USU’s men’s basketball team signed six players from this year’s high school senior class, though only five are scheduled to join the Aggies for the 2025-26 basketball season. Over the next 6,500+ words, we’ll take an in-depth look at all five of those players — Brayden Boe, Adlan Elamin, David Iweze, Elijah Perryman and Kingston Tosi. The sixth, Jax Allen, will not be getting an in-depth breakdown right now. The excuse for this is that while he’s part of the 2025 class, he’s not joining the team until after he completes a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There will be plenty of time to look into his potential and what he did at Orem High School down the line.
Each of the players will get their own section with strengths, weaknesses and a detailed scouting report and a few clips to showcase some of what is said. As a side note, each capsule will include a projected offensive archetype. The names for those archetypes, along with their requisite definition, will be drawn from BBall Index. Click HERE for the link to the web pages that contain the definitions.
Now let’s get cracking.
Courtesy of Utah State Athletics
Brayden Boe
6-5, 180 lbs | Guard | Beaverton, Oregon | Dream City Christian (AZ)
Jerrod Calhoun’s comment: “Brayden is a talented guard that can play multiple positions and score from anywhere on the court. We love his toughness and maturity. We expect his game to continue to grow and evolve this year as he competes for one of the top high school programs in the country at Dream City Christian.”
Offensive Archetype — Secondary Ball Handler
Strengths
- Capable shooter
- Great court vision/passing
- Versatile size
- Creativity in half-court scoring
Weaknesses
- Lacks high-end athleticism
- Lacks elite quickness
Summary
Boe is a mixed bag in terms of hype with ESPN rating him a four-star recruit but 247Sports not even having a ranking for him. He’s also not even the main event on his own team in terms of recruiting, being teammates with a different four-star recruit, Jalin Holland, and a fringe five-star recruit, Ikenna Alozie. There’s a lot of talent around Boe that makes it hard for him to showcase his abilities. That’s not to say he doesn’t, it just means diving a bit deeper to find where his skillset lies.
The above archetype of “secondary ball-handler” is perhaps better described by the more common term “combo guard.” It’s the kind of player that can be confused for someone that can play point guard, mainly because they can pass the ball at an above-average level (recent Aggie examples being Mason Falslev or even Sam Merrill), but are really just better suited to be scorers that venture into getting volume assists as a way to make defense pay for helping off their teammates. They have better court vision than most so they end up showcasing some pretty cool passes. Boe is capable of exactly that.
There’s maybe a world where Boe could be a primary ball-handling guard, but more likely than not his best use would be as a secondary playmaker. In the best possible scenario he’d be like Merrill, but more realistic comparisons a little lower on the scale of greatness are other recent Aggies like R.J. Eytle-Rock, Diogo Brito, or a shorter Sean Bairstow.
In terms of scoring, Boe’s potential is limited by how good of a shooter he can be. He’s not an elite athlete and doesn’t have a quick enough first step to blow by defenders beyond the high school ranks. Just getting to the basket requires a lot of craft from Boe. He definitely has some of that craftiness, though, and he’s in his comfort zone attacking the paint, showcasing change of pace, good footwork and a soft touch around the rim on a variety of different releases at the cup.
A potential hitch in this is what will happen when the defenders get bigger, longer and quicker in the college ranks. Boe will still have enough in his bag to be a solid slasher, but more and more of his drives to the basket will get stonewalled by the better defenders. That will end up requiring a counter if he wants to average more than a couple points per game. Boe does have the beginnings of a deadly counter in the form of a solid mid-range jump shot. It’s a really hard to stop alternative to getting all the way to the rim and the more he sharpens that skill, the easier his path to being a volume scorer.
Boe’s 3-point progression will be similarly important. With Dream City Christian, he’s been pushed into more of an off-ball role. Consequently, a higher percentage of his attempts are coming on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers than perhaps he’s been used. Diversifying his game like this is critical, though, as having a big bag of scoring tools is what will give Boe the best chance to succeed at Utah State. A good sign for this is that on the AAU circuit, Boe showed flashes of the off-the-bounce kind of 3-point shooting that could make him a menace.
It sounds a tad demeaning to say Boe will only go as far as his shooting, but saying that isn’t to indicate he can’t be an all-conference scorer. Look at Aggie legends like Merrill or Jaycee Carroll, who likewise didn’t possess high-end athleticism or quickness but were professional-caliber basketball players and eventual league champions in the pro ranks. If Boe perfects the craft of shooting, he’ll be an unstoppable player in college and a pro player at minimum.
Shifting to defense, the aforementioned lack of athleticism is something that will be limiting to Boe. Without high-level quickness, athleticism or elite positional length (particularly in wingspan), there’s an upper limit to how great Boe can be and it means he’s probably not going to be in any all-defensive discussions during his career. The best that can be said of his defense is that he is fundamentally sound. He uses his hands well, positions himself well to draw charges or at least not commit a blocking foul.
Boe isn’t going to be an elite point of attack defender or great in isolation. Will he be a defensive liability? That will depend significantly on how well he applies himself. Less-than-stellar athletes have found ways to be impactful defenders. Merrill’s name could be brought up for the umpteenth time in this section as an example, but Rylan Jones and Abel Porter were both good examples of plus defenders that didn’t have elite measurables. Boe can be perfectly fine as a defender so long as his defensive IQ matches his offensive one.
One thing that could end up helping Boe is that he does have solid positional height. A lot of combo forwards are in the 6-foot-3 range while Boe, at 6-foot-5, has more of the length of a college small forward. That puts him in range of being able to play and, more importantly, defend four positions on the court. And yes, that includes some power forward. Dexter Akanno plays PF almost exclusively for USU and stands the same height as Boe. And it’s not just the size Boe has, but also his skillset that can allow him to play each of those four positions. Though, for him to play any meaningful power forward minutes, he would have to bulk up (drawing back on the Akanno comparison, he outweighs Boe by around 30 points, and even Akanno lacks ideal bulk for his role).
Adlan Elamin
6-9, 180 lbs | Wing/Forward | Arlington, Virginia | St. Paul VI Catholic (VA)
Jerrod Calhoun’s comment: “We are excited to add Adlan to our roster. His size and length will allow us to move him around to play multiple positions. He is one of the most versatile players in the nation and he will be a perfect fit in our system. He is a winner who comes from one of the best high school programs in the country year in and year out.”
Offensive Archetype — Movement Shooter
Strengths
- Length for position
- Quick and fluid for his height and position
- High-level shooting potential
- Positional versatility
- Decent on-ball scoring potential
- Significant defensive upside
Weaknesses
- Lacks bulk, limiting versatility (and viability in the paint) until he puts on more weight
- Limited in offensive contributions without further development of on-ball scoring
Summary
Landing Adlan Elamin as a recruit was a huge win for Calhoun, especially getting him to commit to the Aggies over more well-known and closer to home programs like Iowa and VCU. The young forward stands all of 6-foot-9 and has a reported wingspan of 7-foot even. This length, alongside fluid athleticism, decent ball control in traffic and quickly developing shooting skills, makes him every bit the four-star prospect he’s rated as.
With his length and solid quickness for his size, Elamin presents the potential to be able to defend every position on the court. His long frame gives him a level of rim protection while good quickness for his size, along with good footwork and body control, make for a capable perimeter defender. However, there’s a massive difference between guys that “have potential” to be great defenders and those who actually become great defenders. And it’s all to do with how much effort and growth they show early in their career — i.e. if they’re not at least good defenders with good technique they’ve worked to develop early, it’s not terribly likely they’re going to suddenly decide they want to be elite defenders or develop good technique later. Kind of the old “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” cliche. Elamin has all the defensive tools, but how well does he actually use them?
The answer is pretty dang well.
There’s definitely going to be a limit to Elamin’s ability to guard the quickest players, but he uses his length incredibly well in his overall defense. The first and foremost way he ends up helping is through rim protection. At times on defense he rotated into being the primary rim defense and he’s a hard person to shoot around.
Primary rim defense will likely not be the role Elamin takes on at USU, but there will be plenty of times he provides backside rim protection. That’s not something the Aggies currently have on the team and it could be something that gets him on the floor next year more often.
Getting blocks isn’t going to be the only thing that 7-foot wingspan is capable of doing. Elamin’s length translates to his perimeter defense as well. He does fairly well to keep with his man on this clip, but just when the defender thinks he’s passed, Elamin pokes the ball away (unfortunately, the scramble for the ball still ended with a basket for the other team). Bonus clip afterward where Elamin gets another block defending in isolation.
The use of his long arms to create deflections and rake the ball out of the hands of driving opponents could make Elamin a menace in Eric Haut’s matchup zone, on top of any shot-blocking he does at the forward position.
Something that will need to improve for Elamin going forward is his physical size, i.e., his weight. Given how quick he is at 6-foot-9 he’ll mostly work as a small forward without many matchup issues. But at a listed 180 pounds, his viability playing power forward will be limited, let alone any chance for him to defend centers with any reliability. But the eventual potential to player power forward or even be an occasional small-ball center is key to what makes Elamin such a great prospect. The potential versatility to defend on the perimeter and in the post is a massive thing for him and he needs to be able to capitalize on that.
Probably the biggest area where a lack of bulk really hurts Elamin right now is in his rebounding. He already has a bit of a hard time tracking the ball and where it will end up and that problem is made much worse by virtually any opposing big being able to simply push Elamin out of the way. There were far too many times he gave up offensive rebounds in what should have been fairly easy defensive rebounding situations. His length helps him snag a few boards regardless, but he’s barely passable as a rebounder which is an issue given the position he plays.
Moving to the offensive side of things, there’s a lot to be excited about. Elamin will walk onto Stew Morrill Court as a knock-down shooter already, his 3-point shot being the primary way of taking apart defenses at this stage of his career. He possesses a high and quick release that, paired with being 6-foot-9, is not going to be bothered by a single soul in the college ranks.
There aren’t any publicly available stats, at least for a full season, so it’s hard to know his 3-point percentage exactly. The best we have are a few box scores from showcases he’s played in and an offhand reference to his stats from the 2023-24 season where he reportedly shot 36 percent from deep. Still, it’s pretty clear from the tape that he’s a confident and capable outside shooter who can take any type of three, not just traditional catch-and-shoot looks. That alone makes him a potentially valuable rotation player from the moment he puts on his jersey.
A subtle positive to Elamin’s game is his passing. He’s by no means some kind of jumbo point guard that is ready to be running pick and roll, but he displays good vision and a willingness to pass quickly if he sees a teammate with a path to a basket. The passing itself does need a bit of work though. Too many of these otherwise smart passes end up as turnovers because of poor accuracy (or sometimes being a bit too bold with the attempt), but his vision and approach to ball movement is the exact kind of thing you want to see in a player at his position. He’ll help glue the offense together by making the right pass to the right man at the right time.
Where Elamin has room to grow is in his on-ball scoring. He’s shown a few flashes of making plays off the dribble, primarily when attacking closeouts. There’s a decent amount of evidence showing him being comfortable maintaining his dribble through the paint and being able to dribble and finish with both hands. Elamin has also displayed a nice mid-range step-back jumper that should only get better with age.
What there isn’t really any film of is him taking control of a possession, though that’s not a huge red flag. For one, he’s playing on a top 25 prep team in the country. Elamin actually comes off the bench, that’s how good of a team he’s playing on. The main takeaway from this is that there’s a lot of room for growth over the next few years. As a freshman, Elamin isn’t going to be leading the offense, likely taking an off-ball role — which he’s plenty used to in high school with high-level talent around him — and he’ll be able to slowly build an on-ball scoring repertoire which he’ll get to use more and more as his scoring load increases.
David Iweze
6-9, 215 lbs | Forward/Center | Roanoke, Texas | iSchool Entrepreneurial Academy (TX)
2024-25 Stats: 10.3 points / 6.7 rebounds / 1.8 assists / 1.3 steals / 1.4 blocks | 58.0 FG%, 30.0 3P% (3 of 10 in 19 games)
Jerrod Calhoun’s comment: “David gives us extreme toughness and length on our front line. David is a young man that has continued to improve at a rapid rate over the last six months and we feel as though he will continue to develop into a major difference-maker in our system.”
Offensive Archetype — Roll & Cut Big
Strengths
- Solid athleticism
- Efficient rebounder
- Quick jumper, aids in rebounding and finishing
- Solid shot-blocking potential
Weaknesses
- On the shorter side for a center
- Won’t stretch the floor
- Needs to add weight to be effective at the college level
Summary
To break the wall between author and reader for a second, scouting Iweze is difficult because there’s a lack of film. Despite literal hours of searching the corners of the internet, there are two complete games, both from his junior season, so not even contemporary to this year (making it worse, Iweze twisted his knee about two-thirds into the second game and didn’t play the rest of the game). It’s a tough break, but there is at least some consolation as he’s the one player from this class where there is a complete statistical profile for all games he’s played this year and for his career.
Looking at Iweze’s measurables, he’s a slightly undersized center but projects to be someone that can be effective despite that size. Aggie fans will remember how effective Dan Akin was and he stood but 6-foot-9 and stood up to much taller players at that position. And it seems like this is the type of center that Calhoun wants to have in his program, or at least the kind he feels he can bring in. Calhoun has lamented multiple times that Utah State doesn’t have the NIL budget for a big, tall, elite back-to-the-basket scoring star center that can carry a team at times. Iweze is the type of smaller center that a lot of mid-major programs end up giving the majority of minutes to. Someone that can punch above their height in rebounding, rim protection but not be matchup hunted or unable to move quickly enough when defending opponents running four-guard lineups.
You can certainly see Iweze’s potential, or at the very least confidence, in his ability to keep up with smaller players. In one of those aforementioned games, he boldly chased an inbound pass to halfcourt and then got in the face of a player shorter and, at least theoretically, much quicker than him. Iweze ended up with a steal and a fast break (though not the greatest finish to that play).
Iweze also spent much of the game where that clip is from playing at the top of his team’s full court press zone formation, taking advantage of his combination of speed and length to try and bother the backcourt players. But even in the half court, he’s a danger in the driving lanes with a good ability to pick player’s pockets. He is, after all, averaging about a steal and a half over the last two seasons.
And in post defense there’s some to like as well. In this next clip, Iweze is going toe-to-toe with four-star recruit Chris Nwuli, who’s committed to Rutgers. Iweze (mostly) fends off the power back down attempt and then, of course, nearly swipes the ball since that’s his M.O., and finally he heavily contests the fadeaway mid-range shot and gets the rebound to boot.
There is a little bit to worry about in terms of size with Iweze. He is listed at just 215 pounds, which is solid for a high school center, but around 15 pounds under the minimum for collegiate centers, even for those smaller centers matching his archetype. That shouldn’t be much of a problem, though since all it means is that he could end up with limited time as a true freshman while he bulks up. It’d be a similar arc to Karson Templin who joined USU at 205 pounds but is up to 230 this year and the added weight has helped him quite a bit in his breakout sophomore year.
Looking at his offensive profile, Iweze is limited to inside the arc. He has 15 total 3-point attempts under his belt for his prep career and will most likely end with under 20. But, attempting the vast majority of his shots from 2-point range hasn’t been a super-limiting factor to getting offense. He’s averaging 10.3 points this year on a career-best 58 percent from the field (just north of 60 percent when setting aside the handful of 3-pointers). His scoring is actually down from his junior year where he averaged 12.5, but that drop is largely accounted for when considering the help on offense iSchool developed. Iweze went from one of two solid scorers on the team in 2023-24 to one of five good scorers this year so naturally he’s lost some touches to capable teammates.
Again, stemming from the unfortunate lack of film, it’s hard to get detailed about Iweze’s offensive skillset. His team ran basically no plays for him (which is sadly a little too typical at the high school ranks) and in those two games with film and he tallied 13 total points. Here’s every clip of Iweze attempting to score, including misses and turnovers committed in trying to score.
Even without tons of film, it is probably safe to say that Iweze’s offensive skillset is very similar to that of Karson Templin and Aubin Gateretse. There is a hint of a spin move into jump hook as a go-to move and Iweze tried it in both directions, indicating potential for it to be a points-creating post moves. And, in general, he certainly has to have some scoring prowess given he’s had more than his fair share of double-figure scoring and even a handful of 20-point games. But without consistent offense running through him, those points were probably mainly scraps he picked up by good cutting and some post-ups. And it’s a trend that would probably continue into college unless he really refines that post game.
It’s hard to be super confident about this scouting report, but what there is shows an athletic center who is active on both ends of the court and can grow into a physical, hard-to-handle center that can play crucial minutes for a Mountain West championship contending team.
Elijah Perryman
6-1, 170 lbs | Point Guard | San Francisco, California | Clayton Valley Charter (CA)
2024-25 Stats: 13.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.1 steals — 49.5 FG% / 34.3 3P%
Jerrod Calhoun’s comment: “Elijah has a unique ability to make others better, a skill we strive to recruit at the point guard position. His ability to create for both himself and his teammates will make him dynamic in our pick and roll offense.”
Offensive Archetype — Primary Ball Handler
Strengths
- Great court vision
- Creation passing
- Explosive and fluid athlete
- Three-level scoring potential
Weaknesses
- Height limits positional versatility and defensive potential
- Effort and hustle can come in spurts, with lulls in between
Summary
Point guards capable of pulling off the full scale of skills Perryman has are just about worth their weight in gold (and some of them get close to that in NIL money these days). The California native has all of the offensive attributes of the point guard rolled into one package. He can shoot, he can score and he can create for others with his passing.
Let’s start with that last one because it’s probably the thing that helps set him apart from every other recruit on this list. Take a look at this clip and see how Perryman spots an opening by reading the defense and anticipating where his target is going to be, finding an open shot for his teammate before the guy even gets to his spot.
This is what we’ll define as “creation passing.” If you remember way back in the 2024 freshman class breakdown, Jordy Barnes showcased this kind of vision where he didn’t just pass to an open man, he created a shot through a pass most people aren’t even seeing. But it’s a wide-open shot. Now, the guy didn’t make it in this case, but that’s beside the point. You’ll take an open corner three on basically every possession and Perryman pulled it out of just about nowhere. These kinds of plays set apart those who have great court vision from those that are true creators with passing.
Here’s another pass with a little more calculous behind it.
Perryman is running a pick-and-roll and the defense hedges to keep him from scoring. The simple read is to throw a pass to the big who’s open enough for a pocket pass to slip through the double team or maybe an over-the-head toss. But Perryman spots the weakness in the defense instead of just an open guy. The defense has sunk down a little too far into the paint and a man cuts to the left wing and is open for three. Perryman’s pass isn’t the most accurate in the world, but it reaches the target and this time the 3-pointer is good.
There is sort of a Russell Westbrook aspect to Perryman’s passing, the former NBA MVP being willing to attempt every kind of pass, including ones that had tiny windows to fit the ball through and it led to quite a few turnovers on top of the high assist numbers. Perryman does the same at times. Here he spots an open man and his eagerness to find any open man leads him to try and whip a one-handed laser to him but the window wasn’t really there and it’s a turnover.
Even with this passing, it’s hard to classify Perryman as a “pass-first” point guard. He can score and do it pretty well, bringing pretty much the entire bag of tricks. Any spot on the court is one where Perryman has a shot. Starting with the closest shot, even at a listed 6-foot-1, he has a great ability to finish at the rim. He’s crafty and finishes very well with both hands, keeping the defense on its toes with how he chooses to finish in differing scenarios.
Related to some of these layups clips is something to be fairly excited about. Perryman will go from a slower paced high school offense to the more transition-focused Aggies. Utah State’s point guards take outlet passes on the run up the court to push the pace while Perryman (along with other PGs on the team so it’s a coaching thing) would job to the defensive baseline to get the ball from the teammate who grabbed the rebound. Put Perryman into an offense that will let him use his quickness to push the pace and he could have plays similar to what Deyton Albury has done this year where he’s caught defenses off guard with his speed off missed shots. You can see that kind of impact in many of those layup clips, Perryman gets downhill in transition and teams are pretty much helpless to stop him without numbers in the paint.
Moving further from the rim and Perryman hardly lets up. He’s got a floater game, mid-range and a solid 3-point shot complete with the ability to hit from long range off the dribble. Perryman takes higher difficulty shots on the regular, but still boast career shooting percentages of nearly 50 percent overall and 35 percent from three.
A side note that will lead into talking about defense later, Perryman plays with an infectious energy. After big plays he’s hyping the crowd or the bench. He really seems to love playing basketball and enjoys making big plays, either scoring himself or when one of his teammates makes a big play. It’s so much fun to watch him play with such emotion and energy.
That energy, which drives Perryman to play at a fast pace on offense, at times translates to defense. When engaged, he’s a very difficult player to get around and he is able to jump passing lanes and get steals where his transition threat comes into play even more. But that “when engaged” was a deliberate caveat. Perryman isn’t lazy by any means, but sometimes he’s a little too reactive and not as proactive. The court vision he displays on offense sometimes doesn’t translate to defense and he isn’t as aware of what’s going on around him at all times. When he is seeing things and scanning the floor, he ends up where he needs to be and is vocal and communicating with his teammates. The issue is that’s not always happening. Perryman usually lets the opposing offense make a move or cut and he reacts to that, which doesn’t sound too bad but with players as skilled as they are today you can’t react fast enough no matter how good you are. You have to anticipate/be prepared for numerous possibilities and Perryman isn’t always on top of things.
One final tangent is one about Perryman’s height. Nearly every height listing puts him at 6-foot-1, except for on his team’s MaxPreps site where he’s listed at 6-foot-3. And while you should often trust high school team’s reporting on height as far as you can throw an All-Pro defensive lineman, looking at the film from this year seems to suggest he’s probably closer to that 6-foot-3 than recruiting sites are giving him credit for. It’ll be worth paying attention to what his reported height is once he arrives on campus (and yes, USU’s recruiting press release and marketing material does say 6-foot-1 as well, but that’s based on what the recruiting websites say, they didn’t measure him while he was on a visit to Logan).
Kingston Tosi
6-7, 195 lbs | Forward | Anchorage, Alaska | Millennium High School (AZ)
Jerrod Calhoun’s comment: “Kingston is one of the most versatile players in the country. With his size, length, and toughness, he has the ability to impact the game in a variety of different ways. He will thrive in our system.”
Offensive Archetype — Athletic Finisher
Strengths
- Well-developed scoring ability inside the 3-point line
- Ability to draw/play through contact
- Athletic, can score/defend above the rim
- Has good bulk for high school wing
- Versatile defensive profile
Weaknesses
- 3-point shot a work in progress
- Struggled to rebound against top competition
- Risk of being a tweener
Summary
Tosi is a consensus three-star recruit (four-star from ESPN) and presents a very enticing combination of size, power, athleticism and polish to his game. Among USU’s incoming recruits, Tosi may have the most ready-to-go potential in terms of stepping in as a true freshman and having a notable impact on both ends of the court.
Standing 6-foot-7 and already coming in at 195 pounds, Tosi can effectively play and guard the small forward and power forward spots at a high level. It’s a combination every coach dreams of having, especially at the mid-major level with teams often forced to play bigger guards or bulkier (but slower) forwards to bridge the line on the lineup card between the backcourt and frontcourt players. It can often result in an in-game chess match between coaches and the substitution patterns. But a player like Tosi makes the math much less complicated. He’ll be able to defend those bigger guards and go toe-to-toe with the bulkier forwards.
This is part of why Calhoun called Tosi “one of the most versatile players in the country.” He can do multiple things and do them in a way where Calhoun isn’t pulling out his hair trying to figure out how to counter bigger or smaller lineups. Tosi should be able to handle both.
One of the first things that jumps off the screen when watching Tosi is, well, Tosi himself. The dude can leap and he’s played above the rim quite a bit in his time in the prep ranks. Scan his social media and you quickly find not one, but two clips of him creating wall art out of 7-foot defenders.
Kingston Tosi shut down the gym with this poster 😳🔥 @kingston_tosi @MillenniumHoops pic.twitter.com/3UrK0YT7GE
— EVision (@EVision_AZ) September 19, 2024
Hey @USUBasketball, King got another poster over a 7’0 player tonight. Enjoy. #PosterKing #AggiesAllTheWay 💜🐯💙 pic.twitter.com/II1FmXMbA8
— Millennium Basketball (@MillenniumHoops) October 19, 2024
There’s also the fact that Tosi won a dunk contest last month.
Hey @USUBasketball, King got another poster over a 7’0 player tonight. Enjoy. #PosterKing #AggiesAllTheWay 💜🐯💙 pic.twitter.com/II1FmXMbA8
— Millennium Basketball (@MillenniumHoops) October 19, 2024
But the thing that ends up sticking out even more about this young forward is a rather developed scoring bag, complete with a go-to move but also the ability to improvise. Tosi’s go-to seems to be a spin move, which he employs in multiple scenarios, from off-the-dribble to back-to-the-basket cases.
But he has plenty of other ways to get his way to the rim, be it simply straight-lint speed, crossovers, step-throughs, or pulling off an up-and-under off a pivot to counter his spin.
His touch at close range and around the rim is very solid as he switches between floater releases, runners, or more traditional finger rolls as the situation dictates. Having this variety is what can seperate a situation scorer from someone who can create points out of nowhere and save a possession at the end of the shot clock.
This is why Tosi could have an impact year one. He brings, at minimum, a scoring punch off the bench and a versatile, all-around starting-caliber wing at best.
An underrated part of Tosi’s game inside the arc is how often he’s able to draw fouls. In three games at the City of Palms Classic this past December, he drew 22 fouls, shooting 32 free throws. And during the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions, Tosi attempted 26 free throws in three games. Altogether that’s 9.7 free throw attempts per game.
Getting back to the versatility, though, there’s one thing that needs to be discussed. Mainly, whether Tosi will end up being a highly versatile wing or a “tweener,” i.e. a player that is stuck between two distinct positions. The most common type is what Tosi is worryingly close to, an athlete that is too short to play center but doesn’t have the perimeter skills to play forward or guard (and probably isn’t quick enough to be a guard anyway).
As we’ve already seen, Tosi actually has way more perimeter skill than most of his positional peers. But there’s one skill that trumps all in the modern game: 3-point shooting. If Tosi is to fulfil his destiny of being a versatile nightmare to opponents, he needs a viable 3-point shot. And whether he has that is currently a bit in question.
As things stand now, Tosi simply doesn’t take a whole lot of threes. Of the games I’ve dredged up box scores from, he’s sometimes taking one, occasionally attempting two 3-pointers. In a very small sample size of these box scores he hit 3 of 10 (six games with box scores collected). The low volume is a bit discouraging, as often low volume at the high school level often translates to just not shooting at all in college (or taking an extra year or two to nail down the shot to bring it back into your game). The percentage is also worrying as if you don’t shoot very often, the ones you are taking are usually wide open so the percentage ought to be a little better (to be fair, it also can mean some of those are desperate end-of-shot-clock attempts that are very low percentage so it can kind of go both ways with skewing percentages).
Tosi becoming a viable 3-point shooter really is the best option for him since he’s not big enough to be a full-time center. Even though the realm of being a center isn’t reserved for 7-footers like many think — as recent Aggies like Dan Akin, Great Osobor and Karson Templin have shown — those guys are still in the 6-foot-8 or 6-foot-9 range in terms of height. They’re also largely non-shooters (though Templin is on his way out of that designation with how he’s shooting this year). You may see the problem, though. Tosi is listed at 6-foot-7, shorter than any of USU’s previous small-ball centers. And while one or two inches may not seem like a big difference (pun sort of intended), being a 6-foot-8 center is already really pushing it, and guys like Osobor and Templin made/make it work because they have wingspans at or north of seven feet long. Tosi having a notably shorter standing reach than both of them just ends up making the prospects of him being a viable center really poor. Sure, he could go out there and guard a center on some random play and maybe even come out on top in some cases (it’s part of his potential versatility), but the ability to do something every now and again doesn’t make you a specialist at that thing. Tosi will have his niche, and without growing an inch or two, that niche won’t be at center.
The evidence for and against his potential 3-point shooting is mixed. On the one hand there’s what he’s put on tape, which is a reluctance to shoot and a mediocre percentage when he does. We can also look Tosi’s free throw percentage, which conventional wisdom and some correlation suggests can be a predictor of future 3-point percentage. Again, drawing from the six-game sample size he shot 67 percent, not the best sing.
Things aren’t hopeless for Tosi, though. He clearly isn’t super comfortable taking 3-pointers, very much preferring to drive to the paint, but there are inklings of a shooting touch and solid mechanics. He occasionally steps into a 15-foot dribble-jumper and his overall shooting motion in these cases appears fluid, without any hitches or awkward movement.
His 3-point shooting motion looks a bit stiff but still has a smooth motion and decent release to it.
It does just seem like Tosi just needs to put more time and effort into his shot and things should pan out. Assuming he does so, all of the great potential created by the skills he has developed can be fully unlocked.
Will any of these players be first-year impact players?
It’s hard to project impact at the college level for high school prospects with only the cream of the crop able to be predicted with any degree of reliability. One thing that you may have picked up on is that a couple of even the higher rated prospects are playing on high-level prep teams and are not taking on very big roles. It would thus be fair to assume that if they can’t take on a big role in high school, making the jump to being a starter is almost out of the realm of believability, with even being a key rotation player a something of a stretch.
Most of these players are going to have some obstacle to being effective contributors in year one. A lot of them need to add bulk, others need to refine skills. Probably all of them will have to adjust to the speed of Division I basketball. But one thing to keep in mind is that even the best Aggie teams of the last 5-6 years have pretty much always had at least one freshman contributor. Neemias Queta is the most drastic example of a true freshman impact player, but Jordy Barnes has defied expectations for year one (that same article breaking down Barnes’ game predicted an obvious redshirt year for him). The list goes on to include guys like Kobe McEwen, Sam Merrill, Steven Ashworth, Sean Bairstow and Max Shulga among others who, either big or small, had an impact as a true freshman. Mind you, redshirt freshman contributions from guys like Justin Bean or Mason Falslev aren’t even included in the above group.
The biggest factor in how much these freshman could contribute is what this spring’s attrition will look like. It’s already changed to a degree as both Albury and Drake Allen came to Utah State expecting it to be their final year of eligibility. Now, with the extra year granted to JUCO players, both could return to USU or transfer. Their decision will directly impact these freshman, particularly due to the fact that if both stay, and all others who can stay do so, the Aggies won’t have enough active roster spots to bring in all five recruits. But will any others transfer out? Mason Falslev and Karson Templin will almost surely get under-the-table offers to transfer (perhaps even in-state) and if they do, those are big openings in the rotation, particularly for Boe and Iweze. Any of USU’s potential returners could decide to find a new home and it’s impossible to predict which can make projects this far out trickier.
