Aug. 22, 2007
By Van Coleman
CSTV.com & Hoopmasters.com
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Van Coleman
Van is one of the nation's premier recruiting experts. |
We've had a shake-up at the top of the Class of 2009. 6-foot-9 combo forward Derrick Favors had a great summer that culminated with leading his Atlanta Celtics squad to an end of summer mega-tournament win at the Adidas Super 64.
Favors edges former No. 1-rated 6-foot-10 Renardo
Right behind Favors and
The second group of five is headed by 6-foot-3 scorer Kenny Boynton, who led his Team Breakdown squad to the AAU 17-Under National Tournament championship. Behind him are 6-foot-7 bookends Jordan Hamilton and Jamil Wilson, two fast-rising wing forwards who earned their way into the Top 10 with great summer play. 6-foot-3 Dexter Strickland is one of the east coast's best and follows at No. 9 while another newcomer rounds out the Top 10 at this point in 6-foot-9 Deshawn Painter.
They will be pushed to keep those spots by fast-rising talents Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Armwood, Dominic Cheek and Reeves Nelson during the coming season.
The Class of 2009 had an awakening this summer with a number of new names making a case for joining our top sixty nationally. That's a real positive, as the rising junior class was looking a little thin depth-wise at the top heading into the summer. Oh yeah, the top five or six are definitely quality talents, but it's the talent behind them that needed to fill in and has really strengthened over the summer. Like this year's seniors, there is still a need to continue to add more size and more depth at the point spot before anyone will compare them with 2004, 2005 or 2006.
It's too early to tell how good this class is, as depth is just starting to develop with new players being added to the wait-and-see list every day, so although it's early, the top 20-30 players are definitely the start of a good class. With that in mind, let's look at the top talent in the Class of 2009.
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