Rivals Roundtable: New five-stars, Player of the Year, all-star games
This week in the Rivals Roundtable analysts Eric Bossi, Corey Evans and Dan McDonald have some thoughts on upcoming rankings updates. Also, who makes up their midseason All-America teams and what changes would they make to the McDonald’s All-American Game.
Hoophall Prep Showcase: Bossi's Friday takeaways
1. We are a little over a week away from updating the rankings in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Who is one non five-star, regardless of class, that you are beating the drum for to get bumped up to five-star?
Bossi: There are actually two committed 2020 players that stand out to me for a bump and they are Duke-bound D.J. Steward and Arizona State-bound Marcus Bagley. Steward isn’t the biggest two guard (a 6-foot-4 listing is generous) you will ever see but he has out produced many above him and keeps getting better. He shoots it very well, plays with a tremendous motor and is a true competitor. As for Bagley, I love his size, his jump shot and his college ready body. He’s a stone-cold scorer on the wing who is big and strong enough to play as a small ball four if needed and he’ll give Bobby Hurley a lot of flexibility in how he uses him. Both Steward and Bagley have been monsters during their senior years.
Evans: Kendall Brown is more than deserving of a five-star rating but seeing that he is just one spot away, I wanted to throw another name out there that is a bit further down the list. In the 2022 class, there is no question in my mind that Keyonte George is a five-star prospect and a top-10 recruit nationally. The progressions that he continues to make with his game, body and overall production only confirm the fact that he is one of the best. George is the entire package at the guard position: he has size, athleticism, difficult shot making abilities, vision and loads of swagger. Baylor, California, Ole Miss, TCU, Texas and Texas A&M are among those already making him a priority.
McDonald: I’d have to go with Bruce Thornton here in the 2022 class. He checks every box I like in a point guard. He has great size at 6-foot-2. He’s a great decision-maker with the ball and he’s a very efficient and capable scorer when needed. His strength and quickness allow him to be a really good and versatile defender. His shot has improved quite a bit over the past year. I’d feel really good about him being ranked a five-star. Alabama, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Ole Miss, Tulane, Vanderbilt and Xavier have offered while Kentucky has gotten very involved.
2. Who is your national player of the year at this point? Who else would you put on a five-man All-American team?
Bossi: It’s been a strange year in college hoops and one where you can’t count on anything happening as planned. Because of that the debate for Player of the Year and All-American is going to be all over the place. For Player of the Year I would currently go with Myles Powell at Seton Hall. Big East foe Markus Howard (who gets a slot on my midseason AA team) of Marquette is ridiculous scorer, but I feel like Powell has more of an impact on his teammates so I give him a slight edge. I’ll round out my team with Obi Toppin of Dayton, Vernon Carey Jr. of Duke and I will finish the team out with Luke Garza of Iowa. Toppin has been physically dominant, Carey is the most consistent freshman and best player on one of the nation’s best teams while Garza’s scoring and rebounding has been huge for Iowa.
Evans: I am all for the national player of the year coming from one of the best teams in America, that is unless there is someone that is transcendentally great but on a middling team which is what we don’t have this year. That being said, Vernon Carey gets my vote. He has been super-efficient all year long and has come through whenever Duke has needed him the most. Averaging close to 18 points and nine rebounds, in just under 25 minutes per game, for a top-five team in the sport, it is Carey that is the easy choice.
Joining him on the All-American team would be two greybeards within the sport, Payton Pritchard and Cassius Winston. They could both be the catalysts for their team’s run to the Final Four in the coming weeks and have been rock-solid at the point of attack all year long. You can’t go wrong with Myles Powell who has his Seton Hall squad on a seven-game winning streak. As a surprise fifth man, I will go with Daniel Oturu who is arguably the most productive frontline player in America and has averaged over 25 points and 12 rebounds throughout Big 10 play.
McDonald: I’m not sure if a player from Dayton could actually win national player of the year, but Obi Toppin has been the most dominant player I’ve seen. He’s averaging just under 20 points and eight rebounds per game while shooting a super impressive 62.7 percent from the field. More important, he’s helped make Dayton a real contender to make a run in March. To round out my five, I’d go with Markus Howard of Marquette, Myles Powell of Seton Hall, Jared Butler of Baylor and Luka Garza of Iowa.
3. The McDonald's All-American Game rosters will be released on Thursday. Has the game lost any luster? Would you change anything if you could?
Bossi: I don’t think the game has lost much luster. Making the game is still matters immensely to top prospects and those around them and I still get peppered with questions online and via phone about who is going to make it throughout the process. Our event coverage always does really well too so fans care. I’d love to wait a little longer in the season before deciding the teams. Mid-January is too early in my mind and I don’t see why final voting couldn’t wait until a month later. I would also like to figure out a way to spice things up and for that I’d add a 1-on-1 contest to the dunk and 3-point contests. Finally, big NBA arenas are cool and all but I miss the days of the game rotating to different cities each year. Let’s put the game in places that will support it and even better, let’s move it back to college campuses.
Evans: It has maybe lost a little bit of its luster but that is not entirely its own fault but rather the creation of a number of other all-star events like the Jordan Brand Classic, BallisLife All-American Game, and the Allen Iverson Roundball Classic. What needs to be done on the McDonald’s All-American front is for it to be a bit more transparent with the voting process, make for public cutdown groups and dates (similar to what we see in the College Football Playoff process with the semi-regular rankings updates) to drum up interest and to market the entire process and game further (we don’t seem to hear about the event unless it is the day or week of, and the night of the teams being named. It also seems that we are just thrown the nominees out of the blue one week and the next being told who made the game. This is still the premier all-star event within the sport and nothing has changed that sentiment. It has lost some of its polish but greater marketing, transparency and a build-up would definitely help in pushing it back into the spotlight.
McDonald: I’m not a big fan of all-star games to begin with and I think it’s a tough evaluation setting. For example, I think the McDonald’s All-American Game practices and game were a big part of Zion Williamson not being the No. 1 prospect like he should have been and it probably elevated Nassir Little’s stock a little too much. That being said, I don’t really think the game has lost its luster. I still hear prospects and people around them talk about making that game as one of their biggest goals. I wouldn’t change the process at all because the players still buy into it and I think the whole experience is fun for them. I just personally don’t think evaluators should go crazy leaving that week with hot takes and rankings changes.