junior points in socal 99

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

SoCalHoops Junior Class:
Top Point Guards In SoCal--(May 10,1999)

We originally put this list up on April 29, but since so much time elapsed between our original posting and the time we put up the rest of the material on the junior class (i.e., rising seniors) we thought we'd repost this again, just so everything is pretty much in one place. So here we go again:

It's time for SoCalHoops to again evaluate who, in our opinion, were the best point guards in SoCal this past year, who's got the most potential to become the best in next year's senior class, and who the top college prospects are. We haven't ranked the players by number, because generally (as we said last year too) we think that's pretty silly and doesn't mean much. College coaches and other scout types see lists such as this and target the players they've seen or heard about anyway. Calling someone "No. 1" or some other number really means very little, except to inflate someone's head. From our perspective, our list is only an indication that a player is a blip on the radar-screen; some players are bigger blips than others. Some deserve to be watched more closely than others, but that's not a decision we make, it's really up to the college coaches to truly decide who is D-I material, and who isn't.

To compile the list, we've culled through all of the rosters and articles we've written the past year, gone through all the notes of the games we watched, reviewed tapes of many players, and selected those players who, in our view, are clearly D-I material, those who have potential, and those who play the position well enough to deserve recognition and who might have what it takes to play at the next level, whether that's D-I, D-II, D-III or NAIA. The list includes players are from Fresno in the North, to San Diego in the South. Generally the region constituted by the CIF Southern Region (including Central Section, Southern Section, LA City and San Diego Sections) of the CIF.

All the players on this list (and the lists for other positions which will be posted in a few days and for the next week or so) are shown by their primary position. That is, it's the position they may have played during the season, but not necessarily. Usually it is, but there may be a few shooting guards who've snuck in here because they have the potential, in our view to be better at the point than the position they may have played on their school team. This is an important fact to note about our listings: Last year we did the same thing, and you wouldn't believe how many times we got e-mails saying "how in the world could you leave [insert name here] off your list of [insert position here]. Of course we usually had [insert name here] on a list, it was just at a different position than the one the writer thought the guy should be listed at. So before you complain that someone isn't listed, be sure to check the other lists we'll be posting up soon too. If a guy isn't listed after looking at all the lists, well, then you can start complaining.

What this means is that you may find someone who played a lot of point during the season listed in the shooting guards list, just because we thought he was a better PG than a SG. Don't worry, they're all still guards. Likewise, it may get really murky when we get to the taller "shooting guards" who can also double as "wing" or "small forwards" or the "small forwards" who can double as "power forwards" or the big men who may seem like centers but who are really forwards because they don't yet have a really developed post game. So if you don't find someone you think should on one of the lists, try another list; you might find him at another position. Hey, we're trying, ok?

For the list of players which follows, what we mean by "point guard" is generally what you think it means: Someone who brings the ball up, sets up the offense, controls the team's play, and is generally (but certainly not necessarily) the smartest player on the floor, with the court sense, the best vision, who does the most to make his teammates better; he passes, dishes, and occasionally presents his own scoring threat, either off the dribble, the fastbreak or from the perimeter.

All the players listed below are currently juniors ("rising seniors"). Their recruitment is about to get into high gear this summer, and by the end of the summer, many of the top prospects will have committed (and some will sign in November) to the college of their choice. The players listed below have also been stats leaders, received varying degrees of attention from the basketball or general media, or are already established stars. Some are obviously not as well known: For those in the "Rest of the Best" category, they've shown promise or potential, and could break out during the summer circuit or during their senior year and thus have the potential to attract the attention of the colleges at the D-I through NAIA levels. In other words, we believe they are all players.

All the listings are in alphabetical order. We have not assigned numerical rankings, but we have grouped the players into "Top 20 College Prospects", "Next 25 College Prospects" and "Best of the Rest College Prospects". We would expect most, if not all of the players in our Top D-I list will sign by the time they graduate.

For those who are counting, there are 94 players on the list that follows. Not all are the best. Some are good; many are journeymen players who have the potential to be a lot better. And a few are truly outstanding. Sure it's arbitrary as hell, but it's better, we think, than trying to assign numbers to a player. We hate numerical rankings, because they're arbitrary, and it's most often next to impossible to to distinguish between say player 25 and player 53; how much better is one than the other? Who really knows?

But obviously some on our list are much better than some of the others. Likewise, some have gotten much more media attention than others, and some have been more heavily recruited than others. Indeed, some may not have been recruited at all or even been much noticed before. Well, you be the judge. If there's someone we missed (and we're sure there are many we did) let us know and we will add them to the list. And if you think someone doesn't belong on the list, let us know that too (but be nice; these are, after all still just kids). Either post a message on the board, or send us an e-mail.

Top SoCal College Prospects

Eric Alvarez (5'-9" Jr. PG) Pacific Palisades
Jacoby Atako (6'-1" Jr. PG) Santa Monica High
Hassan Bassiri (6'-0" Jr. PG) Campbell Hall
Raji Burnett (5'-9" Jr. PG) Riverside J.W. North
Anthony Camper (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Oxnard Santa Clara
Reggie Harmon (5'-8" Jr. PG) Pasadena
E.J. Harris (6'-3" Jr. PG) Crenshaw
Bruce Hatch (6'-2" Jr. PG/SG) Glendora
Andre Hazel (5'-11" Jr. PG) Lakewood Artesia
Russell Lakey (5'-11" Jr. PG) Harvard-Westlake
JT Leitch (5'-11" Jr. PG) El Segundo High
Donyare Mayfield (5'-8" Jr. PG) San Diego Vista
Avery Queen (5’-7" Jr. PG) Maine Central Institute (Pittsfield, ME)
Chris Smith (5'-8" Jr. PG) San Bernardino Pacific
Wesley Stokes (5'-9" Jr. PG) Long Beach Poly
Brian Taylor (5'-10" Jr. PG) Inglewood
Todd Tomlinson (6'-1" Jr. PG) Moorpark
D.J. Wyatt (5'-8" Jr. PG) Gardena Serra
Shawn Whilt (5'-11" Jr. PG) Santa Barbara
Alfred Williams (6'-3" Jr. PG) Bakersfield High

Next Top 25 SoCal College Prospects

Richard "RJ" Bluette (5'-10" Jr. PG) Verbum Dei
Patrick Cassella (5'-10" Jr. PG) Encino Crespi
A.J. Diggs (5'-9" Jr. PG) St. Anthony's
Lyman Edwards (5'-9" Jr. PG/SG) Compton Dominguez
Roger Hogan (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG) Canyon (Anaheim)
Ryan Keller (5'-10" Jr. PG) Los Alamitos
Ryan Logan (5'-7" Jr. PG) Grant High School (Van Nuys)
Garry Looney (5'-10" Jr. PG) Crenshaw
Mychal Lynch (6'-1" Jr. PG) Price
Adrian Martin (5'-9" Jr. PG) Long Beach Poly
Micah McKinney (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG) Compton Dominguez
Matthew Nurse (5'-10" Jr. PG) Antelope Valley Christian
Cedrick Palmer (5'-11" Jr. PG) Lincoln
Antoine Parker (5’-10" Jr. PG) Washington HS
Grant Pledger (5'-10" Jr. PG) LA Cleveland HS
Darrelle Rowe (5'-10" Jr. PG) Long Beach Poly
Jamal Ruffin (6'-1" Jr. PG) Murrieta Valley
George Simpson (5’-5" Jr. PG) Centennial HS (Corona)
Terrell Smith (5'-9" Jr. PG) Mayfair
Mike Stevenson (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG) Fontana
Nick Tamarao (6'-0" Jr. PG) Long Beach Jordan
Chris Pacana (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG) Ayala
Tim Thomas (5'-10" Jr. PG) Long Beach Poly
Ryan Westbrook (6'-2" Jr. PG/SG) Ocean View
Matt Winter (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG) Ambassador Christian

Best of the Rest SoCal College Prospects

Jason Angell (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Oxnard Santa Clara
Lamar Benjamin (6'-1" Jr. G) Lakewood
Jordan Brice (6'-0" Jr. PG) Fresno Washington Union
Chris Cannon (5'-10" Jr. PG) USDHS
Sam Chance (5'-10" Jr. G) Redondo Union
David Colbert (5'-11" So. G) Bishop Montgomery
Abraham Cruz (6'-0" Jr. PG) St. Paul
Jamal Dean (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG) Verbum Dei
Martin Del Toro (5'-8" Jr. PG) San Gabriel HS
Eric Dilworth (5'-10" Sr. PG) Venice
Chris Esteban (5'-5" Jr. PG) St. Francis
Jermaine Foster (6'-1" Jr. PG) Gardena Serra
Dustin Fults (5'-10" Jr. G) Hanford
Gregory Goodin (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Compton Centennial
Cory Hall (5'-11" Jr. PG) Villa Park
A.J. Jackson (5'-9" Jr. PG) St. Anthony's
Nick Jensen (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Capistrano Valley HS
Markus Johnson (6'-1" Jr. G) Mira Costa
Billy Jones (5'-9" Jr. PG/SG) JW North
Chasen Jones (5'-11" Jr. PG) Ayala
Taraz Lee (6'-2" Jr. G) Mira Costa
Landon Lockard (6'-0" Jr. G) Diamond
Ray Lipscomb (5'-8" Jr. G) Grant High School
Lester Manglicmont (5'-9" Jr. PG) Bonita Vista
Marc McCoy (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Ayala
Kyon Min (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Huntington Beach Edison
Vincent Minjares (5'-11" Jr. PG) Damien
Derek Mollette (5'-9" Jr. G) Mayfair
Andrew Morris (5'-10" Jr. G) Redondo Union
Adam Pastor (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG) Sherman Oaks Buckley
Ira Peppers (5'-9" Jr. PG/SG/SF) Corona Centennial
Charles Pine (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG) Ambassador Christian
Chris Post (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Oxnard Santa Clara
Mario Roberts (6'-1" Jr. PG/SG) Manual Arts
Warren Roger (5'-11" Jr. PG) Gardena Serra
Adam Sacks (5'-11" Jr. PG) Agoura
Stephen Seales (5'-10" Jr. PG) Corona Centennial
Victor Schloss (6'-2" Jr. PG) San Diego Horizon
Ramaan Shotwell (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Long Beach Poly
Jeff Souther (6'-1" Jr. PG) Canyon Canyon Country
Jeff Smith (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG) Los Alamitos
Jamal Taylor (5'-11" Jr. G) Canyon
Robert Thomas (5'-10" Jr. G) Narbonne
Jared Tavasolian (5'-8" Jr. PG) Moorpark
Jonathon Wade (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) Pacific Hills
Kevin Wallace (6'-0" Sr. G) Mira Costa