SoCalHoops Recruiting News

SoCalHoops Class Of 2001:
Top Junior Wings/Small Forwards--(Apr. 25, 2000)

Ok, we've posted the points and shooting/combo guards for the very talented junior class. . . now it's time for the wings, small forwards, followed by the post players and power forwards (the latter lists will follow shortly). We've selected the top players that we've seen throughout the year, both before and during the high school season just completed, at pre-season tournaments, in-season tournaments, and in spring tournaments, shootouts, and spring leagues.  In short,  everywhere and anywhere else we've seen players play.   As we did in the fall, we've divided this list into three groupings:  The "Top 20," the "Next Top 20," and "Best of the Rest".  These lists are not, strictly speaking, "rankings"; they are instead, our way of simply identifying players we believe are outstanding.  Some are more outstanding than others, and like everything else in life, sometimes it's a matter of opinion.  

Most pundits say that the junior class is the deepest they've seen in almost 20 years.  They're right.   We've taken the liberty, after a full season of games, to reclassify some players.  For example, Errick and Derrick Craven were listed as "wings" in our Fall 1999 lists.  Now they're shown as "combo guards".   A subtle distinction, (some would say a distinciton without a difference) but for us it's an important distinction.  Thus, many of the players may appear on different lists than you've been used to seeing them previously.  

And with a full season of tournaments and games under our belt, we've also expanded the list of top players from last fall, simply because many more good, solid, even excellent junior wings and small forwards emerged this year than we were aware of last fall.  And there are a lot of really excellent and talented guys in this class.

Aside from the broad categorizations like "Top 20"   "Next 20" 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. 

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 the primary position they played this season, not necessarily where we think we might project them out as college players.  This also represents a sea-change for us and the manner in which we compile lists.  Previously we did a fair amount of conjuring and projecting, trying to figure out where we thought each player would best project in college.  Hey, we can still do that, but by and large most of these guys will play the same position that they are now playing in high school, so why go through the exercise. . . .  Still a caveat is in order:  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 to find him.

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 25 Junior Wings/Small Forwards

SoCalHoops Class of 2001
Next Top 25 Junior Wings/Small Forwards

SoCalHoops Class of 2001
Best of the Rest Top Junior Wings/Small Forwards

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