FUTURE IS BRIGHT, BUT STATUS QUO PREVAILS IN NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP RANKINGS

   by Clark Francis, Editor & Publisher of the HOOP SCOOP

                    After the first several days at this year's NIKE All-American Camp in Indianapolis, IN, July5th-10th, it appeared that the two big stories were going to be the overwhelming number of terrific young players in camp and the emergence of a number of seniors who will have to move up dramatically in our rankings at the end of the suimmer.  However, in the end, the status quo prevailed as three of the top six players in camp - 6'10 Ndudi Ebi from Houston (Westbury Christian) TX, 6'8 Luol Deng from Blairstown (Blair Academy) NJ, and 6'4 Shannon Brown from Maywood (Proviso East) IL - simply went through the motions, but were still ranked #2, #3, and #6 in the HOOP SCOOP's final rankings, which included all but the last day of camp.   And this isn't the first time that a group of the top players in the nation collectively have come to the NIKE All-American Camp and not lived up to their hype and press clippings.  If you will recall, we were just as disappointed by the effort provided by Korleone Young, JaRon Rush, and Corey Maggette at the NIKE All-American Camp during the summer of 1998.   But, in sharp contrast to Young, Rush, and Maggette, nothing has changed for Ebi, Deng, and Brown in terms of our national rankings.  In other words, the current group appears to be just that much better than the rest of the players in the class, except for 6'7 LeBron James from Akron (St. Vincent-St. Mary) OH, whose game is totally at another level.  So all three will continue to be ranked higher nationally than 6'8 Kris Humphries from Minnetonka (Hopkins) MN.   But not in this camp!  Humphries gets our vote for MVP in camp because he clearly was the best player on both the first day and the last day, plus he was consistently one of the best players in camp throughout the entire week.  Humphries is one of our favorite players, because he's such a hardnosed tough competitor with the strength, athleticism, and skills necessary to develop into a great one while playing for Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.  Down the road Humphries will likely project as a wing forward, but at the NIKE Camp he he took care of business inside, as he was one of the best rebounders in camp, as well as impossible to stop offensively from mid-range and around the basket.  So unless something unforeseen occurs between now and early August, there is no doubt in our mind that Humphries will become the 5th player in our top five nationally behind James, Ebi, Deng, and Brown.  However, unlike the other four players, Humphries will get his ranking the old-fashioned way.  Instead, of just being tall, incredibly athletic, and/or naturally talented, Humphries has earned it!  
                    Also earning the right to be ranked higher in camp than a lot of guys with bigger reputations were 6'6 J.R. Giddens from Oklahoma City (John Marshall) OK, 6'4 Rodrick Stewart from Seattle (Rainier Beach) WA, 6'10 Longar Longar from Rochester (John Marshall) MN, 5'8 Andrew Lavender from Columbus (Brookhaven) OH, 6'5 Vakeaton Wafer from Pineview (H.S.) LA, 6'6 Gary Forbes from Brooklyn (Banneker) NY, 6'8 Paul Millsap from Grambling (H.S.) LA, 6'8 Chris Richard from Lakewood (Kathleen) FL, 6'9 Ousmane Barro from Chicago (Julian) IL, 5'10 Dez Willingham from De Soto (H.S.) TX, and 6'11 Courtney Sims from Dedham (Noble & Greenbough School) MA.  Giddens, Stewart, and Longar were three of the top five players in camp after the first two days, but got passed up by others as the week wore on.  And the same can be said about Lavender, who had the best individual performance in the camp in the evening session on Sunday, July 7th and, as a result, had the #1-ranking in camp by the HOOP SCOOP when the college coaches showed up the next day.  Not only was Lavender unstoppable going to hole, but he didn't forget his teammates, like 5'10 Tauren Minor from Houston (Washington) TX, who was terrific, but at the expense of his four teammates.  Wafer, who just gets better and better every time we see him, was another one of the most prolific scorers in camp.  Not only is he unstoppable when he decides to go to the hole, but he appears to be developing into one of the best 3-point shooters in the class nationally.  But Wafer didn't shoot the ball any better than Forbes and neither did anybody else, as Forbes was on fire during the first three days of the camp.  Millsap, Richard, and Barro all impressed up with their toughness on the boards, athleticism and quickness inside, and ability to score around the basket.   And just like Lavender, Willingham is small, but he's got jet-like speed and quickness, finds ways to score, and makes people better.  Sims is far from being a finished product and he needs to get bigger and stronger, but we really liked his potential.  Not only does he have long arms, athleticism, and ability to score inside, but he's a good enough student to attract Ivy League attention.     
                    But for every senior who played well, there was an underclassmen who stepped up to match him.   As a matter of fact, in the final analysis 23 of the top 50 players in camp were underclassmen.  And making the long term future for NIKE All-American Camps even brighter is the fact that the top two underclassmen in camp - 6'10 Frosh Derrick Caracter from Elizabeth (St. Patrick) NJ and 5'8 Frosh Demond Carter from Laplace (Reserve Christian) LA - were rising freshmen.  Caracter was also ranked as the #1 player in camp on day three, thanks primarily to his afternoon performance against 6'10 Kenneth Harris from Hammond (Bishop Noll) IN.  Not only does this man-child athlete have surprising mobility, athleticism, and skills for somebody so big and so young, but he has a nice fade away jumper and surprising shooting range.   So it should come as no surprise that he finished ranked as the #2 power forward in camp.  And Carter, who played with the poise of a senior and impressed everybody with his quick hands, explosiveness off the dribble, outside shooting, and ability to run the show, did even better at his position, as he finished ranked as the #1 point guard in camp.  The best junior in camp - 64 Jr Terry Evans from St. Louis (Cardinal Ritter) MO - was also a major surprise, just like Ebi, who was the highest ranked junior in the camp last year by the HOOP SCOOP, was a year ago.  If you will recall, it was at this time a year that we started to think Ebi, not 6'10 Kendrick Perkins from Beaumont (Ozen) TX, was the second best player in the class behind James.  However, Evans may not even be the best player in the class in his own state, especially if 6'8 Jr Kalen Grimes from Florrisant (Hazelwood Central) MO plays like he did on the second-to-last day of camp.  As a matter of fact, Roy Schmidt of the Illinois Bulls-eye Report tells us that Grimes was as good as anybody in camp that day, and, thus, explains how Grimes went from being unranked among the top 50 players in camp, as well as his position on Monday, July 8th, to top dozen in camp in our final rankings. 
                    The camp also featured three outstanding point guards in the Class of 2005 in 6'0 Soph Eric Price from Mouth of Wilson (Oak Hill) VA, 6'2 Soph Tikki Mayben from Troy (H.S.) NY, and 6'2 Soph Monte Ellis from Jackson (Murrah) MS, all three of whom are ranked among the top five players in their class nationally by the HOOP SCOOP.  And when you combine the point guards with the 2-guards, you find the real strength of the camp - 49 of the top 105 players at NIKE were guards.   That's in sharp contrast to the 17 wing forwards, 21 power forwards, and 17 centers at the camp who were good enough to make our list at their respective positions.  It's also in sharp contrast to the adidas ABCD Camp, which had 22 centers, 26 power forwards, and 22 wing forwards ranked among the top 125 players in camp.  And that brings us to the NIKE All-American Camp's biggest weakness, which was overall quality of depth.  After seeing these numbers, we have come to the conclusion that the adidas ABDC Camp was about 20 players deeper once you get into the 100-range.  However, when looking at the top players who attended the NIKE Camp in each class, one might draw a much different conclusion.  Did you know that six of our top 10 seniors nationally - Ebi, Deng, Brown, Minor, Humphries, and 6'0 Chris Paul from Clemmons (West Forsyth) NC - were at NIKE.  And that number becomes even more shocking when one remembers that James and 7'0 Brian Butch from Appleton (West) WI were both hurt and didn't attend either camp.  In other words, the adidas ABCD Camp only had two of the top 10 seniors in the nation, according to our pre-summer rankings.  The NIKE All-American Camp also featured three of the HOOP SCOOP's top 10 juniors in 6'1 Jr Jason Horton from Cedar Hill (H.S.) TX, 6'2 Jr Daniel Gibson from Houston (Jones) TX, and 6'3 Jr JamesOn Curry from Mebane (Eastern Alamance) NC, plus the best junior in America - 6'10 Jr Al Jefferson from Prentiss (H.S.) MS - didn't play at either camp, because he wanted to be fresh for the NIKE Peach Jam in Augusta, GA.  Add the fact that NIKE add three of our top five sophomores in Price, Mayben, and Ellis and the #1 freshman in America (Caracter), as well as another freshman (Carter) who will be ranked among our top five freshmen, and it is easy to conclude that NIKE won the battle for the top players, but still lost the battle in terms of who had the best overall camp.

Final Ranking of the Top Players at the NIKE All-American Camp
(Rankings are based primarily on camp performance)
by Clark Francis, Chris Johnson, Roy Schmidt, & Linzy Davis

TOP PLAYERS AT THE NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP

TOP CENTERS AT THE NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP

TOP POWER FORWARDS AT THE NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP

TOP WING FORWARDS AT THE NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP

TOP SECOND GUARDS AT THE NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP

TOP POINT GUARDS AT THE NIKE ALL-AMERICAN CAMP