SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Jr. Centers: Hoop Scoop Ranks
Top California Players--(Oct. 5, 1999)

Note: This is the second class in the series of rankings from the Hoop Scoop's complete California player rankings.  We don't have a lot more to say about the process than we've already said about the Hoop Scoop's senior rankings other than what is repeated below (which is certainly worth reading; you didn't expect us to say anything less about the stuff we wrote, did you :-^), but we should note as well, that the junior class in California, especially the SoCal junior class is probably the best, most talented and deepest that we've seen in probably close to twenty years, and that includes at just about every position.  As you'll see below, whether you agree with the numerical rankings of players, this class unquestionably has more elite-level players than any other in recent memory.

Having said that, we also want to reiterate that each spring and fall we publish our own SoCalHoops lists of the "Best of the Best. . . ", in which we identify those players (grouped by position and graduating class), whom we believe are among the best college prospects coming out of SoCal; we also include other players, i.e., the "Next Best. . . " and the "Rest of the Best. . . " and so on.  The rankings which follow are not our rankings, but those of the Hoop Scoop, compiled by Clark Francis with assistance from Dinos Trigonis and Joel Francisco.

At SoCalHoops we've avoided using numerical rankings, because by and large, we cling (foolishly perhaps) to the belief that it's awfully difficult to distinguish between, for example, the "No. 2 player" and the "No. 10 player", and it might even be hard to tell No. 1 from No. 32;   other than an ego thing, we also believe that most college coaches probably don't care whether the guy they're recruiting is "ranked" No. 1 or No. 50 either.   In doing our own lists, we've found it more useful to simply note that there are groups of players who really stand out above the rest and who in our view are clearly D-I-capable players. 

Of course, every now and then there are players in a class who stand out so far above the rest (e.g., DeShawn Stevenson in this year's senior class, or perhaps even Josh Childress, Tyson Chandler, Amaury Fernandez or Jack Martinez in the Junior class) that it just begs for someone to call that player "No. 1". And so, the guys who compile the numerical rankings, Bob Gibbons, Mike Sullivan, and Clark Francis nationally, Greg Swaim in the Midwest, PacWest Hoops here on the West Coast, and others, begin to publish their lists, updating them every so often.   Are we out of touch because we don't do the same?  Maybe. It's at least safe to say that by not listing players by numerical ranking, we're definitely in the minority among those who follow college recruiting.  

Which brings us to the point of this article:   We were intrigued the other day when Dinos Trigonis called us to alert us to the new lists which the HoopScoop was going to be publishing for California players. We found the lists when we visited the HoopScoop's subscription area (if you're not a subscriber, you'll have to pay to become a member, but the price is cheap and well worth it).  Clark Francis has told us we can use his data "any way you want," so we've taken him up on that and reworked his listings just a bit, organizing players by position and by region within SoCal. 

As to how Francis does his lists, it's clear that Clark can't actually get out to see everyone, and for sure, there are some names on the lists ( a few on the the senior list) who shouldn't be there because they've graduated (Dony Legans, who is at Navy is one that comes to mind).  Clark also can't personally evaluate all the players, so he enlisted the help of Dinos and Joel Franciso.     In defense of Clark though (not that he needs defending), he did get to the West Coast regularly this year, and in addition to making the usual pilgrimage to Vegas for the adidas Big Time Tournament and the Nike Summer National Championships, he was probably the only East Coast guy to come out for the Long Beach Fall Hoops Classic, so he's seen more of the California players on different occasions than probably anyone except those of us who focus primarily on California.  

The California player rankings that you'll find at the HoopScoop's subscription site are a continuous, single list broken down only by class (they do take up at least seven pages though) and they list each player in order of the HoopScoop's preference;  we've reorganized all the players, listing them by position instead, so that we can see who HoopScoop likes at each position.  Using the HoopScoop rankings, we've also further subdivided the players into "SoCal" and "NorCal" groupings, and given them the rankings they'd have if the HoopScoop had used that criteria (based on their overall ranking at a players' position) among players from a particular region of California.  It would, of course have been possible to have further subdivided into "San Diego", or "LA" or "Fresno", etc., but you get the idea.  Oh, by the way, we've continued to insist, as the CIF does, that Fresno is in the Southern half of the State of California (and hence in SoCal for these lists), even though any third grade geography student will tell you that Fresno is a whole lot closer to Northern California than it is to San Diego. . . . So for our purposes in the lists which will follow, Fresno is in "SoCal".   Hey, if you don't like it, talk to the CIF about it.   

Again, if you want to see the full, unexpurgated and unrefined list (which includes players in all the classes and all positions), you'll have to get a subscription to the HoopScoop.  The price is small and you'll get a ton of information daily, much of it the kind you can't get anywhere else. Like it or not, Clark has been writing about basketball recruiting for more than 20 years and it's what he does for a living, so he must be doing something right.

We've already featured the HoopScoop's rankings for the senior point guards,  senior shooting guards, senior wing forwards, senior power forwards; now it's time to get to the Hoop Scoop's junior rankings.   The other junior positions, junior point guards, junior shooting guards, junior wing forwards and junior power forwards will also be posted up and linked to shortly.

The junior centers and the power forwards combined are probably the two deepest of the position categories for this class, much more so than this year's senior class.  We don't know what they put into the water in or around 1982 or 1983 (when most of these would have been born, assuming they are all the proper age for their grade. . . which is a huge assumption), but whatever it was, it's made for a very, very tall group of guys.  Since there were only three guys listed from NorCal in this position, we have left the list combined; the three guys are pretty easy to spot though.  So here are the junior centers ranked by Hoop Scoop, in the order of preference.

Junior Centers--HoopScoop/Fullcourt Press Rankings--All California Players

 
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