MVC basketball recruits for 2010

[Da Coach]

Paul Sullentrop, the Wichita State beat writer for the Wichita Eagle newspaper, posted this blog listing the 2010 recruits for all the MVC schools. None of this year's recruits are ranked in the Top 150 nationally, and only 2 rate 3-stars, and a few rate 2-stars (out of 5). Most are unrated.
So who said it should be easy for MVC schools to recruit top rated players? This is the most un-distinguished recruiting class I can recall.

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2010/07/13/mvc-basketball-signees/

[it's boogie time]

It looks like SIU & WSU went the juco route.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

I haven't scoured the rosters hard, but from reading what I have in regards to recruiting, MOST of the Valley teams are returning a lot of talent.

I don't think this year's level of recruits is necessarily a gauge, but if next years recruiting classes aren't better, then I will start to be worried.

[AZ BU Fan]

Looking over the Rivals Top 150, most of the recruits went to the top BCS conferences...Here are the 16 Rivals Top 150 Recruits the MVC missed out on who signed to comparable conferences/schools:

#118 Khyle Marshall 3 stars Butler
#124 Chrishawn Hopkins 3 stars Butler
#134 Kyle Collinsworth 3 stars BYU
#28 Trey Zeigler 4 stars Cent. Michigan
#49 Juwan Staten 4 stars Dayton
#139 Brandon Spearman 3 stars Dayton
#146 Brandon Young 3 stars DePaul
#43 Ray McCallum 4 stars Detroit
#46 Dominique Ferguson 4 stars Florida Intl.
#24 Vander Blue 5 stars Marquette
#52 Jamail Jones 4 stars Marquette
#112 Reggie Smith 3 stars Marquette
#116 Alex Kirk 3 stars New Mexico
#58 Gerard Coleman 4 stars Providence
#93 Joseph Young 4 stars Providence
#129 Brandon Peters 3 stars West. Kentucky

With the TV money, exposure, NCAA Tournament bids, and education/ethics standards stacked against the smaller schools/non BCS conferences, tough to recruit the top kids...

What is the big draw for highly rated recruits to play at Marquette?

[shaunguth]

Looking over the Rivals Top 150, most of the recruits went to the top BCS conferences...Here are the 16 Rivals Top 150 Recruits the MVC missed out on who signed to comparable conferences/schools:

#118 Khyle Marshall 3 stars Butler
#124 Chrishawn Hopkins 3 stars Butler
#134 Kyle Collinsworth 3 stars BYU
#28 Trey Zeigler 4 stars Cent. Michigan
#49 Juwan Staten 4 stars Dayton
#139 Brandon Spearman 3 stars Dayton
#146 Brandon Young 3 stars DePaul
#43 Ray McCallum 4 stars Detroit
#46 Dominique Ferguson 4 stars Florida Intl.
#24 Vander Blue 5 stars Marquette
#52 Jamail Jones 4 stars Marquette
#112 Reggie Smith 3 stars Marquette
#116 Alex Kirk 3 stars New Mexico
#58 Gerard Coleman 4 stars Providence
#93 Joseph Young 4 stars Providence
#129 Brandon Peters 3 stars West. Kentucky

With the TV money, exposure, NCAA Tournament bids, and education/ethics standards stacked against the smaller schools/non BCS conferences, tough to recruit the top kids...

What is the big draw for highly rated recruits to play at Marquette?

Not sure, but I did notice that when I posted the following about Chris Colvin last week......

I can't seem to find anything connecting him to Marquette. I don't know how many scholarships they have available, but they do have five players signed for this fall and three of those are guards.

[jasonpeoria911]

Marquette probably has the draw of being close to Chicago, playing in the Big East and has had recent success. Most of them would probably sign with Depaul but y'all know how Depaul has been LOL.

Jason

[Da Coach]

Looking over the Rivals Top 150, most of the recruits went to the top BCS conferences...Here are the 16 Rivals Top 150 Recruits the MVC missed out on who signed to comparable conferences/schools:

#118 Khyle Marshall 3 stars Butler
#124 Chrishawn Hopkins 3 stars Butler
#134 Kyle Collinsworth 3 stars BYU
#28 Trey Zeigler 4 stars Cent. Michigan
#49 Juwan Staten 4 stars Dayton
#139 Brandon Spearman 3 stars Dayton
#146 Brandon Young 3 stars DePaul
#43 Ray McCallum 4 stars Detroit
#46 Dominique Ferguson 4 stars Florida Intl.
#24 Vander Blue 5 stars Marquette
#52 Jamail Jones 4 stars Marquette
#112 Reggie Smith 3 stars Marquette
#116 Alex Kirk 3 stars New Mexico
#58 Gerard Coleman 4 stars Providence
#93 Joseph Young 4 stars Providence
#129 Brandon Peters 3 stars West. Kentucky

With the TV money, exposure, NCAA Tournament bids, and education/ethics standards stacked against the smaller schools/non BCS conferences, tough to recruit the top kids...

What is the big draw for highly rated recruits to play at Marquette?

Marquette, DePaul, and Providence are Big East teams, and are clearly a higher level of play than the MVC and have an undeniable recruiting advantage over schools like Bradley. And the Butler kids were not previously rated in the top 150, but were moved up by the "experts" after they commmitted to Butler. Plus, Butler played for the national championship and that creates an undeniable advantage.
And schools like New Mexico and BYU from the Mountain West do not have the same level of competetion from the BCS or "power conferences" that schools like Bradley and others in the east, midwest, and south have. Therefore, they can land an occasional higher recruit who wouldn't want to play too far from home. And McCallum and Ziegler were major recruits who went to midmajors because their fathers were the coaches- not exactly a true measure of those coach's recruiting skills. Even Dayton (A-10) is seen by most experts as a higher level of play than the MVC.

So if you eliminate those kids (which schools like Bradley never had a chance), it leaves only these 2 "Recruits the MVC missed out on who signed to comparable conferences/schools" from the Top 150-

#46 Dominique Ferguson 4 stars Florida Intl. (picked FIU because of Isiah Thomas connections and his promise to get him drafted by the NBA)
#129 Brandon Peters 3 stars West. Kentucky (has eligibility questions- plus maybe a bit overrated- he played at Houston Yates High School with numerous other D1 recruits and averaged over 20 ppg for a team that ran up scores, averaged over 120 points per game, and had numerous games with winning margins of over 100 points)

[Indy_BB]

At 124, Chrishawn Hopkins is the most underrated player in the country. There is 0% chance he is not among the top 50 players in the 2010 class. The nation is going to be shocked in a Hayward-ian sort of way in about 4 months. And, it won't just be because of his world class athleticism, but his basketball IQ. He's that good.

PS - Khyle Marshall was rated around 80 (4-star) prior to signing. Not sure where you got that idea:

[wizard1]

MVC Basketball recruits----

Coach---I agree with what you say regarding the weakness of the MVC in recruiting and other areas. If we are correct in this, then BU should take steps to change our conference affiliation. Only problem is that we have been no better than mediocre in the MVC the last several years so it might be doubly hard for us to succeed in a stronger conference.
What I'm suggesting is that now that we have the facility problem solved, we need to totally re-evaluate our Basketball program---Where do we really want to be? What must we do to get there? Are we really committed to having a successful program or are we satisfied with mediocrity as long as the dollars keep coming in?

[Da Coach]

At 124, Chrishawn Hopkins is the most underrated player in the country. There is 0% chance he is not among the top 50 players in the 2010 class. The nation is going to be shocked in a Hayward-ian sort of way in about 4 months. And, it won't just be because of his world class athleticism, but his basketball IQ. He's that good.

PS - Khyle Marshall was rated around 80 (4-star) prior to signing. Not sure where you got that idea:

Rivals removes all their earlier web pages with previous rankings when they update their Top 150, but neither of those 2 Butler recruits were in the Top 150 prior to their senior seasons. Chrishawn Hopkins was not rated by anyone before he verballed to Butler, even by recruiting services that rank the Top 600 players in the class of 2010!. Then after verballing to Butler, he zoomed up in some rankings. Khyle Marshall began to rise before he verballed to Butler but he was not Top 150 in any ranking I can find. His verbal to Butler vaulted him into the top 150. BTW- even now he is rated only 3-stars, not 4.-
Rivals 3-stars- http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballre...MmxPXyMyjVO5B4
Scout 3-stars- http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75...=1&nid=3977072

This Rivals article posted 9/30/09 when he announced his verbal, does not mention or show that he was in the Rivals rankings, something they would always include in their articles-

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=995631

Other reliable recruiting sites confirm this-
According to Hoopscoop, a long-time and reliable recruiting service, Chrishawn Hopkins was not even ranked in the Hoopscoop Top 600 ranking when he was a junior.

In the same ranking, posted his junior year, Khyle Marshall was ranked #454 in the HoopScoop Top 600 ranking of the best players in the class of 2010.

I can't link to the Hoopscoop page, because it is a premium site.
But I have the link and can copy the rankings here if you want to see them.

Bob Gibbons, a well-known recruiting expert, posted this Top 175 prior to the last season. Khyle Marshall was just outside of the Top 150 at #161, and Chrishawn Hopkins was not listed anywhere.-

http://www.bobgibbons.net/index.php?/weblog/article/class_of_2010_post_summer_top_175_player_ratings/

Other recruiting services, like this ESPN ranking of the Class of 2010, do not have Hopkins or Marshall rated in their Top 100.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/tracker/espnu100?&season=2010&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fespnu100%3f%26season%3d2010

[Indy_BB]

Rivals removes all their earlier web pages with previous rankings when they update their Top 150, but neither of those 2 Butler recruits were in the Top 150 prior to their senior seasons. Chrishawn Hopkins was not rated by anyone before he verballed to Butler, even by recruiting services that rank the Top 600 players in the class of 2010!. Then after verballing to Butler, he zoomed up in some rankings. Khyle Marshall began to rise before he verballed to Butler but he was not Top 150 in any ranking I can find. His verbal to Butler vaulted him into the top 150. BTW- even now he is rated only 3-stars, not 4.-
Rivals 3-stars- http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballre...MmxPXyMyjVO5B4
Scout 3-stars- http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75...=1&nid=3977072

This Rivals article posted 9/30/09 when he announced his verbal, does not mention or show that he was in the Rivals rankings, something they would always include in their articles-

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=995631

Other reliable recruiting sites confirm this-
According to Hoopscoop, a long-time and reliable recruiting service, Chrishawn Hopkins was not even ranked in the Hoopscoop Top 600 ranking when he was a junior.

In the same ranking, posted his junior year, Khyle Marshall was ranked #454 in the HoopScoop Top 600 ranking of the best players in the class of 2010.

I can't link to the Hoopscoop page, because it is a premium site.
But I have the link and can copy the rankings here if you want to see them.

Bob Gibbons, a well-known recruiting expert, posted this Top 175 prior to the last season. Khyle Marshall was just outside of the Top 150 at #161, and Chrishawn Hopkins was not listed anywhere.-

http://www.bobgibbons.net/index.php?/weblog/article/class_of_2010_post_summer_top_175_player_ratings/

Other recruiting services, like this ESPN ranking of the Class of 2010, do not have Hopkins or Marshall rated in their Top 100.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recru...6season%3d2010

You are purely and unequivocally wrong. Prior to injury (not playing in July), Khyle Marshall was rated just where I said he was. You can either believe me, or continue to embarrass yourself. Jerry Meyer, Brian Snow, or any one of a dozen others could verify. He only fell into 3-star territory at the 2nd to last reset.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

On the May 13th reset, he was 84, for example.

[Da Coach]

I am not denying that there could have been someone who rated him in the top 100, however, I cannot find any such ranking, and apparently you can't show it either, or you would have posted it. Every ranking I can find, shows that he was not Top 150, and I posted numerous links to those rankings. But again, maybe somewhere he might have been. BTW, I have a saved version of a Rivals Top 150 from last August, just before Marshall committed to Butler, and he is not among the Top 150 at that time. Unfortunately, the link to that page takes you to the current rankings, and not the older one.
Nice job of high-jacking this thread, though.

I hope he is a great player for Butler, but my original point is still valid- that among the current list of Top 150 players, there is realistically only 1 (Brandon Peters, the kid committed to WKU) who any MVC school would have had a chance to land. Wichita State was one of the schools offering him, but he chose WKU instead.

And, as my original post said, the other Butler guy (Chrishawn Hopkins) was not ranked by anyone until he verballed to Butler, not even rankings that listed the top 600! Then all of a sudden, he zooms up to #124. I think anyone who follows high school basketball rankings knows that sometimes kids rise primarily because of what school signs them, and not because they have suddenly become much better players.

[AZ BU Fan]

DC, I was trying to give the MVC the benefit of the doubt by including the recruits from the lower echelon of the Big East and Butler as potential MVC players. My point was the MVC not getting any players from Rivals' Top 150 this year isn't a sign of poor recruiting, or, a bad recruiting year, by Valley teams since over 95% of these kids ended up at BCS schools.

By your evaluation DC, only 2/150, or 1.3%, of the top 150 players would even consider the MVC...so the MVC didn't really get out recruited this year, they were 0-2.

I think when recruiting services get down to players with 3 or less star ratings, it is pretty subjective and a crap shoot anyway as to these players ability to play good ball in the top 7-8 conferences in the US (which includes the Valley)...

So I don't get too concerned MVC freshman recruits don't have lots of stars next to their names...

IMHO Valley schools have to find kids who are either very, very, very athletic, or, have exceptional skills in at least 1, hopefully 2, areas: pure shooting, jumping, rebounding, quickness, speed, court sense/anticipation.

[Da Coach]

You are right- there have been few examples of 4-star recruits who have ever landed at MVC schools, and even they didn't always fare so well (P'Allen Stinnett, Anthony Booker, and Andrew Bock were perhaps the most recent).
Almost always, MVC schools rely on "under-the-radar" kids, who develop by staying around for 4 (or 5) years, and coaches who outstanding coaches at getting the most out of their talent. Just look at who the POY players were the past decade- they include mostly kids were were 0-2 stars, and even a walkon.
I think there could be a few really good, talented kids out of that collection of MVC recruits this year. Who knows, maybe JP, and Walter Lemon might be among them, and John Wilkins, too.

[tornado]

I am hearing some good things about our "under the radar" kids....

anyone got a clue where P'Allen will end up??