Summer Stock Risers - 2022 Guards

Friday, August 13th, 2021

Earlier this week, we posted a question on twitter - which 2022 guard was the biggest stock-riser in New England this summer?

We offered Cushing Academy's Chase Ross, NMH's Rowan Brumbaugh, and St. Thomas More's Desmond Claude as the top three candidates. 

After 24 hours of voting, Desmond Claude came out on top with 45% of the vote, just ahead of 41% for Brumbaugh. 

In reality though, all three players had tremendous summers and took their recruitment to new levels as a result. 

While Brumbaugh may be the highest recruited of the three (see yesterday's article on his top six), it was actually Ross and Claude that proved themselves to be high-major prospects over the course of the last two months. 

For both, that process was jump-started at the NEPSAC Showcase. 

Ross, who didn't play spring AAU, earned new offers from Kent State, UMBC, Old Dominion, Buffalo, Rhode Island, St. Bonaventure, and Rutgers, his first high-major, in the days after the showcase. 

He then joined Drive Nation for the July EYBL and saw his recruitment take another jump. Texas A&M, Marquette, Tulsa, Georgia, Kansas STate, Mississippi State, VCU, Penn State, Arizona State, New Mexico, SMU, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia all came calling for the southpaw guard. 

He has official visits scheduled at Marquette and Rutgers this coming fall. 

Claude's recruitment has followed a linear path all spring and summer in that it has grown in a very consistent progression. 

He landed offers from Rhode Island, UMass, and Bryant coming out of the spring AAU period with Expressions. Boston College was early to the party when they became the first high-major school to offer him in mid-June but were quickly joined by Marquette, Xavier, Providence, Kansas, Seton Hall, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Creighton following his showing at the NEPSAC Showcase. 

Notre Dame and Maryland came calling shortly afterward during the month of July when Claude continued to show his ability to play with the ball in his hands as a big, 6-foot-5 guard. 

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