2028 Player Rankings

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>At the end of March we had&nbsp;<strong>270</strong>&nbsp;players to rank for the 2028 class and now we are at&nbsp;<strong>288</strong>&nbsp;players.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>27 players are new</strong>&nbsp;and 9 either moved or they do not play anymore at their school or switched sports.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Of the 27 new players, 4 fell in the top-25, 8 fell in the top-100 and 20 in the top-200. The other 7 fell in the top-288.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Which means some of the players rankings went down. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our goal at&nbsp;<strong>PrepHoopsAZ</strong>&nbsp;is to try and recognize anyone who may play college basketball. We will keep searching for new players in preseason camps/events/leagues/Prep Hoops Circuit, AOG AZ High Academic Camp, Arizona Top-250 EXPO, my personal&nbsp;<a href="https://southwestaacamp.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Southwest Basketball Camp</a>&nbsp;and during the AIA/CAA/P32/Grind Session seasons.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://prephoops.com/arizona/rankings/2028-rankings/","type":"wp-embed","providerNameSlug":"prep-hoops"} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-prep-hoops wp-block-embed-prep-hoops"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://prephoops.com/arizona/rankings/2028-rankings/ </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>1. The Preps are once again taking over as 5 of the top-5 are all from the Prep Wold with [player_tooltip player_id='2758274' first='Mateen' last='Cleaves Jr'], [player_tooltip player_id='1651788' first='Jakyi' last='Miles'], [player_tooltip player_id='2532089' first='Darren' last='Ford'], [player_tooltip player_id='2802608' first='Liam' last='Mitakaro'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2976850' first='Isaiah' last='Clarke']. The next 5 in the top-10 has 4 AIA players with [player_tooltip player_id='2249943' first='Lleyton' last='Leonard'], [player_tooltip player_id='2432574' first='Terrance' last='Byrd'], [player_tooltip player_id='2457665' first='Viktor' last='Babic'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2552733' first='Donovan' last='Palmer'] plus [player_tooltip player_id='3241080' first='Hassan' last='Abdulkadir'] from the prep world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>2. The top-10 are all nationally ranked on different websites but the top-20 are all players that may be nationally ranked making this 2028 group arguably the deepest group of talent in Arizona and arguably a top-5 state in the country with [player_tooltip player_id='1956218' first='Marcus' last='Isaac'], [player_tooltip player_id='2412268' first='Maurice' last='Carter II'], [player_tooltip player_id='2276223' first='Kingston' last='Montague'], [player_tooltip player_id='2370259' first='Terry' last='McKinney III'] ,[player_tooltip player_id='3622192' first='Settimo' last='Yugu'], [player_tooltip player_id='2552772' first='Tre' last='Terry'], [player_tooltip player_id='2301235' first='Rhys' last='M. Robinson'], [player_tooltip player_id='2194808' first='Carter' last='Bagley'], [player_tooltip player_id='2386978' first='Jaydon' last='Hayes'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1873639' first='Grant' last='Mattingly']. In different years some of these players would be easily ranked in the Top-10 or even Top-5.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>3. Rankings are based on a lot of things. Production, size for position, college coaches, the eye test, ability to score and defend, instincts, IQ, how a player moves, speed, ball handling, shooting, fundamentals. length and possible upside. It is not the easiest thing to do since not all players play in the same leagues for AAU and HS. They can be in the CAA, Grind Session, P32 and the AIA obviously has different levels. Plus AAU teams may play on National Circuits (3SSB, UAA, EYBL or Pro16 Puma) or play on independent or up and coming circuits (Pangos, NxtPro, EYCL, UAA Rise, Prep Hoops, WCE, New Balance, The Stage and so on). So you put all that information together and create the rankings.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>4. The reality is if the player has not grown in height, has not improved his shooting or polished up his game, IQ for the game is the same, he is not a top-tier defender and he is undersized for his position, he does not play heavy minutes on his varsity team or he is not very productive, he probably dropped in the rankings.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>5. On the flip side, if he is undersized but he is hyper productive and one of the reasons his team made a deep run, he probably rose in the rankings. There are exceptions to everything but typically by junior or senior year, top players are not only playing but producing.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>6. Of the <strong>288</strong> players we have 70 PG's, 52 SG's, 54 CG's, 57 SF's, 47 PF's and 8 C's.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->