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The evaluations from spring and summer basketball have been tabulated and the consensus is there is no agreement on who is the No. 1 player going into the 2008-09 season. But five Illinois products and four of coach Bruce Weber's recruits earned recognition among the top 100 seniors in the nation.
Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com and Scout.com favored 6-10 Derrick Favors of Atlanta, Ga., as the leading prospect in the country.
Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports and EPSN picked 6-6 Xavier Henry of Oklahoma City, Okla.
Rivals.com chose 6-4 guard John Wall of Raleigh, N.C.
Clark Francis of HoopScoop selected 6-5 guard Lance Stephenson of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Coleman placed five Illinois products on his top 100 list--guard Brandon Paul (35) of Warren, guard D.J. Richardson (55) of Peoria Central and Henderson, Nev., guard Joe Bertrand (75) of Sterling, point guard Chris Colvin of (95) of Whitney Young and guard Marcus Jordan (100) of Whitney Young.
Paul, Richardson and Bertrand are committed to Illinois. Coleman also named another Illini recruit, 6-8 forward Tyler Griffey (94) of Wildwood, Mo.
Francis included Richardson (32), Paul (34), Bertrand (38), Griffey (84) and Colvin (94) on his top 100 list.
Rivals listed Paul (44), Richardson (57) and Colvin (92). It ranked guard Darius Smith of Marshall at No. 113, Bertrand at No. 116, Griffey at No. 127, guard Matt Vogrich of Lake Forest at No. 131, guard Nik Garcia of Evanston at No. 141 and 6-10 center Angus Brandt of Lake Forest Academy at No. 146.
Scout.com ranked Richardson (66), Brandt (86), Paul (88), Griffey (92) and Vogrich (100).
ESPN listed only Richardson (56), Griffey (69) and 6-8 Jack Cooley (89) of Glenbrook South.
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Comments
Taylor news flash Nic Garcia is transferring to Patterson School in Lenoir,NC. I knew this was coming after Garcia was going to be ineligible at Evanston the first semester. Colvin should be higher so should Richardson. Wall and Stephenson to me are the top players in the country.
Posted by: Tim from Evanston | August 26, 2008 9:16 PM
Mr. Bell! When posting Providence as prep school of the week. Why was there no mention of golfer Dana Mackey? She was sun times athelete of the year wasn't she?
Posted by: George Barrowman | August 27, 2008 5:01 PM