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MidState of the Union: Players and Prospects
by Jason McGee
August 8, 2005

MidStateHoops.com has has been in existence for a mere 8 months. Every one of those 8 months it has released new players rankings. For each release of the player rankings has come a slew of anonymous e-mails stating that the rankings are horrible. This player was missed, that player is too high and so forth.

MidState Hoops ranks players based on a number of things. The rankings keep in mind who the best players are. For example Derrick Rose is the best player in 2007 and whenever the rankings are composed that is kept in mind. At the same time, an attempt is made to recognize the best performers of the moment. This is where the largest criticism comes from in the e-mails. Some People fail to understand that not every player consistently plays at their peak. At times players who are lower ranked rise their game to a higher level. When this happens we attempt to give them recognition by raising their ranking.

The uproar comes when what somebody believes to be a top player is not ranked and they feel outraged. Understand we know who they are and that at that time as the rankings were being compiled, the feeling was that there were better players. That does not mean we do not recognize their prospect potential. That is why a higher ranked player may have a lower star rating for prospect potential. We give player rankings, not prospect rankings on a monthly basis. It is irresponsible to rank prospects every month. The mere concept makes absolutely no sense.

A prospect is a combination of how good a player is now to go along with an estimated projection of how they will be in the future based on their height, weight, current skill level, and ability to maximize their potential among other things. How is that supposed to change month to month? So a player plays in 2 tournaments in a month and all of a sudden their potential for the next 3 years has changed? That truly is absurd. Anybody who ranks prospects on a monthly basis really is misleading anybody who looks at their rankings and takes what they say to be a fact. The idea of continuous changing of prospect rankings is a sign of a lack of basketball knowledge and is an instant sign of fraudulence.

Please understand that we see more players than anybody. That is how the Player Focus feature has been such a huge success. We have made an attempt to spotlight the best players who do not get their proper recognition. In order to do that it is quite clear we have seen more players in this state play than anybody. So the next time you are outraged with the rankings please understand everything that is put on the scale and weighed.