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AAU Nationals Saturday Recap: Raymond Spalding has upside, Trent Forrest and Gary Trent, Jr. perform at a high level

raymond spalding

(Scott Phillips/NBC Sports)

LOUISVILLE -- AAU Nationals entered tournament play at the Super Showcase finished up on Saturday as plenty of talented players still played well in one of the final days of the July live evaluation period. Although many guys are tired or shutting it down due to injury, there are still a lot of players going hard and trying to impress at the Kentucky Expo Center, including a local fan favorite.

Louisville commit Raymond Spalding impresses local crowd -- When Class of 2015 Louisville commit Raymond Spalding plays at AAU Nationals this week, there’s just a different atmosphere at the Kentucky Expo Center. The 6-foot-9 wing forward pledged to the Cardinals last week, and as the local star heading to the local college basketball program, there are a lot of red shirts in the stands when Spalding and The Ville -- his grassroots team -- takes the floor.

Spalding impressed with his effort in a tournament win during Nationals on Saturday as the tall and lanky wing with an ideal basketball frame showed a tremendous feel for the game and a developing skill set. With a smoothness to his game, Spalding rebounded, made plays in the post, made passes as a high-low passer and on outlets -- including an incredible dart of a baseball pass that landed perfectly in a teammate’s hands for a fast break -- and just played a good overall floor game.

The knock on Spalding from many recruiting analysts and scouts has been that he’s inconsistent and takes games off, but Spalding was engaged on both ends of the floor on Saturday. Rivals currently has him at No. 69 in the 2015 class and Spalding is certain to see himself rise in post-July rankings. In a class that lacks a lot of players with exciting upside, Spalding has som of the best upside in the class.

Rick Pitino is off to a great start in 2015 with Deng Adel and Raymond Spalding.

Trent Forrest impresses as a playmaking guard -- Among Saturday’s standouts included Alabama Challenge guard Trent Forrest. A Class of 2016 guard hailing from Chipley, Florida, Forrest has long arms, huge hands and can touch the paint on pretty much any possession. A 6-foot-3 guard, Forrest doesn’t have a consistent and reliable jumper, yet, but does a nice job on shot fakes and also has a workable floater and runner.

Forrest told NBCSports.com that he would play either guard position in college -- something he did on Saturday -- and he claims scholarship offers from Central Florida, Florida State, Murray State, Tennessee, Wake Forest and Wichita State while Alabama and Georgia are both showing a lot of interest.

The No. 57 overall prospect in Rivals’ rankings, Forrest has visited Florida State before but has not seen any other campuses. He mentioned that he hopes to take several college visits in the fall.

Gary Trent, Jr. establishes himself as a prospect to watch -- The Class of 2017 isn’t a major priority for college coaches and scouts at this time, but when you see a player like Gary Trent, Jr. play up a grade level on 16U and play well, you begin to take notice.

The son of former Ohio standout and NBA veteran Gary Trent -- aka, the “Shaq of the MAC” -- Trent, Jr. is a 6-foot-3 shooting guard with a really good feel off of ball screens both as a scorer and as a passer.

Even while playing up, Trent Jr. looked like the best player on the floor for Howard Pulley’s 16U team and he played with a lot of poise and confidence in a big win. The young guard is already armed with a good mid-range pull-up and he also showed confidence with his perimeter jumper while also doing a good job of moving without the ball.

Trent Jr. told NBCSports.com that Minnesota and Texas Tech have offered him scholarships and others are likely to follow during the Apple Valley, Minnesota native’s three more years of high school basketball.

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