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Message: [QUOTE="UcMiami, post: 4158843, member: 199"] I think one thing people forget is college is a very different beast from high school 1. There are so many more HS teams than college teams so the weeding out of less talented players and less challenging opponents is significant at the college level and the ability to actually create a HS ranking for the 1000s of HS players is challenging. 2. There is a huge developmental growth rate for humans between ages 13 and 18, and a much smaller one between 18 and 22. In high school juniors and seniors are much more developed than freshmen and sophomores - the same is not true for those same divisions of college age kids. 3. HS kids are 'rated' by how well they play against a) HS teams/kids 90+% of whom are sub par, and b) travel teams which have lots of talent but questionable coaching/practice time. 4. HS classes are not created equal - the Griner, Stewart, etc. players do not show up in every class and sometimes there is really very little difference between a #1 ranking and a #10 ranking or there are different 'plateaus' of players. We see this coming out the back end as well in the quality of WNBA draft classes. 5. The number of McDonalds AAs is 24 each year and almost all are seniors. The number of 1st team college AAs is 10. The above means: 1. The chance of a college freshman being a key cog in a quality college program is higher because most of the physical and mental development of the player has already happened. The chance of a upper class player's talent being superseded by a freshman or sophomore is not as surprising as it is in HS. 2. While WNBA draft is not perfect in identifying talent, seldom is the #1 ranked player in the HS class drafted #1 in the WNBA - in fact the draft seldom comes close to matching the corresponding HS ranking for the first or later rounds. There are always 'late bloomers' or overlooked HS talent, there are also stalled developments, injuries, etc. (This is true for all sports that have a HS/college/pro progression.) 3. HS rankings are based on a single year generally, so while Paige and Azzi were variously considered 'best' HS players prior to their HS senior year, they were never included in the majority of HS rankings until their senior year. There is no college player ranking beyond the AA teams and various POY votes and those are based on a four year collection of players. (WNBA draft is the only ranking based primarily on graduating class.) 4. Theoretically you could be the #1 player in your HS class and still be the #1 player in that class as a college senior and if the three classes following yours were significantly more talented at the top than your class you might not even be in the top 20 college players when you graduate. 5. Being a college AA is much tougher than being a McDonald's AA - there are about 40 McDonald's AA playing every year in college and only 10 college AA 1st teamers and 5 more second/third teamers. We'll see where our seniors end up this year as it is still 'all to play for.' But some of that is not even based on individual talent but team talent and this is a medical disaster of a year for the team, making continuity and flow and chemistry more challenging. Were the team to find their groove and end the year with a win, the players would all look like AAs! [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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