Just watched 2 matchups of 2 top 20 Ill teams and felt like sharing some thoughts about the future B10 guys I saw and Ill v MN hoops
First game was Warren (w/ Ill bound Rivals #44 in 09 SGBrandon Paul) v Lake Forest (Rivals #131 Michigan bound SG Matt Vogrich)
2nd game was Waukegan (Ill bound SF and 2010 Rivals #19 Jereme Richmond) and Zion (w tOSU bound SG Rivals#97 Lenzelle Smith 2010 SG)
Both were decent games but the funny thing was that none of the players impressed me all that much. Richmond is kind of like th etypical HS star. He's like 6'8", skinny, athletic and has a sweet jumper. Dude may be a beast in a few years but he played mainly in the post and I didn't really get to see his handles or if he can really play on the perimeter. He's fell in the rankings some.
Vogrich is a dead eye shooter and that'll be about it.
Paul is a great shooter with nice handles. He's like 6'4" right now but his feet are huge so he could end up around 6'6". He's very skinny but this kid could be a star too. Still he's essentially a longer, slightly better ball handling Ray Cowles at this point.
Smith is like 6'4" with some serious skills but he was held in check by the D as they just fronted him on the wing and his teammates struggled to get him the ball and their coach ran the same play all night and didn't let him run point until 2 minutes left. Still he has some pretty moves with the ball.
All of these teams are top 20 teams (all classes) in Ill and this section is the toughest in the state this year although none are really traditional powers. The only MN game I've seen is the Hopkins/Cooper game and IMO both were better than all of these teams. Hopkins is obviously a beast but Cooper would beat all of these squads. The best is probably Waukegan (and Waukegan and Warren will be playing Friday for the section champ) but they play 3 guards and 2 forwards similar to Cooper and IMO Coopers guards were definitely better. Plus both love to run and play uptempo.
First game was Warren (w/ Ill bound Rivals #44 in 09 SGBrandon Paul) v Lake Forest (Rivals #131 Michigan bound SG Matt Vogrich)
2nd game was Waukegan (Ill bound SF and 2010 Rivals #19 Jereme Richmond) and Zion (w tOSU bound SG Rivals#97 Lenzelle Smith 2010 SG)
Both were decent games but the funny thing was that none of the players impressed me all that much. Richmond is kind of like th etypical HS star. He's like 6'8", skinny, athletic and has a sweet jumper. Dude may be a beast in a few years but he played mainly in the post and I didn't really get to see his handles or if he can really play on the perimeter. He's fell in the rankings some.
Vogrich is a dead eye shooter and that'll be about it.
Paul is a great shooter with nice handles. He's like 6'4" right now but his feet are huge so he could end up around 6'6". He's very skinny but this kid could be a star too. Still he's essentially a longer, slightly better ball handling Ray Cowles at this point.
Smith is like 6'4" with some serious skills but he was held in check by the D as they just fronted him on the wing and his teammates struggled to get him the ball and their coach ran the same play all night and didn't let him run point until 2 minutes left. Still he has some pretty moves with the ball.
All of these teams are top 20 teams (all classes) in Ill and this section is the toughest in the state this year although none are really traditional powers. The only MN game I've seen is the Hopkins/Cooper game and IMO both were better than all of these teams. Hopkins is obviously a beast but Cooper would beat all of these squads. The best is probably Waukegan (and Waukegan and Warren will be playing Friday for the section champ) but they play 3 guards and 2 forwards similar to Cooper and IMO Coopers guards were definitely better. Plus both love to run and play uptempo.