Advertisement
basketball Edit

Bossi's Best: Reviewing rankings for Tournament stars

The Sweet 16 kicks off Thursday. In this week’s edition of Bossi’s Best, we take a look at four significant contributors left in the field whose rankings Rivals got right and another four that we whiffed on.

MORE: Rival Views - Who will benefit most from Sweet 16 run? | Twitter Tuesday

THE HITS

Advertisement

Somehow, Jackson’s impact at Kansas as a freshman has been a bit under-hyped. After all, he was the No. 1 ranked player in the vaunted class of 2016, and he’s put up huge numbers as a freshman. But Jayhawks senior point guard Frank Mason has been sensational too, and it has taken away from some of the headlines Jackson might get. The reason I went with Jackson at No. 1 for the majority of his high school career was because he was an alpha competitor. He proved that to be the case in the second round against Michigan State. With Kansas clinging to a one-point lead about midway through the second half, Jackson took over and singlehandedly changed the game as Kansas cruised to a 20-point win.

At this point, South Carolina is the darling of the Sweet 16, and it should be, having made their first trip in over 40 years. A huge part of it has to do with the scoring, leadership and toughness of their senior leader. Thornwell was a stud in high school, and I remember at the time he committed discussing with a South Carolina assistant that he would be as good for the Gamecocks as Rodney McGruder had been for Frank Martin and his staff at Kansas State. McGruder was a stud the three years Martin got to coach him at Kansas State, but Thornwell has been even better and more integral to the success Martin is now enjoying at South Carolina.

You can almost take a dart and throw it at the Kentucky roster and land on an important freshman, and Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo have been awesome. However, because he had a bit of a midseason slump, Fox kind of got lost in the shuffle when discussing the country’s best freshman. He’s playing his best basketball of the season, and I don’t think it is any coincidence that as a team Kentucky appears to be at its best. I always figured his speed could be a game changer on both ends, and it has worked out that way.

I always liked Bluiett in high school because he could fill it up from deep, but more importantly he had a toughness about him that would allow him to be a versatile scorer. He made a great school choice to maximize his usage. After looking very average for much of the season, Xavier has reached the Sweet 16 as an 11 seed, and it is no surprise that Bluiett has put up huge numbers during their NCAA run.

THE MISSES

Alford was a nice player in high school, and he was a great shooter. But he was pretty average athletically, had questionable competition in New Mexico. I figured the only reason he would see the floor at UCLA was because his father was the coach. Early on, the fact that his father Steve was coach did help him get on the floor. But Alford has become one of the best scorers in school history and is clearly much better than the three-star prospect who landed outside of the 2013 Rivals150 I rated him as coming out of high school.

Even though he hails from the basketball hotbed of Chicago, Carter wasn’t highly touted as a high school player. I remember seeing him and thinking he would eventually be a really good upperclassmen for a good mid-major program. Now I watch the former three-star prospect and can’t imagine seeing a West Virginia team without him on the floor. As it turns out, he has been everything Bob Huggins wants in a player. And while Carter might have been underappreciated in high school, he’s getting the notoriety he’s due now.

Another three-star prospect who didn’t make the Rivals150, Hayes was a bit of a tweener coming out of high school. He was tough and projected to be a nice role player for Wisconsin. Obviously, he’s proven to be much more than that; looking back, I didn’t realize how skilled he is. Hayes is just one of several overachievers -- relative to high school reputation -- on a tough and fun-to-watch Wisconsin team.

Rating kids from outside the United States who I didn’t get to see in person is always something I dread. When I watched film on the star seven-footer from Finland I thought he had skill, was a good shooter and that he had some toughness. I also thought he was a bit stiff, shorter than he was being listed and that the college game might be a bit fast for him as a freshman. What I didn’t realize was that he wasn’t just a good shooter, but instead otherworldly for his size. He has also proven to be bigger and much more athletic than film led me to believe. After lots of waffling between four and five stars I settled on four, and clearly I made the wrong call on the soon-to-be NBA lottery pick.

Advertisement