Espn has their new Top 60 up.
1. Parker
3. Randle
24. Jones
Nichols does not make the top 60, graded out at a 92 and #60 was a 93.
You have to remember these guys are still juniors (16 or 17) and most of them probably still have some growing to do. I think for the most part bigs usually develope a little later than guards in high school. Anthony Davis is a prime example, though he's definately on the extreme end of developing late.
Espn has their new Top 60 up.
1. Parker
3. Randle
24. Jones
Nichols does not make the top 60, graded out at a 92 and #60 was a 93.
Um, this guy is humongous. He's very clunky and he plays against very weak competition, but, I don't know, the guy is uber-tall, so I think he warrants at least a brief post. VIDEO
Thanks for the link! Yeah, that's a pretty funny video and doesn't show much of anything. He's obviously so much taller and stronger than the kids he's up against, it's just unfair. They look like 5th graders! It's quite funny that he didn't win the tip though. I recall Sim Bhullar at 7'5" had some interest on this board a while back and just graduated as an unranked center and enrolled at New Mexico State. He is on their roster, but hasn't registered a point yet. I wonder if he's injured or simply hasn't gotten in a game at this juncture. Height certainly helps with basketball, but when you get to big time college hoops, you need some skill to go along with that height or it won't get you anywhere. That guy looks like he needs to improve in a lot of facets in his game to be recruited by high level squads.
Another PG name in the mix. If he comes to Duke he'll need to consider changing "Cat" to something else...
Clint Jackson @clintjackson1
Just confirmed that Duke's Steve Wojciechowski was in Hampton last night watching 6-2 PG Anthony "Cat" Barber.
Bad sign that he lost the opening tip to a kid probably a foot shorter.
Very clumsy and slow (not surprising given his height). And I'm guessing the opposing team didn't have anyone over 6'5" in their lineup, so those easy entry feeds and basically uncontested dunks would be a lot more difficult at the college level. I suspect a coordinated 6'8"-6'10" big man might give him trouble (as crazy as that sounds).
Barber says Duke is his dream school.
http://fivestarbasketball.com/commit...-unc-s-britt-1
Espn has Barber ranked at #24 in the Class of 2013.
Duke just offered a point guard, Tyrus Jones, in the Class of 2014. We have Tyler Thornton through the 2014 season and Quinn Cook through the 2015 season, so I'm going to wager that we are more interested in a Class of 2014 point guard than we are in Barber. Anyone have a different line of thought?
I agree. We also have shown some interest in JaQuel Richmond in the class of 2014 who has states that likes Duke a lot. He's ranked 25th in the class according to Scout, so similar to Barber (in ranking, at least, I don't know about their styles). Tyus is a top 5 prospect (for now, we know rankings can change considerably as we're only talking about high school sophomores). It's not a bad thing to have too many high quality PGs, but I'd imagine we need to save some scholarships for some big men. It's always good to see what the options are, though, and the staff certainly is doing its due diligence and keeping all options open.
So, a 2013 PG would overlap with a senior Thornton and junior Cook. A 2014 PG would overlap with a senior Cook.
This is an interesting situation and a nice one to be in for Duke (at the moment). Jones ('14) is generally considered the best PG in high school, regardless of class. Very well-rounded, can do it all very well. Everyone is after him. He also is extremely tight with Okafor ('14), whom Coach K loves.
Richmond ('14) and Barber ('13 - who I hadn't heard of until this morning) seem to both naturally really like Duke, and from what little I have read, are ranked in the same range for their class and seem to have similar strengths - lightning quick with the ball, etc.
I don't see having three PGs from those two classes being problematic, especially if one views Jones as a possible one- or two-and done. Keep in mind, we would've had three PGs in the freshman/sophomore classes right now if Kyrie had decided to stay. Throw in the fact that the Class of '15 appears, at this stage, to be relatively weak, and I think there is room for three PGs. Not sure how those kids would view it though...
"I don't like them when they are eating my azaleas or rhododendrons or pansies." - Coach K
We've had 3 PGs from 2 classes before (Jay Williams, Chris Duhon, and Andre Buckner) so it's not unprecedented. Granted, Buckner wasn't a top recruit, but considering Coach K played Jay and Chris together a lot, it could have worked even if he was.
But I imagine the real strategy in getting involved with Barber is in the case that Cook is good enough to leave after his junior year. Rather than relying on a freshman PG in '14 (especially if we don't get Jones), we could hand the reins to a sophomore Barber and a freshman Richmond.
Whatever happened to those rules that were put in place to prevent coaches from recruiting kids until they were juniors in high school, or something to that effect? Did those just go away?
I think it's voluntary. I think the NABC recommended coaches not offer kids until they are finished with their sophomore seasons. Of course there's relatively no difference between we're offering you now and we're going to offer you in March.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3452988
Interesting read today on Jabari Parker.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/ncb/story...hing-situation
I sure hope we can drag him away from the Big 10 or 12 or whatever that conference is called now