June is a season for true recruiting wonks.
Grassroots circuits go on hiatus, and most players rejoin their high school rosters for local camps. Yet a select few garner invites to combines — usually convened by the shoe company that funds their circuit — that pit elite prospects head-to-head over a couple of days.
One of them is the Nike Elite 100 Camp in St. Louis, which is an ideal setting, considering that Missouri routinely pursues talent from Brad Beal Elite and Mokan Elite, two Swoosh-supported outfits at each end of I-70. How much stock should we invest in eight scrimmages over four days? A very modest amount. For example, heavy-usage players might amass 70 possessions. The rosters are ad hoc. And any schemes used are skeletal.
Caveats aside, though, it’s a chance to see the best of the best go at each other. That’s a helpful data point to consider when evaluating a player’s performance during the prep season and with their summer squad. It’s also an event that comes at an ideal time for rising juniors in the class of 2027. Over the weekend, college coaches can start speaking directly to these players – no longer going through coaches, trainers, or parents.
Put simply, it starts the clock on their recruiting cycle.
Last week, I tried to bring folks up to speed on how some notable names on MU’s (very early) recruiting board have performed on various grassroots circuits. Now, we can take a brief look at how some of those same targets performed this week inside the rec center at Saint Louis University.
Scottie Adkinson
Odd as it sounds, the No. 38 prospect counts as underrated in my book. To be clear, I’m not critiquing scouts who monitor hundreds of players across three classes. And while it’s reductive to talk about weighing potential against production, few prospects are as steady as Adkinson at the latter.
Consider this factoid: Adkinson has averaged 1.2 points per possession over his last 106 outings with Webster Groves, on the EYBL circuit and through two visits to Elite 100. To a certain extent, the same steadiness defined former target JJ Andrews’ run of form, but scouts didn’t truly value it until this spring, vaulting him into the top 15 of his class. Mind you, Adkinson still has a long way to go, but if he keeps this pace up, it’ll be hard to justify keeping him in his current slot.
As noted recently, Adkinson demonstrated this spring that he’s at ease operating off the ball while continuing to feast in transition. That’s the case this week, too. Among high-volume campers, Adkinson ranked fourth in rim attempts and sixth in efficiency, a byproduct of filtering out and running the floor.
Yet Adkinson didn’t use those transition opportunities to pad his stats. He averaged 0.917 points per possession in the half-court, ranking a respectable 15th among 31 high-usage players. As expected, Adkinson thrived in middle pick-and-rolls, but he did so without relying solely on driving with his left hand. He still put two feet in the paint after rejecting a screen and snaking coverage to finish on the right side of the cup. It’s the kind of craft we don’t always see from him in other live settings, mostly because defenders are helpless in forcing him to attack with his weaker hand.
What’s heartening – at least to me – is Adkinson’s versatility. On film, you’ll see he notched four buckets by dive-cutting to the rim on inbounds plays. He notched another eight points during the week by crashing the offensive glass. And there were a handful of quality spot-up looks that came his way by simply relocating to a corner or popping back out after driving and kicking.
Even if a defender does their job on the ball, Adkinson finds ways to score – an innate ability that’s translated in almost every type of setting.
Jimmy McKinney III
Circumstances dealt the Vashon guard a tricky set of conditions this week. McKinney is acclimating to a more prominent creative role with the Wolverines and Brad Beal Elite, but the luck of the draw has put him on the same roster as King Gibson and Ryan Hampton, a pair of top-15 prospects in 2027. Oh, and Bentley Lusakueno, a top 10 recruit in 2028, manned the four-spot.
Games at Elite 100 last 30 minutes with a running clock, and with Gibson getting the bulk of the run, it left McKinney having to pick his spots. On its face, putting up 0.722 PPP won’t knock your socks off, but the nature of McKinney’s touches plausibly explains some of his middling efficiency.
There were moments where McKinney’s showed a clean handle, smooth feel and confidence stepping in pull-ups 3s during high pick-and-rolls. And opportunities for earning quality rim attempts popped up when he busted it during transition.
However, McKinney also turned the ball over 18.5 percent of the time on the break, and the snippets in our clip packet show that some of those might have been the byproduct of playing with a roster put together on the fly. That’s not the case with some giveaways while driving from spot-ups or ISO opportunities, where a loose handle made it easy for defenders to pick his pocket. Lastly, McKinney didn’t see his trademark pull-up 3s in early-clock situations splash home.
The number that sticks out most is 2 of 12. That’s how McKinney performed shooting off the bounce in the half-court, well below his baseline with Brad Beal Elite in normal EYBL action. It’s not the field-goal percentage that gnaws at me. It’s the volume. This spring, we’ve seen McKinney rely heavily on drilling pull-ups while his paint-touch rate and efficiency have been scattershot. Coupled with McKinney’s smaller frame, that tendency might also be a natural adaption to issues creating separation and having average vertical pop around the rim.
Every player develops on a distinct timeline, but it’s hard not to notice that McKinney’s not quite as productive at playing downhill as Adkinson. Moreover, we haven’t seen the same burgeoning ability to shake loose off screening action. Again, it doesn’t mean McKinney won’t get there in due time, but right now, his game seems a bit more one-note than some other ball-handlers on the board.
Malachi Jordan
A week ago, I mused about when Jordan’s abundant potential might manifest in the half-court. His outings in St. Louis weren’t a blunt rebuttal, but the wing, who will play at nearby Cardinal Ritter this season, showed what progress looks like.
Jordan’s efficiency, for example, was just behind what Adkinson produced against a set defense. The mix of touches was also alluring. Jordan’s shooting mechanics have improved, and they were on display coming off various screening actions. He quickly got on balance and kept his elbow position and wrist action consistent.
The camp setting offered him chances to operate in ball screens, which are scarce when he runs with Mokan. If not for a couple of turnovers, Jordan played with a bit more assurance as a shot-creator. That said, there are still instances where he settles for shots that produce body lean – often a fadeaway – that also changes the release point on his jumper.
King Gibson
The nation’s No. 14 prospect added a Missouri offer to his extensive list over the weekend, and we’ll see if there’s anything approaching traction moving forward. More than anything, Elite 100 served as a helpful introduction to the North Carolina native’s skill set.
Gibson’s style is abrupt, gliding up the floor before accelerating around a drag ball screen and casually gaining lift-off. The threat of that initial burst and separation put defenders in another bind. Try to push him over the top of the screen and into drop coverage, and he’ll knock down one-dribble jumpers at the nail. Get more aggressive at the level of the screen, and Gibson will reject it easily to find a seam.
Earlier, I mentioned how Gibson’s presence limited McKinney’s role. That’s more than a matter of minutes. Gibson’s also keen to probe the mid-range, knocking down 7 of 12 pull-ups during the week. There’s the aforementioned one-dribble variety, a slight fadeaway if a defender sits on his hip, and a crafty reverse pivot when beaten to a spot. In each instance, Gibson can keep his core stable, pickups clean and the upper half of his torse quiet.
Gibson just missed the threshold to qualify as a high-volume player in the half-court, but had he cleared it, his half-court efficiency (1.0 PPP) would have ranked eighth. His overall efficiency ranked ninth, and Gibson looked casual as he was carving up defenders.