SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Class of 2002: Top SoCal Sophomore
Wings & Small Forwards--(June 5, 2000)

This is our our final, post-season, post-spring, pre-summer listing of  the class of 2002, the current crop of sophomores, the guys who are about to become "rising juniors" in a few weeks.  We may add some names or move others by the end of the summer, but this represents the guys who we believe deserve to be recognized as among the best in this class at their positions.  We've already done our listings for the Top Juniors (Class of 2001) and the Top Seniors (Class of 2000), and all of the SoCalHoops  "Top SoCal Players" lists can always be accessed by clicking on the link on the navigation bar at the left.   We're busy working on the the Class of 2003, this year's current Freshman class, and we'll post that up shortly as well. 

We've attempted to classify these guys as either "wings" or as true small forwards, and it's probably better to think of the wings as bigger guards who don't shoot as much as a true two guard, sort of a cross between a two guard and a small forward, maybe a bit smaller than what you'd think of as a forward, perhaps a half-step quicker (but maybe not).  Most of the guys we've listed as wings have excellent guard skills, good handles and can stroke it out to three,   but will more often slash to the basket for a score or a rebound, whereas most of the small forwards (there are some notable exceptions) may possess many of these skills, but are generally taller, probably tend to shoot even less, and might, if they put on a little weight or muscle have the potential to become power forwards.   Not a huge distinction, but it's kind of like art or pornography, "you know it when you see it."  Also, putting these guys into two distinct groupings also allowed us to recognize that there are some notable skill differences between some of these players, and gave us another excuse to have two sets of "Top 15" players.

The bottom line though is that if you're looking for one player in particular who you expect to see on one list and don't find him there, look on another, because it's likely that we've listed most of the top guys in the class somewhere.  It might not be where you expect, and if we've overlooked someone entirely, just let us know.

One huge caveat about this (and other) lists:  Please don't get hung up about previous lists, about where a player may have been listed before if you don't see him in the same place again this time.  Some players have left the area for prep schools and they aren't listed any longer.  Still other players may have been moved to a different position, and can be found on another list.  And some may not have been listed inadvertently.  And finally some have played better or up to the expectations we had over the season, while others either didn't get the playing time because of a large number of seniors and juniors on their teams,  and others   may just be taking longer than some of their peers to develop, so they may have moved around from our prior lists.    The bottom line is that this list,   like the rest of our lists are really just a matter of opinion. 

As with our other lists, we haven't used numerical rankings for any individual player.   Maybe we should have, and maybe someday we will, but for now we don't really care for the concept of listing a player as the "No. 1" or "No. 2"  "No. 30" in the class.  Others do it, and for them, it's an expression of their opinion too.   For us, we're just not sold on the value of the concept, especially for players who still have two years to develop. 

Many of the recruiting services will use numerical rankings, and we've spoken with several about why they do that, and we've been told various things. . . mostly the view seems to be that the guys who run these services are doing this for a living, rating players and selling their services to the college coaches, so they want to be as helpful to the coaches who may use their reports.  That's fine for such services;  they're in business and they're entitled to conduct business any way they want, and they won't get any arguments from us about that. 

On the other hand, we believe that college coaches use even the most painstakingly-prepared numerical rankings only as a guide about which players they want to see during the open evaluation periods, and that after a coach has seen a player he'll make up his own mind about where that player "ranks" among his recruiting priorities.  So from our perspective, at least with the SoCalHoops' lists,   our point is not necessarily to "rank" players individually by number, but really to get the word out about a group of players we believe are among the best at their positions in a given class.

Most college coaches have already heard the names of most of the players listed here; but there are probably more than a few who we've identified who have not been seen, and so in that way, we hope that more coaches decide to check these guys out either this summer and over the course of the next two academic years. 

Some of these players will be good enough eventually and lucky enough to get recruited at the D-I level, while others will get recruited at various other levels, whether D-II, D-III or NAIA.  Some will wind up at JUCO's because they may not qualify, but in our view, if they can get it done in the classroom, many of them have a chance of getting recruited at a four year school.   

Another huge caveat:  We have not seen every player in SoCal in the current sophomore class.  Most of what we know about comes from seeing those few sophomores who played varsity this past season, or who have consistently played with some of the better clubs and travel teams.   We've reviewed all of our prior lists, every CIF playoff team roster from this season,  all the tournament and showcase rosters, and spring league rosters, in an effort to at least consider everyone we've seen or know about.  But we have not seen everyone there is to see in this class.  A huge number of the class of 2002 played at the JV or frosh-soph level this past year, and while they will yet emerge over the course of the next two years, we'll be the first to say that we probably haven't seen even half of the class of 2002.  But finding out about new players we've never seen is part of what makes this stuff so much fun, so we're looking forward to seeing even more players identified over the next two years.

We've tried to list those players who played particularly well this past season and spring, who are among the more promising players, those we think have a chance of getting recruited at some level.   The list include players from Fresno in the north, to San Diego in the south, i.e., the entire SoCal region.  Many of the players listed have already drawn the attention of some of the traditional recruiting gurus (e.g., Recruiting USA, Fullcourt Press, Clark Francis'  HoopScoop,  PrepStars Recruiting, PacWestHoops,  and others).  Some are still undiscovered.   But in our view, all of them are excellent players. 

Lastly, not to be too repetitive about this, but 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 the list who isn't, let us know via e-mail.

SoCalHoops Top 15 Sophomore Wing Players
(Class of 2002)

SoCalHoops Best of the Rest Top Sophomore Wing Players
(Class of 2002)

SoCalHoops Top 15 Sophomore Small Forwards
(Class of 2002)

SoCalHoops Best of the Rest Top Small Forwards
(Class of 2002)

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