Every year around this time, the current Junior class moves from ESPN 60 to ESPN 100. Being that Seniors graduate around this time, they are no longer a part of high school basketball rankings. New kids get a chance to be in the spotlight and the ones that were ranked in the ESPN 60 get a chance to reevaluate themselves. We can never know what these rankings really mean. There is always so much controversy that it’s hard to tell if they are 100% right. Two great examples of sparking controversy this year were 5-Star 6’4 SF Rawle Alkins out of Brooklyn, NY and 5-Star 6’5 SG Tyus Battle out of Edison, NJ.
We haven’t seen or heard much about Tyus Battle this AAU circuit. We weren’t able to get in contact with him but it doesn’t seem like he played AAU at all. However, he did commit to the Univeristy of Michigan a few weeks ago so it seems like he’s still focused. If he’s in the gym focused on getting ready for his senior year and then his freshman year at Michigan, it could be the right move for him. Tyus always seemed to find his way in the Top 10 in ESPN’s rankings. He was most recently ranked #27. That’s a big drop, probably because we just haven’t seen much of him. Whether or not it matters to him, we just don’t know. I wish him the best of luck and hopefully his senior year will bring that ranking back to top 10.
Rawle Alkins, the 6’4 Small Forward out of NY was ranked #22. Rawle was ranked a top 30 player in the ESPN 60. His performance at many events has improved since the ESPN 60 but his ranking hasn’t improved much at all. He has been killing the Adidas Gautlet, he received CO-MVP at the Pangos Alll American camp and he is currently having a great performance at the Adidas EuroCamp playing against some of the best U20 and U19 competition in the world. Many scouts say that there simply aren’t 21 players out there better than Rawle, we’ll have to see if ESPN agrees in the next update. After talking to Rawle about it, all he had to say was “Wouldn’t mean a thing over time.”
Maybe Rawle’s right, only time will tell. What do you have to say about these rankings?
