WH

I partly agree and partly disagree with NA.

First, I should clarify. The 5th year designation used by HoopScoop represents only players who have already completed four years of high school. As such, a player with a 25th ranking as a 5th year player is by no means the 25th best player in his entire nationwide high school class.

Just determining where such a player fits in the overall talent scheme of is harder to figure. Recruiting services differ widely in their treatment of 5th year prepsters. Some are lumped in with the most current high school class. Others are included in special lists, such as the HoopScoop list. And other players are ignored entirely.

And dont forget: lots of kids go to prep school even as high school underclassmen. It's not always easy to figure out who really is a 5th year prepster and who isnt.

As such, it's almost impossible to establish any reasonable comparision with regular four-year high schoolers, even in a very generalized basis. Furthermore, some of these 5th year kids really explode into prominence with that extra year. That's one reason why more and more kids pursue that route.

Case in point is Jeff Adrien of UConn. He was rated as the 326th best player in the nation as a high school senior. After a year in prep school, he moved up to 11th in HoopScoop's list of 5th year players. Then he arrives at UConn and ends up on the Big East all-rookie team even though the Huskies were stacked with veterans.

Of course, Adrien did fall within NA's cutoff point of 20, but in looking back at the past five years of HoopScoop's list of 5th year players, you'll find plenty rated 50 or lower signing with big schools.

For those reasons, I would not agree with NA's cutoff point of around 20th when it comes to 5th year prepsters. It's a fluid cutoff number and depends on numerous variables from year to year.

In the 2004 HS list, for example, Mo Rice of Gw was listed at 36, Darian Townes of Arkansas at 39, Randall Hanke of Providence at 49 and Stanley Burrell of Xavier at 71. On the other hand, 2003 yielded a relatively sparse bunch, while 2002 was more like 2004 and yielded some quality players (Craig Smith of BC at 37, to cite one).

I can find other prominent examples, but you get the picture.

From what I can see, the top 30 or 35 5th year prepsters appear to be more successful than the rest. It is hit or miss, though. Like a farmer's harvest, it's never the same year to year.

Muddy Waters

Indeed.

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jdm2000

Hey Flyer Fans-Muddy's posting today should leave no doubt why you see the posts that you do from X fans (and others) on this board.

Bona84

Why did I open up this thread?

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Bona84

Bona Wolf for Pope

The lure of WH posting reasoned, intelligent things during an offseason populated by Xavier v. Dayton arguments?

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"Careful reading comprehension is crucial to an online forum discussion."

ace93

Will be interesting to see how Marlon Smith and Brenton Butler work out for Fordham. I predict a mixed bag for Butler and an academic casuality for Smith.

njlsufan

The real question is why is Muddy so pathetically obsessed? It's like he's suddenly off his meds or something.

X-band '01

Maybe you thought you were in Romper Room instead.

Bona84

I tend to agree with you ace. As for Bona, Solomon has really got to step it up. I just don't see Morris or Williams being contributors at all, much less leading any sort of Bona recovery from the scandal.

How 'bout that Dayton class though? Guaranteed to have annual NCAA bids for Gregory and the a flyers with that class.

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Bona84

Hawkamaniac

Interesting, albeit painful post for Hawk fans to see. This Hawk class, though ballyhoed at the time (some called Govens-Carter-Rivera the "Holy Trinity"), was the beginning of the period of malaise for the Hawks. Only one of those three players (Govens) was still with the Hawks by the beginning of his junior year and he was probably the least of the three guards. In fact, the best player in that 2006 Hawk class wasn't even on that list--Garrett Williamson who was a last minute signee in August.

Bona84

Ahh. If only...

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Bona84

SDW

Hey, it's only a six-year-old thread, I don't see the harm...seriously, was this bookmarked, or did you have to search to find this?

Richmond's class as written (Geriot, Kendall, Morris and Brewster) was 25%, as Geriot was all we hoped, Kendall redshirted/transferred halfway through his freshman season, Morris and Brewster both transferred after getting significant playing time as freshmen and never amounted to anything when they did. However, Mooney added a late spring signee from Notre Dame Academy named David Gonzalvez, who became integral to Richmond's turnaround. Additionally, Ryan Butler had redshirted and joined this freshman class, which truly made it a successful one.

Interesting to see how many players from that year never panned out at all, there are a lot of names I don't even recognize, as I'm sure most here don't remember the 3 UR players I mentioned above.

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Spider Fever...it's spreading.

JHG722

We would've been ridiculous if Mike Scott kept his commitment to Temple. Ugh.

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Temple Owls football and basketball

BU Terriers hockey

bcan06

Not one of the three players for Duquesne set foot on campus. Hall peaced out when the assistants (Charles Cunningham) were not retained from Nee's firing. Edited to add Hall ended up being ineligible to play, which was fitting since he was used as the "Wait til next year when we get this guy," card by Nee. McNees ended up at Akron and I think was the starting PG for their 2009 tourney team. DiMaria went to prep school for 06-07. Since then he has changed schools nearly every season and played his final one this year at an NAIA school after leaving Utah.

thetorch

Yikes that 06 class brings back bad memories. It was the final nail in Soderberg's coffin.

Obi Ikeakor was an overweight mass with 2 bad knees. He ended up playing for New Orleans never getting any significant time.

Dustin Maguire was a 6'5 185 lb post player who could sort of shoot. Majerus booted him. He ended up starring for a good D-2 Northern Kentucky squad until he got testicular cancer.

We had two other signees that year, they were somehow worse than this pair.

Horace Dixon a 6'8 beanpole never good enough to play, he left for JUCO, signed with Houston but never suited up for them.

Adam Knollmeyer a Mizzou commit that Quin Snyder let go. Soderberg snapped him up. He played 2 seasons but Majerus thought he wasn't D-1 material. Went on to average 8 ppg at D-2 Missouri Rolla alongside his twin brother.

Altogether these 4 guys scored 63 points in their SLU careers, 41 of those belong to Knollmeyer, albeit in 43 games played.