mcdonald's all american selections

Jeremy Tiers, a reporter from the East Coast who frequently writes for WestCoastHoops, writes today that the McDonald's All-American team has been announced. We know that the team was scheduled to be announced live on ESPN2 either today or tomorrow, but we can't actually confirm the information that Tiers has posted at WCH.

Assuming it's accurate, there were some great players selected, but a couple of notable names left off the list from California, which made for one glaring omission. According to Tiers, Casey Jacobsen was left off by the selection committee.

We are just absolutely astounded that Casey Jacobsen was left off the list of selected players. We're less astounded by the absence of Brian Wethers, Justin Davis or Andrew Gooden (although any one of them could easily have been selected), but how the advisory committee could leave Casey Jacobsen off the McDonald's All-American High School team, especially considering the records he's broken, his performances last summer in Moscow and around the country, the overall career he's had, and more importantly, the career he's about to have at Stanford. . . well, we're just pretty surprised he wasn't included. What were they thinking??

FastBreak Recruiting, the official ESPN Recruiting gurus, put out a list in December, 1998 on the McDonald's Game website, where they ranked the Top 50 projected McDonald's All-American candidates, "guessing" which ones would be selected for the team when it was announced in February. Here's their December Top 20 (out of the Top 50) compared with the actual selections to the McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Team:

Top 20 Candidates (Projected December 98)--by projected rank

Actual Top 20 Selections--In Alphabetical Order

No. 1 Keith Bogans 6-4 WG Hyattsville, Md (DeMatha)
No. 2 Donnell Harvey 6-7 PF Cuthbert, Ga. (Randolph Clay)
No. 3. Brett Nelson 6-3 PG St. Albans, W.Va. (St. Albans)
No. 4. Marvin Stone 6-10 C Huntsville, Ala. (Grissom)
No. 5. Carlos Boozer 6-9 PF Juneau, Alaska (Juneau-Douglas)
No. 6. DerMarr Johnson 6-9 WF Maine Central Institute
No. 7. Jason Parker 6-8 PF Charlotte, N.C. (West)
No. 8. Jason Williams 6-2 PG Metuchen, N.J. (St. Joseph's)
No. 9. Casey Sanders 6-11 C Tampa (Tampa Prep)
No. 10. Brian Cook 6-11 C Lincoln, Ill. (Lincoln H.S.)
No. 11. Jonathan Bender 6-11 C Picayune, Miss. (Picayune H.S.)
No. 12. Joe Forte 6-3 WG Hyattsville, Md. (DeMatha)
No. 13. Jason Richardson 6-6 WF Saginaw, Mich. (Hill)
No. 14. Leon Smith 6-10 C Chicago (M.L. King)
No. 15. Michael Dunleavy Jr. 6-6 WF Portland, Ore. (Jesuit)
No. 16. Samuel Dalembert 6-11 WF Elizabeth, N.J. (St. Patrick's)
No. 17. Jason Kapono 6-7 WG Lakewood, Calif. (Artesia)
No. 18. Jason Gardner 5-11 PG Indianapolis (North Central)
No. 19. LaVell Blanchard 6-7 WF Ann Arbor, Mich. (Pioneer)
No. 20. Kareem Rush 6-5 WG Kansas City (Pembroke Hill)

Jonathan Bender, Picayune (H.S.) MS,
LaVell Blanchard, Ann Arbor (Pioneer) MI,
Keith Bogans, Hyattsville (DeMatha) MD,
Carlos Boozer, Juneau (Douglas) AK,
Nick Collison, Iowa Falls (H.S.) IA,
Brian Cook, Lincoln (H.S.) IL,
Michael Dunleavy, Portland (Jesuit) OR,
Joe Forte, Hyattsville (DeMatha) MD,
Jason Gardner, Indianapolis (North Central) IN,
Donnell Harvey, Cuthbert (Randolph Clay) GA,
Jason Kapono, Lakewood (Artesia) CA,
DerMarr Johnson, Pittsfield (Maine Central Institute) ME,
Majestic Mapp, Bronx (St. Raymond's) NY,
Brett Nelson, St. Albans (H.S.) WV,
Jason Richardson, Saginaw (Arthur Hill) MI,
Casey Sanders, Tampa (Prep) FL,
Kenny Satterfield, New York (Rice) NY,
Marvin Stone, Huntsville (Grissom) AL,
Damien Wilkins, Orlando (Dr. Phillips) FL,
Jason Williams, Metuchen (St.Josephs) NJ.

So who didn't make it from the projected list? No. 7 Jason Parker, No. 14 Leon Smith, No. 16 Samuel Dalembert, and No. 20 Kareem Rush. And who made it who wasn't among the top 20? Nick Collison, who was ranked No. 24, Majestic Mapp, ranked No. 23, Kenny Satterfield ranked No. 29, and Damien Wilkins who was ranked No. 21 all made the team.

But FastBreak Recruiting (the "official" recruiting website and magazine of ESPN) did a good job of "predicting" who the committee would select. Of course, Fast Break (through its parent, SportsAmerica, Inc.) also promotes the game. Coincidence? Who knows. But 16 out of 20 correct is pretty impressive in this business. At least it looks like they've got the inside track.

The only Californians on the list were Kapono (projected at No. 17), Jacobsen (who was listed No. 28), Andrew Gooden (No. 31), and Brian Wethers (listed No. 33). Florida got two selections; New York got two; Michigan got two, and the rest were from States who got only one selection.

For those who didn't know, the McDonald's All-American Game selection committee consists of Morgan Wootten, Chairman (DeMatha High School, Hyattsville, MD), Dave Brown (Laguna Hills High School, Laguna Hills, CA), Jack Curran (Archbishop Malloy High School, Jamaica, NY), Nate Harris (Booker T. Wilson High School, Tulsa, OK ), Vito Montelli
(St. Joseph High School, Trumbull, CT) and Joe Petrocelli (Bishop Alter High School, Kettering, OH). The game selection committee is different than the advisory committee, which is the group that first proposes names for consideration.

The McDonald's All-American Game will be in Ames, Iowa, and will be played the last week of March, 1999, at Hilton Coliseum on the campus of Iowa State University.

Congratulations to everyone who made it. And to the guys who didn't just remember, neither did a lot of other players in previous years who went on to have great college and pro careers.