re: Nice get for Men’s Basketball

You know it must be a tough job to be one of these evaluators of high school talent. They must rate hundreds of players all over the country. I guess they have to figure in things like athletic talent, height, weight, skills, mental attitude and who knows what else. Then they give them 1 to 5 stars, rank them nationally by all players and then by their position.

And everyone treats this like the gospel and puts trust that these people do a good job. As we all know there are 5*'s who don't make the transition to college well and never live up to their ranking. Likewise there are 3*'s who become absolute monsters at their position like Justin Jefferson.

For the life of me I don't understand how a guard like Givens is rated as highly as he is. Givens is rated as a four-star prospect and the No. 59 recruit nationally by 247Sports’ Composite rankings, which have him as the country’s No. 5 point guard.

I have watched Montverde Academy games on Youtube and looked at his stats. Not only do I not think he is the number 5 point guard in the country but he doesn't even play point guard for Montverde. It is obvious when you watch games and look at the stats that another guard with much better stats is the point guard averaging 6 assists to Givens 2.9. Givens overall stats are 6.3 ppg, 1.7 rebounds and the 2.9 assists.

I realize he plays on a team loaded with all stars (3 in the McDonalds all star game) and he wasn't called on to shoulder the scoring or even the assist with the other guard handling that. But still how does that rate with him getting such accolades from recruiting guru's? Now he may come in and play lights out and I will look like a fool for doubting them but that is my point. Until they get here and start playing you can't really know how they will fit into your team. So to say "Wow, look at all these ranked recruits McMahon is getting" and decide that means we will have a good team is just not a done deal. I have been down this road too many times, evaluating rosters preseason and looking at highlight film. Anyone can sound and look good occasionally but are they the players we need to win?

quote:

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To even play at Montverde you have to be really good at basketball

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Jalyn Patterson

I’m not saying he isn’t going to be good, but being at Monteverde alone isn’t enough of a qualification.

As in most of the big 3 sports,

AAU / showcase / camps > high school games for a lot of coaches.

They get to see multiple great players at 1 time.

Not many people care about high school tape.