Starting Five: Alkins' itinerary, Bol Bol and NBA All-Star review

Five-star shooting guard Rawle Alkins has been taking some high profile visits. A class of 2017 shooter to watch, scouting Bol Bol and more in this week’s Starting Five.

Rawle Alkins, a senior guard at Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God has been busy taking official visits. Ranked No. 9 overall in the class of 2016, Alkins took recent visits to St. John’s, Arizona and UNLV.

Alkins has also been on the campuses of North Carolina and North Carolina State for unofficial visits.

Rivals.com spoke to Alkins and he told us that he still plans to take at least two more official visits and it doesn’t appear that he’s feeling any pressure to get a decision out of the way.

When college coaches are allowed to evaluate players in the April grassroots events, they are going to like what they see out of 6-foot-6 junior Jared Ridder of Springfield (Mo.) Kickapoo.

Currently an unranked three-star in the class of 2017, Ridder is starting to earn offers. His most recent offer came from DePaul. Missouri State, Saint Louis, IUPUI, Stetson and Air Force have also offered.

Ridder took an unofficial visit to Wichita State over the weekend and will check out Nebraska next weekend. He can really shoot, has good size and he’s going to draw a pretty good crowd in April playing with MoKan Elite.

Rivals.com checked in on 2018’s No. 10 ranked player, Bol Bol of Roeland Park (Kans.) Bishop Miege as he helped lead his team to a rivalry win on Friday night.

Bol, the son of former NBA center Manute Bol, is nearing seven-feet tall and he’s added some strength to his slim frame. He scored 15 points in a win over Overland Park (Kans.) Blue Valley North and he scored them in impressive fashion.

Bol towered over defenders for slams, made some alert passes and showed some impressive skill with a left wing three-pointer off the dribble.

Crowds tend to want too much from young big men because of their size advantage and Bol does need to continue to develop his post game. Overall, though, Bol has made big strides in his game from this time last year and is on the right track developmentally.

Tanager Sports is going to host a national high school tournament at Lawrence (Kans.) Free State in late March.

Among the teams expected are Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep, Phoenix (Ariz.) Hillcrest Academy, Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God, Jacksonville (Fla.) Potter’s House, Oldsmar (Fla.) Christian, Mono (Can.) Athlete’s Institute, Dallas (Texas) Advanced Prep International and Winston-Salem (N.C.) Quality Education.

That sets up some serious firepower in one spot. Josh Jackson, the No. 1 player in 2016, potential 2017 No. 1 DeAndre Ayton, five-star shooting guard Rawle Alkins, five-star senior big Thon Maker, API’s five-star trio of Terrance Ferguson, Trevon Duval and Billy Preston and four-star wing Deshawn Corprew should all be on hand.

There was no shortage of big numbers being thrown up by big-name players as the West took out the East 196-173 in Sunday night’s NBA All-Star game. The West’s explosive point guard Russell Westbrook was named the game’s MVP after going off for 31 points, eight rebounds and five assists. For the East, Paul George sank nine threes and finished with a cool 41.

Looking back, that’s two guys who have clearly exceeded even the lofty projections for them when they were in high school.

Coming out of Lawndale (Calif.) Leuzinger, Westbrook was a three-star prospect and though he lacked a real national profile, he had many SoCal scouts calling him a steal for UCLA with huge upside. They were right, but nobody could have predicted the elite level that he has taken his game to. With back-to-back MVP awards in the All-Star game and a growing body of work as one of the league’s most entertaining one-on-one players, Westbrook has reached superstar status.

George was also rated as a three-star prospect coming out of Palmdale (Calif.) in the class of 2008. In two quick years at Fresno State, George turned into an offensively gifted 6-foot-9 forward and a 2010 lottery pick who is now one of the smoothest wing scorers in the NBA.

It was a good year for NBA All-Stars graduating from California schools in 2008. In addition to George, Jrue Holiday, Demar Derozan and Klay Thompson are native Californians from that 2008 class who have played in an NBA All-Star game.