Top prospects for 2021....ESPN

[EdSaid]

There is no integrity in their ranking process.

 

[CocoHusky]

How could the raters move her up when they didn't see her performance? It wasn't an isolated game. She had many outstanding games that merited a rating but she played on a HS team that didn't travel and an AAU team that was essentially her HS team (same coach) that also stayed local. The rankers never saw her play so why did they move her up? They moved her into the rankings only because UConn showed interest which doesn't say much for the integrity of their process.

The raters did see her performances and took note. The raters including USA Today were at the game which @Tonyc mentioned and took copious notes. Once again Saniya rose in the rankings based on performance.

UConn commit Saniya Chong is on a roll for Ossining

\r\n\tHigh-scoring point guard is the subject of this week's American Family Insurance ALL-USA Watch.

usatodayhss.com

 

[Alydar]

The raters did see her performances and took note. The raters including USA Today were at the game which @Tonyc mentioned and took copious notes. Once again Saniya rose in the rankings based on performance.

UConn commit Saniya Chong is on a roll for Ossining

\r\n\tHigh-scoring point guard is the subject of this week's American Family Insurance ALL-USA Watch.

usatodayhss.com

Really? Prospect nation , Blue Star, HG etc were all at her games? I don't remember that. What I see is that after Chong committed to UConn as an un-ranked player she appeared in the rankings and the national media took some notice, as we see in the article you posted and later, her NPOY award from Parade. Until that she was totally ignored in the national rankings, not due to bias but due to the limited resources of the rating services. To a lesser degree the same thing happened to Bent and Irwin.

 

[Alydar]

From memory I recall that Chong entered the rankings after her team went to their first national tournament (Nike Nationals?) in her senior year where she averaged about 30/game. That would be where the raters saw her play (for the first time). Which supports my point that unless a player can afford the cost to be involved in a travelling AAU program they can slip through the cracks.

 

[CocoHusky]

Really? Prospect nation , Blue Star, HG etc were all at her games? I don't remember that. What I see is that after Chong committed to UConn as an un-ranked player she appeared in the rankings and the national media took some notice, as we see in the article you posted and later, her NPOY award from Parade. Until that she was totally ignored in the national rankings, not due to bias but due to the limited resources of the rating services. To a lesser degree the same thing happened to Bent and Irwin.

She was not ignored she was unranked there is a huge difference.

 

[Alydar]

She was not ignored she was unranked there is a huge difference.

You can be unranked for 2 reasons: a) you were observed and considered marginal, or b) you were unobserved. In Chong's case she went unobserved until UConn came along, at which point the rating services looked at her.

So yes, as far as the national rating services we talk about, she was ignored, not by intention or due to bias but simply that they don't get to local AAU tournaments.

 

[jumpstart]

There is no integrity in their ranking process.

What you really mean is....."It's not the way I wanted it to look"....therefore...."no integrity"....

 

[Glenn]

Much of this conversation seems to ignore a tendency for smart people to reassess their views when presented with observations from trusted sources. If an analyst hears that Geno is interested in a player the analyst likely takes that as information that the player is pretty good. Likewise if one service ranks a player highly then others will probably reassess their rankings. It is the smart Bayesian thing to do.

 

[CBus13]

Really? Prospect nation , Blue Star, HG etc were all at her games? I don't remember that. What I see is that after Chong committed to UConn as an un-ranked player she appeared in the rankings and the national media took some notice, as we see in the article you posted and later, her NPOY award from Parade. Until that she was totally ignored in the national rankings, not due to bias but due to the limited resources of the rating services. To a lesser degree the same thing happened to Bent and Irwin.

There is actually an old Boneyard thread titled "Saniya Chong the next great one"

In it, you can see where she was ranked.
Blue Star had her as #83 (per the Jan. 13, 2012 post)
Maxpreps had her ranked 23rd in New York. (per Jan. 19 2012 post)
Also, mentioned going into her pre-senior summer, it is discussed that her AAU team joined with Exodus for an Elite level that previous summer (2011) but she didn't play that summer.

Blue Star also mentioned Saniya Chong as a standout in an April 26th, 2012 post about BC's Pre-Season Challenge "As in the case of Sanya Chong, Hudson River Breeze guard, a leader who does it all and has a basketball focus like no other."

From ESPN Hoopgurlz
USAB U18 Trials-May 12: Slender framed guard. More comfortable with the ball than off the ball. Can score the basketball. Jumper is a little unorthodox but she's an effective scorer in space. Will have to get stronger to absorb contact in traffic. (Clay)

In a New York Post article about Saniya from July 24, 2011 it was reported she had offers from Ohio State and VT and interest from Louisville, St. John's, Providence, Old Dominion, Marist, and St. Bonaventure. the Coach also mentioned that Uconn liked her and "expects to hear from coach Geno Auriemma soon."

I don't know when Hoopgurlz, PN, and BlueStar updated their rankings (since at that time, at least for PN and Hoopgurlz, they updated after high school and after the AAU season) I know she committed to Uconn on October 12th, 2012 (During "Late Night"). This article from PN has her listed as #75 in the rankings. So based on that alone the commitment to UConn didn't see her rankings rise for PN.

It seems that her exposure and growth started happening in the late 2011/early 2012 and that then helped bring her interest from P5 programs (she selected Uconn over Louisville, Maryland, and Ohio State) which I could see as a bigger beacon of attention from scouts.

 

[Stoli]

The Reshaping of the Elite GBB Landscape

The changing of the guard at ESPNW for grassroots basketball is one of the bigger seismic shifts we’ve seen the last few years of the grassroots game. Going from Dan Olson who is a neutral 3rd part…

kallinascouting.wordpress.com

 

[Steelerone]

Ahh, who are they? How big are they? Who do they play for? Who have they played against? What does their coach think about them? What do the opposing coaches think about them? How do they stand academically? How do they get along with their team mates? Are they teachable? And, finally, can they help us? With today's social networking, AAU connections, tapes, and calls from the various coaches does anyone really think that there are players out there who are "overlooked?" Players are, for the very most part, overlooked for one simple reason - the coach does not feel that the player cannot contribute to the team.

 

[Alydar]

All I know about Kenny Kallina is that he is generally disliked by the Vol fans.

 

[bramos]

When I was at UConn (1968-72) one of the guys lived in Massachusetts (Fitchburg, I think) near the Converse factory. You could send him home with $5 and he'd bring a pair of seconds back - hi tops, low tops, black, white, red, green or blue. Gosh, I'm Old!

When I as in high school. Chuck Taylors were $3.50 from the military post exchange, and as an fyi..my jockstrap by Bike was $.75...both items had to last the entire school year..