Dick Weiss top 25 summary for early period.
Kentucky has finished on top of the boys’ early season rankings, signing three of the top 20 prospects — 6-10 pf Trey Lyles of Indianapolis Arsenal, 7-1 center Karl owns of St. Joseph’s of Metuchen, N.J. and 6-5 guard Devon Booker of Moss Point, Miss– in addition to Tyler Ullius, a top 50 point guard from Marian, Ill. Catholic. but the one they really wanted– small forward Stanley Johnson of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif.– got away, signing with Arizona.
The school that got the biggest impact players was Duke, which signed 6-10 Jahlil Okafor of Chicago Whitney Young, the best post player who play for Team USA Grass Roots teams in recent history. Okafor was was the MVP of the FIBA 18-and-under Americas tournament in 2012 and made the All Star team at the U19 World championships in Prague. Jones is considered the best point guard in the country. The two had talked about signing as a package for the past year and a half and were obviously lured by the fact Mike Krzyzewski has won four national titles two gold medals with Team USA’s senior men’s team in 2008 and 2012.
Once again the Chicagoland area produced the best high level prospects, but the Big Ten and DePaul came up short with 6-8 power forward Cliff Alexander of Chicago Curie..
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Top 20 national boys’s basketball recruits.
1. Jahlil Okafor, 6-10, 265 c Chicago Whitney Young. Duke.
2. Tyus Jones. 6-1, 171 pg Apple Valley. Duke.
3. Myles Turner, 6-11, 225 c Bedford, Tex. Trinity High
4. Cliff Alexander 6-9, 225 pf Chicago Curie. Kansas
5. Trey Lyles, 6-10, 225 pf Indianapolis Arsenal. Kentucky
6. Stanley Johnson, 6-6, 210 sf Mate Dei, Calif. HS.
7. Kelly Oubre, 6-7, 190 sf Findlay, Nev. Prep. Kansas
8. Emmanuel Mudiay, 6-5 190 pg Dallas Prime Prep SMU
9. Karl Towns, 7-1, 235, Metuchen, N.J. St. Joseph’s. Kentucky.
10. Justin Jackson 6-7, 185 sf Tomball, Tex. Homewood Christian. North Carolina.
11. Theo Pinson, 6-6, 190, pf Greensobo Wesleyan. North Carolina.
12. Justice Winslow, 6-5, 208 sf Houston St. John’s. undecided.
13. De’angelo Russell, 6-4, 180 g, Monteverde, Fla. Academy. Ohio State
14. Kevon Looney, 6-8, 190 sf Milwaukee Hamilton. UCLA.
15. Joel Berry 6-0 185 pg Apopka, Fla. Lake Highland.
16. Rashad Vaughn, 6-6, 200 g, Findlay Nev. Prep. undecided.
17. Devin Booker, 6-5, 185 g, Moss Point, Miss. Kentucky
18. Chris McCullough, 6-10, 220 pf changing schools from Brewster Prep. Syracuse
19. James Blackmon, 6-2, 185 g, Marion, Ind. Indiana.
20. Isiaih Whitehead, 6-4, 195 g, Brooklyn Lincoln. Seton Hall.
Top 10 class rankings in terms of need.
1. Duke. 2. Kentucky 3. North Carolina 4. Kansas 5. Arizona 6. Louisville 7. Ohio State 8. Maryland 9. Floirda 10. Seton Hall.
