Westinghouse Backcourt Displays Potential at Riverside-Brookfield
Westinghouse lost six seniors from its 2020-21 team — a significant exodus considering its younger players got far fewer reps than they would have in other years. Heading into the 2021-22 season, Joshua West and Isiah Giles are two Westinghouse guards to watch.
West, now a senior, showed promise over the Friday games at the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout. His activeness and length stood out on the defensive end. He has a good handle that helps him get to where he wants to on the floor, though he doesn’t need to dominate the ball.
“I think people should know about his versatility on the offense or defensive, and he’s a great two-way player and he gets it done on both ends of the floor,” Westinghouse head coach Rafie Fields said. “On the offensive end, he can .. put the ball in the basket however you like. He can score from the mid-range game. He can attack the basket, shoot the three. Defensively, he plays the passing lanes as well.”
West has stepped into more of a leadership role with all the roster turnover, a role that Fields says West has handled well.
For the 6-3 West, it’s a role he feels that he is used to.
“It’s been different, but I mean, I already felt this role from our team on JV my freshman and sophomore years,” he said. “I feel like it’s the same thing, but just at a higher level.”
West is playing with CD Elite on the AAU circuit, which he credits for the improvement in his game.
“It’s been giving me the exposure that I need,” West said. “It’s also been preparing me for things like this tournament. It’s been helping me find my game, you know, that’s the biggest thing: finding my game.”
Eastern Illinois and Dominican are two schools that have reached out to West.
Alongside West in the Westinghouse backcourt is scoring guard Isaiah Giles, a junior.
“He’s just a shifty guard where you know, he’s going to give you something every game, you don’t know what it is, but he’s extremely shifty and extremely quick,” Fields said. “He’s just trying to become more of a point guard because even though his frame says point guard, he’s a true shooting guard at heart, but we’re just trying to get him back into that point guard [role].”
Giles needs to just get the repetitions at the position and gain the understanding that he needs to be on the ball more. Still, he does have a jump-shot that extends beyond the three-point line.
Giles describes himself as, “a shooter, who has improved his playmaking ability.”
Giles and West have impressed and are two to watch for throughout the summer and next season.