Although Nevada appears to be full up for the next two years with regards to scholarships in their basketball program, you never know what kind of turnover can happen with any team.  That’s why it is important to never close your eyes to a class completely, and why we are spotlighting a trio of California guard prospects, including Reese Morgan, who could very well wind up in the WAC, WCC or Big West.

Morgan is a tough, physical combo guard with a ton of range. He’s so physical that he mostly plays inside for his team, the Palos Verdes (Calif.) Peninsula Panthers, but he has outstanding three-point range.  He also has some bounce and can put the ball on the deck.  Morgan has been instructed very well throughout his life on the art of shooting by his father, Tom Morgan, a former college basketball player himself at Boise State and Cal-State Fullerton.

Reese first popped on our radar thanks to the play of his older brother, Shane, who was a standout at Redondo Union during his prep career. We’d heard about the youngest Morgan’s impressive ability during his youth career and that he was already a solid 6-foot-3, 195-pounds.   It didn’t take long for Reese to make an impact on the prep scene either, as he put together the greatest freshman season in the history of Peninsula high school basketball. He averaged 19.9 points per game, 7.6 rebounds, 1.6 steals and shot 36 percent from three and 82 percent from the free-throw line, leading Peninsula to their first-ever Bay League Title. At 14 years old, Morgan also won the Bay League Player of the Year.

That in and of itself should make Morgan more than notable, as few freshmen nationally can say they won their league’s respective Player of the Year honors – especially one as deep as the Bay League. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder was also named a first-team All-State Freshman by CalHiSports, as well as numerous league and county honors. He was the Bay League’s top scorer, and finished fourth in rebounds and steals. In researching the Player of the Year’s across all the leagues in California, Morgan was one of just a handful of freshmen prospects to earn that designation.

Despite suffering a knee injury that sidelined him a bit, Morgan has continued to improve and post outstanding numbers.  He averaged 21.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists during his sophomore year, plus 19.5, 10.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists during his junior year, shooting 41 percent from three in the process.  During his sophomore year, Morgan was edged out for Bay League Player of the year by Jerry Evans, who is one of the most talked about players in the Nevada program despite his freshman status.  During his junior year, Morgan earned the Bay League Most Outstanding Player, which goes to the best overall player in the league who’s team did not win the league title. He is a three-time first team all-League honoree.

You can see his highlight tape below;

Morgan currently has a strong interest Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, plus recruiting interest from a number of west coast schools including UC-Davis, UCSB and UNLV. He’s like to play AAU ball this year with Branch West, and continues to work on his foot speed and vertical. His jumper is pure.

Another Southern California prospect that caught our eye, but who remains extremely under the radar, is Whittier (Calif.) La Serna high school standout Aaron Valdes.  Currently 6-foot-5, 190-pounds, Valdes plays a lot bigger than his listed size.  He’s a very strong young man, and doubles as a water polo star as well.  On the hardwood, he’s coached by one of the very best in Southern California, Mike Lowe, who has a state title to his credit and puts together winning teams year after year.

Valdes has an extremely long wingspan.

Valdes, who averaged 15.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, is more of a wing than a guard at this point of his career. He has developed inside because of his team’s need for that type of player.  He likes to turn defense into offense, as his junior highlight reel clearly shows;

Valdes is hearing from a handful of Big West schools at the moment, and considering he can shoot the three ball a lot more effectively than his tape shows, could be a real sleeper for any number of college programs.  He’s playing this summer with the NorCal Pharaohs.

Like Valdes, another prospect in the 2011 class that bulked up between his sophomore and junior seasons is Xavier McCall, a combo prospect from Santa Rosa (Calif.) Cardinal Newman high school.  We first caught McCall, the son of Dave McCall who played at Utah State, over the summer in the Bay Area when he torched a loaded Salesian team to the tune of 35 points.  We even put together a video of that performance.

McCall now stands 6-foot-4, 195-pounds, and averaged 14.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game during his junior year. During his two years on varsity, the Cardinals are 50-10. He has both a nice bounce and a tough game, plus like Valdes and Morgan, McCall is an outstanding student.

We completed his junior year video recently, which you can see below;

McCall is currently hearing from a number of colleges, including Rice, plus numerous schools in the Big West.