Best High School Basketball

[Ref Daddy]

Possible Clue ... Top Boy's in 2006. Looks like Chesapeake and Ohio Valley areas win!

1) Greg Oden (7-0, 240, C) - Indianapolis, Indiana (Lawrence North HS)
2) Kevin Durant (6-9, 205, F) - Maryland (Montrose Christian)
3) Brandan Wright (6-9, 200, F) - Tennessee (Brentwood Academy)
4) Chase Budinger (6-7, 190, F) - Carlsbad, California (La Costa Canyon)
5) Wayne Ellington (6-4, 185, G) - Merion Station, Pennsylvania (Episcopal Academy)
6) Demond Carter (5-10, 165, PG) - Reserve Christian School (Reserve, LA)
7) Thaddeus Young (6-8, 205, F) - Memphis, Tennessee (Mitchell Road)
8) Paul Harris (6-4, 215, G) - Niagara Falls, New York (Niagara Falls)
9) Derrick Caracter (6-8, 275, F) - Elizabeth, New Jersey (St. Patrick's)
10) Vernon Macklin (6-10, 190, F) - Portsmouth, Virginia (I.C. Norcom)
11) Tywon Lawson (6-0, 180, G) - Forestville, Maryland (Oak Hill Academy)
12) Spencer Hawes (6-10, 220, C) - Seattle, Washington (Seattle Prep)
13) Jonathan Kreft (7-0, 240, PF) - Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL)
14) DeShawn Sims (6-7, 225, SF) - Pershing High School (Detroit, MI)
15) Duke Crews (6-7, 225, SF) - Bethel High School (Hampton, VA)

[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by Ref Daddy

Possible Clue ... Top Boy's in 2006. Looks like Chesapeake and Ohio Valley areas win!

1) Greg Oden (7-0, 240, C) - Indianapolis, Indiana (Lawrence North HS)
2) Kevin Durant (6-9, 205, F) - Maryland (Montrose Christian)
3) Brandan Wright (6-9, 200, F) - Tennessee (Brentwood Academy)
4) Chase Budinger (6-7, 190, F) - Carlsbad, California (La Costa Canyon)
5) Wayne Ellington (6-4, 185, G) - Merion Station, Pennsylvania (Episcopal Academy)
6) Demond Carter (5-10, 165, PG) - Reserve Christian School (Reserve, LA)
7) Thaddeus Young (6-8, 205, F) - Memphis, Tennessee (Mitchell Road)
8) Paul Harris (6-4, 215, G) - Niagara Falls, New York (Niagara Falls)
9) Derrick Caracter (6-8, 275, F) - Elizabeth, New Jersey (St. Patrick's)
10) Vernon Macklin (6-10, 190, F) - Portsmouth, Virginia (I.C. Norcom)
11) Tywon Lawson (6-0, 180, G) - Forestville, Maryland (Oak Hill Academy)
12) Spencer Hawes (6-10, 220, C) - Seattle, Washington (Seattle Prep)
13) Jonathan Kreft (7-0, 240, PF) - Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL)
14) DeShawn Sims (6-7, 225, SF) - Pershing High School (Detroit, MI)
15) Duke Crews (6-7, 225, SF) - Bethel High School (Hampton, VA)

Am I missing something? I don't see Ohio listed on here at all . . .

[Ref Daddy]

The Ohio RIVER a.k.a. Ohio VALLEY. Generally covers PA, KY, TENN, Western VA, WV.

[bigdogrunnin]

I have worked in Texas (DFW Metroplex, Houston, and Austin areas), North Carolina, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. I would take a DFW or Houston group anytime versus anyone. LOTS of athletes, runnin-and-gunnin. Of course, if you want to talk "fundamentals," I haven't seen anything come close to the Panhandle in Texas.

[Jimgolf]

Kevin Durant is from Texas, not Maryland.

The top ten or twenty-five lists are not the best predictors of the level of talent in an area. These are usually freak athletes that have natural ablility and/or size far in excess of the rest of the players.

A better test of the talent levels in a region might be the number of D1 players that hail from the area. By example, in 2005-2006, over 200 D1 players were from New York City. There are probably an equal number from the rest of the Greater NY metropolitan area. I don't know the exact numbers for any other region, so I won't claim that they best basketball is in the NYC region. It's pretty good, though, especially in the NYC CHSAA and PSAL AA divisions.

Texas, Michigan, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio also produce a lot of D1 players. This is mostly a by-product of population; the more players you have, the more skilled the better players will be.

BTW, there actually is a HS "national championship" tournament sponsored by And1.

[Ignats75]

Here's an anecdotal story. A few years ago, my oldest daughter was an honorable mention all-state basketball player for a small private (and not very ocompetitive) high school. She was being recruited by some mid-major Div-1 schools (think MAC) and some Div 2 schools. Between her junior and senior year, her team went to UNC to a team camp. Her head coach noticed that there were a TON of teams from Ohio at this team camp so he asked the UNC head coach why there were so many Ohio teams at this camp. SHe indicated that they tried to get ALOT of Ohio teams to the camp, because the style of basketball they play there was closer to the way its played in college than in some other states. More physical and athletic. Her words, not mine.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Jimgolf

BTW, there actually is a HS "national championship" tournament sponsored by And1.

Yeabut it's summer league team tournament style play. At least the regional contests are.

But they do call themselves "national championship".

[amcginthy]

Originally Posted by Jimgolf

Kevin Durant is from Texas, not Maryland.

I don't know where he is from, but K. Durant played HS ball at Montrose Christian in Rocville, MD...

Being a MD native, and a former player at DeMatha, I have always been a little biased thinking that MD was the best... I don't necessarily think they have the best players, but do think they have the best programs in a 45 miles radius... to name a few: DeMatha, Mt. St. Josephs, St. Johns Prospect Hall, Montrose Christian, Riverdale Baptist, Dunbar... the list goes on...

Just look at a few of the coaches that are or were in this area in the past 10 years... Morgan Wootten, Stu Vetter, Joe Gallagher... I doubt any two coaches in history have more wins than Wootten and Gallagher... over 2000 wins between the two... Morgan has 1200+ and less than around 200 losses... Joe has 800 - 900 wins.... These two are living legends of the game...

Then you have Stu who had Flint in the top 5 nationally, then St. John's Propect hall in the top 5, and now, his Montrose team is ranked nationally every year...

[bronco]

Boiseball,

I know what you mean about Boise. I moved from WA to Boise 9 years ago, and my small-school hs team would compete with any of the big-school teams in Boise. Also, the game and the officiating have gotten better since then, there are some younger refs now who are getting into the avocation that are pretty good. Also, about Ohio, I have a friend who is an NAIA coach in Montana, and used to be in Ohio, and he said that there are kids in Montana who go D1, who would have been NAIA in Ohio, since there are so many more good players.

[tomegun]

Originally Posted by Jimgolf

Kevin Durant is from Texas, not Maryland.

Durant began his high school career at National Christian, in Maryland. He played as a Junior at Oak Hill and after that season he "came home" to Montrose Christian in Maryland. I don't know where you got your information from, but he spent all but one year of high school ball in Maryland and as far as I know that is where is family is from. He plays college ball for Texas, but that is the only association with Texas I know of. He nearly went to college at UNC so those ties aren't too deep. A few years ago I was in the elevator with Rick Barnes at the Nike camp and (I forget the exact words) he is basically resigned to the fact that Durant could be one and done in college. His "people" were grooming him for the NBA before the rules changed which forced him to go to college. As a sophmore he was playing the point at 6'7".

[Jimgolf]

Originally Posted by tomegun

Durant began his high school career at National Christian, in Maryland.

You are absolutely correct. My bad. Durant is originally from Suitland, MD. I don't know where I got the impression he was from Dallas, but I'll have to reprogram that part of the brain.