City of Palms Monday: Is five-star Darius Garland the best PG in 2018?

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Currently, the No. 1 spot in the class of 2018 isn't up for debate as power forward Marvin Bagley is clearly the top overall player. After him, though, it's a tossup and the positional battles are going to be interesting. On Monday, five-star Darius Garland made his case as the top point guard in the junior class.

The No. 13 ranked player in the class of 2018, five-star point guard Darius Garland is already one of the top few point guards in the junior class. On Monday, his play suggested that he could emerge as the best of the bunch at his position.

A six-footer at Nashville (Tenn.) Brentwood Academy, Garland doesn't have the type of weapons around him that some other top flight floor generals do, but he makes the most of it. Garland directs his team like a surgeon in the operating room and demands crisp precision from them. He got into the lane at will, he showed shooting ability and even though he can't be more than 160 pounds soaking wet, he showed toughness and intensity you don't expect from such a slight player.

Garland is in no hurry to decide butDuring the Gall he made trips to Duke, Indiana, Vanderbilt (who watched him Monday) and Louisville and touched on each of them.

Vanderbilt: Coach Drew has a bright future and I think he can turn the program around and I'm really excited about what they can do. They pitch me as the face of their program and I like that. I'm just trying to get some more feedback."

Indiana: They just welcomed me into their program. They told me that they need somebody to lead their team and that they would give me the ball as soon as I got there."

Louisville: "It's the same thing with most of the other programs. Coach Pitino says that I'm going to have the ball in my hands and that they want me to make plays and be a leader."

Duke: "It was great. The game was crazy, the environment was crazy. Coach K and the staff were really welcoming to me. They gave me the offer there and he spent a lot of time telling me what I could work on and the ways I could help their program.

At one time, five-star point guards Trevon Duval of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy and Quade Green of Philadelphia (Pa.) Neumann Goretti were teammates during the summer with We R 1. Monday night, the two faced off as foes in a quarterfinal contest.

Committed to Kentucky, the six-foot tall Green came out firing early hitting a deep and controlling the action to help his team out to an early lead. On the other end, Duval laid back and was content to let his loaded team take care of business and keep them close.

During the third and fourth quarter, the shots stopped falling for Green and Duval took over down the stretch hitting some key jumps and finishing some strong drives. By the time it was over, each Green and Duval had scored 17 points but Duval scored the 71-56 win and had the much more efficient night.

Duval was 8-15 from the floor with six rebounds, three assists and four turnovers. On the other side Green went 4-13 from the field with seven rebounds, two assists and ten turnovers.

Duval said that there are no changes to his recruitment and he had Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard plus an assistant from Kansas on hand to watch.

One player who emerged on Monday was 2018 point guard Serrel Smith of Saint Petersbug (Fla.) High. Smith is quick, has good size at 6-foot-2 and he's wired to score the ball via the dribble. He got into the lane all day long and showed off a pull-up jumper that is a legitimate weapon. The three-star listed offers from James Madison, Wyoming and Florida Gulf Coast to go with interest from Georgia Southern, Murray State, USF, UCF, South Alabama and Northern Florida.

Headed to Georgia, four-star combo forward Rayshaun Hammonds looks to be on the rise. The 6-foot-8 senior who currently ranks No. 60 in the Rivals150 made a bid for an adjustment up. While he's always been a top flight athlete, Hammonds has lacked some strength and sometimes settled for deep jumpers. Monday, he crashed the glass, used his athleticism in the paint and showed off a more sculpted, filled out frame. His jumper looks fine mechanically, it will just be a matter of repetitions and he's a potential difference maker at UGA.

The No. 2 ranked player in 2019, wing R.J. Barrett is locked in a battle with power forward Charles Bassey for the top spot in the class. During Montverde (Fla.) Academy's 76-45 trouncing of Jonesboro (Ga.) High, Barrett continued to build his case to make the jump to the top spot during a 21 point and eight rebound effort. He didn't need to take many jumpers and the bouncy southpaw did the bulk of his work around the rim.

In terms of fit for the program he has picked, four-star power forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree has made one of the best decisions of anybody in 2017. Headed to Villanova, he's a junkyard dog around the rim who is happy to sprint from one end of the floor to the other, play physically and then manufacture offense and save possession because of his hustle. He had one of his future coaches on hand to see him.

Five-star combo guard Collin Sexton who is headed to Alabama and Rivals150 shooting guard Elias Harden who is ticketed for Xavier combined for 58 points and 15 rebounds but it wasn't enough for Mableton (Ga.) Pebblebrook to knock of Penny Hardaway's Memphis (Tenn.) East program. East's 2018 backcourt of four-star shooting guard T.J. Moss and Rivals150 point guard Alex Lomax only made 4-21 field goals but made enough free throws and defensive plays to secure the victory.