Top 60 players in Illinois per Sun Times

[Da Coach]

Here is another ranking of the Top players in Illinois. I can't tell if this writer, Joe Henrickson the high school basketball writer for the Chicago Sun Times, is just including Chicago and suburban players, or the entire state. He does have a few Central Illinois players, but none from south of Peoria.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2008/08/super_60_in_2009.html

As usual, he puts the Chicago area kids higher, and the downstate kids lower than they should be. He also seems to elevate kids just because they have interest from Bruce Weber and the big boys. Prosser is dropped down to 19th, supposedly because he didn't have a great summer playing AAU. But then he ranks Shaun Pratl, a 6'8" kid from Oak Lawn Richards at #15! Pratl barely played all summer because of illness, and has reportedly only gotten 2 low-major offers.
And putting Chris Colvin #2 ahead of Darius Smith, Joe Bertrand, and David Brown is just strange. Colvin didn't even start for his Chicago Young team last year, while Darius Smith was leading Marshall to the state title.

[brocks]

What did Prosser do during the summer to get all this "stock dropping" pub? Was he that bad? If so, should we worry?

[Stryker]

worried? Don't sound so insecure. Prosser is fine, he was just playing with some other VERY good players in AAU (a 5-star i believe), so he didn't get most of the minutes, etc.

[SFP]

There is nothing to worry about! AAU basketball is made for the glory of the selfish me shoot first guard with no regard to defense and real team work. Prosser probably did not get to touch the ball unless he was rebounding it!
In other words, bigmen should be and generally are valued by their HS play and potential then AAU ball. This writer probably has no idea on how to rank the bigs in respect to the guards who dominate summer leagues.

[brocks]

I hear ya. It's just not the first time I've heard these rumblings about the summer, but nobody ever says what exctly was the "problem." Seems pretty silly to base so much on limited summer play.

[Da Coach]

ChicagoHoops.com also has a new listing for the Top 35 in the Class of 2009--

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/2009rankings.html

They even boost Chris Colvin all the way to #1 in the class! For a kid who didn't even start for his team last year, i think that's a little too high. They also put Angus Brandt at #4 in the state. He is an Australian import who arrived late in the summer and played only a few games. He is slated to attend Lake Forest Academy, but hasn't played a game yet in the US, except these few AAU contests. They also have Jordan Prosser at #19, which I think is too low.