Cassidy's Takeaways: Pangos All-American Camp

LAS VEGAS – The 2023 Pangos All-American Camp tipped off on Sunday evening, as more than 100 of the top high school basketball prospects in the country gathered in Nevada to showcase their talents in front of NBA scouts and various media outlets. Rivals national recruiting analyst Rob Cassidy was on hand for day one in the desert and shares some of his takeaways from the event.

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Five-star guard Boogie Fland recently set a June 22 date for an official visit to Kentucky, but plans on that front have seemingly changed.

“We moved it to sometime in September,” Fland said on Sunday. “I’m not sure when yet, but it’s going to be in September.”

Fland continues to find time to get on campus at Alabama, which is a visit he’s been mulling for more than a month now, but is yet to set a date for the trip.

“It’s going to happen,” Fland said of a future official visit to Tuscaloosa. “It’s just a matter of having time. We’re hoping to find a time to get something set. Then, we’ll just kind of go from there.”

Flory Bidunga knows what he is and it’s refreshing to see the 6-foot-9 forward embrace his role as a shot-blocker, rebounder and low-post scorer. The five-star junior manages to change the game each time he steps on the floor because of his size, build, impressive athleticism and instincts despite not being a gifted long-range shooter. Bidunga handles the ball better than some assume and brought the ball up the floor on occasion for his team on Friday. He’s also developed as a passer in the past year.

Bidunga has all the tools needed to be a dominant force at the college level as he is a force almost every team in the country will need to game plan for, even when he isn’t posting gaudy point totals. He finished his Pangos All-American contest debut with 14 points on 7-for-7 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, four assists and a block.

Cincinnati is thought to hold a slight edge in the big man’s recruitment. Schools such as Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky are also involved.

Tyler Betsey’s recruitment is starting to take shape, as the 6-foot-7 wing now has a trio of official visit dates set in stone. Betsey will visit Connecticut on June 9. He’ll tour Indiana on June 14 and check out Creighton on June 19. According to Betsy he is also considering Alabama, Duke and LSU but is yet to schedule visits to any of those campuses.

“I’m hoping to visit some or all of those schools in the fall and then wrap it up,” Betsey said.

One of the day’s top performers, 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward Ryan Jones showed off his smooth shooting stroke on his way to an eight-point, six-rebound performance that saw him go 4-for-5 from three-point range.

Following the contest, he said he hopes to visit LSU, Virginia Tech and Xavier in the fall, though he is yet to set dates.

He spoke about Xavier: “The coaches are winning coaches. ... My style of play seems to fit with the way they play, too.”