SoCalHoops Recruiting News

All The Sophs: Hoop Scoop Ranks
Top California Players--(Oct. 5, 1999)

This next to last category of players features all of the top sophomores in California who have been ranked by the Hoop Scoop.  We want to caution readers that the Hoop Scoop list does not purport to identify or rank every soph in California (any more than it purported to rank every junior or senior either).   It is, however a list of the top sophomores that Hoop Scoop has chosen to rate as the best in California within this class.

Also, it's critical to note that this is not our list, it's the Hoop Scoop's.   We do things a bit differently than this list:   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. 

Our own lists differ from the ones below in that we intentionally avoid 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.  As you get farther into the underclassmen, especially the freshman and sophomores, using numbers is even more difficult, since so many of these guys will either get much bigger, taller, stronger, and better; the rate at which that occurs will, in large part, determine at what level they will eventually be recruited.   For 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 likely to become D-I-capable players. 

Still, lots of people prefer the numerical rankings, and so guys like Bob Gibbons, Mike Sullivan, and Clark Francis nationally, Greg Swaim in the Midwest, PacWest Hoops here on the West Coast, and others, put out lists like these.  

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. 

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.

What remains are the sophomores and the freshman (the latter is a really small group and will be posted separately).

Here's the Class of 2002:

Top 11 Sophomore Point Guards--HoopScoop Rankings--Class of 2002

Top 11 Sophomore Shooting Guards--HoopScoop Rankings--Class of 2002

Top 10 Sophomore Wing Forwards--HoopScoop Rankings--Class of 2002

Top 11 Sophomore Power Forwards--HoopScoop Rankings--Class of 2002

Top 4 Sophomore Centers--HoopScoop Rankings--Class of 2002

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