The New Mexico Showdown took place Friday, February 18th, through Monday, February 21st. The event, hosted by ABC, features 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade teams from around the Southwest United States. Pool Play took place Friday and Saturday with teams…
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Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log inThe New Mexico Showdown took place Friday, February 18th, through Monday, February 21st. The event, hosted by ABC, features 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade teams from around the Southwest United States. Pool Play took place Friday and Saturday with teams vying for all important bracket play seeding. Sunday and Monday was reserved for bracket play as teams went for the title. The event was made doubly exciting by the play of several talented ballhandlers. Many of these players could not only use both hands, but they also had a little shake and bake to their game. In this article, we take a look at my all-wiggle team from the event.
Jadon Virmontez (featured image)
Team: Rise
Ht: 4’5
Class 2029
Favorite Player: Devin Booker
Instagram: ACViramontez
Scouts Take: Viramontez played the game with pure joy this weekend. I guess it’s easy when you’re that talented. The lightning-quick PG showed some smooth moves using a nice right to left crossover to separate from defenders. Once he created space he was effective getting paint touches or getting all the way to the bucket and finishing.
Gabriel Gonzales
Team: Blue Devils
Ht: 5’3
Class 2027
Instagram: Donmom29
Scouts Take: Gonzales was able to score points in bunches this week. A lot of that had to do with his wiggle. He had several highlight-worthy shakes, freeing himself from defenders with crossovers and a good right-hand hesitation move. He was a threat from deep, forcing opponents to play him close, when they did it was goodbye and good night as he shook free of several defenders throughout the weekend.
Cameron Chiotti
Team: ABC
Ht: 5’1
Class 2028
Scouts Take: I saw quite a bit of Chiotti and he was fun to watch. He played with good pace and did a terrific job of keeping defenders off balance. He made my all-wiggle team, however, he was one of the better straight line drivers I saw. What lands him on the list, was his ability to change direction when opponents stepped in front of him.
Luis Gonzalez
Team: ABC
Ht: 5’3
Class 2027
Favorite Player: Trae Young
Scouts Take: Can my man Luis get a touch? Late in one of his games, I was sure his team was going to go to him for a last second shot, but they did not. Based on the way the young PG scored it was probably a mistake. Gonzalez list Trae Young as his favorite player and it’s easy to see why. He has major wiggle and he is unafraid to shoot it from deep. He used a good handle to get space, before splashing home several threes in the game I watched.
Jason Baca
Team: Rise
Ht: 4’11
Class 2028
Favorite Player: Steph Curry
Scouts Take: Baca was one of the entertaining players to watch this weekend. His team lost the game I watched, however, that didn’t stop him from standing out. He has several little hesitation moves that he used to free himself, and he used his float game to finish plays. He also showed major range, bombing home more than one NBA range three.
Rashad Morris
Team: NM Force
Ht: 5’1
Class 2027
Favorite Player: Steph Curry
Scouts Take: Morris did a good job of playing with effort without seeming rushed. He was able to get to the rim using straight-line drives but showed some wiggle when he put the ball on the floor. He used a standard right to left crossover, however, it was so quick few defenders were able to stay in front of him. When they laid back the smooth scorer knocked down his share of open threes.
