SoCal High School & Prep Report

USA Today's Super 25 Boys
Basketball Players--(December 15, 1997)

Jason Day, one of our correspondents, e-mailed us the list of USA Today Super 25 Boys Basketball players which is a preseason list of who Dave Krider thinks the top 25 prep players are in the USA, at least preseason. It is also published in tandem with USA Today's Super 25 Team Preseason rankings, and a collection of various regional rankings. Here's the Super 25 Player list. You'll notice that only two California players made it onto Krider's top 25, Tayshaun Prince of Compton Dominguez, and Ray Young from St. Joseph-Notre Dame in Alameda. One north and one south. Gee, and we thought there were more than that in SoCal. And in NoCal. Anyway here's the entire list and Krider's small (and generally not really descriptive) line on each player. The name of the school in parenthesis is the school to which the player has already committed, or which is a likely choice. Note also that the list only contains the names of seniors, and is in alphabetical order, thus avoiding strict numerical comparisons. Hence there is no "number 1" player, and nobody is ranked last either. They're all just "among the top 25". Here's the list: (note, we've corrected Krider's bad grammar and substituted "that" for "who". Someone should tell him, for example Jeff Boschee is a "who" not a "that".)

Jeff Boschee, Valley City, N.D.
6-0 guard who (not "that") averaged 25.6 ppg. last season. Has 1,318 career points. (Kansas)

Jason Capel, St. John's at Prospect Hall (Frederick, Md.)
6-8 forward who averaged 21.2 ppg. last season. Can play all five positions. (North Carolina)

Ronald Curry, Hampton, Va.
6-3 guard who averaged 23.5 ppg. last season. Averaged 6.7 assists and 3.1 steals. (Virginia)

Keyon Dooling, Dillard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
6-3 guard who averaged 15.0 ppg. last season. Forms brilliant backcourt with 6-2 Clarence Gilbert. (Missouri)

Ted DuPay, Mariner (Cape Coral, Fla.)
5-10 guard who averaged 28.0 ppg. last season. Has 2,414 career points. (Florida)

Dane Fife, Clarkston, Mich.
6-4 guard who averaged 27.1 ppg. last season. Averaged 8.7 assists. (Indiana)

Al Harrington, St. Patrick (Elizabeth, N.J.)
6-9 forward who averaged 18.7 ppg. last season. Stock soared during the summer.

Richard Jefferson, Moon Valley (Phoenix)
6-7 1/2 forward who averaged 17.5 ppg. last season. Averaged 10.1 rebounds, 3.4 blocks. (Arizona)

Kris Lang, Hunter Huss (Gastonia, N.C.)
6-10 center who averaged 16.6 ppg. last season. Averaged 9.8 rebounds, 4.0 blocks. (North Carolina)

Rashard Lewis, Elsik (Alief, Texas)
6-10 center who averaged 19.7 ppg. last season. Averaged 12.8 rebounds and 3.7 blocks.

Paris London, Hamilton (Memphis)
6-9 forward who averaged 30.2 ppg. last season. Averaged 15.3 rebounds. (Memphis)

Corey Maggette, Fenwick (Oak Park, Ill.)
6-6 forward who averaged 23.8 ppg. last season. Has school-record 1,848 points. (Duke)

Dan Miller, Rancocas Valley (Mount Holly, N.J.)
6-7 guard who averaged 18.8 ppg. last season. Tremendous leaper who can play all five positions. (Maryland)

Michael Miller, Mitchell, S.D.
6-8 guard who averaged 22.3 ppg. last season. Most highly recruited in state history. (Florida)

Tayshaun Prince, Dominguez (Compton, Calif.)
6-8 guard who averaged 20.3 ppg. last season. Phenomenal shooting range. (Kentucky)

Joel Przybilla, Monticello, Minn.
7-0 center who averaged 18.3 ppg. last season. Averaged 13.3 rebounds and 10.1 blocks. Had state-record 267 blocks as junior. (Minnesota)

Quentin Richardson, Whitney Young (Chicago)
6-5 1/2 forward who averaged 23.8 ppg. last season. Shot 40% from three-point range. (DePaul)

JaRon Rush, Pembroke Hill (Kansas City, Mo.)
6-7 forward who averaged 27.5 ppg. last season. Has school-record 2,560 career points. (Kansas)

Bobby Simmons, Simeon (Chicago)
6-6 forward who averaged 20.0 ppg. last season. Superb perimeter shooter. (DePaul)

Stromile Swift, Fair Park (Shreveport, La.)
6-9 center who averaged 18.5 ppg. last season. Averaged 5.3 blocks and 4.5 dunks. (Louisiana State)

Frank Williams, Manual (Peoria, Ill.)
6-4 guard who averaged 15.1 ppg. last season. Fearless competitor. (Illinois)

Doug Wrenn, O'Dea (Seattle)
6-7 forward who averaged 19.2 ppg. last season. Outstanding on defense. (Washington)

Vincent Yarbrough, Cleveland, Tenn.
6-7 forward who averaged 18.1 ppg. last season. Had five triple-doubles. (Tennessee)

Korleone Young, Hargrave Military (Chatham, Va.)
6-7 forward who averaged 22.4 ppg. last season. No. 1 player in USA entering season.

Ray Young, St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda, Calif.)
6-5 forward who averaged 17.8 ppg. last season. California junior of the year. (UCLA)

As you can tell from the next article on the top 25 regional players in California, there are a lot of SoCal (and a few NoCal) guys left off the list. But then that's why Dave Krider gets paid the big bucks, and we're just sitting here pounding away on the keyboard for free.

Thanks to Jason Day for sending this along. We were so busy with other stuff, we probably would have overlooked it.

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