Wisconsin prep player rankings updated

[MarkMiller]

For those of you interested in Wisconsin high school basketball, updated player rankings for the classes of 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 are now up on our Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook/News Web site, www.wbby.com at no charge. The next update will take place at the end of July.

Also, for the June issue of the Wisconsin Basketball News, our cover story will be on the winningest prep basketball teams over the past decade. I'd like to have a top 10 for each of the four divisions for a total of 40 schools. If you know of school(s) I should look into, besides the usual suspects, please drop me an e-mail at [e-mail]. Thanks much.

[Craig]

its good to see not one player from wisconsin is commited in anyway to UWM

[bball30]

Those are bogus anyway, look at 2008, Milwaukee King has 5 players listed, it's just a guessing game, nothing to get worked up over.

[Craig]

well im not saying the rankings are at all credible, but how can we not even have one player coming in out of wisconsin. This is why i thought it was a bad idea getting Jeter, now we are just wisconsins little brother. we have no chance of getting a bigger recruit as long as wisconsin wants them.

It seems as though the top rated players are all going to UW and Marquette, then the second rated players are going to GB for who knows why, leaving us with players that i dont think are at our level right now. so were SOL. Jeter better be bringing in some chicago or juco talant or something quick.

[Kingsbury]

So if we picked somebody other than Jeter, UWM would have a better chance at Wisconsin recruits? Even if BP stayed, was UWM really going to sign anybody from Wisconsin this year? If your worried about recruiting Wisconsin, I would think that you would be happy that UWM signed Jeter. Just let the recruiting process play out and it will work out fine. I would put money down that there will be at least 3 players from WI in the 2006 recruiting class.

[Kroener3535]

My prediction is that in 4 years 3/4 of our roster is Wisconsin players and that they have zilch for athleticism and we play Bo ball but we are still successful....I just see it in my head...

[pnthr97]

Kroener, "Bo ball" is full-court, up-tempo basketball. That's what he (and Jeter, as player and coach) won National Championships with. Bo simply doesn't have the players to run that style at UW right now. Jeter, on the other hand, has the players in place to play that way. Jeter will be successful, he'll get his recruits, and all will be fine. I have a great deal of confidence in that.

[pnthr30]

Craig said:

well im not saying the rankings are at all credible, but how can we not even have one player coming in out of wisconsin. This is why i thought it was a bad idea getting Jeter, now we are just wisconsins little brother. we have no chance of getting a bigger recruit as long as wisconsin wants them.

It seems as though the top rated players are all going to UW and Marquette, then the second rated players are going to GB for who knows why, leaving us with players that i dont think are at our level right now. so were SOL. Jeter better be bringing in some chicago or juco talant or something quick.

In the large scope of things, WI is not a basketball hotbed for recruiting (high school ball). Are there a few players here and there that pan out?........sure, but it isn't like WI is stacked with talent (i.e. Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, etc.). UWM never was (and likely never will be) in a position to get the top ranked players from WI - if UW or MU go after them - that is just a fact. With the ebb and flow of talent, there will be years that we don't want the second tier WI player - this may be one of those years. IMHO we can still get third or fourt tier (i.e. honorable mention all state, etc.) players from IL, OH, IN and still be better off then getting the "second best" in WI. I am not saying that we shouldn't recruit WI talent when it is there, but there are going to be times when it just doesn't make sense to "waste" time in WI - this may be one of those times. Recruiting is about relationships (with players, coaches, families, etc.) Rob has been on the job for less than a month........give the guy a break. The relationships he built with the players he was recruiting at UW are great, but they don't immediately help him recruit to UWM - the relationships with coaches (AAU and high school) will help him......players don't pop out of the woodwork overnight, and other schools have a leg up at this point. I am sure that Rob is zeroing in on a few that he wants and go after - which again takes a little bit of time. At the end of the day, the stage is set for Rob to be successful, and he seems to have all the pieces in place (personally) to get the job done. Time will tell, but we at least owe him the curtesy of giving him a little time.

I agree with pnthr97..........Rob (and Bo) definitely know how to play uptempo ball.........they just didn't have the talent (players) to play that way at UW. In order to play that way at a "high" level (i.e. Big Ten, ACC, SEC (BP)), you need SERIOUS athletes. You can play uptempo in a league like the HL with some good athletes and some OK athletes, but in the "big time" you need to be stacked.

[dylanrocks]

Panther 30 covers a lot of ground. But I'll add that Platteville scored 97 points a game in its 1990-91 championship season. That's right, Ninety-Seven points a game. Rob Jeter was a senior captain on that team, so it is very safe to say that he grew up with a running, pressing style. The Badgers were reportedly ready to adopt more of this style last year, but injuries, the stunted development of players and Boo Wade's troubles short-circuited their plans.

[Craig]

im not saying if we kept BP we would have gotten anyone from wisconsin but then again if we would have went with Tony Jones as coach, i doubt we'd have lost every single one of our recruits, but im not going to keep whinning about the coaching change, ill just wait and hope you guys are right and we get 3 decent recruits out of nowhere.

[MarkMiller]

Coach Jeter and his staff have extended an offer to 2006 recruit Andy Polka of Oshkosh West. I would expect UWM to also recruit D'Angalo Jackson of Pius and perhaps Reggie Bunch of Racine St. Catherine's, among others. UWM will have a strong presence in the state with Rob in charge, IMO.

[victorepanther]

I sure hope so. I agree with what's been said about giving Coach Jeter a chance to get to work, but I also think Wisconsin, and the Metro-Milwaukee area in particular are under recruited.
Look at Torre Johnson - he could have just as easily have been on the end of the UWM bench the last two years instead of going to JUCO. Ricky Franklin was the conference player of the year in the state's toughest league and he's still not committed to a school. I know the knock against MPS players is always academics (not necessarily the two examples above, I don't know their situations, just generalizing), but the university as a whole is really looking at creating academic opportunities for kids from Milwaukee, so I don't think there's any real reason to keep ignoring these prospects even if they can't all play freshman year.
Also, let's not forget that in some programs, UWM doesn't take a back seat to anybody, so the school may be the perfect fit for some individuals. We can't always concede the best players to MU and UW-Madison.

[Kroener3535]

I didnt emphasize my point enough...my point was being that if he wants in state kids we very well could be playing like Wisconsin has done under Bo....there are athletes in the state but not the kind we can get...sure the Landry's and what not...but those athletes are going out of state or to MU or Wi...I guess Im just saying if we get players like GB gets, where they are successful or are becoming successful with in state recruits, they play a controlled slow it down pace...and they dont have athletic guards and are forced to play that tempo...I just hope it doesnt get that way

[dylanrocks]

Victor E: To clarify, we did recruit Torre Johnson out of Juneau two years ago and he committed to UWM. The problem: He didn't qualify academically, meaning he had to attend either a prep school or a junior college. He chose the JUCO route, earned Jayhawk Conference player of the year honors as a freshman and his stock soared, opening the eyes of programs like Oklahoma St. and Arizona. So, no, he couldn't have been at the end of our bench the last two years. I agree, though, that the new staff must (and without question will) continue to recruit the city and state.

[victorepanther]

thanks for the clarification on the Johnson recruiting. I remember seeing Bruce Pearl and other people from the team at a few Juneau games at the time, but I never heard the information you just provided on the committment and the decision to go JUCO.

To me though, if the kids have good enough grades to get into school, but not to play right away, it may be worth bringing them in straight out of high school if they're going to improve so much while they get their grades in order that we never get another look at them when they're eligible. Granted, you can't do that with too many players, but if you pick the right ones, it could work out great for the kids and the team.