Ranking Recruits

[tornado]

Dave Telep, one of the foremost evaluators of prep talent, just wrote an interesting, revealing article.

It details how badly the talent evaluators can misjudge a kid's talent, since they really only see kids on infrequent, isolated occasions.

Here is what he says.......in specific, regarding a recruit named John Riek, who had been rated as the overall #1 rated recruit in the Class of 2009, then when the kid reclassified to 2008, he was still rated #1 for a while.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/2/756776.html

"Who is John Riek? Is the dominant center from last summer or the post grad who struggled mightily at Winchendon this year before shipping off to IMG? Welcome to the dilemma......
Last June and July, John Riek rocked the Nike Hoop Jamboree and then the LeBron James Skills Academy.
Our exact notes from the LeBron Camp read this way: best post prospect in camp; we measured everyone by him & he won/tied each match-up; huge strides since Jamboree
His performance at the Hoop Jamboree – intended for rising 9th, 10th and 11th graders – turned into a controversial appearance. Months later it was determined that not only was he NOT a junior, he was in fact a post-graduate player. He was considerably older than the Hoop Jam participants.
As stellar as Riek was at LeBron (and you’d have had to see it to comprehend the magnitude of his impact) his season at Winchendon couldn’t have gone worse. By all accounts, Riek struggled mightily at the school before eventually heading off to IMG Academy for pre-draft training. At Winchendon he was a complete non-factor."


BUT--- oddly, even though he stirs up lots of doubt as to how such a highly rated recruit could struggle so badly over the course of his entire 2007-2008 prep season, if he is really that good...
then inexplicably, Telep goes right ahead and rates the kid as the #1 prep prospect!!!!!

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=3&blipid=17253

Here are a few comments made on BradleyFans about Riek and quesitoning his age....
Oddly in the first link, the kid, when asked about his birth date.claims he doesn't even know his birthday or how old he is.
You decide, but I think the guy is a 26 year old fraud who only looks good on occasion because he's 10 years older than the 10th graders he's playing against.


"Nobody seems to know whether the shotblocker is 16 years old or 26
(even Riek told reporters here this weekend that he wasn't sure of his own birthday)."

http://www.sportsline.com/columns/weblogs/entry/10310/072007

Then a few things noted a year ago that are inconsistent and suggest the kid is about as honest as Danny Almonte.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=41568#post41568post41568

[tornado]

Just as a followup to this old thread on 7-footer John Riek -- who was ranked the overall #1 recruit in the entire nation in 2007.

Of course time has shown now 3-4 years later - they were wrong as Riek struggled when he had to actually play against someone older than 16...
he flopped at a prep school, then had NBA tryouts and flopped there -- going back to prep school.
Then he verballed a few different places finally ending up at Mississippi State... and now after getting two full years plus a redshirt year to play in college - he's still scored a total of only 31 career points in 25 games..