Final Scout Top 100 for 2009

[bma725]

Just came out today.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=4&cfg=bb&pid=88&yr=2009

Cadougan is #53...down from #50.
Maymon is #84...down from #75.
Williams is #90...up from #96.

That makes it 3 of 3 rankings where Maymon has dropped from their prior update.  Cadougan and Williams have each dropped in 2 of 3.

[GGGG]

Why do you think Maymon fell?  Lack of development of an outside game?

[Chili]

Why do you think Maymon fell?  Lack of development of an outside game?

he committed to Marquette.

[dwaderoy2004]

his numbers were down a little bit, and he didn't play much AAU ball after committing to MU so he could focus on his grades.  out of sight, out of mind.

[Lennys Tap]

Why do you think Maymon fell?  Lack of development of an outside game?

His numbers were down from last year. According to his coach, this was because he was doubled and tripled alot. He apparently became the consumate "team player" and his stats suffered accordingly.

[HoopsMalone]

Maymon was Mr. Basketball on a state championship team.  We all know what he can do.

[bma725]

Why do you think Maymon fell?  Lack of development of an outside game?

The short answer is, he didn't play much on the AAU scene after last spring.  

In order to get good rankings you have to do a couple things.  You have to play a lot of national AAU games, you have to play well, and it helps if you are uncommitted and friendly to the press.

Maymon's previous high rankings were based on the fact that he did well at the spring AAU tournaments last year, and he hasn't played much AAU ball since then.  Really, since the end of May last year, all he's done outside of high school ball is the IS8 league, and the evaluators don't judge people on HS and IS8.

Same thing happened to Williams.  At one point he was by far the highest ranked MU recruit in the class.  But then he got hurt and missed most of the AAU season.  So the raters didn't get to see him, and the guys that ranked him in the 30s after his sophomore year forgot all about him.  

[Big Daddy 84]

If these 3 players stay for all 4 years like the 3 amigos they will out perform what the 3A did, perhaps no individually, but in BET and NCCA tourneys wins for sure. That is not to diminish the effort of the 3A and we never will know how this season would have turned out if DJ had not injured his foot. But they will have the advantage of a much more balance team going forward.

The 3A were amazing this year considering the limitations they had with the rest of the team. These 3 should not be faced with the same restrictions. 

Maymon is a stud and his rankings do not represent his ability. I saw him play at least 12 times this year and many times he simply used himself as a means to draw the defense away from the ball. His goal this year was not individual awards, but a State Championship.

EW is completely flying under the radar for about 6 more months. I saw him place twice this year and in both games he had double digits for blocked shots. His on the ball defense did not seem the best, but his help side defense was amazing. This is where most of his blocks came from. His leaping ability, timing and ability to use his off hand to block was simply amazing. In both games he blocked these shots without getting in foul trouble a big key.

Body type and athletic ability think Trend Blackledge, but this guy has a BB mind and skills to boot. He is not just an athlete, he is a baller.

I did not get to see JC play this year so no comments on this.

Finally I have even more hope because of what I saw from JB this year as it went on. After MM I made some comments that if JB did not improve he would be a "waste" this year. I also said a certain player was not a BE caliber player and would never be one.

The key is JB did improve immensely during the year and the key was both the coachability of JB and the quality coaching he got. Buzz recognized where JB's natural abilities were and he put him into situations where JB could succeed.

For example JB's open court defense is still a work in process so in Buzz's system he has certain players designated as get back guys on defense (his #1 this year was WM) and he was the perfect combination of size, speed and savvy to get back and stop fast breaks. JB was not suited for this but he was a great weakside OR so that is what Buzz designated him to do. When ever MU put up a shot (especially when JB was on the weak/off-ball side) JB would go in for the OR and he was successful.

Putting your players in postion to be successful is something that not ever coach does. This alone is an improvement over what we saw in the recent past. I wont even go into why WM had such an improvement  this year.

I will miss the 3A, but I am looking forward to next year.

My predictions for next year.

Lazar Big East POTY
JM as BE ROTY
Buzz BE COTY

[bilsu]

The key is improvement, how much and how fast. None of these new recruits will be very good players if they do not improve.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Just came out today.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=4&cfg=bb&pid=88&yr=2009

Cadougan is #53...down from #50.
Maymon is #84...down from #75.
Williams is #90...up from #96.

That makes it 3 of 3 rankings where Maymon has dropped from their prior update.  Cadougan and Williams have each dropped in 2 of 3.

You don't say, our recruits dropping in a recruiting rankings poll?  Where is Mr. Hayward for another I TOLD YOU SO.

Still a great class, but this happens more often than not to our classes.  I don't know why (bias, late commits to high profile schools, etc) but it does  happen to us and many other schools.

[Big Daddy Z]

simple reason for drop....others have gotten better in there eyes.

[ChicosBailBonds]

simple reason for drop....others have gotten better in there eyes.

Perhaps, or it's because of who they signed with.  Seems to me that when a player is ranked 85th and unsigned but suddenly moves up to 45th when he inks with Duke, UNC or KU....that's one thing.  Then another guy is 60th, signs with Marquette or USC or Cincinnati and they slide to 78th....just seems to convenient.

Somewhere in the back of these evaluators heads I have to think that who they signed with plays a role (how big I don't know) in what final ranking they give them.

Just my opinion.

[Untucked]

People read way too much into these rankings. If you look at these rankings from years past, they're not very accurate. Outside of the top ten guys, they just put them down randomly. I think you should just look at them as groups. 1-10, 10-50, 50-100, 100-150. I don't think there is much difference in a player ranked 52 or 92.
Just look at the recent great MU players. Wade, McNeal, Diener, Novak none of these guys were in the top 50.

[Hards Alumni]

If these 3 players stay for all 4 years like the 3 amigos they will out perform what the 3A did, perhaps no individually, but in BET and NCCA tourneys wins for sure. That is not to diminish the effort of the 3A and we never will know how this season would have turned out if DJ had not injured his foot. But they will have the advantage of a much more balance team going forward.

The 3A were amazing this year considering the limitations they had with the rest of the team. These 3 should not be faced with the same restrictions. 

Maymon is a stud and his rankings do not represent his ability. I saw him play at least 12 times this year and many times he simply used himself as a means to draw the defense away from the ball. His goal this year was not individual awards, but a State Championship.

EW is completely flying under the radar for about 6 more months. I saw him place twice this year and in both games he had double digits for blocked shots. His on the ball defense did not seem the best, but his help side defense was amazing. This is where most of his blocks came from. His leaping ability, timing and ability to use his off hand to block was simply amazing. In both games he blocked these shots without getting in foul trouble a big key.

Body type and athletic ability think Trend Blackledge, but this guy has a BB mind and skills to boot. He is not just an athlete, he is a baller.

I did not get to see JC play this year so no comments on this.

Finally I have even more hope because of what I saw from JB this year as it went on. After MM I made some comments that if JB did not improve he would be a "waste" this year. I also said a certain player was not a BE caliber player and would never be one.

The key is JB did improve immensely during the year and the key was both the coachability of JB and the quality coaching he got. Buzz recognized where JB's natural abilities were and he put him into situations where JB could succeed.

For example JB's open court defense is still a work in process so in Buzz's system he has certain players designated as get back guys on defense (his #1 this year was WM) and he was the perfect combination of size, speed and savvy to get back and stop fast breaks. JB was not suited for this but he was a great weakside OR so that is what Buzz designated him to do. When ever MU put up a shot (especially when JB was on the weak/off-ball side) JB would go in for the OR and he was successful.

Putting your players in postion to be successful is something that not ever coach does. This alone is an improvement over what we saw in the recent past. I wont even go into why WM had such an improvement  this year.

I will miss the 3A, but I am looking forward to next year.

My predictions for next year.

Lazar Big East POTY
JM as BE ROTY
Buzz BE COTY

I am just curious as to how the kool-aid tastes.

[Big Daddy 84]

Hards lets hear your predictions and then a year from now we can see who has vision and who has just a big mouth.

[Hards Alumni]

Hards lets hear your predictions and then a year from now we can see who has vision and who has just a big mouth.

I will only predict that none of your predictions will be correct.

Would I love for them to be?  Absolutely, and if they are I will gladly acknowledge you as the second coming of Nostradamus.

I just have an overall more pessimistic view of next year (we are extremely young and inexperienced), and what I think most people would call a realistic view.

[Skatastrophy]

Hards lets hear your predictions and then a year from now we can see who has vision and who has just a big mouth.

Anyone making predictions at a point before we've seen any of our incoming kids playing together (much less on campus together) is just a big mouth.  Having your predictions come true could only be attributed to random chance, not your armchair-coaching "vision" :p

[Big Daddy 84]

Skat,

I am glad Buzz and his team don't  think like you do. If you review my post you will see that I did not make any "team" predictions because you are right that making these type of predictions without seeing them play together is much more a crap shoot.

But we have all seen Lazar play and based on who is leaving the BE and based on what Lazar[s role will be and based on who is coming in and who is still around, I have not problem extrapalating this information to make and informed and intelligent analysis of why he will have a better season and based on that POTY in the BE is more than a reasonable assumption.

Similar analysis can be applied to Buzz and JM and has nothing to do with having to see all of the parts working together.

[Hards Alumni]

Skat,

I am glad Buzz and his team don't  think like you do. If you review my post you will see that I did not make any "team" predictions because you are right that making these type of predictions without seeing them play together is much more a crap shoot.

But we have all seen Lazar play and based on who is leaving the BE and based on what Lazar[s role will be and based on who is coming in and who is still around, I have not problem extrapalating this information to make and informed and intelligent analysis of why he will have a better season and based on that POTY in the BE is more than a reasonable assumption.

Similar analysis can be applied to Buzz and JM and has nothing to do with having to see all of the parts working together.

Problem with your analysis is that Lazar was not double teamed last year... expect it next year.