Final Rankings for MN 2011 Players

The final 2011 rankings are out for all the big services here how the Minnesota class of 2011 did along with others who appeared locally.

Rivals
Joe Coleman #121

Others who appeared locally
Brad Beal (#4) - Florida
Cody Zeller (#15) - Indiana
Adonis Thomas (#17) - Memphis
Branden Dawson (#20) - Michigan St
BJ Young (#25) - Arkansas
Myck Kabongo (#26) - Texas
Ky Madden (#32) - Arkansas
Quinn Cook (#38) - Duke
Mychael Henry (#39) - Illinois
Julien Lewis (#57) - Texas
Marshall Plumlee (#79) - Duke
Hunter Mickleson (#100) - Arkansas
Jerome Seagears (#101) - Rutgers
Andre Hollins (#110) - Minnesota
TaShawn Thomas (#113) - Houston
Jarion Henry (#119) - New Mexico
Josh Oglesby (#122) - Iowa
Paul Jesperson (#136) - Virginia
Aaron Ross (#143) - Arkansas
Cedrick McAfee (#145) - Auburn
Spencer Dinwiddie (#146) - Colorado
Jarrod Uthoff (#149) - Wisconsin

Scout
No Minnesota players ranked

ESPN
Joe Coleman #93 behind Paul Jesperson #87

Hardwood Elite
Joe Coleman #80 behind Paul Jesperson #69
Ross Travis #91

Add #61 Todd Mayo (Marquette) to the list of others who appeared locally.
Andre Hollins #46

For the record, I think Coleman and Jesperson will have nice college careers.  I don't think either is quite to the top 100 level.  Coleman consistently dominated his higher level competition both in the winter and the spring.  He averaged 22 PPG while sitting major minutes as Hopkins destroyed people.  Jesperson's team was 11-11 this year in the regular season against inferior competition.  If not for Onalaska's top 2 bigs blowing out knees, Jesperson's Merrill team doesn't get out of section play.  He averaged 22.6 PPG playing big minutes.  While he had 45 in a game here last spring, in the spring games that I saw Jesperson play against our top teams he generally struggled against more physical play.   Coleman also did all of this with a loaded roster where Jesperson's team didn't have nearly that kind of talent.  The general recruiting rule is that you can teach skills but not athleticism.  Schools recruit bigger, stronger and faster because they have to.  So put all of that together and even though I'm clearly no expert on player evaluation, based on the facts above, it really shocks me that at least 2 of the rankings put Jesperson ahead of Coleman.  It proves my complaint with rankings.  Anybody who says they can see kids enough to do an intelligent ranking at a state or national level is full of it.  I spend as much time in the gym as anybody and I know first hand that you can't see a significant amount of any large number of players.  Especially when many of the writers focus mostly on Nike events (but don't get me started on that).  That's why kids like a Gordon Hayward or even Alec Brown fall through the cracks.

ESPN releases 2010 post-summer rankings

ESPN has released their post-summer 2010 Top 100 for the class of 2011. Nice new format too, good upgrade from the worldwide leader.  Joe Coleman drops from #65 to #81. But hey, at least he's ahead of Paul Jesperson (unranked).  That makes 2 of the 3 big services getting it right in my humble opinion.  Other players who've appeared locally include

#5 Brad Beal(up from #6) - Florida
#8 Myck Kabongo (down from #7) - Texas
#9 Adonis Thomas
#16 Branden Dawson (down from #14) - Michigan State
#20 Cody Zeller
#29 BJ Young
#35 Quinn Cook (up from #37)
#43 Marshall Plumlee - Duke
#47 Ky Madden
#60 Cedric McAfee
#62 Julien Lewis - Texas
#86 Aaron Ross - Arkansas
#98 Hunter Mickelson - Arkansas

Read the entire ESPN.com 2011 Top 100 here.

Minnesota shutout in the class of 2012 Top 60 but there are some names who have appeared locally
#8 LJ Rose
#21 Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell
#26 Cameron Biedscheid
#27 Marcus Paige
#29 Rasheed Sulaimon
#33 J-Mychal Reese
#38 Jordan Adams
#44 William "Shaq" Goodwin
#47 Demarquise Johnson
#59 Philip Nolan

Read the entire ESPN.com 2012 Top 60 here.

Coleman enters ESPN top 100

The cycle of updated rankings begins. ESPN just released their updated rankings for the class of 2011. Joe Coleman enters the rankings at #65 to represent Minnesota. Other players who've appeared locally include

Brad Beal #6
Myck Kabongo #7
Branden Dawson #14
Quinn Cook #37

Read the entire ESPN.com top 100 here.

Thomas drops in latest ESPN top 100

The cycle of updated rankings begins. ESPN just released their updated rankings for the class of 2010. Jacob Thomas remains the only MN player in the rankings. In this round he drops from #75 to #89. Other players who've appeared locally include

Harrison Barnes #1
Josh Selby #8
Joe Jackson #21
Vander Blue #34
Dwight Powell #37
Trevor Releford #49
Tobi Oyedeji #80
Alex Kirk #97
Evan Anderson #100

U of M target Cory Joseph comes in at #30

Read the entire ESPN.com top 100 here.

Jacob Thomas named to ESPN top 100

ESPN.com came out with their 2010 rankings last week and for the 1st time, we see a Minnesota player in the rankings. Thanks to a big spring for Howard Pulley, Jacob Thomas of Columbia Heights comes in at #75 on the list. No Minnesota players in the Scout.com or Rivals.com rankings currently but it will be interesting to see if that changes by the end of the summer.

Read the entire ESPN.com top 100 here.

ESPN releases final 2009 Rankings

On April 9th, ESPN released their final rankings for the class of 2009 . Read the entire rankings here. Here are the changes to Minnesota players (and others of note) from the last period (January 13, 2009).

Minnesota Players

* Royce White #35, Minnesota (previous #25)
* Rodney Williams Jr #42 (previous #40)

Wisconsin Players

* Jamil Wilson #31 (previous #62)
* Jeronne Maymon #79, Marquette (previous #55)

Other players who have appeared locally

* DeMarcus Cousins #4, UAB (no change)
* DJ Richardson #46, Illinois (previous #51)
* Naji Hibbert #70, Texas A&M (previous #61)

ESPN releases in-season class of 2009 Rankings

On January 13th, ESPN released their in-season rankings for the class of 2009 . Read the entire rankings here. Here are the changes to Minnesota players (and others of note) from the last period (August 19, 2008). Read analysis of the new rankings, including an explanation of the drop of Rodney Williams in the ESPN article here. You'll find it to be consistent with what Rivals said last August. I made some comments last August similar to these as well.

Minnesota Players

• Royce White #25, Minnesota (previous #23)
• Rodney Williams Jr #40 (previous #29)

Wisconsin Players

• Jeronne Maymon #55, Marquette (previous #76)
• Jamil Wilson #62 (previous #60)

Other players who have appeared locally

• DeMarcus Cousins #4, UAB (no change)
  
• DJ Richardson #51, Illinois (previous #56)
• Naji Hibbert #61, Texas A&M (previous #59)

ESPN releases end of summer 2009 top 100

ESPN released their end of summer rankings for the class of 2009 last week. Read the full rankings here.

Minnesota Players

• Royce White #23, Minnesota (up from #61 in last ranking, read why here, was #71 in May)
• Rodney Williams Jr #29 (up from #66 in May)
  

Wisconsin Players

• Jamil Wilson #60 (down from #13 in May)
  
• Jeronne Maymon #76, Marquette (unranked in May)
  

Other players who appeared locally this year

• DeMarcus Cousins #4, UAB (up from #5 in May)
  
• DJ Richardson #56, Illinois (up from #93 in May)
  
• Naji Hibbert #59, Texas A&M (down from #47 in May)
• Michael Dixon dropped out, Missouri (was #49 in May)
  

MN players in new Scout.com 2009 rankings

The new Scout.com rankings for 2009 have been released. (Read them here). Rivals just updated their rankings recently too, you can read what I wrote about that here. You can also read ESPN's rankings here.

Minnesota players
Royce White #38 (#71 ESPN)
Rodney Williams Jr #45 (#66 ESPN)

Wisconsin players
Jamil Wilson #16 (#13 ESPN)
Jeronne Maymon #58
Johnny Lacy #62

Others who played in the metro this season (HS or AAU)
DeMarcus Cousins #7 (#5 ESPN)
DJ Richardson #60 (#93 ESPN)
Michael Dixon #66 (#49 ESPN)
Naji Hibbert #99 (#47 ESPN)