LAS VEGAS, NEV. —The Border League culminated on Sunday with a matchup of the two best players in the country, No. 1-ranked AJ Dybantsa and No. 2-ranked Cameron Boozer, on national television.
This is actually the third match-up between the two superstars in recent months following an exhibition game in San Diego to start the fall.
Of course, nothing is likely going to come close to matching the original, when Boozer’s Nightrydas Elite squad held off Dybantsa’s Oakland Soldiers to win the Peach Jam and EYBL championship.
Nevertheless, even exhibitions like this can still be revealing, and there were plenty of takeaways from the entire weekend in Las Vegas.
1. AJ Dybantsa shows out
This weekend AJ Dybantsa showed exactly why he is the top prospect in high school basketball this weekend, especially with what he did on Sunday night. He went for 28 points on 10-20 shooting from the floor including five threes. What stood out was his ability to get to his spots, create space, and then rise up over the top of contesting defenders to drill pull-ups. While he’s been doing this sort of thing from 15-18 feet for a while, he’s now equally capable of doing the same thing with deeper range.
Simultaneously, we’re seeing real growth in his composure with the ball, his ability to read the floor and facilitate. He’s becoming increasingly poised with the ball and able to see where the help and double teams are coming from. Overall, it was an impressive weekend for Dybantsa from start to finish that culminated with a real shot-making show.
Just as importantly, as Eric Bossi reported, it now looks like his timeline for making a college decision is moving up. There is an increasing likelihood that Dybantsas’s recruitment process won’t last until February as initially expected.
