KLS replaces Asia Durr as #1

[Paul1969]

http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls-basketball/recruiting/rankings/_/class/2015

 

[rvwsleep]

NC has also moved up a spot or two IIRC.

 

[alexrgct]

NC has also moved up a spot or two IIRC.

Yes- two!

The KLS/Asia combo recruiting win would match the 2012 recruiting bonanza. But I'd be ecstatic with one.

 

[Vowelguy]

Durr is still #1 in the other 4 services though.

At ESPN,
Shepard, Lambert, & Collier all moved up 2.
Hosey slipped 3 to 8
Cooper from 4 to 12

Ashley Hearn jumped 27 to 13
Sophie Cunningham (Mizzou) from 32 to 16
Kennedy Burke (UCLA) 49 to 29

 

[Godfather]

What a JOKE!

I have no problem with KLS and Durr switching positions on a ranking, they were 1&2,

But to change a ranking for no reason is absolutely crazy that's why most coach pay that crap no mind because there is no evaluations on why the rankings changed,

There is NO way he has seen all these kids play during there high school season so why the change now? The big exposure weekend is this weekend so you would be able to see a lot of the top kids and do a evaluation,

But some of these folks adjust there ranking based on other factors,

I wouldn't put too much stock in these rankings

 

[Wbbfan1]

Looks like Purdue is heading for a Top 5/10 class if they're able to sign a couple more players.

The Top 7 players all have a 98 Ranking so it probably doesn't matter who is ranked 1st, except for bragging rights.

 

[ochoopsfan]

The discouraging thing about the list is that there are only 2 girls from the State of California on the list of 60, KLS and Kennedy Burke(#29), who just gave her verbal to UCLA this week. I have seen this trend since the class of 2011 graduated. More talented girls, at least in my area, are going into volleyball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and track then play basketball. I am not sure why.

 

[Wbbfan1]

I'm wondering if the rankings for California Players is like what happened with the Georgia players a couple of years ago. Hoopgurlz had a couple of evaluators from PeachStateHoops and all of a sudden Georgia players dominated the Top 20. Now there's only two in the Top 20 and a total of 4 in the Top 60. Who is doing the evaluation of the California players and how much influence do they have in assigning the rankings.

The discouraging thing about the list is that there are only 2 girls from the State of California on the list of 60, KLS and Kennedy Burke(#29), who just gave her verbal to UCLA this week. I have seen this trend since the class of 2011 graduated. More talented girls, at least in my area, are going into volleyball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and track then play basketball. I am not sure why.

 

[ochoopsfan]

I'm wondering if the rankings for California Players is like what happened with the Georgia players a couple of years ago. Hoopgurlz had a couple of evaluators from PeachStateHoops and all of a sudden Georgia players dominated the Top 20. Now there's only two in the Top 20 and a total of 4 in the Top 60. Who is doing the evaluation of the California players and how much influence do they have in assigning the rankings.

I don't think its the evaluator's, I think its the talent. Back when KML was in HS I could pick a HS game to go to any night of the week and find several talented players that, were athletic, had drive to play the game, and had a pretty good basketball IQ. The same could be said when club season came a round. There were several club teams I could watch that had several girls who I knew were going to D1 schools. Two of those competitive club teams are gone. One of the best club teams in my area, Cal Swish(where KLS played in the past) hasnt come close to the talent levels of the past from local girls. In fact the past couple of season the Swish Black team(the highest level) had more girls from outside of So Cal/OC than from the local area.
I dont think I will even go to an AAU game this season.

 

[Vowelguy]

I'm wondering if the rankings for California Players is like what happened with the Georgia players a couple of years ago. Hoopgurlz had a couple of evaluators from PeachStateHoops and all of a sudden Georgia players dominated the Top 20. Now there's only two in the Top 20 and a total of 4 in the Top 60. Who is doing the evaluation of the California players and how much influence do they have in assigning the rankings.

Hence the value in looking at multiple services and merging their rankings.

 

[jimazee]

The discouraging thing about the list is that there are only 2 girls from the State of California on the list of 60, KLS and Kennedy Burke(#29), who just gave her verbal to UCLA this week. I have seen this trend since the class of 2011 graduated. More talented girls, at least in my area, are going into volleyball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and track then play basketball. I am not sure why.

A few possible factors...(If true at all as far as a statistical trend) my guess is if girls decide to pursue other sports rather than basketball a few of these may combine to influence that decision:

• the 'year round' nature of the basketball 'circuit' (maybe not a factor in CA, FL, other warm places but in the north outdoor sports have more off season)...it is physically tough, not cheap, and time demanding, especially at the higher levels
  
• (actually in the nicer climes, playing an outdoor sport may be more appealing to many)
  
• the ever more refined 'recruiting/management/selection' process that often discourages girls (parents too) early on or even later as they may not make or want to spend time/money on the AAU team they prefer and maybe realize they are a 'tier 2' or less player very young
  
• the 'improved' potential for scholarships in some other sports ... spreads the talent around
  
• the innate advantage of 'tall' in basketball which seems more evident as the game 'matures'... sure many short girls are exceptional players too, but height helps especially at high levels and/or scholarships, so deters some... rather than say softball and soccer
• the publicity on (and occurrence of) ACLs in basketball (of course other sports, like soccer, also produce them, I'm not sure which are the highest but basketball certainly has its share)
• ??? just thinking

 

[HGN]

It's hard to say why the radical changes in rankings occured , but its great to see that someone thought well , as we BYers do , of Naphessa Collier to now rank her #5 nationally. Going from #2 to #1 , or from #1 to #2 , is not significant. I would love for BOTH to be Huskies.

Bagging targets Kalani Brown and/or De'Janae Boykin could trigger a Unfairness in Competition investigation by the NCAA though.

 

[Orangutan]

I don't know about HoopGurlz, specifically, but some of these rankings came out last fall and haven't changed.

If this is how these guys make a living, it makes sense that they would have made a point to see and re-evaluate the top 50 players, so I think updating the rating make sense.

ND commit Ali Patberg moved up 9 spots to #25. Almost every other ND target moved up as well. Wonder if there is some cause and effect there.

HoopGurlz remains noticeably lower on UConn and ND target Arike Ogunbowale. Every other service has her top 10. She's moved up 9 spots here but only to #24.

 

[UcMiami]

I think this is also a reality of a still somewhat limited pool of talent in women's basketball and athletics in general. There will be statistical anomalies on a regional basis - for example, TX has had a run on post players over the last 5 years or so - no particular reason, but a lot of athletic girls 6'4" or taller. And yes, I think there are regional variations - probably SoCal being a volleyball/beach volleyball mecca, leads to more girls playing volleyball than say Texas.

 

[UcMiami]

I don't know about HoopGurlz, specifically, but some of these rankings came out last fall and haven't changed.

If this is how these guys make a living, it makes sense that they would have made a point to see and re-evaluate the top 50 players, so I think updating the rating make sense.

ND commit Ali Patberg moved up 9 spots to #25. Almost every other ND target moved up as well. Wonder if there is some cause and effect there.

HoopGurlz remains noticeably lower on UConn and ND target Arike Ogunbowale. Every other service has her top 10. She's moved up 9 spots here but only to #24.

No one is making a killing on WBB ranking services so the number of eyes and the amount of travel is always limited for evaluations. That is why the composite ranking that vowel guy produced is quite valuable - it does even out some of the inherent weakness of the individual services. You still have issues for a Chong or Buck who just didn't travel in HS so the competition they played against clouded any evaluation.

 

[Paul1969]

KML was #2 and Elizabeth Williams was #1 on HoopGurlz for a while until they finally switched places.

 

[Orangutan]

No one is making a killing on WBB ranking services so the number of eyes and the amount of travel is always limited for evaluations. That is why the composite ranking that vowel guy produced is quite valuable - it does even out some of the inherent weakness of the individual services. You still have issues for a Chong or Buck who just didn't travel in HS so the competition they played against clouded any evaluation.

Not a killing, no. I assume that these guys make enough money off of it that it is their full-time job. I'd be interested to know exactly how much they do see these players. Do they have some way of finding tapes, etc.?

I guess I'm trusting their integrity enough that to assume that they did not change their rankings without some new data points coming into the picture. I'd hate to think they just base it on stats or cheat off the other services' rankings.

 

[UConnCat]

Hoopgurlz article on Katie Lou: Mater Dei's Katie Lou Samuelson Up to 1, Down to 5 http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-comme...anford-cardinal-kentucky-wildcats-ucla-bruins

Two people who know Katie Lou Samuelson well are guessing her college decision will come down to NCAA finalist Notre Dame and national champion Connecticut.

AAU Coach Russ Davis:

"Ultimately, I think it will be a two-horse race between Notre Dame and UConn," he said. "Does Lou want to go to the school that's on top, which is UConn? Or does she want to try to put Notre Dame over the hump?

"But that's just guesswork on my part. Lou is not telling. And that's smart. If she already knew, she would have announced it, so I think she's keeping her options open right now."

High School Coach Kevin Kiernan:

"If I had to bet my life on it, Notre Dame and UConn are two tough places to turn down," he said. "She has a tough call to make.

 

[UcMiami]

Not a killing, no. I assume that these guys make enough money off of it that it is their full-time job. I'd be interested to know exactly how much they do see these players. Do they have some way of finding tapes, etc.?

I guess I'm trusting their integrity enough that to assume that they did not change their rankings without some new data points coming into the picture. I'd hate to think they just base it on stats or cheat off the other services' rankings.

Yes I think they do, but the balance of seeing the players is never going to be equal, so after the last ranking, they might have seen Durr only once and KLS four times, or visa versa. And they may have seen KLS playing against inferior competition and Durr going up against a really good defender.
Loyd is a great player as is McBride and they both looked brilliant playing against Baylor and MD so an evaluator would think ... best two guards in the country and rank them 1 and 2 in either order. If the same evaluator watch the game against Uconn, they didn't look that good and McBride might have been ranked 10th and Loyd 25th.
Same thing with Moriah - watch her from Feb 1 through the E8 game and she is amazing shooting 60+% including from three and racking up steals and assists, watch her at the FF and she can't hit the rim let alone make a basket, still getting assists and steals, but ... (Same for Bria, but the rot set in at the Sw16.)

 

[wallman]

Hoopgurlz is part of Dan Olsens camp. On the circuit you will see Dan at all the best AAU and High School tournaments so if anything he would have seen KLS at Nike Nationals and Nike TOC for example, among others as Mater Dei probably plays one of the most difficult schedules in the country. There are a number of players that do not play the same type of schedule but KLS wouldn't be one of them.

 

[semper]

soccer is a disease...killing both baseball and basketball....don't understand it completely but I look around and don't see many kids with bats and gloves and that makes me so sad.

 

[meyers7]

soccer is a disease...killing both baseball and basketball....don't understand it completely but I look around and don't see many kids with bats and gloves and that makes me so sad.

Makes me happy.

Baseball vs soccer is easy to understand. A kid can either stand around in the outfield waiting for something to happen (and it may not for 2-3 innings) and then go sit on a bench waiting for their 3 minutes of action at the plate OR they can run around a field chasing a ball and be as involved or not involved as they want.

Basketball vs soccer....pretty much the same sport. Both involve shooting, dribbling, defense, spacing, movement, seeing the field/court. That's why a lot of basketball players were/are soccer players also. And vice-versa.

 

[sawxfan23]

soccer is a disease...killing both baseball and basketball....don't understand it completely but I look around and don't see many kids with bats and gloves and that makes me so sad.

I agree completely and it reminds of a quote I once heard. "Soccer is for kids that are not tough enough to play football".

 

[meyers7]

I agree completely and it reminds of a quote I once heard. "Soccer is for kids that are not tough enough to play football".

 

[HGN]

Great article...........I don't know if her HS coach knows any inside info , or whether her AAU coach knows any inside info , but they both seem to think that its a 2-horse race between ND and UConn. And if that's the case , I am ok with it. KLS seems like a great kid and would be an excellent teammate no matter where she goes.