s been getting acquainted with 200 full-time employees at Mater Dei, partaking in donor meetings, evaluating his coaching staff, and of course, getting to know his team.

Lara, who’s most known for his time at Long Beach Poly where he won five CIF Southern Section titles, was officially introduced on Wednesday morning. He met with local media and took questions about his vision for the program heading into the 2024 season and beyond.

Lara, 58, spent time as a probation officer earlier in his life. He’s familiar with young men and how important structure is. It’s a foundational piece to his coaching philosophy as he dons new colors on the sidelines this fall.

“The probation department really helped me get a different perspective on kids. To be honest, the ‘probation kid’ and the ‘football kid’—a regular kid—they’re the same kids,” Lara explained.
“The issue is kids having structure and not having structure. The kids that don’t have structure are on ‘survivor mode.’

“Within the first few days of me being here, we changed the structure and 90 to 95% of the kids have responded real well,” Lara added. “Kids want structure, even if they say they don’t, they do.”

.@SteveFryer asked new Mater Dei football coach Raul Lara if he’s been surprised by anything in his first month in Santa Ana.
“I was shocked there wasn’t much structure.”
More coverage of Lara’s presser coming. He was candid and personable. Good start. pic.twitter.com/ys963Lu5ys
— Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) June 5, 2024

Lara will take over for Frank McManus, who was at the helm for one season before being dismissed. McManus was the successor to longtime, legendary coach Bruce Rollinson.

“I was a little shocked to see there wasn’t much structure,” Lara said of his first few days with the team. “... (the players) were in the weight room and none of them had any uniforms on. That was daunting. Coming in, I was expecting all of them to come in with their red shirts on and gray shorts, like a soldier. I didn’t see that.”

Despite Mater Dei winning the CIF Southern Section Division 1 and CIF State Open Division championships last season under McManus, his off-the-field antics are what got him in hot water. The head coaching job at Mater Dei requires a lot more than just a football coach, it requires a CEO-like personality.

Lara understands that.

“I think I had 12 meetings (Tuesday),” Lara said chuckling. “There’s no doubt [it takes more than football], I’m meeting people left and right. To me, it’s kind of neat. I’m on a rollercoaster enjoying the time.”

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