A pair of South Carolina hoopers stand out at Chris Paul's CP3 Combine
This weekend, Chris Paul’s AAU organization (Team CP3) held an invite-only combine for their program. It was a celebration for each of their teams this past season. They brought together a gym filled with talent, from the 2025 class up to the 2021 class, many of which are nationally ranked players.
The format of the combine brought players in on Friday night to get registered and have a gear handout and dinner. Saturday they got to the gym, and after a nice, hearty breakfast, they ran through skills sessions and played. They did the same on Sunday, while adding in some seminar talks throughout the weekend, they had a lot of time on the court.
The players were divided into six teams and they each played three games, two on Saturday and one Sunday. There were a lot of standouts as players like 2021 Top 40 prospect Deebo Coleman, 2021 NC State commit Terquavion Smith, 2021 South Carolina commit Jacobi Wright, and Top 50 2022 De’Ante Green were in the mix. Two of the event's top performers were from South Carolina.
6’7” 2023 Brandon Gardner of Gray Collegiate - Gray Collegiate is coming off a state champion 3-Peat.. While the team lost its two leading scorers, Latavian Lawrence (SC State) and Taurus Watson (Post Grad), Brandon Gardner will be in line to step up in a major way. As a freshman, the lengthy and bouncy forward averaged 4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
Gardner is a walking highlight. He plays with so much pop and bounce to his game. During this weekend he continually had onlookers nudging one another, tapping their heads and even standing up out of their seats. He is a supremely explosive player, who plays well above the rim. He is an excellent shot blocker who can switch up and down a line up on defense. But on offense is where his game has expanded. He shows the ability to attack a closeout as well as play out of the dunker position or as a rim diver.
Playing hard is most definitely a skill, and Gardner has this skill in spades. Whether it be gathering offensive rebounds and tip dunks, or swatting chase down blocks, or diving on the floor for the 50/50 ball, Gardner’s tenacity is well documented.
Some college coaches have said Gardner reminds them of Jerami Grant while others have brought up a Montrezl Harrell archetype. He already carries offers from the likes of Clemson, Ole Miss, Wake Forest, Illinois, Wichita State and others. Expect him to slide into the national top 100 rankings once the national services begin to sort that class out.
6’9” 2023 Greg “GG” Jackson of Ridge View - Ridge View is coming off back to back to back (3-peat) state championships, and after losing Javon Benson (South Carolina) and Cincere Scott (SC Salkahatchie) the Ridge View keys will be handed to Tyler Rice, a William and Mary commit, and sophomore Greg Jackson.
In this setting, Jackson dazzled all on lookers with his skill and toughness coming from the forward position. He is a very skilled forward who is able to play on mismatches, taking smaller guys on the blocks and bigger guys on the perimeter. Defensively, Jackson does not shy away from contact at all, in fact he initiates a lot of the bumping around the paint. He uses good positioning for rebounding and toughness and length for protecting the rim.
Already possessing fluidity, to go along with skill and range, as Jackson continues to get stronger the sky could be the limit in his development.
Jackson carries offers from the likes of Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Syracuse. His recruitment should pick up nationally as this class begins to get ranked, and he is slotted appropriately.
TOP PLAYS FROM THE EVENT!
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