Scouting Diaries: Legends Classic Recap

Stephen Gillaspie recaps his time scouting the Legends Classic game between Pittsburgh and UCF for the 2026 NBA Draft cycle.

On the Road, Again

The start to this season has been quite a start for all of college basketball, but for us at No Ceilings as well. We’ve “been everywhere” to begin this cycle—from New York, to Vegas, and The Pentagon. For myself, my most recent adventure took me a couple of hours south to Daytona Beach, Florida, to attend the Legends Classic. The history of this tournament dates back to 2007, when D.J. Augustin was playing for Rick Barnes at Texas. The Longhorns won the tournament, beating the team Coach Barnes currently leads in Tennessee.

Fast forward to this season, and the bracket consists of Pittsburgh—a team that has won the tournament two times, the “hometown” UCF Knights, and Quinnipiac. While I was not able to travel to see the entirety of the tournament in person, I watch the kickoff in Daytona that featured UCF vs. Pittsburgh at the Ocean Center.

It was my first time at the venue and in Daytona Beach. I was fortunate enough to be credentialed under the banner of No Ceilings. Thanks to the support of the No Ceilings Universe, our ability to cover games for you all has grown exponentially—as has the vantage point from where we’ve been able to watch the games.

Though the game between UCF and Pitt didn’t feature a ton of first round talent in the 2026 NBA Draft class, there were several players who have some scouting clout, and others who may have an interesting path to professional basketball.

Here are the major scouting notes from my time in Daytona.

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Riley Kugel | UCF | Guard/Wing | Senior | 6’5” | 210

Riley Kugel is a player I’m sure many of you are familiar with. Riley exploded onto the scouting scene after an impressive freshman season with the Florida Gators. Many prognosticated that he would be one of the better sophomore breakout candidates returning to Gainesville, but Riley has since made two school changes leading up to his senior year of ball. After a solid year with Mississippi State, Kugel returned to his hometown of Orlando, Florida, to play for the Knights. In his time with the Knights, Riley has nearly doubled his scoring output, averaging 17.7 PPG, 3.1 APG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.0 SPG—with shooting splits of 49/55/79.

Kugel had the biggest outing of any prospect on the court, going for 18 points, four assists, four rebounds, and a steal. He did this while going 8-of-14 from the floor. What stood out to me about Riley in this game was how measured his scoring approach was. Riley has typically stood out as a perimeter-based player, but many of his points came at the cup. He showed off some fun footwork around the basket, as well as some crafty finishing angles. He even mixed it up on the offensive glass, going for tip-ins and loose balls. He also showed great vision throughout the night, as he tied a game-high in assists. One of the more memorable passes came when he threw a lob pass to Jordan Burks in transition. Defensively, there were moments of aggression, but sometimes that effort was misplaced and not fundamentally based.

I entertained including Kugel as a nominee for my preseason Ryan Kalkbrenner Award watchlist, but he was a last-minute scratch. I’m afraid that decision may come back to haunt me to some degree. I’m not suggesting that Riley will be a definitive NBA-level prospect once he goes to the next level, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Riley finds a way to spend significant time in the league as a professional bucket-getter. His increased level of dependability and production have been fun to witness at this point of the scouting cycle.

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Cameron Corhen | Pitt | Forward/Big | Senior | 6’10” | 235

Cameron Corhen is a player that we’ve been tracking for a few years now, and have been waiting to tie all of his natural gifts together with improved understanding of the game, and some offensive versatility. After spending a few seasons with the Florida State Seminoles, Cameron transferred to the Panthers—a team that has put an emphasis on size and versatility over the past few seasons under coach Jeff Capel. Corhen had an impactful season for Coach Capel as a junior, averaging 11.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 0.9 APG, 0.7 BPG, and 0.7 SPG. He’s always been an efficient scorer, resulting in him having a FG% of 60.2% for his college career.

Corhen impressed me due to his intersection of size, mobility, and thoughtfulness as a pivot man. Cameron got his first three baskets by way of a lob layup at first, and then consecutive putbacks. His offense was a steady dose of self-created shots that seemingly only experienced and hard-working big men get in the college ranks. His motor burned red-hot all game. Even though he didn’t force a quantifiable defensive metric by traditional box score standards, Cameron did get after it on that end. He poked out the ball on one occasion, and shut off driving lanes. Seeing Corhen up close, it’s easy to see why Coach Capel is allowing him to play the most minutes per game in his college career, and he is rebounding at the best rate of his collegiate career. Cameron pulled down 11 rebounds in the game, with three coming on the offensive end.

In terms of next-level projectability, Corhen is going to be at his best being a utility big man. He is putting up three pointers this season—and as flashed the shot before, but there hasn’t been much substantial evidence to suggest it is something he will be able to do moving forward. Cameron does offer some strength as a 4/5 defensive-minded frontcourt player who can clean up the glass and play hard for stints. That sort of big man—especially at his listed measurements—isn’t the sexiest sell, but they do find ways to get into the professional ranks in some capacity.

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Jamichael Stillwell | UCF | Forward | Senior | 6’8” | 245

If you like forwards that rebound the heck out of the ball, then Jamichael Stillwell is definitely your cup of tea. Stillwell is one of the many players who have come through the JUCO ranks to find a home in the land of Division I hoops. Last season, Stillwell had an incredible season with the Milwaukee Panthers, averaging 13.0 PPG and 10.7 RPG—becoming the first-ever Panther to average a double-double for an entire season. His production led to him being named the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year, as well as a berth on the All-Horizon First Team.

For a player who has seldom been mentioned among the mainstream, I put out words on Jamichael three times last season. Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), I was pretty excited to see Stillwell up close. The first thing I loved about watching Jamichael actually came during warmups. His teammates gravitated toward him, as he was vibing to the warmup music, but balanced it with some solid shooting and stretching work. He also led the team with a speech and huddle breakdown prior to tipoff. Once the whistle blew and the ball was in the air, Stillwell went to work. Right off the jump, he went for the game’s first points, getting an and-one floater to fall and converting the shot from the line. UCF used him a lot as a decision maker out of DHOs—something that showed a side of him that I haven’t been used to seeing. Something else that stood out to me was how much more comfortable Jamichael looks shooting the ball. Not to say that he’s high-volume from deep, or anything, but the shot looks cleaner, and he looks more confident in it. Of course, Stillwell crashed the glass, tying a game-high with 11 rebounds. Six of those 11 came on the offensive end, where Jamichael either scored or came out with a nifty pass.

I’m not sure at this point if Stillwell has done anything drastic enough to impact how I, or other scouts, project him moving forward. There is some clear skill to his game—mostly coming off of effort, which has been proven to be valuable. Though the shot is looking better, his volume has actually decreased with UCF thus far. At his size, it’s a tricky projection for a player who isn’t a shooter, nor an advanced ball-handler. His passing has looked better so far, but the volume there hasn’t been at a surplus, either. His effort on the boards and on defense are intriguing. I’ll be interested to see how his game rounds out on a new team in a tougher Big 12 conference for the Atlanta native.

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Barry Dunning Jr. | Pitt | Wing/Forward | Senior | 6’6” | 195

It’s been an interesting path for Barry Dunning Jr., who is a former two-time Gatorade Player of the Year out of Alabama. Barry started out playing for the Arkansas Razorbacks, then transferred to UAB—both stops resulted in little playing time for the All-American nominee. It wasn’t until last season with South Alabama that Dunning Jr. really started to showcase his potential. In his only season with the Jaguars, Barry averaged 15.1 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 2.2 APG, and 0.9 SPG. He also put up shooting splits of 46/31/76—good enough to be named to the All-Sun Belt First Team.

It was no surprise to see Pittsburg be so heavily interested in securing the services of Dunning Jr., as he is the type of versatile athlete the program covets. Barry came off the bench for Coach Capel, but chipped in with 14 points, six rebounds, two blocks, an assists, and a steal. Barry exerted a ton of effort on both ends of the floor, making a defensive impact immediately by blocking Riley Kugel near the basket. His ability to use his athleticism to make plays on the board and on defense were on display consistently throughout the night. Barry did attempt six three-pointers on the night, converting two of them. He gets a ton of lift on his jumper, which certainly appears to play a part in his confidence in taking some contested looks. He also shows some aggressive tendencies in making plays around the rim, which did result in him taking (and making) six shots at the free-throw line.

Dunning Jr. did look like a high-end athlete who can will his way into making some tough plays on both sides of the ball. Consistency is going to be key in determining the sort of player he is going to be in the long run. It’s taken a while for Barry to carve out a significant role for a D-I school, which does cloud the projection for him—if it doesn’t cap it entirely. I’d imagine Barry making it to the league will have to come through hard work and gritting his way up the ranks of other leagues first.

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Omari Witherspoon | Pitt | Guard | Freshman | 6’4” | 190

The 2026 NBA Draft cycle has been absolutely loaded with freshman prospects who have shown impressive flashes of potential. Omari Witherspoon is one such player, who has demonstrated such flashes with the Panthers. Omari was a four-star prospect who played at Archbishop Carroll High School and St. John’s College Prep prior to committing to Pittsburgh. Witherspoon was ranked just outside the consensus Top 100 across multiple reputable grassroot scouting services. Despite that, Omari has started all six games for Pittsburgh, averaging 7.3 PPG, 2.6 APG, 1.6 RPG, 0.7 SPG, and 0.9 BPG—with shooting splits of 41/35/30.

A lot of the intrigue with Omari comes with his positional size—something that immediately caught my eye watching him in warmups. Pitt plays a number of guards—two of whom (Brandin Cummings and Damarco Minor) are on the smaller side. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see many flashes from Witherspoon in this contest. Minor was the more impactful guard for the Panthers—which makes sense due to the level of experience he brings to the team. Omari was fairly deferential to others in this contest, as he only attempted four shots on the night (making just one). He did get to the free-throw line for three shots, but only made a single try. Witherspoon did show some brief moments of passing feel, especially when he had one nifty dump-off pass to Corhen for a bucket. There also wasn’t much to write home about in terms of his defensive effort in the game.

For Omari, there is a lot of his game that is very much in the developmental stages. That’s okay and to be expected for the majority of Freshmen in college hoops. The shooting touch is going to require some continuous improvement. The size he brings should lend itself to some long-term defensive ability. Omari does have a good level of feel for the game, which makes it easy to see why Coach Capel has entrusted Witherspoon with a sizeable role in his first year of Division I ball. This isn’t a name we should expect to hear called on draft night following this season, but Omari Witherspoon is definitely someone to monitor over the course of a few years of college.

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