Rankings, Rankings, Rankings
NEKIA JONES
I can understand how parents can get excited and overly involved about rankings because I’ve been there but my situation was little bit different. When I was trying to get an understanding on how this stuff works, Clay Kallam who was running Fullcourt.com at the time told me “if your daughter is as good as you say she is, she will get a scholarship which is the most important thing” and in retrospect he was correct but at that time, that wasn’t enough. After emailing several others who were ranking players, Glenn Nelson with Hoopgurlz was the only other person who extended the courtesy of a response and he even found a Hoops TV video on my daughter which is how the ball got rolling.
Since then, I haven’t always agreed with Clay or Glenn on their rankings but they truly did a good job of at least trying to put something together no matter who you play for. The same can’t be said for everyone so I got tired of complaining which is another reason I started doing what I do, especially in Houston, and when a parent complains about something I’ve done, I offer the same suggestion but usually in a different tone. I also use something Kelvin Powell, founder of Roundball Academy, Basketball on the Bayou and the genius that pushed me to do a scouting service, told some Ganon Baker campers. “If you’re not ranked or feel you should be ranked higher, show me on the court”
With that being said, do the rankings really matter? You have to go back to the first paragraph and see if that’s good enough. Hoopgurlz listed their Top 100 for 2013 and I believe 10 players are from Texas, no surprise, I sort of got ball rolling years ago going off on message boards with people about all of the talent in the Lone Star state in fact I was actually the first person to put Nneka Ogwumike out there while she was still in middle school calling her “the best post in the city” and we all know how that turned out
Although there are 10 players, several additional Texans could be listed and the same could be said for other states and I’ll take it a step further. After the first 30 to 40 players on any national Top 100 list, I would bet you there are probably another 100 to 150 different players you could slide into those remaining 60-70 player slots and before someone gets the bright idea that I’m wrong, I’ll use the MDAA list year after year which doesn’t translate into college All American, WNBA or even being drafted, yes I did a story on that as well.
The bottom line is don’t get hooked up or drawn into any of the madness, if you Google Nekia Jones you’ll probably find out that some brilliant middle aged fat guy said she would be a Top 100 player three years ago and once again, I was correct as she has gone from unsung to unstoppable. This may not have not been the story some expected but it’s simple and easy, more to come later.