2025 Recruiting: Kelis Fisher (merged threads)

[MooseJaw]

Yeah I looked through highlights and she’s definitely a 10x better finisher than KK was last season. Also seems very strong under the basket when she goes in for the drive, knows how to get to her spot and initiate contact.

Agree, plus the young lady is built like a bulldog, strong, compact and slightly scary.

 

[RoadMaster]

Swipe for highlights..

 

[yhun89]

Swipe for highlights..

stats for Kelis?

 

[HuskyNan]

Highlights. Kelis is #1 in the black uni for IMG, Agot was there as well for Montverde but did not play

 

[HuskyNan]

Turns out Kelis had 21 points vs Montverde, the #2 ranked high school in the country

• Across the country, Montverde beat IMG 65-57 in a much anticipated battle of elite Florida academies. The No. 1 recruit in the ESPN class of 2026, Saniyah Hall, scored 26 points for Montverde while 2025 ESPNW 100 No. 27 recruit and UConn commit Kelis Fisher led IMG with 21 points.

SCNext Top 25: The best high school girls' basketball teams in 2024-25

Ranking the top 25 girls' high school basketball programs after a stretch of major playoff action.

www.espn.com

 

[AmeriConn]

Turns out Kelis had 21 points vs Montverde, the #2 ranked high school in the country

• Across the country, Montverde beat IMG 65-57 in a much anticipated battle of elite Florida academies. The No. 1 recruit in the ESPN class of 2026, Saniyah Hall, scored 26 points for Montverde while 2025 ESPNW 100 No. 27 recruit and UConn commit Kelis Fisher led IMG with 21 points.

SCNext Top 25: The best high school girls' basketball teams in 2024-25

Ranking the top 25 girls' high school basketball programs after a stretch of major playoff action.

www.espn.com

How in the world can Kelis only be ranked at #27 with ESPN?

 

[HuskyNan]

How in the world can Kelis only be ranked at #27 with ESPN?

HoopGurlz doesn’t update their rankings as often as they have in the past. Maybe Kelis hadn’t been seen many times when she was previously evaluated

Keep in mind that human bias, conscious or not, is inherent in these rankings

 

[Zonepress]

How in the world can Kelis only be ranked at #27 with ESPN?

Why care how they are rated?

 

[ERWUC65]

Who has offered

Saniyah Hall​

 

[yhun89]

How in the world can Kelis only be ranked at #27 with ESPN?

1. Next year's class is pretty damn competitive. The top 5 could all be easily switchable IMO.
2. They moved her down 4 spots in the last update, and that was after she scored 30 against the OT Select Champion team with multiple 5 star talents. Might be a bit of a bias here.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Who has offered

Saniyah Hall​

UConn...

 

[HuskyNan]

Who has offered

Saniyah Hall​

Look at the players of interest thread tacked at the top of the board

 

[Alydar]

Why care how they are rated?

Keep in mind that the ranker is a professional evaluator and gets paid by parents and coaches in recruiting. Fisher verballed to UConn as a freshman and so was hardly even looked at because she was no longer an available recruit. No other school was going to ask for a detailed assessment on a player committed to UConn.
I saw a recent game she was in and I was very impressed, especially with her physicality (for a guard).

 

[Basingstoke]

Based on what I saw last year in 2 televised games, I don't really know if she's a true point guard, but she is a very quick, solid, aggressive player on offense and on the boards. And when she drives, she seems like a real finisher; unafraid of contact.

 

[BobbyJ]

Keep in mind that the ranker is a professional evaluator and gets paid by parents and coaches in recruiting. Fisher verballed to UConn as a freshman and so was hardly even looked at because she was no longer an available recruit. No other school was going to ask for a detailed assessment on a player committed to UConn.
I saw a recent game she was in and I was very impressed, especially with her physicality (for a guard).

Just like in CFB, many schools will continue to recruit verbally committed kids right up until signing time in an effort to flip them as long as the kid continues to accept their communication. Those kids are still available recruits. That’s why coaches of the school committed to continue to visit and view that kid’s games to maintain that relationship right up until signing day. And no top 30 or so programs need some website’s recruit rankings, they do and have their own which are more reliable and less subjective. Those websites have no idea what the coaches’ requirements and preferences are. Auriemma and his staff along with his contacts all over the place find the players he wants.

 

[Alydar]

Just like in CFB, many schools will continue to recruit verbally committed kids right up until signing time in an effort to flip them as long as the kid continues to accept their communication. Those kids are still available recruits. That’s why coaches of the school committed to continue to visit and view that kid’s games to maintain that relationship right up until signing day. And no top 30 or so programs need some website’s recruit rankings, they do and have their own which are more reliable and less subjective. Those websites have no idea what the coaches’ requirements and preferences are. Auriemma and his staff along with his contacts all over the place find the players he wants.

All that is true but the evaluation services that rank players would go broke evaluating players who have verballed to UConn and it's the rankings of one of them that ESPN uses, not the opinions of coaches. I'm sure Fisher got contacted by schools during her entire career at IMG but not by Premier.

 

[BobbyJ]

All that is true but the evaluation services that rank players would go broke evaluating players who have verballed to UConn and it's the rankings of one of them that ESPN uses, not the opinions of coaches. I'm sure Fisher got contacted by schools during her entire career at IMG but not by Premier.

ESPN (Hoopgurlz) has their own evaluators, they don't use a separate website for their rankings. Premier, Prospect Nation, Blue Star etc. are all independent and competing sites. And they all rate and update those ratings periodically regardless of whether the players have verbally committed to a school or not. The majority of their ratings are done based on what they observe at the same spring and summer circuit events that the coaches attend during the NCAA evaluation periods. The evaluators can see a very large amount of kids at these "one stop shop" events and the cost to attend isn't really that big. Those websites may have informal discussions with coaches they know but it's true, those coaches don't have have direct input on those rankings.

 

[HuskyNan]

The people at HoopGurlz aren’t paid by anyone, in fact they’re lucky they get travel expenses reimbursed. I know because I worked for them for a few years. Some sites like Gold Star, ASGR, ProspectsNation, etc get revenue from coaches/schools that subscribe to get more in depth info on recruits. Heck, if there were any money to be made in scouting I’d be doing that rather than dragging myself to an office every week

There are sites the parents pay for like Hudl but I’m not aware that they do rankings

While IMG is a high profile school, it’s quite possible Kelis simply wasn’t seen much and it’s possible when she was seen, she had a bad game. It’s not like scouts are at every game at every tournament - they’re spread thin and simply can’t see all of the players enough to make a complete evaluation. That’s why I pretty much disregard rankings

 

[BobbyJ]

The people at HoopGurlz aren’t paid by anyone, in fact they’re lucky they get travel expenses reimbursed. I know because I worked for them for a few years. Some sites like Gold Star, ASGR, ProspectsNation, etc get revenue from coaches/schools that subscribe to get more in depth info on recruits. Heck, if there were any money to be made in scouting I’d be doing that rather than dragging myself to an office every week

There are sites the parents pay for like Hudl but I’m not aware that they do rankings

While IMG is a high profile school, it’s quite possible Kelis simply wasn’t seen much and it’s possible when she was seen, she had a bad game. It’s not like scouts are at every game at every tournament - they’re spread thin and simply can’t see all of the players enough to make a complete evaluation. That’s why I pretty much disregard rankings

Very true. I can't understand why so many fans take these rankings as gospel and then build up high expectations based on a few individual's personal opinions. And to think that coaches of high level programs would rely on these opinions to do their jobs and build their rosters is amusing. Being #5 or #40 against HS kids has very little to do with how a kid will play against college competition.

 

[HuskyNan]

Very true. I can't understand why so many fans take these rankings as gospel and then build up high expectations based on a few individual's personal opinions. And to think that coaches of high level programs would rely on these opinions to do their jobs and build their rosters is amusing. Being #5 or #40 against HS kids has very little to do with how a kid will play against college competition.

It’s also true that rankings are affected by which schools are recruiting a girl. Gandy wasn’t ranked until she committed to UConn, same as the Alaskan Jess Moore, who hadn’t been seen by a single scout.

I’m aware coaches have helped out some kids just by showing up at their games and not disputing a girl’s statement she’s being recruited by them. It’s not a rarity to see a girl’s list of interests be a bunch of high mid-majors and one top 10 team