2021 Rankings Update Preview

<p>How much movement will we see and and what positions, spots, locations will we see the most rises and falls? Those are always the biggest questions when it comes to rankings updates of any sort, and while we would like to tease our new 2021 rankings with some sort of crazy movers and shakers, the lack of basketball being played in Southern California during the COVID-19 pandemic makes it difficult to throw out some bold predictions. So what should you expect when the new rankings drop?</p> <p><strong>Long Beach Poly senior and UCLA-bound [player_tooltip player_id="680212" first="Peyton" last="Watson"] will remain at the very top</strong></p> <p>The 6-foot-8 guard/forward hasn’t played much circuit or camp basketball over the last 10 months, but based on what we’ve seen on his instagram and twitter accounts, Watson is still putting in plenty of time with skill work and conditioning in hopes that there is a high school season. Watson is undoubtedly the top prospect in the state in the 2021 class and I will go on record as saying I think he is the best long-term player in the western United States. Despite a lack of game visibility, there’s nothing anyone else has done since our last update to ouster Watson from the top.</p> <p><strong>A couple of early departures will shuffle things in the Top 20</strong></p> <p>Like we mentioned above with Watson, the same guys who made up the top 15-20 in our last update will be the same guys who are in it this time around, perhaps with a little bit of shake-up. [player_tooltip player_id="680198" first="Reese" last="Dixon-Waters"] graduated early and is at USC, while [player_tooltip player_id="943442" first="Josh" last="O’Garro"] departed Santa Clarita Christian for Oklahoma. That opens up two spots in the top 15 to be filled and will likely require a couple of slight tweaks to take care of. [player_tooltip player_id="680195" first="Wilhelm" last="Breidenbach"], [player_tooltip player_id="747081" first="Kenneth" last="Simpson, Jr."], [player_tooltip player_id="680197" first="Jahmai" last="Mashack"], [player_tooltip player_id="747080" first="Malik" last="Thomas"], [player_tooltip player_id="747086" first="Tyler" last="Powell"] and [player_tooltip player_id="680209" first="Harrison" last="Hornery"] are all in the Top 5 conversation at this point.</p> <p><strong>Transfers and a newly-formed team will also add some more depth to SoCal’s 2021 class</strong></p> <p>The addition of Southern California Academy, which competes on The Grind Session, will add a handful of players to our 2021 rankings, including [player_tooltip player_id="533057" first="Anthony" last="Swift"], [player_tooltip player_id="608059" first="Jalen" last="Weaver"], [player_tooltip player_id="963954" first="Yaru" last="Harvey"], Dreshaun Doyne, and Kingsley Ijeoma. Keep an eye out for those names and where they land in the next update as they are talented prospects who are pledged to Division I programs.</p> <p><strong>The most movement will come in the middle and toward the end of the list</strong></p> <p>One thing that the pandemic has helped us do is identify more and more players to include in the rankings for the class of 2021. By watching tons of film on various streaming platforms and looking deep into local team rosters, we’ve identified some talented guys who deserve some rankings recognition. Many of these players will fall into the 60-100 range of our update, but be sure to look for some new names on the list.</p>