5/24/2020 basketball

Rivals Rankings Week: Final 2020 center rankings

Eric Bossi • Basketball Recruiting

National Analyst

Rivals Rankings Week for the 2020 class concludes today with a look at the final center rankings.

Top gun: Evan Mobley. Headed to USC where he’ll join his older brother Evan Mobley and father Eric Mobley, who is an assistant coach, Mobley is a talent, but a bit of an enigmatic one. He’s a bit timid at times and he has to get much stronger. When he’s playing with fire, though, Mobley is a force on the glass, blocks shots and shows some face-up ability on offense. He’s going to replace NBA-bound Onyeka Okwongwu and projects as an NBA Draft Lottery pick just like Big O.

Coming on strong: Mark Williams. We always said that if the Duke commit would just stop being so nice, he could be a dominant big man. He’s still a very nice young man, but he has definitely started to unlock his inner beast and get more nasty as a shot-blocker and rebounder. If the ability he has started to show as a shooter is legit, look out.

Best fit: Mady Sissoko. If Tom Izzo could put together an assembly line for big men to play at Michigan State, it wouldn’t be a surprise if many of them came out looking like Sissoko. He’s tough, he’s athletic, he goes up and gets rebounds at their highest point with strong hands and he’s been known to catch defenders sleeping with the occasional 17-foot jumper.

Could surprise: Steven Crowl. Big men from Minnesota have found good success at Wisconsin and Crowl looks like another good fit. He’ll eat up a bunch of space, set crushing screens, rebound his area and eventually have to be accounted for if he gets an open look at the rim from 15-20 feet.

Thoughts on the group: The days of the true center aren’t totally numbered, but it’s harder for them to make a splash. This class features more throwbacks than ultra athletes or guys who stretch defenses. Day’Ron Sharpe figures to be a bruiser at North Carolina and Makur Maker is testing the NBA Draft waters. Because of their mobility and shooting touch, Iowa State-bound Xavier Foster and Creighton-bound Ryan Kalkbrenner could develop into sneaky good pro prospects a few years down the road.