SoCalHoops Recruiting News

SoCalHoops Class Of 2001:
Top Junior Point Guards--(Apr. 23, 2000)

Now that we've posted the seniors, it's time to start with the underclassmen, which means we'll list the top juniors we've seen since last fall.   We've selected the top players that we've seen throughout the year, during the season, at tournaments, spring leagues, and everywhere else we've seen guys play.   As we did in the fall, we've divided them into three groups:  The "Top 15," the "Next Top 15," and "Best of the Rest".

Most people say that the junior class is the deepest they've seen in almost 20 years,  we would agree.  The junior class has some unbelievably talented players, but the point guard position is not the deepest one in the class.  The class of 2001 is certainly most plentiful in terms of guards overall,   but most of the guards are really wings, or combo guards, or players (like the Cravens) who really defy categorization.  We may be stingy in determining whether someone is a point guard or a combo guard, but we've tried to list the players at what we view as their primary position.  If you don't see someone listed here, check one of the other lists for another guard position.  We've also tried not to list guys at more than one position (something we had done in previous lists),  so we've minimized the chance for confusion. . . or increased it.  :^) 

Aside from the broad categorizations like "Top 15"   "Next 15" and so on, we don't use strict numerical rankings. College coaches make their own evaluations, and the point is not to "rank" players, but to get the word out about who is talented and who might be a potentially recruited player.    Everyone's got an opinion of who is "best" or "better" than the next guy, but from our perspective, there's really not much point in saying that a high school player, whose game is a work in progress,  is the #1 player, or #10, or even #30.  What we think is important is to say that every one of the players we've listed has excellent skills, has excelled throughout the year and has college-level talent.  Some have more than others. 

Of our Top 15 selections, we have little doubt that virtually every one of them has D-I potential, and some have the potential to be stars at high-major D-I programs.  Even though we dislike strict numerical rankings, if we had to pick the guys who are atop the class, it wouldn't be too hard because several names in our Top 15 stand out clearly:  Chris Hernandez, Cedric Bozeman, Dijon Thompson,   and Jason Braxton are among the best not only in SoCal, but also the West Coast.   Hands down.  

And while we're on the subject of talking about inidivual guys, one player, Shaun Michel,  does deserve some sort of explanatory footnote: We don't pretend to understand all that happened with him this year at Simi, and likewise we don't know where he'll be going to school next year, or if he'll be playing at all.   The point is that these lists are based on how we've seen guys play.   We've heard all the stories, read all the newspaper reports and accounts, but setting all of that aside, Shaun is still a very talented player, among the top 15 point guards in SoCal right now.  Will college coaches consider the "whole package," including all of the off-court and team problems that occurred this year?   Probably.  Will it affect Shaun?  Who knows.  All we're doing though, is pointing out talented players. 

And lastly, one final footnote regarding a player who is not listed:  Keilon Fortune didn't play all year for Compton Dominguez, hasn't been playing with SCA (or "So.Cal. Hoops" as they are now known), and we never could get any real explanation about why he wasn't playing this past season nor what his plans were for the future.  So talented though he might be, we've dropped him from our list, since we haven't seen him since the Pump's Fall Premiere tournament in which he played two of his last games.

At the risk of being repetitive,  it's worth saying again that we don't claim to have seen every player in SoCal in the junior class, but we've seen most of the top players.  We've gone to more games since last September than we care to think about, virtually one or two games a day during the high school season, and we've seen a lot of these guys.  But that doesn't mean that we've seen everyone there is to see.   We can't be everywhere, and obviously we will miss some guys.

Our lists include players from Fresno in the North, to San Diego in the South, i.e., the entire SoCal region.  We've shown players at their primary position. If you don't see a player on one list, look on another, because we may have listed someone at a position other than where you might expect.

Lastly, if we've left a player off the list, it may or may not be an oversight, but if you think someone deserves to be on our lists let us know.  

SoCalHoops Class of 2001 Top 20 Junior Point Guards

SoCalHoops Class of 2001 Next Top 15 Junior Point Guards

SoCalHoops Class of 2001 Best of the Rest Top Junior Point Guards

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