Good news and bad news for the final positional Red Ratings for season 39. The good news is the Cap conference positively owned the SF position this past recruiting season. We managed to snag the top 3 DIII small forwards, unprecedented in the early evolutions of the Red Ratings. But we didn’t just stop there, we managed to land 4 of the top 9, 5 of the top 14 and 6 of the top 20. Even the conference’s lowest non-sim SF recruit (Chestnut Hill’s Moody) managed to crack the top 30. Amazing job by all.
The bad news? After rating my SG as the #1 SG recruit in DIII, the Red Rating system has now rated my two SF’s as #1 and #3. Even worse, Hager rates head and shoulders above all others. I have to assume this casts an awfully large shadow of doubt over the objectivity and credibility of my evaluations. Either I’m recruiting extremely well (unlikely) or the system is skewed somewhat towards the types of players I value most highly, despite my efforts to prevent this.
I’ve given some consideration toward removing my own recruits from the Red Ratings going forward to remove this perception. That’s not much fun though. What I would really like and appreciate is if some folks would offer their own critique of the Red Ratings – either in support of the existing ratings results or constructive criticism for where they don’t appear to be fairly evaluating players (i.e., favoring the types of recruits I pursue). So feel free conference mates (or non-conference observers) to volunteer your opinions and advice. Clearly it’s needed.
Now, back to the results…
York lands a beast in Buchanan. Phenomenal ATH and SPD combination (112 total!) that looks untouchable among this season’s SF class (note, Mary Washington did manage to land a SG (Rich) with an even more outrageous 114 ATH+SPD combination). Buchannan looks solid, if not spectacular, across all other categories other than WE and STA. It may have been a small class for York this season, but they clearly made the most of their two signings (#1CAP/#11DIII Center; #2 CAP/#2DIII SF). Well done randy.
Goucher’s Landy rates a healthy notch below the top 3 (largely due to ATH and SPD both in the mid 30’s), but this guy was born to play the SF position. There may not be another freshmen in DIII that is so consistent across all skills. He rates above the average SF score in every category except WE. Excluding STA and DU, he averages a 36 rating (as good as or better than all 3 CAP SF’s above him). His lowest meaningful rating is a 27 in passing (still 3 points higher than the average SF). After that, everything is 33 or higher. What does this guy not do well?
A few spots beneath Landy is Hood’s Ryan Curtsinger. Very good ATH+SPD combo (88), but not much of a rebounder (19). His PE at 27 is a little low as well, but with good LP and BH, he should provide some decent scoring punch for gnkeith’s crew.
Rounding out the top 20 is Chestnut Hill’s Rodney Norman. A little more defensively oriented than his fellow CAP SF freshmen, he should contribute but I don’t see star potential. Battling Norman for minutes will be JK’s other signing at SF, Steven Moody. Solid ATH + SPD, but a terrible rebounder. He should be able to shoot the ball fairly well with decent LP/PER, but will have a hard time creating his own shot with that 16 BH. Norman fits the bill of the decent but flawed second tier recruit profile.