Canada Basketball Reaches New High with Top-10 Prospects in Next 3 High School Classes
Canadian basketball has officially reached a new high.
While the Canadian Senior Men's National Team is trying to put Canadian basketball back on the world's biggest stage at the Olympics, Canadian grassroots basketball is building an unprecedented pipeline of talent. As of Wednesday, Canada now has one top-10 caliber prospect in each of the next three college basketball recruiting classes. From Caleb Houstan in 2021, the seventh-ranked prospect on 247Sports and sixth-ranked on ESPN, to Shaedan Sharpe, who cracked the top eight on ESPN's newly released 2022 rankings, to Elijah Fisher, the No. 4 prospect on 247Sports' 2023 rankings, Canada is producing talent like never before.
"It's not just one guy in these classes," Canadian basketball scout Wesley Brown said. "There are multiple NBA prospects in every class."
Sharpe, a London, Ontario native, earned a spot in ESPN's latest 2022 rankings released Wednesday morning.
"He's an elite, NBA-caliber athlete. One of the most athletic players I've seen come out of Canada," Brown said. "He has great shot mechanics. He's a scorer who can dunk everything around the rim."
Sharpe currently holds offers from Kentucky, Oregon, Arizona, Creighton, and Alabama, according to 247Sports. The Crimson Tide have recently been a hotbed of Canadian talent attracting Joshua Primo, Keon Ambrose-Hylton, and most recently Charles Bediako to the program.
Bediako, the 6-foot-11 center from St. Catherines, Ontario, is one of three Canadian prospects ranked in the top 40 for the 2021 class. He's joined by Houstan, a 6-foot-8 wing heading to Michigan next year, as well as Enoch Boakye, a 6-foot-10 five-star prospect from Mississauga who will play at Arizona State next year.
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