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Ah, I love the smell of fresh basketball recruiting rankings in the air. Rivals and Scout both updated their 2011 basketball recruit rankings today after the arduous July open period, and Maryland recruits saw a few modest bumps, but more than a few disappointing surprises.
(Oh, and ESPN, what's up? You guys gonna update anytime soon?)
Without further ado, the rankings for Maryland's targets on both Rivals and Scout:
Nick Faust: #41 on Scout; #42 on Rivals
Adjehi Baru: #44 on Scout; #26 on Rivals
Johnny O'Bryant: #23 on Scout; #38 on Rivals
Maurice Harkless: #43 on Scout; #45 on Rivals
Mikael Hopkins: #37 on Scout; #79 on Rivals
Antwan Space: #76 on Scout; #88 on Rivals
Greg Lewis: NR on Scout; #130 on Rivals
Desmond Hubert: NR on Scout; #131 on Rivals
Sterling Gibbs: Nowhere to be found on either list.
A few quick impressions: Faust and Harkless both seem too low considering the summers they had. They didn't completely dominate every event, but after a great summer campaign both seemed deserving of top 30 rankings.
The differential between Hopkins' rankings on Scout and Rivals is shocking. I'm usually a Scout guy, but I gotta say that Rivals' set of rankings makes more sense this time around. They finally got some people to help out Jerry Meyer, and, at least on the surface, their list makes a lot of sense. (Though O'Bryant is a tad low.)
Shocked Gibbs didn't make the top 150 on Rivals. There are some really iffy players on that list, and Gibbs at least played well over the summer in the high-profile events he was in.
If anyone has any qualms taking Greg Lewis if J.O.B. or Baru fall through, I can't say I agree with you. He hasn't seen a bump, but neither Hubert nor Hopkins' rankings should impress you.
A few other rankings of prominent people:
Jabari Brown: #14 on Scout; #22 on Rivals
Quinn Cook: #20 on Scout; #28 on Rivals
Dorian Finney-Smith: #28 on Scout; #37 on Rivals
Deuce Bello: #32 on Scout; #43 on Rivals
Norvel Pelle: #57 on Scout; #19 on Rivals
LaQuinton Ross: #63 on Scout; #53 on Rivals
Bernard Sullivan: #78 on Scout; #70 on Rivals