With today’s various resources, multimedia aspects and constant video coverage, it isn’t exactly that easy for promising NCAA prospects to fall entirely under the radar.
Yet for Shooting 4 Greatness (NC) Class of 2025 gritty guard Grayson Cable, who has been out of the mainstream spotlight while home schooled, a high-flying game has cloaked in obscurity.
It won’t for long.
The 6-foot-4 high octane combination guard is an efficient scoring threat buoyed by sneaky explosiveness and rarefied, jaw-dropping athleticism.
Cable, he of the 42+ inch vertical, is looking to make up for some lost time throughout the 2024-25 campaign.
The North Carolina native is vowing to garner credibility this season at S4G Academy in Raleigh (NC), striving to make the most out of the post graduate/prep circuit.
A physical, confrontational defender capable of sitting down on smaller guards and also instigating turnovers while playing off the ball, Cable has been working at a maniacal pace to polish all facets of his game this summer.
S4G head coach Kyle Solomon envisions Cable operating as a go-to source as a hard-attacking lane navigator while applying searing pressure in the press, man to man, and zone.
“The kid puts his nose on the rim,” said Solomon, who has nurtured the development of Dequon Miller (Missouri State), 6-foot-7 and 225-pound guard/wing Chase Thompson (who led the country in scoring during the 2019-2020 season at 31.5 points per game), and Mike Medlin (a constant double double threat during his time at Hill College) while traipsing the sidelines at S4G.
“There really isn’t any button you need to press with Grayson. He just has a natural killer instinct. He’s able to get up off the ground quickly. He dunks in traffic. He’s become more of a physical threat around the rim and while battling for boards.”
While Cable was mostly in the shadows while playing in a mostly unheralded home schools league, he caught Solomon’s attention while playing AAU earlier in the summer.
“He finishes around the rim and can bang on 7-footers,” Solomon said of Cable.
“He’s an elite open floor finisher. His style fits perfectly for our souped up attack. He really uses his athleticism and ball tracking, he’s got a great awareness and can get those tough steals where he just rips it out from under a ball handler. With the additional year of development, he can really be a steal at the Division-I level.”
In the 1980s, Solomon authored a memorable career at Gorton High School in Yonkers, NY.
He was the poster boy of a then-successful Wolves program, one which has faltered on hard times in recent years.
Years after the national fanfare created by Gorton High’s late and legendary Bernard Toone, an original 6-foot-9 point forward who starred at Marquette and played briefly in the NBA, Solomon was a high-scoring guard/wing known for his poised shot-making.
He formed a memorable triumvirate alongside then-Gorton High teammates Mike Kelly and Zach Thompson.
The program thrived with multiple 20+ win seasons under an exalted Yonkers coach in John Volpe in the Class A/New York State public schools Division.
Volpe, who compiled 446 career wins at Gorton, is enshrined in the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame.
Solomon has witnessed the careers of several once promising players from Yonkers, the neighboring city to the South Bronx, wither under the weight of street life.
Solomon recalls numerous acclaimed players from a then-rough and tumble who self sabotaged. A number of these would be warriors left wistful reminders of what could have been.
Some were misguided.
Others never quite had the proper structure and guidance, valuable components which today’s youth takes for granted with AAU coaches, influential community coaches, and scouts.
Thus, Solomon founded and spearheaded Shooting 4 Greatness Academy as a non-profit, with a post graduate basketball program that criss-crosses the country playing upper stratum competition and Division-I junior colleges.
As Solomon explained, his primary initiative was to give young men opportunities that were otherwise non-existent.
His vision was to maximize their potential, tighten up their academic pedigree if necessary, and nourish their talent under positive role models in his coaching staff.
With Cable being a full NCAA qualifier, Solomon anticipates him relishing a leadership role and becoming attractive to college coaches in the process.
That’s simply where the bar is set for the unproven guard over these next nine months.
Solomon describes Cable as a relentless gym rat with the translatable traits to become hidden treasure for an NCAA program willing to invest a four year scholarship in him.
“(Cable) just plays at a tremendous pace,” Solomon said.
“With his lift off and ability to turn in those electric plays and trigger big runs, he’s similar to a player who he grew up idolizing in (Phoenix Suns guard) Grayson Allen.”
In a constantly unstable prep environment, where fly by night programs tend to be sullied by me-first individualism as the hunt for a scholarship intensifies, Solomon depicts Cable as a rare breed.
Entering his post graduate season, Cable has expressed a desire to play team basketball and win first. His mentality is to buy into the grind and ultimately let the chips fall where they may in regard to scholarship offers.
“Grayson is an old school player,” Solomon said.
“He really thrives with the intangibles, and is willing to do whatever it takes to win. He doesn’t get concerned with individual stats or if he’s getting the ball enough. He attacks both sides of the rim. He can bury that mid range pull up with consistency. He’s able to really get into the lane and draw fouls, which he does early and often. And he’s an 80+ percent free throw shooter. So, we’re really looking for him to seize that leadership role from the jump this year.”
S4G has several intriguing pieces for the 2024-25 campaign, each as immersed in the workload as Cable.
Dylan Mann, a 6-foot-9 3-4 who can spread the floor out with a smooth deep jumper and operate with his back to the rim, is expected to infuse Solomon’s lineup with versatility.
The inside-outside tandem of Cable and Mann are seeking to form a radiant troika alongside 6-foot-5 wing Zach Johnson.
A high level shooter, Johnson has shown an aptitude for knocking down difficult, highly contested shots.
“Johnson is a shifty three-level scorer,” Solomon said.
“He can create his shot, create space, create opportunity off the dribble. He can stick shots on the move. He’s a mismatch in that he’s too quick for bigger guys to stay in front. He can power his way to the rim when he has a smaller defender on him.”
Johnson has made tweaks to his offensive repertoire.
He’s incorporated a pull-up jumper into his arsenal. He’s utilizing bouncy athleticism in turning in dazzling. He’s worked at embracing contact and finishing through hard contact.
The day to day grind and focus has started since late last month, with painstaking and innovative workouts Monday through Friday under Solomon.
“The main things are definitely to keep working out and getting in top-shelf shape, just pushing each other to get better,” as Cable explained.
“Our focus is on playing together as a team. Finely tuning our ball handling and getting shots up. Playing with good concepts of the game and unselfishness. Just staying ready.”
