ESPN re-ranks the Class of 2017... Megan and Evina fall just a bit...

[Kaizen]

Take a look at Dan Olson's company and bio. He is the one who creates the HG rankings and wrote the follow up article.

Dan Olson Collegiate Girls Basketball Report

You do realize that you have to pay between $500 -$1500 to read those reports? Those articles are not free.

 

[Bigboote]

After watching the two exhibition games, I'm thinking Walker will move up. I thought she'd make a leap this year, and I haven't seen anything to indicate otherwise, although the way Makurat is rebounding, Megan won't be getting the 8-9 rebounds a game I thought she would. She may very well approach 20 points per game, though.

 

[bballnut90]

You do realize that you have to pay between $500 -$1500 to read those reports? Those articles are not free.

He is the one who does the HG rankings and the more detailed reports. If you look at HG rankings it says, "Prepared by Dan Olson, Collegiate Girls Basketball Report"

 

[jonson]

Sure I look back at HS rankings and, as you indicated, it’s fun. What I don’t do is attempt to draw some kind of formal equivalencies between HS and college. There are just too many variables in play.

I don't really see these as formal equivalences, just an attempt to see whether high school rankings (his) ended up predicting with some degree of accuracy how (again, in his view) the same players have performed so far at the collegiate level. If nothing else, it indicates how challenging it can be to measure potential in the case of some (many?) players, as well as how many factors (coach, team, attitude, work ethic, etc., and all of them difficult to measure) influence whether or not that potential is realized or exceeded.

Since she's from my team, Satou Sabally's ratings (36 to 2) are the ones that stand out most to me. Did Olson simply miss the boat in the earlier rating (or the later one), since she's from Germany, and Graves see what he didn't? Is it a tribute to how well Oregon develops players? A sign of Sabally's work ethic and willingness to acknowledge areas she needs to improve? A benefit of the attention given to Ionescu or Hebard (who had a rating even lower than Sabally's), or Ionescu's passes? Some combination? And so on. There's lots to talk/think about, with none of it really provable. In short, something irresistible for a lot of fans.

 

[bballnut90]

I don't really see these as formal equivalences, just an attempt to see whether high school rankings (his) ended up predicting with some degree of accuracy how (again, in his view) the same players have performed so far at the collegiate level. If nothing else, it indicates how challenging it can be to measure potential in the case of some (many?) players, as well as how many factors (coach, team, attitude, work ethic, etc., and all of them difficult to measure) influence whether or not that potential is realized or exceeded.

Since she's from my team, Satou Sabally's ratings (36 to 2) are the ones that stand out most to me. Did Olson simply miss the boat in the earlier rating (or the later one), since she's from Germany, and Graves see what he didn't? Is it a tribute to how well Oregon develops players? A sign of Sabally's work ethic and willingness to acknowledge areas she needs to improve? A benefit of the attention given to Ionescu or Hebard (who had a rating even lower than Sabally's), or Ionescu's passes? Some combination? And so on. There's lots to talk/think about, with none of it really provable. In short, something irresistible for a lot of fans.

I think she was vastly underrated more than anything else, or maybe she made big improvements over her senior year after rankings were finished. She's definitely improved big time while at Oregon, but from day 1 she was a double digit scorer. Obviously it helps to play with Sabrina and the competition in front of her wasn't exactly stiff (Mallory McGwire) so she came into a good opportunity, but she has taken full advantage of it. I'd personally rank her over Carter but understand the argument for Chennedy.

 

[LoTrader]

Nonsense!

We shall see how nonsensical when the draft comes around for this class. MO will be drafted ahead of MW

 

[willtalk]

I think she was vastly underrated more than anything else, or maybe she made big improvements over her senior year after rankings were finished. She's definitely improved big time while at Oregon, but from day 1 she was a double digit scorer. Obviously it helps to play with Sabrina and the competition in front of her wasn't exactly stiff (Mallory McGwire) so she came into a good opportunity, but she has taken full advantage of it. I'd personally rank her over Carter but understand the argument for Chennedy.

Overseas players never get rated correctly. I do think that Sabbally being from Germany may have played a role. Generally, Germany just hadn't produced any high-level women's players until Gulish. Sab was picked for the Jordan classic, and although she scored few points I remember telling people , because of all the other things she did so well, that she looked like the most versatile and talented player on the floor.

 

[soxfan23]

We shall see how nonsensical when the draft comes around for this class. MO will be drafted ahead of MW

Sure she will.

 

[oldude]

We shall see how nonsensical when the draft comes around for this class. MO will be drafted ahead of MW

With all due respect, it’s too early to tell. MO is an exceptional athlete, but if UConn’s 2 exhibition games are any indication, Megan is ready to step into the shoes of the great UConn players that came before her. She put up two easy 28 pt games and filled up the stat sheets playing limited minutes, albeit against lesser competition. Megan has transformed her body to become stronger and leaner so that she can run all day and bang in the paint with Bigs.

More importantly she reminds me of the young kid I watched play several times at Monacan HS in VA leading her team to three straight AAA state championships. Megan is playing with a sense of confidence and control that tells you she’ll do whatever it takes whenever it’s needed. Geno often refers to it as, “I got this coach.” It’s something you see in the great ones. Stewie had it. Gabby had it. Ionescu has it. Megan Walker has it too.

 

[JonathanXIV]

We shall see how nonsensical when the draft comes around for this class. MO will be drafted ahead of MW

Now you are adding yet another element into the equation. Where a player is only partially related to how good a college career a player has had. The needs of the teams drafting, for example, play a significant role. I don’t think anyone believes that Pheesha was the 6th best senior last year.

 

[TheFarmFan]

I don’t think anyone believes that Pheesha was the 6th best senior last year.

Well for one thing, Jackie Young wasn't a senior last year, so draft order doesn't even correspond to senior class order. But yeah, insofar as the top two POY candidates (Ionescu and Gustafson) weren't even among the top draft picks (and one wasn't even in it), these are pretty apples to oranges comparisons all the way around.

Also, seriously, who cares if Onyenwere is one or two spots above or below Walker and Westbrook? I think the major takeaway is that she was far less heralded out of high school but has had at least as much, and arguably more, impact and growth in college as either of them. Insofar as the point of these re-rankings is to think about who has impressed more than anticipated, Onyenwere is among those who have most impressed relative to expectations. And I think it's hard to argue that Walker and Westbrook have left less impression on the college game - keyword SO FAR - relative to what we were expecting, esp. vis-a-vis Onyenwere, Sabally, Carter, etc.

But the good news? We get two more years to watch almost all of these players grow and develop. (A few will likely leave early for the WNBA draft.) Walker seems to be making a big leap as a junior. Excellent, I say! The more top players, the better, whether or not they were all as heralded as high school recruits.

 

[Teacherdeb]

IMHO, Chennedy Carter is the most overrated player in WCBB! She plays ZERO defense and she is a gunner!

How many points did she just score against the National team? A few, yes? A gunner for sure, but she can score.

 

[oldude]

How many points did she just score against the National team? A few, yes? A gunner for sure, but she can score.

Actually, Carter was a fairly efficient scorer against the National team. She scored 34 pts on 10/21 shooting, 5/10 from 3-pt, 9/9 FT for 54% of A&M’s 63 pts. That last item points out a potential issue for A&M. If an opposing team can reasonably contain Carter or she has a bad shooting night, can her teammates pick up the slack?

 

[DeeHusky]

Megan is finally looking like “Megatron.” There were a lot of folks saying she didn’t look like an All-American or they were questioning why she was ranked #1 in her class for the past two years. We have to remember that she’s playing for the toughest coach in all of women’s basketball and she was playing behind All-Americans both years. Other players had to come in and be the go-to player or had the opportunity to lead the team. She’s finally not playing like she’s scared or timid and she’s got her swagger back. Now I’m waiting on the fade-aways and the midrange game that came so easily to her in high school. I’ve posted this before, but here’s the video to remind you again. She’s just getting started. 6'1 Megan Walker Attempts Dunk IN GAME: #1 Girl in the Nation

 

[soxfan23]

How many points did she just score against the National team? A few, yes? A gunner for sure, but she can score.

She sure can score, but that is ALL she can she do.

 

[biobioprof]

How many points did she just score against the National team? A few, yes? A gunner for sure, but she can score.

She sure can score, but that is ALL she can she do.

She blocked shots by Napheesa and Nneka last night.

 

[JonathanXIV]

She sure can score, but that is ALL she can she do.

When someone scores over 30 points against the USA team, I'm not sure that is much of a criticism.

 

[soxfan23]

She blocked shots by Napheesa and Nneka last night.

She had 2rbs, 3ast, and 2blks! That is not exactly stuffing the stat sheet!

 

[Reypl21]

She blocked shots by Napheesa and Nneka last night.

She had the sick block against Sylvia at the beginning of the game. Then shortly after she drove at her and scored, and Sylvia tried to block her right back.

Carter has the swagger and confidence that few players have.

 

[Reypl21]

She had 2rbs, 3ast, and 2blks! That is not exactly stuffing the stat sheet!

Are you more impressed with one of Walker's stat lines in her exhibition games, or Carter's stat line for her USA exhibition game?

 

[soxfan23]

Are you more impressed with one of Walker's stat lines in her exhibition games, or Carter's stat line for her USA exhibition game?

I don't get impressed by anybody only watching one game!

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

I don't get impressed by anybody only watching one game!

With all due respect, Chennedy Carter set the scoring record for a collegiate student-athlete against the US National Team, with her 34 points.

The previous record had stood for 23 years.

And, as @oldude, @JonathanXIV , and others have noted above, Carter's performance was not just demonstrative of just how good a scorer she was, but also that she could do so with such efficiency against truly elite competition. Her PPS (points per shot) mark against Team USA was 1.619. To put that in perspective, 2018-19 NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo finished sixth in the NBA in the PPS statistic for last season, at 1.60 (I used 2018-19 NBA statistics for PPS, as I could not find the 2019 WNBA PPS rankings).

 

[DaBball]

I’m not really big on making assumptions based off of exhibition games against Division II schools.

A lot of players looked really, really good in their exhibitions so far.

 

[DaBball]

wha

She sure can score, but that is ALL she can she do.

She averaged nearly 3.5 APG playing off the ball last year, so she can set her teammates up as well!

 

[MSSportsGuy]

I think it's easy for UConn fans tend to dislike volume shooters since their teams rarely have a single player dominate the ball. Arike, Kelsey Mitchell, Chennedy have all received a little flack on this board about being too focused on shooting the ball and not enough on efficiency. I get it. However, I've said in the case of Mitchell and Chennedy that OSU and A&M don't win if they don't shoot the ball. Carter played very well in the tournament last year and it sounds as though she had a good game against the national team. A&M will need to have another player or two step up for them to be in the company with other top teams but Carter is a terrific player.