The prestigious Pangos All-American Camp, an invite-only event featuring the top high school prospects in the nation, returned this summer after it was cancelled due to the pandemic last year. Pro Insight was on hand to evaluate the event and caught up with Duke Brennan of Hillcrest Prep (AZ) and the Oakland Soldiers (CA). Throughout the event, Brennan made a living on the glass as he finished fifth overall in rebounding, averaging 6.3 boards per game over four games. He also tied for second in offensive rebounds with 3.5 per game. A high motor big man, Brennan shot an efficient 65% field goal percentage.
As part of the Pro Insight Q&A series, Brennan highlighted his strengths and playstyle, his unique talent of shotgun shooting at the Junior Olympics, factors in his college choice, and more.
For the next installment of the Pro Insight Q&A series, we present 2022 prospect Duke Brennan, from Gilbert, Arizona:
Pro Insight: What's been your impression of Pangos All-American Camp?
Duke Brennan: The Pangos All-American Camp is amazing. There's so much great competition here. It's making every player better just playing games doing the drills and stuff. But yeah, a lot of great competition. All these guys are really skilled so it's fun out here.
PI: What are you eager to showcase in front of NBA teams and scouts?
DB: My talents, how I'm a hard worker, my toughness in and out of the paint. Just my high motor because coaches like to say I have a high motor and stuff. So just showcase my talents and showcase my skills.
PI: For those who aren’t familiar with your game, describe your strengths.
DB: Okay, so I think my strength is that I have a really high motor, so I'm always getting rebounds, I'm always getting put-backs. I'm a good screen-and-roll player and I'm a really good rebounder around the rim. But yeah, I'm a hard hat and lunch pail guy, like, I'll be diving for balls, all the loose balls and stuff. And yeah, I'm a hard worker out there.
PI: What led you to have a high motor mentality every possession?
DB: As I grew up, I was kind of the high motor kid. But as we get to this level, it's like, some guys don't want to go 100% all of the time. So if you can go and bypass what they want to go to, you can be outscoring them, out-rebounding them, outperforming them.
PI: Who are you looking forward to playing with this weekend?
DB: Umm, the rest of the weekend...so if we go back to Hillcrest, I played with Mike Foster, as you know, right. But Jalen Duren, like all these really good players, it's making me better. But my whole team, my whole starting five, we're all really in it together. And we really want to win and stuff. I know we kind of came up short last night, but we played a really good team versus Duke, because that's the team name. And yeah, just my whole team. I like all the guys. I was just talking to them, a lot of them are from Texas and stuff. So yeah, all of them.
PI: What are you looking to improve in your game?
DB: Well, for me it's really about playing at a high level because as I'm going into EYBL this year, games are going to be like this. it’s going to be at the highest level, highest-level players. So just to feel out how high intensity these games are, you can really feel like what you can do and not do because on the low-energy games, you feel like you can get off more and do certain things. But in these high-energy games, it's more like game planning and more like where you need to be in a certain spot.
PI: How has your experience been with the Oakland Soldiers?
DB: So we've only played two tournaments right now, but we've been in practice a lot and getting our guys together. Yeah, we went undefeated in both tournaments. But we have a good group of guys with the Oakland Soldiers so I think we're gonna be really good on the EYBL circuit this year.
PI: Talk a bit about your background. How did you get into basketball?
DB: So my dad was always an athletic guy, and he loved basketball and football. He actually played football at Cal State Fullerton. But I would say it's mostly through my dad, because he always got me in sports my whole entire life, and I put the credit towards him.
PI: What are some of your biggest interests outside of basketball?
DB: I'm a very sociable person. So I like doing stuff in the community with my friends and I also like playing other sports. And I do kind of like some crazy sports. Like, I actually went to the Junior Olympics for competitive shotgun shooting. So that's a crazy trivia question, if anyone ever needs to ask me that, but I like to do some crazy sports like that. That's one of my hobbies.
PI: If you weren't pursuing a career as a professional hooper, what do you think you would choose to do?
DB: Umm, that's a great question. I would probably want to get into something on the business side of stuff and start working on my career. I kind of want to get into real estate later in life. So I would probably fall towards that direction. But as of right now, just following the dream.
PI: Is business something that you would like to pursue in college?
DB: Yeah, that's what I want to pursue in college. And yeah, I think I'm going to go on the business side of stuff when I get to college.
PI: What is your recruitment update?
DB: I recently got offered by Seton Hall. But I have 19 or 20 offers, and I'm doing well. I'm talking to some high majors, but you know, I'm keeping all my options open. I like talking with every school and seeing what options they have in their school. And yeah, recruitment is going high right now. And I'm really looking forward to the live events in Peach Jam and Cali Live coming up.
PI: Who are you hearing from the most lately?
DB: I'd say Wake Forest, ASU, Oregon State, Georgia, Mississippi State. Syracuse. I got Cal. Cal is on me really heavily. But yeah, that's basically all of them right now.
PI: What are ultimately looking for in a school of your choice?
DB: How much the team likes me and how much I can do on that team, like coming in as a freshman or with a group of guys, how I fit into the program the most. But yeah, the coaching staff, the guys that are there, and the guys that are coming in will be my main factors.
PI: At the end of the day, what do you hope to be remembered for?
DB: Just a great player in high school. My dream was to come to Pangos actually when I was a kid, so it's really exciting to be here. But yeah, I just want to be remembered as the hard worker like “damn, if I'm playing this guy tonight. It's gonna be a long night. It's not going to be an easy game.” That's what I want to be remembered as.
