UA Finals: Fultz shines

SUWANNEE, Ga. -- The Under Armour Association's postseason event, The Finals, tipped off Wednesday night at the Suwannee Sports Academy.

D.C. Blue Devils shooting guard Markelle Fultz has had a full summer "off-season" of AAU tournaments and skills camps, but he showed no sign of fatigue on this occasion. The five-star shooting guard filled up the stat sheet to the tune of 19 points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block. The humble rising senior almost seemed embarrassed to talk about his performance.

"I'm just blessed to be able to play this game," Fultz said before allowing himself to reminisce about his travel season.

"It's been a great experience," Fultz said. "Everything I've been doing basketball-wise, it's just been a blessing going through all the stuff that's going on through my life. Picking up offers from Kentucky, North Carolina and Louisville. I'm just blessed to be able to play this game."

For the night, Fultz made eight of 13 shot attempts and easily could have attempted more, but he is a very unselfish player who values playing the game the right way.

"It was just a blessing really," Fultz said about the Kentucky offer. "That showed that if I keep working hard, I can do anything I want really and that the sky is the limit. I'm just going to keep pushing myself until I make it to the NBA and keep going from there, that's my goal."

The No. 23 ranked prospect in the Rivals150 wouldn't divulge the main schools in the mix with him, but Fultz did tell Rivals.com he plans to cut his list down to 10 schools and take official visits next month. Washington, Virginia Tech and Maryland are also in the picture, along with Kentucky, UNC and Louisville.

One Pac-12 school likely be on that list is Arizona, because Fultz has already scheduled an official visit.

"I've got one set up for August, I'm not sure of the date. I plan on taking other ones in August too."

Fultz also mentioned that he hasn't decided if Maryland will get an official visit since the school is so close to where he lives. It's possible that he may use unofficial visits there to help him learn everything he feels he needs to know about the school and basketball program.

Huell fights off fatigue

The No. 22 ranked prospect in the 2016 class, Dewan Huell, shook off fatigue and battled the No. 1 ranked prospect in the 2017 class, DeAndre Ayton in one of the most attended games by the college coaches in the building.

"Big, tough matchup," Huell said. "He's the No. 1 guy in the 2017 class. He's a great player. I knew I had to come out here and go at him."

Huell finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and two steals compared to Ayton's double-double of 14 points, 14 rebounds and one steal. Despite the fatigue of the travel season, including a trip to Italy, Huell was dialed in.

"I have a mindset that I'm always going to play hard," he said. "I go hard every time I'm on the court."

His skills and motor have earned Huell double digit offers. He trimmed his list several weeks ago but re-opened his recruitment to all schools. All the while, one ACC school seems to have the inside track to land the Miami native -- Florida State.

"Their coaches contact me every day," Huell said of the FSU staff. "Their coaches love me. They tell me they're going to follow me all July they're going to be at all my games. I love their guys, they're real cool, Coach Ham (Leonard Hamilton), Coach (Stan) Jones, Coach C.Y. (Charlton Young). Especially coach C.Y. C.Y. my boy, he's been recruiting me since I was a freshman."

Other schools Huell in the mix with him were Miami, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisville, Kansas, Maryland and USF. The five-star power forward does not have any official visit dates set up, but wants to take some in the early fall.

Huell's Team Breakdown teammate Eric Hester looked almost fully recovered from high ankle sprain suffered at the South Florida team camp in early June.

"It's feeling a lot better, a lot better," Hester emphasized. "It was keeping me from jumping off of my left and I jump off my left a lot. It's getting better, I did a lot of rehab."

Hester is Breakdown's best defender and typically draws the assignment guarding their opponent's best perimeter player. This, at times, affects his offense, but he connected on 60 percent of his shot attempts, had four rebounds and blocked a shot at a key moment late in the second half on Wednesday.

The four-star guard told Rivals.com that Louisville, Florida, TCU, USF and Indiana were heaviest in the mix with him right now.

Sleepers waking up coaches

The clear leader of River City Reign is 6-foot-2, 180-pound point guard Maliek White. In a game against Upward Stars, White did a good job keeping his team under control in a closely fought contest with his poise and by creating offense for his teammates.

White makes good use of ball screens and showed a nice mixture of playmaking and scoring. His speed is okay, but not exceptional. However his lateral quickness is very good and that allows him to hawk the ball on defense without fouling.

"I've been playing better each and every tournament," White said. "But I could have played better tonight to help us win the game."

White, who tallied 16 points and two rebounds but went scoreless in overtime, listed offers from Towson, Cincinnati, Boston College, East Carolina, UMass and VCU with interest coming from Tennessee and many more.

SE Elite FL has several players on its roster who were originally members of the 2015 class and opted to take a prep year, thus reclassifying to 2016. One of them that mid-major programs, in need of a point guard who can score, should be aware of is Jordan Coblin.

The 6-foot-2, 180 pounder had 22 points on 67 percent shooting, including 3-for-6 beyond the arc and 3-for-3 at the free throw line. Coblin also notched five rebounds, three assists and didn't have any turnovers

"I just try to be under control and not turn the ball over and be a floor general for my team. That's my job," Coblin said. "So I try to lead both on and off the court and both on offense and defense."

By the time Coblin graduated from Grandview Prep in Boca Raton, Florida, he had scored more than 1,500 career points and won a state championship. He has enrolled at Elev|8 Sports Institute in Delray Beach, Florida.

"I picked Elev|8 because of the great season they had last year and their great coaching staff and the great training," Coblin said. "I know that's going to help me out doing two-a-days. It will help me get better."

Coblin is a hard worker on the floor with solid leadership skills. He makes good decisions with the ball and can shoot it with range. Defensively, he is a very good on-ball defender and his help defense is solid. He didn't have any steals in this game but Coblin showed decent anticipation, tipping or deflecting several passes.

Although he holds no offers at the moment, Coblin is hearing from American, Boston University, Costal Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Cornell and Appalachian State.

Bul Ajang caught our attention while watching his Just Basketball team take on Atlanta Xpress Boyd. A native of South Sudan, Ajang runs very well, showed good hands, good scoring instincts and some offensive versatility.

The rising junior can put it on the deck for straight line drives and will attempt an open three-pointer. He only connected on 1-of-3 shots beyond the arc, and the two he missed were not in rhythm, so decision-making will need to get better. As a member of the 2017 class, he has some time. Ajang is competitive and a more than willing defender.

Listing his height at 6-foot-8, Ajang was recently measured at the Under Armour All-America camp to have a 7-foot-0.5 wingspan and a 9-foot-1.5 reach -- ttributes that immediately capture college coaches attention. If Ajang's feel for the game and his offensive skill set continues to improve, he'll be a solid high-major prospect.

Russ Wood is a basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and Inside the Gators. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.

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