2007 BU commitment- 6'10" Anthony Thompson

[chitownBUB]

Van Coleman now has a report on BU's new recruit.
If someone has a subscription, fill us in.

http://hoopmasters.com/

[tornado]

Anthony Thompson is not even the highest rated kid on his own high school team. Alonzo Edwards, who is also playing at Klein Forest High School, is rated a higher recruit among the Texas prep players than Thompson.

In a coincidence, Anthony Thompson's Klein Forest (TX) teammate, Alonzo Edwards has verbally committed to Nebraska, exactly where Shang Ping just committed last week.
Edwards is a 6'6" SF/PF and will likely compete somewhat with Ping for PT.

http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=187&p=9&c=2&cid=575840&nid=2680502&fhn=1

[tiptop]

Alonzo Edwards is a beast! He is 6'7" 220 and a warrior on both ends of the court. He is fun to watch with his vicious slams off the drive and with his open court finishes. He is a combo forward who dominates in low at the high school level, but will need to be more of a face up 3 at Nebraska. His biggest weakness is ball handling and ball movement skills from the wing.

Anthony Thompson is not as good as Alonzo at this stage in the game.........but Thompson's upside is bigger and better. It is extremely hard to find a 6'10" player with the athleticism, quickness and length that Thompson possesses. He has tools you just can't teach. If he continues to grow to 6'11" 240, he will be a more dominant collegiate player than Edwards within two years.

Maturity plays a big part in high school player's domination. If you look at the NBA draft, every year half the players drafted are players who were never even rated in the top 100 as high school seniors. Why? Because they haven't fully matured yet.

Channing Frye, Patrick O'Bryant, Devin Harris, Jamal Crawford, Gilbert Arenas, Dwyane Wade, the list goes on forever!

Look at all the top high school stalwarts of the past 10 years: Kelvin Torbert, Dajuan Wagner, Ousmanne Cisse, Ronnie Fields, etc., etc. These are players who matured early and topped out as players.

When Thompson develops, watch out! He could be the top player in the MVC by his Junior season! And by the way, he is way ahead of Anthony Tolliver at the same stage.

[brocks]

It sounds like Thompson's upside is much higher than Tolliver's. This kid can be a star.

Just to put in perspective what kind of recruit this kid is, and what we're building here at BU...

(All ratings courtesy of Scout.com)

Pre-Sweet 16

Marcellus Sommerville - 3 star
Lawrence Wright - 1 star
Patrick O'Bryant - 2 star
Jeremy Crouch - 2 star
Sam Singh - 2 star
Tony Bennett - NR
Danny Adams - NR
JJ Tauai - NR
Zach Andrews - 2 star
Ray Brown - 1 star
Will Franklin - NR
Daniel Ruffin - NR
Andrew Warren - NR
Xavier Crawford - 3 star (I debated whether or not to count him)

Post-Sweet 16

Matt Salley - 3 star (Spring commitment)
Anthony Thompson - 3 star
Sam Maniscalco - 2 star
DeAaron Williams - 3 star
Jeremy Fears - 2 star

Of course these rankings have their flaws, and players (especially ones that opt for smaller venues like BU) are underrated all the time, but I think this really shows how we're rasing the bar talent-wise on the Hilltop. IMO we're in the midst of building something very special. What a difference a year makes!

BB . . . I'd like to see an update of this list. I think we've got some more 3-stars to add, at least if one counts Rivals (not sure about Scout).