Best High School Basketball

[boiseball]

Anyone have an opinion on this, either boys or girls? I never thought much about it until recently when I moved from Cleveland Ohio to Boise Idaho. What a drastic change. I went from refereeing guys who could dunk, who were thoroughbred athletes, to refereeing a bunch of clutch and grab slow guys who can hardly shoot. I have also refereed in Utah and would place them comfortably ahead of Idaho but still well below Ohio. I have a feeling Ohio is in the upper echelon. Anyone else seen a variety of states and have an opinion on where the different states/regions should be ranked? Anyone think their state is better than Ohio and some actually experience or other evidence to back them up?

as a corollary, the drop in referee associations from Cleveland to Boise was just as drastic. If someone in here is a Boisean, please do not take offense; just the reality of my experience.

[Corndog89]

I have called HS ball in Florida and Hawaii and the quality of play in the former, especially big-man play, is far superior. There is not much play above the rim here (HI). Guard play here is very good and the intensity of play here is excellent, but the overall quality is not up to FL. My association here is excellent, better than the two I belonged to in FL though they weren't bad.

[HawkeyeCubP]

Since there isn't a national high school championship (that I know of), I think the only way to get an unbiased verdict on this would be to track, from a certain time on, how many players from each state went on to play (start?) in the NCAA and/or NBA. But, then, you're only truly measuring what state is producing successful NCAA and/or NBA players, not necessarily excellent high school basketball players.

Anyone know of any such database?

[tomegun]

I would probably say the Washington DC area, to include Northern Virginia, Maryland and the district, has the best basketball. If I began to name some of the players who are from this area I'm sure I would miss someone, but to name a few from the last couple of years:

Ty Lawson - UNC
Marcus ???? - UNC
Scottie Reynolds - Villanova
??? Cunningham - Villanova
Kevin Durant - Texas
Jeff Green - Georgetown
Roy Hibbard - Georgetown

I lived there, but I'm not originally from the area so I don't know all the guys in the past. People like Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Lawrence Moten, Brian Westbrook, the Forte kid who played at UNC and many others have been coming out of the area for years. The Washington Catholic league is one of the premier leagues in the country and had two teams in the top 20 earlier this year (I don't know if they are still in standings) - DeMatha and St. John's. It was always fun to do a high school game with 8 D1 kids on a small high school court at once. My last high school game in DC was Oak Hill versus Montrose Christian. All 5 starters on Oak Hill were from DC and Montrose had Oak Hill's top scorer from the previous season (Durant).

I have also seen the level of play in Arizona, Nevada and Mississippi.

[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by tomegun

I would probably say the Washington DC area, to include Northern Virginia, Maryland and the district, has the best basketball. If I began to name some of the players who are from this area I'm sure I would miss someone, but to name a few from the last couple of years:

Ty Lawson - UNC
Marcus ???? - UNC
Scottie Reynolds - Villanova
??? Cunningham - Villanova
Kevin Durant - Texas
Jeff Green - Georgetown
Roy Hibbard - Georgetown

I lived there, but I'm not originally from the area so I don't know all the guys in the past. People like Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Lawrence Moten, Brian Westbrook, the Forte kid who played at UNC and many others have been coming out of the area for years. The Washington Catholic league is one of the premier leagues in the country and had two teams in the top 20 earlier this year (I don't know if they are still in standings) - DeMatha and St. John's. It was always fun to do a high school game with 8 D1 kids on a small high school court at once. My last high school game in DC was Oak Hill versus Montrose Christian. All 5 starters on Oak Hill were from DC and Montrose had Oak Hill's top scorer from the previous season (Durant).

I have also seen the level of play in Arizona, Nevada and Mississippi.

You really can't count Oak Hill in that mix - they recruit players from all over the country. I lived in the Baltimore area for 3 years . . . the greater DC/B'more area is good, but NY is good, Philly is good, FL is good, TX is good and CA is good too - WV seniors play OH seniors every year and the record is about 50-50 over the past 10-12 years so I certainly wouldn't count OH as a bastian of basketball. Huntington HS here in WV is among the top teams this year but that's a oddity in WV.

[tomegun]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

You really can't count Oak Hill in that mix - they recruit players from all over the country. I lived in the Baltimore area for 3 years . . . the greater DC/B'more area is good, but NY is good, Philly is good, FL is good, TX is good and CA is good too - WV seniors play OH seniors every year and the record is about 50-50 over the past 10-12 years so I certainly wouldn't count OH as a bastian of basketball. Huntington HS here in WV is among the top teams this year but that's a oddity in WV.

I agree with you and this is a hard question to answer. The only reason I mentioned Oak Hill is because of what you pointed out; they recruit from all over the country and during the 05-06 season all 5 starters were from the DC area. Their captain now is from the DC area - Nolan Smith - and will be at Duke next year.

Between DC and Baltimore, there may be 4 players that will make the McDonald's all American team.

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by boiseball

Anyone have an opinion on this, either boys or girls? I never thought much about it until recently when I moved from Cleveland Ohio to Boise Idaho. What a drastic change. I went from refereeing guys who could dunk, who were thoroughbred athletes, to refereeing a bunch of clutch and grab slow guys who can hardly shoot. I have also refereed in Utah and would place them comfortably ahead of Idaho but still well below Ohio. I have a feeling Ohio is in the upper echelon. Anyone else seen a variety of states and have an opinion on where the different states/regions should be ranked? Anyone think their state is better than Ohio and some actually experience or other evidence to back them up?

as a corollary, the drop in referee associations from Cleveland to Boise was just as drastic. If someone in here is a Boisean, please do not take offense; just the reality of my experience.

I wouldn't even conjecture about the rest of the country, but I know we have a very wide variety of ball here in Portland, Oregon. Some excellent teams, both boys and girls, and great play, and some of the usual.

I've heard things about Boise, though, and I can imagine you're really going through culture shock, both in terms of the play, and the reffing.

[tomegun]

Hey, that Durant kid is pretty good!