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.

End of summer rankings out for class of 2011

Rivals.com and Scout.com released their end of summer rankings for the class of 2011 today.  Joe Coleman once again left out of the Scout rankings with Paul Jesperson in.   How Jesperson can be ranked far higher when Coleman consistently dominates far better competition in the summer and winter is totally beyond me.

In the Rivals rankings, Joe Coleman drops from #111 to #116 in this round of the rankings.  Here are others who have appeared locally.

#7 Brad Beal - Florida (down from #6)
#13 Branden Dawson - Michigan State (up from #25)
#15 Adonis Thomas
#18 BJ Young
#20 Cody Zeller
#24 Myck Kabongo - Texas (down from #11)
#27 Ky Madden
#28 Quinn Cook (down from #23)
#74 Cedric McAfee
#82 Marshall Plumlee - Duke
#96 Julien Lewis - Texas
#98 Hunter Mickelson - Arkansas
#99 Jerome Seagears
#118 Josh Oglesby
#123 Jeremiah Davis
#126 Andre Hollins
#129 Paul Jesperson (up from #140)
#147 Aaron Ross - Arkansas
#150 Jarrod Uthoff - Wisconsin

Read the entire Rivals.com rankings here.

Read the entire Scout.com rankings here.

Catching up on News and Notes

Its July and that means the big recruiting period is here. I'll take a look at who's where on Monday. But here are some old news and notes worth catching up on.

1st is the Kevin Noreen signing with West Virginia. Great story from the Charleston, WV Gazette on how it all went down (Read it here).  Congrats to him on a great high school career and he's a better person.  For all the criticism he took during his high school career, it shows hard work pays off.  Hope he does well at WVU.

Second, a really nice story out of Red Wing where 7'1" Isaac Oeltjen signed with Boise State this week.  Boise State previously had signed 7'1" Ben Mills out of Wisconsin to fill that spot before they changed coaches.  Mills then left for Colorado (where they also had interest in Winona's Alec Brown at that time).  Oeltjen averaged 7.4 PPG for the 9-19 Wingers in an abbreviated senior season in 08-09 but he had numerous leg issues and worked his way back.  Very smart use of technology as part of that.  Nice article from the Idaho Statesman on how he put himself on the map. (read it here)

Third, Minnesota gets shutout of the new 2012 Scout.com top 75.  JP Tokoto from Menomonee Falls, WI drops to #26.  The Martin Brothers trio out of Iowa all makes it includes #18 Marcus Paige.  I've seen both play in person and Paige is very good (a notch above Siyani Chambers if you want a comparison), but no way should he be ahead of Tokoto.

Finally, Wisconsin voted this week to go to a 5 division playoff format (yuck).  It was 20 years ago that Wisconsin switched from 3 divisions (A, B, C) to 4 (1-4).  Some of the section travel is an absolute nightmare (particularly for my alma mater).  The smallest schools have very minor changes.  What it addresses are the smallest D1 schools with enrollments around 1000 playing against 2500 kids.  What's ridiculous about that argument is that D1 got 8 schools to state and everybody else got 4.  That's no longer true.  Doesn't really address the problem of urban private D3s (Racine St Cats, La Crosse Aquinas, Whitefish Bay Dominican and Manitowoc Roncalli are the culprits) dominating the state tournament and keeping out rural small public schools.  That was one of the driving forces behind all of the discussion in the first place. 

What's interesting is that the enrollment breakdowns (1200+ D1, 600+ D2, 201-600 D3 and 4, 200 and down D5) are very similar to what we have in Minnesota for our 4 divisions.  1161+ is 4A, 565+ is 3A, 220+ is 2A and single A is the rest.  Read all about the plan and see maps and enrollments here.

Noreen makes Scout's final top 100

Kevin Noreen made the final Scout.com top 100 for 2010.  He came in at #91 after not making the last list (somewhere between 101 and 107).  Here are the other players who have appeared locally and a comparison of where they were in the September 2009 rankings.

Harrison Barnes #1 (no change) - North Carolina
Josh Selby #5 (up from #10) - Kansas
Joe Jackson #23 (down from #17) - Memphis
Vander Blue #34 (down from #27) - Marquette
Dwight Powell #42 (up from #45) - Stanford
Trevor Releford #50 (no change) - Alabama
Alex Kirk #76 (up from #80) - New Mexico
Tobi Oyedeji #93 (down from #68) - Texas A&M
Evan Anderson drops out after being #90. - Wisconsin

Scout.com's latest top 100 for 2010

No Minnesotans in this edition of the Scout.com top 100 for 2010. No surprise there but the rankings aren't totally bare for Minnesota as we do have a player in the positional rankings. Drumroll please.

Kevin Noreen is the #26 Power Forward.

Here are the notables in the Scout.com list

Harrison Barnes #1 (no change)
Josh Selby #10 (no change)
Joe Jackson #17 (no change)
Vander Blue #27 (up from #47 in July)
Dwight Powell #45
Trevor Releford #50 (up from #72)
Tobi Oyedeji #68 (down from #58)
Alex Kirk #80 (down from #66)
Evan Anderson #90 (down from #70)
Anthony Johnson drops out

New Scout 100 also omits Thomas

Scout.com also kept Jacob Thomas out of their pre-open period top 100 for the class of 2010. (I talk about this more in my previous post about the Rivals rankings, read that here) Here are the notables in the Scout.com list

Harrison Barnes #1
Josh Selby #10
Joe Jackson #17
Vander Blue #47
Tobi Oyedeji #58
Alex Kirk #66
Evan Anderson #70
Trevor Releford #72
Anthony Johnson #97

Scout.com releases final class of 2009 rankings

Scout.com has released their final 2009 top 100 (read it here). Here are players that caught my attention.

Minnesota
Royce White (#32, down from #30)
Rodney Williams Jr (#34, up from #32)
Trent Lockett (#97, down from #94)

Wisconsin
Jamil Wilson (#30, up from #35)
Jeronne Maymon (#84, down from #75)

Others who appeared locally
DeMarcus Cousins (#3, up from #6)
DJ Richardson (#46, down from #66)
Darius Smith (re-enters at #83)
Naji Hibbert (enters at #99)

Scout.com releases end of summer 2009 Top 100

Scout.com has released their end of summer 2009 top 100 (read it here). Here are players that caught my attention.

Minnesota
Royce White (#30, up from #32)
Rodney Williams Jr (#32, up from #57)
Trent Lockett (#94, down from #89)

Wisconsin
Jamil Wilson (#35, down from #16)
Jeronne Maymon (#75, down from #66)
Johnny Lacy (drops out after being #96)

Others who appeared locally
DeMarcus Cousins (#6, unchanged)
DJ Richardson (#66, down from #46)
Darius Smith (dropped out after being #90)
Michael Dixon (dropped out after being #94)

Scout obviously didn't think Rodney Williams performance at the Nike Global Challenge was an issue (unlike Rivals) as they moved him up 25 spots to number 32 (#5 small forward prospect). I'll agree more with Rivals evaluation right now. #5 SF in the nation for a guy who needs to work on his ballhandling and shooting seems rather high right now. Granted, with his athleticism, Scout could easily turn out to be right down the road. Its bad for Rodney's development for the next level that he plays center for Cooper during the high school season as that doesn't allow him to work on or showcase his perimeter skills. Great for Cooper though as their starting 5 will be close to Hopkins for most athletic in the state. Tough spot for a coach when you have a star like that who is better for the team at a different position than he'll play at the next level.

Scout.com releases updated 2009 Top 100 for July 2008

Scout.com has made another tweak to their 2009 top 100 (101 actually) before the July recruiting period (read it here). Here are players that caught my attention.

Minnesota
Royce White (#32, up from #38)
Rodney Williams Jr (#57, down from #45)
Trent Lockett (#89, previously unranked)

Wisconsin
Jamil Wilson (#16, no change)
Jeronne Maymon (#66, down from #58)
Johnny Lacy (#96, down from #62)

Others who appeared locally
DeMarcus Cousins (#6, up from #7)
DJ Richardson (#46, up from #60)
Darius Smith (#90)
Michael Dixon (#94, down from #66)

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)

MN and WI stars move up in new Rivals 150

Rivals.com released their new top 150 today. I wrote previously that Royce White dropped out of the Scout.com top 100, but not the case with Rivals. Royce White moves up to #18, Rodney Williams to #28, Trent Lockett stays at #98, Sam Dower moves in at #139, Mike Bruesewitz in at #144. Some Wisconsin names of note. Jeronne Maymon continues to move up with a big spring as he comes in at #60 only 2 spots behind Jamil Wilson. Johnny Lacy is the other Wisconsin player in the list at #99. Players from last weekend Sabes Invititational are included as follows. DJ Richardson who played for the champion Illinois Warriors last weekend came in at #57 and teammate Darius Smith is #62. Michael Dixon of KC Pump N Run is #75.

The only Scout.com ranked player in MN is Rodney Williams Jr at #87. Wilson (#9), Maymon(#72) and Lacy (#91) are the Wisconsin ranked players. Richardson and Smith are unranked. Dixon came in at #47.

Royce White falls out of Scout.com rankings

Scout.com came out with their updated top 100 for 2009. Some notables from outstate kids I saw this year. Jeronne Maymon of Madison Memorial (had a big game vs DLS in January before a monster rebounding performance in the TWolves shootout) is #72, Naji Hibbert of DeMatha (played vs Hopkins in the TWolves shootout) is #100. Wisconsin's top prospect Jamil Wilson is #9. DeMarcus Cousins of Mobile Le Flore committed to UAB on 2/29/08 and is #5. He played vs Princeton in the TWolves shootout.

Rodney Williams is #87 and Royce White falls out of the list.

Rivals.com hasn't updated their list since November, but for comparison sake here's what they have.

Cousins #5
Wilson #32
White #33
Williams #43
Hibbert #54
Trent Lockett #97
Maymon unranked (but don't be surprised if moves into the next round of rankings since he was huge in the Wisconsin state tournament)