Potpourri, Aug 24

News Bits

The Field of 68: "NEWS: Elijah Mahi will RETURN to Santa Clara for his fifth year of eligibility, source told TheFieldOf68. Mahi averaged 14.1 PPG, 4.7 RPG and 2.6 APG last season for the Broncos."

Excellent news for Bronco Coach Herb Sendek.

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Steve Hewitt: "Newman & BABC guard Jaylen Hunter-Coleman announced his commitment to San Francisco tonight, rejoining the 2026 class. 2024 MIAA champion with Charlestown HS. 2026 NEPSAC and National Prep champion with Newman. Athletic playmaker, elite defender and ultra competitive winner."

He's a 6-foot lefty.

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6-foot-2 guard Charlie Kosta is transfering from Cabrillo College to UC Merced. In league play, he averaged 9.8 points with 52 assists versus 20 turnovers. He's a Palma High grad.

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"A Youth Sports Giant Promised Reforms to Protect Kids From Sexual Abuse. Most Never Happened"

The AAU organization has sickeningly acted like a private corporation in these matters.

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Coaching Updates: Bryant, Dufault, Nakagawa - Rory Maker August 17, 2026

"The Hornets are hiring John Bryant as an assistant coach, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (via Twitter).

Bryant was an assistant on Billy Donovan‘s staff in Chicago for the past five years. Donovan stepped down as head coach of the Bulls in April, after the 2025/26 season ended.

Bryant, a former professional player, got his coaching start in the G League, spending three seasons with the Bakersfield Jam and two with the Delaware Blue Coats from 2011-2016. He became a player development coach with the Sixers in 2016 and was promoted to an assistant position in 2018 before joining Chicago in 2021."

Bryant played first at Bishop O'Dowd and then at City College San Francisco before moving on to Utah.

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Verbal Commits: "2029 SoCal Academy (CA) G Jerrell Copeland has received an offer from California."

He's 6-foot-4, 180 with Cal and Creighton tops among his four offers to date.

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6-foot-1 Austin Ito, out of Woodcreek High and Yuba College, has signed with new Coach Scott Waterman and New Mexico Highlands University. Ito averaged 12.6 points per game this past season.

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"Free agent forward Keshad Johnson, who has spent the past two years with the Heat after going undrafted in 2024, has continued to workout with the team and is a candidate to return on either a standard deal or a two-way contract, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald."

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"Mavericks assistant coach Phil Handy plans to leave Dallas to join the Sixers as an assistant under head coach Nick Nurse, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape. Tony Jones of The Athletic confirms the news.

Handy, who was on Nurse’s staff in Toronto when the Raptors won the championship in 2019, is a former professional player who had stints in the Continental Basketball Association, Israel, France, England, Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia, per the National Basketball Coaches Association.

The veteran assistant started his NBA coaching career with the Lakers in 2011 and was hired by Cleveland a couple years later. His five-year stint with the Cavaliers included a 2016 title and three seasons with new 76ers forward LeBron James.

After one year in Toronto, Handy rejoined LeBron and the Lakers in 2019 and was part of a third championship run in 2020. He left Los Angeles last offseason to join Jason Kidd‘s staff in Dallas.

Handy, who turns 55 next week, is close with Kyrie Irving and was initially expected to stay with the Mavericks under new head coach Dusty May. Instead, he’ll once again team up with Nurse and James.

According to Jones, Handy is highly regarded around the NBA and is viewed as one of the top skill development coaches in the league."

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"Mountain West Newcomer Preview: Mike Mora Brings Proven Shooting to Wyoming"

He's out of Palo Alto High and played at Cal State Monterey Bay.

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Potpourri, Aug 17

News Bits

St. Mary's is touring this month in Australia and played the Sydney KIngs (featuring Matthew Dellavedova (DNP) and Harry Wessels) on August 14. The outcome: an 85-72 victory for the Gaels. 6-foot-6, 215 sophomore wing Mantas Juzenas paced the Moraga-ites with 16 points as well as eight boards.

Plus on August 16, despite getting 20 points plus seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots from Vangelis Zougris, Coach Mickey McConnell's crew fell 86-84 to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Just found this - in the first game of the tour on August 13:

Delly Mouthguard: "Saint Mary’s drops game 1 of the Australian summer tour 95-78. Gaels started Dent, Bivins, Juzenas, Zougris, and Altuntas. Juzenas led Saint Mary’s with 24 points in 25 minutes."

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Anthony Smith: "Thankful and blessed. Appreciate you WeberStateMBB."

Smith is a 2028 6-foot-4, 180 combo guard attending Clovis High and playing AAU ball with Lakeshow.

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"Fresno Pacific University and Menlo College Officially Join the CCAA"

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"The Late Don Nelson Changed the NBA Forever With Four Landmark Innovations"

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Who would have ever guessed that Idaho State men's basketball would ever have developed a Bengal roster within a roster consisting of Nor Cal talent? Check out who fits that bill on the 2026-27 ISU squad:

• 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman guard Ty Virgil out of Sheldon High
• 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Kenyon DeMuynck out of San Leandro High and City College San Francisco
• 6-foot-6 freshman guard Joven Dulay out of Folsom High
• 6-foot-10 sophomore forward Malachi Johnson out of Inderkum High and Cal State Stanislaus
• 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Malik Johnson out of Inderkum High andCal State Stanislaus
• 5-foot-10 freshman guard McKae Amundsen out of Clovis North High

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Simply Basketball: "NJ Gray (2027) will be attending Salesian College Prep."

A big time pickup for Coach Bill Mellis. Gray is coming over from The Branson School.

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"Dusty May just exposed college basketball’s problem no NIL check can fix"

Do coaches still have time to coach?

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"Hiring coaches among first steps for return of sports at Sonoma State University"

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Potpourri, Aug 10

News Bits

"Why a college basketball player turned down $1.5 million to stay at his school"

The name is Hamad Mousa, the best talent on the Cal Poly team, and he is returning to play for Coach Mike DeGeorge. It seems strictly a basketball decision.

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"Why college basketball’s changing rules are making high school recruiting less valuable"

The now wild, wild, really wild NCAA.

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Jon Chepkevich: "NEWS: Žiga Daneu has committed to San Francisco in the class of 2026, sources tell DraftExpress. The 6’11” Slovenian big man turns 24 this week and brings significant (EuroCup, ABA, SKL, senior national team) experience to the Dons."

USF needed more size. Will he be a freshman at age 24?

and

Isaiah Barnes: "Blessed to receive an offer from the University of San Francisco."

He's a 6-foot-2, 2027 guard with offers from St. Mary's, New Mexio, San Diego State among others this month.

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Los Medanos College MBB: "Congratulations to Jeremiah Collins on his commitment to Greenville University! We are proud of Jeremiah as he gets the opportunity to continue his basketball career. We wish him the best of luck as we are grateful for everything he’s done for this program."

Collins is a 6-foot-3, 180 sophomore out of Pittsburg High.

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Verbal Commits: "2027 Rolling Hills Preparatory School F Nick Welch, Jr. has received an offer from UC Davis."

Welch Jr. is 6-foot-10, 220 with a 3.9 grade point average.

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Santa Rosa Junior College talent Jayden Washington has signed with Lesley University.

He's a 6-foot-6, 210 sophomore out of Justin Sienna High. LU is a D3 school located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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6-foot-5 forward Tayden Collins is transferring not far away, going to from Santa Rosa Junior College to Pacific Union College. He's a graduate of Ben Holt Academy in Stockton.

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6-foot-4 sophomore Yanis Aldeguer, out of Irvine Valley College, is moving on to Simpson University in Redding. He averaged 9.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists this past season.

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Out of Mexico, 5-foot-11, 170 Dylan Galvan is changing addreses from San Jose City College to University of Mary after just one season. He averaged 8.3 points, 4.6 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game with a 4.2 assist-to-turnover ratio in conference play. He dished out 137 assists in 28 games to lead the entire Coast-South.

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"Congratulations to Gianni Altman on his commitment to Shorter University! We are proud of Gianni and his opportunity to continue his basketball career. We wish him the best of luck and we’re grateful for everything he’s done for this program."

The 6-foot-1 sophomore averaged 12.4 points per game at Los Medanos College in the 2025-26 season.

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"Mike Kelly Brings Head Coaching, International Experience as New Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach"

Seems like a great hire in order to expand overseas recruiting opportunities.

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Cameron Mitchell: "Excited to join CoachBRooney, Coach_Payne & staff at Cal State East Bay as an Assistant Coach. Go Pioneers!"

Mitchell was a very successful coach at Portland Community College before moving to CSEB.

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Texas Tech Basketball: >Officially ✍️. Help us welcome Darrion Williams back to the family!"

Williams transferred to North Carolina State for this past season after enjoying his best production ever as a college player at TT. Now, he's back after a so-so season with NCS.

One of his high schools was Capital Christian High in Sacramento.

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VerbalCommits: "2028 Montgomery County (KY) G Austin Sears has received an offer from California."

He's a 6-foot-2 point.

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Leo Ricketts Taking His Talents to The East Coast

With three years captaining the De La Salle High (Concord) hoops squad under his belt and coming out of a controlled as well as very successful system of play, Leo Ricketts initially landed 70 miles away at Sacramento State. He played as a freshman for interim Coach Michael Czepil, averaging 4.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 15.3 minutes an outing, appearing in 16 games with four starts in the 2024-25 season. After a 7-25 record, Czepil wasn't retained and Ricketts then decided to move to a program where he would likely be playing major minutes as a sophomore, with exposure being a critical element, so that he could earn the opportunity of returning to the D1 level.

Ricketts headed south to Citrus College in located Glendora (Los Angeles County), a location that "initially was third on my list" he recalled. City College San Francisco and West Valley College were his other options. One of the reasons he selected Citrus is that Head Coach Brett Lauer is a native of Clayton in Contra Costa County. Another being that Lauer's Citrus teams usually average close to 100 points per game as well as defend with a full court press and Ricketts had yet to experience performing in a high-octane offensive system or a 94-foot defensive style.

The Owls finished the 2025-26 season with a 30-2 record, averaging 102.5 points a game. Citrus topped West Valley 84-54 in the state quarterfinals this year before falling to CCSF 73-71 in the semis. Ricketts earned State Co-Player of the Year honors from the California Community Colleges Men's Basketball Coaches Association after averaging 19.7 points, 3.9 assists and 3.0 rebounds while shooting remarkably well at 49% overall, 48% from three-point range and 83% at the foul line. Add in a 3.93 grade point average and to employ a non-hoops phrase, Ricketts had all the bases covered.

Time For Another Decision

Ricketts' production earned the 6-footer offers from St. Mary's, South Carolina Upstate, California Baptist (headed by Rick Croy, a former Citrus College head basketball coach before he moved over to Arizona State as an associate head coach), Ball State and Loyola University Maryland, located in Baltimore.

After visiting Loyola Maryland, he decided it was time for him to head east. His reasons were multiple. "I wanted to explore beyond California (as his previous experiences covered the upper and lower portions of California). I really liked the coaching staff (head by Josh Loeffler) and the returning players were great. It was easy to visualize myself there." Not mentioned but worth noting is that Iggy the Greyhound, known for his agility, speed, loyalty and intelligence, is the Loyola team mascot and those traits also aptly describe Ricketts.

Ricketts also explained that "Loyola is a Jesuit school where God is a pillar, a common value, and this will provide me the opportunity to grow my faith with Jesus." He also enjoyed this spiritual aspect when he was attending De La Salle High.

He believes going the JC route was beneficial in his case because "I got older, better and more mature." His mantra of advice is twofold: "go where you can play" and "never think of yourself as the victim."

So what does he do best on the court? "I'm a very good shooter, I can pass, I'm a winner and a good leader, having respect for my teammates. My approach is one of day-to-day, getting small wins every day. I like to push the pace but not play out of control. For me, it's the common goal being greater than individual statistics." In describing his leadership style, Ricketts said "there's no such thing as a quiet leader. " He added, "but if you aren't doing what you are saying to teammates, you'll fail." While at Citrus College, "I led with my voice" but now at Loyola Maryland, "I'll pick and choose my vocal moments while earning respect in the first few weeks. Then, I’ll step into a greater vocal leader role.”

Asked where he believes he'll be positioned this coming season, he explained "as a guard and this is the intriguing part -- I'll be playing on and off the ball." That flexibility was another attraction for signing with Loyola Maryland.

Regarding goals for this season, Ricketts quickly said, "the biggest for sure is something I've dreamed about since I was a little boy and that's making it into March Madness. Then, go and win one (game)."

As for a major at Loyola Maryland, Ricketts will be earning his degree in Communications. "But I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it," he added.

Moving from early on to the present stop of his hoops journey, Ricketts offered one of the most gracious and genuine compliments ever spoken about any coach. Besides what they imparted as basketball mentors, he lauded Brock Winter of the North Bay Basketball Academy, De La Salle Head Coach Marcus Schroeder, Citrus College Head Coach Brett Lauer and Loyola Maryland Head Coach Josh Loeffler as "great human beings."

Ricketts is too modest to currently place himself into such a category, but it's coming.

Brandon Bracy, the Busiest Basketball Coach in the Bay Area

How many Brandon Bracys live in the North Bay? No, this is not a trick question but rather is due to a seemingly plethora of Brandon Bracys residing in that area. There is Brandon Bracy, the founder of as well as continuing head coach of the Team Rampage AAU organization, a Brandon Bracy currently working as an assistant coach under Diego Reyes with the Solano College men's basketball program, and also a Brandon Bracy newly employed as the boys basketball head coach at Vallejo High.

But rather than a multitude of Brandon Bracys so staunchly connected to Solano County hoops, there is just one Brandon Bracy repping 707 hoops in those three positions. One.

How is he managing it? The calendar has been extremely helpful. "It's like a rotation," Bracy explained. "I'm not doing all three simultaneously. May is predominately AAU ball, high school summer ball comes up in June and Vallejo High and Solano College ball is scheduled during winter. During winter, Solano practices in the morning and Vallejo High practices after school." He added, 'it requires good time management and don't forget the assistant coaches helping me to make it possible." Plus, "helping kids in need is a self-motivator and seeing them improve creates energy."

Keeping It In The Family

                                                                 Bracy and Sutherland

Bracy is bringing in Joseph Sutherland Sr. as an assistant coach at Vallejo High. "I've known him since high school and he's the creator of the Team Rampage logo."

With experience creating a new hoops organization from the ground up, Bracy will be applying that gained knowledge to his new endeavor at both Vallejo and at Solano College, programs that have endured lean years lately. Coaching up talent is critical but landing players to begin with is step one. It will likely come true that some of Bracy's new Vallejo High players will land spots on his Team Rampage roster as well as eventually at Solano College. One of the better prospects this season will be Joseph Sutherland Jr., a 5-foot-11 combo guard in the 2029 class. "We have good freshman and sophomore classes and the kids are working hard, competing every day and embracing what we are teaching. We won't be super tall but we will push the tempo and be scrappy and aggressive."

Proof of Bracy's 'building' prowess is Team Rampage recently being recognized nationally as one of the best independent travel team programs in the country, which translates into developing a successful program without sponsorship from the likes of Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, PUMA, New Balance, et al.

10-15 years out, one of Bracy's goals is making "enough of an impact to leave a legacy." Harkening back to the past, "I want Vallejo High to be recognized again as a basketball powerhouse." The successful days of DeMarcus Nelson, Tajai Johnson, Kirby Vaughn, Larry Wickett and De'Angelo Mack on the court at Vallejo High are still remembered.

By the way, Bracy is a Vallejo High and Solano College graduate, playing for Duke Brown (328 wins and a 2025 inductee into the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame) and John Nagle (22 years heading the Solano College men's basketball program before recently retiring) respectively. What goes around does come around, especially for Bracy.