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Date Posted: 17:31:57 11/19/02 Tue
Author: Bearcat Chad
Subject: Great Article on White & Cincy's recruiting class-- Thanks Hoop Scoop

http://www.hoopscooponline.com/visitors/scoop.html

Friday, November 15, 2002 - Our New York City Editor Ron Naclerio tells us that he talked with James White, who announced that he will transfer from the University of Florida earlier this week, at the Coaches versus Cancer doubleheader last night at Madison Square Garden and it appears that three schools (Missouri, Cincinnati, and Syracuse) are at the top of White's list. We also have heard from other sources that Georgia Tech and Indiana are also involved and that his parents and others advising him what White to take his time and explore all of his options. This is important, because other people seem to think that Cincinnati is the heavy favorite and, as a result, it's only a matter of time before the Bearcats get this one done. If you will recall, White, who was ranked as the #1 5th year player by the HOOP SCOOP two year ago, is a phenomenal athlete who thrives in a uptempo setting, but needs to work on his outside shooting and other perimeter skills. In other words, White is a stereotypical Bobby Huggins type player. We also know that Cincinnati has one more scholarship available and they are looking for the best available player to complement their current recruiting class, which is ranked #4 on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2003 and includes 6'10 Robert Whaley from Barton County (JC) KS, 6'4 Nick Williams from Chipola (JC) FL, and 6'8 Mike Pilgrim from Wolfeboro (Brewster Academy) NH. However, if the Bearcats get White, we would not include him with the Bearcats' current recruiting class. Remember, it's not our editorial policy to include transfers when ranking recruiting classes. Speaking of Cincinnati's recruiting class, we think it perfectly illustrates a point that we've been harping on more and more as time goes on. If you're a school like Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Kansas State, or Texas Tech, which already are top level programs or rapidly moving in that direction, you often aren't going to get the respect that you deserve. And a big part of the problem is that junior college players don't get the same type of notoriety that the top high school players do, especially if they are McDonald's All-Americans. Remember, when Oklahoma advanced to the NCAA Final Four last March, everybody talked about the fact that the Sooners didn't have any McDonald's All-Americans on the roster and, as a result, most people assumed that they didn't have that much talent. And they still don't have a McDonald's All-American on the roster, but the Sooners do have the 5th highest talent rating in college basketball by the HOOP SCOOP and, despite last night's opening game loss to Alabama, is one of the pre-season favorites to win the National Championship this season. This also comes into play when everybody ranks their top recruiting classes this time of year and contrasting Arizona's recruiting class with Cincinnati's recruiting class is especially interesting. Dave Telep of the InsidersHoops.com, who is widely recognized as one of the top people in the business, told me today that the criteria that he used to rank the Wildcats recruiting class #1 in the nation on his web site was the fact that Lute Olson signed the best power forward - 6'10 Ndudi Ebi from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX - the best point guard - 6'3 Mustafa Shakur from Wynnewood (Friends Central) PA - in the nation. And, while we agree with Telep on this point, I also think is important to look a little deeper when comparing the two classes. As a matter of fact, Arizona's third recruit - 6'10 Kirk Walters from Grand Rapids (South Christian) MI - is not ranked among our top 100 senior nationally and, as a result, the Wildcats recruiting class doesn't measure up with the classes that are ranked ahead of it once you go past two players. In contrast, Cincinnati's recruiting class includes the #1-ranked junior college player in Whaley, a top five junior college player in Williams, and the #6-ranked 5th year player by the HOOP SCOOP in Pilgrim. So, if we break it down on a scale of 1-100, with 100 being the best and one being the worst, I'd make Ebi's worth 95 points, Shakur worth 93 points, and Walters worth 30 points for a total of 218 points. In contrast, I'd make Whaley worth 92 points, Williams worth 90 points, and Pilgram worth 80 points for a total of 262. However, to play devils advocate for a second, the word we get from those who have seen Whaley play this fall, he still doesn't play hard all the time and often doesn't use his size to dominant inside the way he should and, as a result, it appears that he still has the same old question marks that haunted him in high school. So let's assume that we have Whaley ranked too high and drop him to 80 points or even 60 points. That would mean that Cincinnati still would be ranked 12 to-32 points ahead of Arizona. In other words, we not only disagree with Telep, but we don't think it's even close. Part of the problem is that Telep doesn't appear to know how good Pilgrim has gotten since we all saw him last spring at the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions. And the same thing often happens with junior college players, because we're often only as good as our sources. Remember, our beat his watching the top high school players in the nation and we're often dependent upon second hand information when ranking junior college players. And compounding the problem even further is the status quo mentality that a lot of people in the business seem to have. Most people seem to think that if you land three or four McDonald's All-American's, you automatically have the best recruiting class. However, I never know how it's going to turn out until I've assigned every player a rating on a 1-10 scale and add up all the numbers. Sure, we miss the boat sometimes, but our track record is pretty good. If you will recall, we were the first one to have 6'7 Carmelo Anthony from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA ranked as the #1 player in the Class of 2002. Actually we were out there all by ourself on this one for about eight months and, even in the end, not very many people had Anthony ranked as the #1 player nationally in his class. However, we look pretty good right now, especially after his 27 points last night versus Memphis in the first game of the Coaches versus Cancer doubleheader. We also had another player - 6'8 Kevin Bookout from Stroud (H.S.) OK - in that doubleheader ranked higher than anybody else in his class in our final rankings. If you will recall, we had Bookout, who now appears to be one of the leading candidates for Freshman-of-the-Year in college basketball this year, along with Anthony, ranked #10 nationally, but he wasn't named to the McDonald's All-American Team last spring. And, as long as we're on the topic of Oklahoma, didn't we have the Sooners' recruiting class ranked #2 in the nation in 1999-2000 ago and #6 in 2000-2001? And didn't everybody miss on the Sooners pre-season a year ago due exactly to the point we are trying to make? If you will recall, Oklahoma signed 12 players during that two-year period of which nine were junior college players and one was a 5th year player. Another player we had a lot higher than everybody else in our final rankings last spring was 6'7 Curtis Withers from Charlotte (West Charlotte) NC. We had Withers ranked #31 in the nation. In contrast, Bob Gibbons of All-Stars Sports, which is based in North Carolina, had Withers ranked no higher than #157 in his final rankings. We bring this up, because the word on the street is that Withers has turned out to be a major surprise in practice this fall and, as a result, will likely be one of the leading candidates for Rookie-of-the-Year honors in Conference USA this season. And these are only a few of the latest examples. In other words, our rankings of the top recruiting classes and talent ratings have not only withstood the test of time, but the insight we provide you with isn't available anywhere else and our ability to put all the pieces together and analyze whatever information is at hand is second to none. And that's why can't afford to be without a subscription to the Member Section any longer. So click on subscribe right now!

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