Guerrero continues to see stock rise

Cezar Guerrero entered the summer as a talented prospect from southern California who had to prove he was one of the nation's better point guards. From tournament to tournament, the Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco recruit did just that.

"He played very solid all summer," Belmont Shore AAU coach Dinos Trigonis said. "He was terrific at Pangos Live, he had a very outstanding performance against Jahii Carson there. He had a good battle against him.

"He was very good all tournament at the Fab 48. He was hurt but played well at the Desert Duel and played well at the adidas Nations. He was one of the top handful of players there."

Programs from across the country are now interested in Guerrero, who missed all of last season because of transfer rules and then all of last summer with an injury.

Trigonis said Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Indiana, Florida State, Auburn, Seton Hall, UNLV, Colorado, Oregon State, Washington State, Fresno State, St. John's and Iowa are some of the new schools involved.

It might be tough to get Guerrero to USC, UCLA, Arizona or Arizona State though.

The Trojans have a commitment from Long Beach (Calif.) Poly's Alexis Moore, Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep's Nick Johnson just pledged to Arizona, Carson picked Arizona State in recent weeks and the feeling is that UCLA is waiting on some other top prospects including five-star Josiah Turner from Sacramento, Calif., who's expected to visit with the Bruins on Sept. 10.

Guerrero, a 6-foot, 175-pound prospect rated as the No. 14 point guard and No. 61 overall by Rivals.com in the 2011 class, should still have lots of options. Many more programs are involved with him now than this spring and the list has blown up since last time this year.

His play this summer - especially passing the ball and getting to the basket - has helped his stock immensely.

"He passed the ball as well as I've ever seen him pass the ball," Trigonis said. "He did a good job of getting to the basket and finding teammates.

"Overall, his perimeter shots were probably down and part of that was he had a terrific summer getting to the basket. He got to the basket better than I ever thought he'd be able to. He was scoring against big guys inside and he was not settling for perimeter shots.

"He would find open teammates or get to the basket and that resulted in his overall shot attempts going down. One of his strengths has always been free throw shooting especially late in games."