High School Player Rankings

[Beninator]

I ran across an article on the Duke board about the rankings of high school basketball players. A lot of what this author has written is similar to opinions that have been expressed on this board. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see this in an article. There is also a brief mention of Daniel West toward the end of the article.

one quote from the article:

"There are a ton of so-called experts out there ranking the kids, and while I mean no offense to them ??“ some I personally know, and they have a wealth of basketball knowledge ??“ to me, the only experts are the folks who evaluate talent for a living. The college coaches."

http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/articles/?p=24674

[tornado]

College coaches make bad judgements and are not always all that expert.
But all in all many, if not most of the ratings this guy refers to actually ARE quite accurate overall....maybe as much or more than the coaches!
At least the people putting out the rankings actually see many of the players a whole lot more than the coaches do, as that's what they do for a living -- while coaches have a whole lot of on-campus duties that make evaluating all the high school talent a bit tough.

But I kind of see what you are saying Beninator...it is a decent article but fails to realize the recruiting services DO evaluate kids "for a living".
This kind of comment is just another of the elitist opinions we hear all the time telling us peons we have no right to an opinion because the experts will tell us what to think.

Rankings of the recruits isn't all much different than the Oscars, the Emmy's, the AP TOP 25, or the efficiency ratings of quarterbacks...
they are all really just opinions FWIW, and they all vary from totally worthless to quite helpful.
If the ratings weren't helpful, then why do almost ALL D-I coaches pay for info from the ratings and recruiting services??

[Beninator]

I guess I fail to see the elitism in this article. --it isnt the best article in the world I realize--- I believe the guy is simply pointing out the imperfect science of ranking high school players and how the player's ranking will increase when the larger schools recruit and subsequently the decline in ranking when the player signs or is recruited by a smaller school. There have been numerous posts on this board stating that same opinion, but I think it is refreshing to see this opinion outside the message board forum. --albeit it is reprinted from another site, it is also ironic to see this on a Duke basketball site--

I am certain that the rating services that coaches subscribe to are helpful, but I would bet that the coaches do not rely solely on the reports when the scholarship is offered. --similar process when a person buys a stock-- a person can read all the research reports they want, but in the end it is up to the person to interpret the situation--

[Braves4Life]

High School Sophomore to be a Movie Star?

Now things are getting rather ridiculous..........

-- "The kids at school don't stare at Jeremy Tyler simply because he's 6 feet 9 and 240 pounds. They don't turn their heads and stop in the halls only because of his size 18 shoes.

Now they do double-takes because there's a film crew following the 16-year-old sophomore basketball player at San Diego High School.


Tyler has worked hard to keep his game tight, and has dreams of playing in the NBA
In January, a film company contacted Tyler and his family to ask permission to begin documenting Tyler's life. The company wanted to capture Tyler's evolution from prep star to potential college headliner to, if all goes according to plan, NBA player." --

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=812071

[RoyalShock]

Now things are getting rather ridiculous..........

-- "The kids at school don't stare at Jeremy Tyler simply because he's 6 feet 9 and 240 pounds. They don't turn their heads and stop in the halls only because of his size 18 shoes.

Now they do double-takes because there's a film crew following the 16-year-old sophomore basketball player at San Diego High School.


Tyler has worked hard to keep his game tight, and has dreams of playing in the NBA
In January, a film company contacted Tyler and his family to ask permission to begin documenting Tyler's life. The company wanted to capture Tyler's evolution from prep star to potential college headliner to, if all goes according to plan, NBA player." --


http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=812071

Have things changed so much that we need "Hoop Dreams, Part Deux"?

[DoubleJayAlum]

I went to a Creighton Booster luncheon where somebody asked Dana about recruiting.

Dana said that anybody, even his wife Reva, can pick out the top 50 kids, so one doesn't really need a rating service to figure this out. After that, he said there isn't a great margin of difference between the remaining kids. He said the key is finding kids who have the best skill set for the individual systems that a coach chooses to run. Obviously, rating services can't really do this.

He then added that the rest of recruiting has to do with finding kids willing to work hard both in the gym and the weight room. This work ethic is something that is also very hard for a recruiting service to gauge.

[tornado]

Which all may be true, but that sure doesn't answer why so many d-I coaches pay $$ to recruiting experts to get their "inside info" and their newsletters, and why the big boys clearly spend the most time at the AAU events with the highest rated kids at them.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Which all may be true, but that sure doesn't answer why so many d-I coaches pay $$ to recruiting experts to get their "inside info" and their newsletters, and why the big boys clearly spend the most time at the AAU events with the highest rated kids at them.

Its not that recruiting experts and their newsletters are valueless; its just that they aren't as valuable as many claim they are. I'm kind of surprised you are defending them as much as you are as I've read several comments on this board about how kids are rated down simply because they commit to an MVC school.

As for attending AAU events, I'd posit that the main reasons the coaches are there are: 1) it gives them the opportunity to scout a large number of kids at one time; 2) its much cheaper than making multiple separate trips; and 3) most AAU events take place outside of the college basketball season, so the coaches have more time available.