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THE RIVALS150: Class of 2014 -
Class of 2015
The national title game matchup of Kentucky and UConn was a stunner when
observed within the framework of both teams' regular seasons and NCAA seedings.
Never before had two teams with such low seedings, UConn as a No. 7, Kentucky as
a No. 8, met for the title. But when you look at the talent each team had on its
roster, maybe it wasn't so shocking after all. This week, we'll look at the
national finalists, Maryland's newest addition, last weekend's Dick's National
High School Tournament and a few other subjects.
Tons of talent
in Arlington
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| Aaron Harrison is one of five five-stars in
Kentucky's starting lineup. |
Both
Kentucky and
Connecticut played at an incredibly
high level during their tournament runs. Looking at where their players were
ranked coming out of high school, the cream rose to the crop at just the right
time.
Between the two teams, a total of six five-stars, two four-stars, one ranked
three-star and one non ranked player -- because he was a European recruit -- are
among the teams' starting fives.
We'll start with the Wildcats, because they feature the most "ranked" talent.
John Calipari has pulled in the top
ranked recruiting class every year he has been at Kentucky and the results speak
for themselves. There was a slipup in 2012-13, when the Wildcats didn't make the
NCAA Tournament. Other than that, his teams have made the Elite 8 in 2010 and
the Final Four three times in the past four years.
Each member of the Kentucky starting lineup is a five-star prospect from the
class of 2013. Power forward
Julius Randle ranked No.
2. Point guard
Andrew
Harrison ranked No. 5. Shooting guard
Aaron Harrison ranked No.
7 while center
Dakari
Johnson and small forward
James Young checked in at
No. 9 and No. 11. The Wildcats are so loaded that 2012's No. 8 player,
Alex Poythress, comes off
the bench, and their lowest ranked regular
Willie Cauley-Stein (No.
40 in 2012) has seen much of his production replaced by 2013's No. 19 player
Marcus Lee during recent
games.
At this point, it is pretty much impossible to argue that Calipari's never
ending parade of five-star and one-and-done prospects has produced anything but
satisfactory results.
Kevin Ollie's Huskies don't have near
as much ranked talent as Kentucky, but they aren't without players that were
highly regarded coming out of high school. The Huskies' highest ranked player is
small forward
DeAndre
Daniels, who ranked No. 10 in the class of 2011. In the backcourt, the
Huskies feature a pair of four-star prospects. Junior
Ryan Boatright ranked No.
42 in the class of 2011 while star senior point guard
Shabazz Napier ranked No.
98 in the class of 2010 and has clearly outplayed his ranking. Starting in the
middle is sophomore
Phillip
Nolan, who ranked No. 118 coming out of high school while senior Niels
Giffey is the only unranked starter because he came to UConn from Germany and
was never evaluated by Rivals.com as a high schooler.
Interestingly enough, UConn's two highest ranked bench players
Omar Calhoun (No. 39 in
2012) and
Kentan Facey
(No. 66 in 2013) have hardly even played during the Huskies' run to the title
game. Instead they have relied mostly on uranked three-star freshman Amidah
Brimah, 2013's No. 118 player
Terrence Samuel, unranked
senior three-star senior
Tyler Olander and a
fifth-year transfer Lassan Kromah, who was never evaluated by Rivals.com as a
high schooler.
The national championship game matchup isn't the ultimate argument-ender for
whether or not rankings matter, but the fact that two teams that featured lots
of highly ranked talent reached the final says plenty about the value of high
school player rankings.
Maryland lands
high Euro player
Anybody who has been following spring recruiting knows the class of 2014 has
been incredibly picked over. Only
Myles Turner remains as an
unsigned five-star, while the next two biggest names on the market are wing
Elijah Stewart and point
guard
Devonte Graham.
Both Stewart and Graham are current three-stars who will be elevated to
four-star status when final rankings are completed in two weeks, but the point
remains that the pickings are slim.
Given how little talent is available, what
Maryland
pulled off Monday is even more impressive. Spearheaded by the recruiting efforts
of assistant coach Dustin Clark, the Terps went overseas and nabbed seven-footer
Michal Cekovsky out of
the Canarias Basketball Academy.
A native of Slovakia, Cekovsky is a high four-star prospect who most college
coaches had written off to a pro future in the Euro leagues. However, Maryland
stuck with him and can now reap the benefits.
Though Cekovsky is a bit on the slender side, he is very skilled and should
be ready to make an instant impact as part of a strong 2014 recruiting class. He
runs the floor well, finishes with either hand, is a skilled offensive player
with easy range to 15 feet who passes extremely well out of the high and low
post.
Once the final Rivals150 for the class of 2014 is released, team rankings
will get a refresh. The addition of Cekovsky to a class that already includes
McDonald's All-American combo guard
Romelo Trimble, shooters
Dion Wiley and
Jared Nickens along with
raw seven-footer
Trayvon
Reed should keep the Terps' class in the national top 10 range.
Thoughts from
Dick's National Tournament
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| Ben Simmons has improved since his high school
season ended. |
This year,
Dick's Sporting Goods took over sponsorship of the National High School
Tournament. With each game televised on one of ESPN's networks, it was a good
chance to check out some high-level competition from the comfy confines of my
living room. I was able to watch most of the games and have a few thoughts.
First of all, I couldn't have been more impressed with the play of 2015's No.
5 player
Ben Simmons of
champion Montverde (Fla.) Academy. The
LSU commit from
Australia took his already impressive game up another notch from where he was
during the high school season. Simmons has always shown good skill and
athleticism, but the level of physicality that he played with and his
contribution on the defensive end and glass were good to see. Simmons looks to
have embraced that he is a power forward and is at his best working 15 feet and
in. He showed again that he has the skill to ultimately get himself into the
conversation for the No. 1 spot in 2015 if he keeps improving at his current
rate.
There won't be as much separation between runner-up Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak
Hill's 6-foot-6 twins
Caleb
Martin and
Cody
Martin in the final 2014 Rivals150 as their currently is. At the moment,
Caleb ranks much higher at No. 59 than his brother Cody, who checks in at No.
106. Both are fine athletes who thrive in transition and they can each play good
perimeter defense. Cody has a much more blue-collar approach, crashes the boards
and seems to have a better feel for his strengths and weaknesses. On the other
hand, Caleb settles far too much for deep jumpers. Like his currently lower
ranked brother, he is much better in transition, attacking the rim and getting
on the glass. Caleb made only 8 of the 25 threes he attempted in three games and
was outrebounded by his brother 24-13 over that span. That doesn't mean Caleb
shouldn't take any jumpers -- he has proven in the past that he can make some.
However, he's not a player that should be taking eight threes per game and would
be more productive if he matched his brother's commitment to crashing the glass.
Likely, they will end up ranked very close to one another in the final rankings.
Three players --
Rashad
Vaughn,
Kelly Oubre
and
D'Angelo Russell --
went straight from the McDonald's All-American game to play with their high
school teams. Of the three, Oubre looked the best and had some very nice
moments. Oubre's teammate at Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep, Vaughn looked tired
and nothing like he did during the four previous days in Chicago, where he lit
up the McDonald's workouts. Russell won a title with Montverde and finally
started to look like himself on day four.
Stewart can
play
A 6-foot-5 senior at Los Angeles Westchester, Elijah Stewart is getting a
release from the letter of intent he signed with Loyola Marymount and he should
become an extremely heavily recruited player. This won't be a case of a guy
looking good because there just isn't much left. Stewart is a player.
Currently a three-star prospect, Stewart will absolutely be a four-star
prospect when the final Rivals150 is updated and it is now just a matter of how
high he will debut in the rankings. He is an electric athlete, has the size to
play the small forward and skill to be a big shooting guard at 6-foot-5. Stewart
defends, crashes the glass and just seems to be getting a handle on how good he
can be down the road.
He can play pretty much anywhere in the country and any high major program
that feels like they need help on the wing should make a strong run at Stewart.
Reworking the
rankings
I'm always thinking about how rankings could be tinkered with and there is
one change that I would ultimately like to see. Rather than rank kids with their
high school class, I think it might be wise to start ranking them they way they
are ranked in Europe and that's by the year they are born.
In today's landscape, it is entirely possible that there could be current
seniors, juniors and sophomores that were born in the same year. Trying to
figure out how players who are either quite old or quite young for their
graduating class rank has always been a tough question to tackle and there are
several ways of looking at it.
For now, ranking prospects by graduating class remains the most effective way
to rank them because not every birthdate is available and they are going to
college at different times. However, at some point, we need to take a much
longer look at ranking players according to their birth year instead of the
current system.
Eric Bossi is the national basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com.
You can click here to
follow him on Twitter.
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