Houston GASO Tip-Off: What We Learned

The first GASO weekend of 2019 is in the books, with old faces showing growth in their games just as new names appeared on our recruiting radar. We look at three major story lines to come out of the Houston GASO to tip off this week's coverage of everything we observed at the first Great American Shoot-Out of the year.

JL3 Elite brought two underclass groups to the Houston GASO with rosters overflowing with talent. The 16u group featured a pair of top-25 talents in the 2021 class in Kaleb Stewart and Griffin Datcher, while No.31 ranked Noah Robledo also showed well. Stewart's game is already mature beyond his years, as he gets to his spots efficiently and makes the right play when it presents itself. When paired with the frontcourt of Robledo and Datcher, things really open up for him in the halfcourt as he can get downhill to finish.

Similarly, the 15u group for JL3 Elite looks to be one of the top 2022 teams in the region, with lots of potential at every roster spot. Their run to the NCAA championship at the Houston GASO was marked by aggressive guardplay and athletic bigs making plays, with Kinkaid product Jordan Williams at the center of it. Williams is also a highly ranked football prospect, but showed a lot of promise as a muscle guard to score on the drive. TJ Arceneaux, Amaree Abrams, and Bebe Knight also performed at high levels, and we will have more on them in the coming days.

A whole company of San Antonio teams made the trek over to Houston this weekend, with several finding success against local competition. Foremost among these teams was the Yes II Success TX Future 16u group, who made a run to the championship using a mishmash of Houston and San Antonio talent. After falling behind by double digits in the first half of the NBA Red bracket championship game, YIIS came back to edge out a 1-point win to claim the gold.

Bryon Armstrong of SA Antonian turned more than a few heads this weekend, while the Atascocita backcourt pairing of Johnathan Massie and Tom Hart III stole the show in pool play. There's a lot of talent on this roster, and with more time to gel they could turn into one of the state's premier 16u squads.

HD Toros similarly made a deep run into bracket play, getting past a pair of Austin area teams to take home a title on Sunday. Kyle Castille's activity level around the rim paved the way with 19 points in the title game against Centex Attack, while Jalen Mangum and Kino Thompson proved to be one of the top backcourts from this weekend's event. It's exactly the kind of showing they would be hoping to have with the Live Period coming up in just 3 weekends.

Though they opted to not play in bracket play, the pair of games Basketball University's 17u team played on Saturday gave us more than enough opportunity to take in the games of some really talented players. PG Davion Coleman deserves another look this spring, after a stellar 24-point second half earned them a win over HD Toros. Coleman's ability to read screens and power through contact on the drive was a key factor in him earning 4 and-ones in the second half alone, and he also showed great instincts to get into the paint and kick to shooters.

On the other end of the starting 5, Yves Bakinta proved himself as a rim protector at a high level and will be a target for teams looking for a rim-running 5 man that has a nose for the ball on the boards. In addition to these two, we also found a 2022 talent running with the 17u group as Jason Clark looks to be one for the future. Clark has a pure, over the top shooting stroke and was dialed in even with a hand in his face. While there is no Sahvir Wheeler or Quentin Grimes-caliber player on this year's roster, they still present a formidable challenge with several prospects college coaches will need to check out.