McDonald's All-American Predictions

Last year it was fairly easy to predict the players for the McDonald’s All-American, but this year it’s a different story. The 38^th all-star game will take place at the United Center in Chicago (IL) on April 1. Here’s a look at my 24 predictions:

The Top Tier:

1) Ben Simmons, 6’8”, SF, Montverde Academy (HS)

2) Jaylen Brown, 6’7”, SF, Wheeler (GA)

Simmons and Brown are the top two players in both the Scout and ESPN rankings. Brown had the better game in the one head to head match-up at the City of Palms tournament this year and his team got the win but both players have been on another level this year after showing tremendous improvement beginning last spring. 

The Big Men Locks:

3) Diamond Stone, 6’10”, C, Dominican (WI)

4) Ivan Rabb, 6’10”, PF, Bishop O’ Dowd (CA)

5) Henry Ellenson, 6’10”, F, Rice Lake (WI)

6) Stephen Zimmerman, 6’11”, F/C, Bishop Gorman (NV)

7) Chase Jeter, 6’10”, PF, PF, Bishop Gorman (NV)

There’s no shortage of big men talent in the 2015 class. Stone, Rabb, and Zimmerman are still uncommitted while Ellenson is headed to Marquette and Jeter is off to replace Jahlil Okafor at Duke. All five players played for different variations of the USA basketball teams and will be looking to carry their high school teams to state championships.

The Guards:

8)   Malik Newman, 6’3”, G, Callaway (MS)

9)   Jalen Brunson, 6’2”, PG, Stevenson (IL)

10) Isaiah Briscoe, 6’2”, G, Roselle Catholic (NJ)

11) Allonzo Trier, 6’4”, SG, Findlay Prep (NV)

12) Luke Kennard, 6’5”, SG, Franklin (OH)

The above guards have all been in the top of their class since stepping onto the high school scene. It took Brunson until his sophomore year to get national recognition, but now he will try to follow in his father’s footsteps and take home the MVP honors just like Rick did in 1991.

Highly Probable:

13) Cheick Diallo, 6’9”, C, Our Savior New American School (NY)

14) Carlton Bragg, 6’9”. PF, Villa Angela – St Joseph (OH)

15) Caleb Swanigan, 6’8”, PF, Homestead (IN)

16) Antonio Blakeney, 6’4”, SG, Oak Ridge (FL)

17) Dwayne Bacon, 6’6”, SF, Oak Hill Academy (VA)

18) Jawun Evans, 6’0”, PG, Kimball (TX)

19) Brandon Ingram, 6’8”, SF, Kingston (NC)

Diallo, Bragg, and Swanigan are all five-star big men. Diallo started the year hurt, but is the best shot blocker in the class. Bragg just committed to Kansas and Swanigan is a workhorse downlow. The LSU bound Blakeney is one of the top scorers in high school and Dwayne Bacon has stepped his game up for Oak Hill. Evans will be added for point guard depth and will be the quickest guard in Chicago while Brandon Ingram will get to continue his head to head battles with Jaylen Brown. 

Rounding Out the Team:

20) Jalen Coleman Lands, 6’4”, SG, La Lumiere School (IN)

21) Tyler Dorsey, 6’4”, SG, Marantha (CA)

Coleman-Lands and Dorsey are both explosive scorers. Coleman-Lands is one of the top shooters in the country and Dorsey has put together multiple 40 point games in California.

The Longshots:

22) Daniel Giddens, 6’10”, C, Oak Hill (VA)

23) Derrick Jones, 6’6”, Archbishop Carroll (PA)

24) Charles Matthews, 6’5”, SG, St. Rita (IL)

Two years ago Kennedy Meeks was a surprise selection to the McDonald’s All-American game and last year 7’0” center Thomas Welsh got the nod. This year the surprise will go to Charles Matthews. At one point he was the top ranked shooting guard in his class but has struggled in marquee events over the past two years. As a senior, Matthews has put together a strong season in Chicago and should get the local nod in addition to the Kentucky bump to get him in the All-Star game. 

Others:

There are numerous top players that could easily slide into the McDonald's game including Louisville's trio of recruits in Ray Spalding, Donovan Mitchell, and Deng Adel. Other possible names include Brewster teammates Justin Simon and Jalen Adams and a few Texas natives in Tyler Davis, Elijah Thomas, and Austin Grandstaff. 

Tom Izzo and His Chicago Troubles

Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans left Chicago with a bright smile Tuesday night. Not only did they defeat the number one ranked Kentucky Wildcats and their talented freshmen 78-74, but they also became the top team in the country. With a veteran laden team the Spartans were one of the primary teams expected to compete for a championship this season. They feature a senior point guard in Keith Appling and a senior center in Adreian Payne to go with two future NBA draft picks on the wings in Gary Harris and Brandon Dawson. When Michigan State fans look back at the 2013-14 season they will remember Chicago as the place their journey began however they will also come to realize that the same city is the root cause for where things started to go wrong.

On Friday, February 17, 2012 Tom Izzo sat in a front row seat at Chicago State University. He was one night off an impressive 69-55 home victory over Wisconsin which put the Spartans at 10-3 in the Big 10 with an upcoming trip to Purdue on the docket. For two hours he watched the top high school junior in the country in Simeon sensation Jabari Parker (#3-2013) along with a young and talented sophomore center from Curie High School in Cliff Alexander (#5-2014). Both players were plagued by foul trouble but Izzo did not so much mind the foul trouble as he was there strictly for face time. He got his wish that night being the one and only big name college coach to attend the game. 

Alexander was Izzo's prized recruit

Over the next year Izzo returned to Chicago numerous times to watch Parker and Alexander, along with two other highly regarded that just happened to reside in Chicago. 

• March 6, 2012: Izzo joined Coach K and Bruce Weber in watching Parker’s Simeon team face-off against one of the top sophomores in the country in Jahlil Okafor (#1-2014).

• December 1, 2012: The Chicago high school season kicked off with the Chicago Elite Classic. Izzo was front and center for the two prime time night games which saw Okafor dominate current N.C. State big man Beejay Anya (#60-2013) along with Parker making his brief return from a summer injury.

• December 9, 2012: On a Sunday night, Izzo watched junior Cliff Alexander in the last game of the Team Rose Classic and was the only head coach in attendance while schools such as Kansas, Baylor, and DePaul sent assistants.

• January 29, 2013: Up and coming junior point guard Tyler Ulis scored 25 points for Marian Catholic (IL) which included a game winning shot in front of Izzo.

• March 8, 2013: In a game that decided which team advanced to the Illinois state tournament and which team went home, Izzo was front and center for another Simeon / Whitney Young showdown featuring Parker and Okafor as they battled it out for Chicago supremacy.

The games listed above are only the ones I personally saw Izzo at so most likely there were many additional games he attended in Chicago. Despite all of the trips and the hard work he put in recruiting these players from Chicago, Izzo ended up empty handed when it came time for the top players in Chicago to choose their colleges. 

Jabari Parker’s decision came first on December 20, 2012, where the former Sports Illustrated cover boy committed to the Duke Blue Devils over the Spartans in a news conference from his high school.

"(Izzo) has been recruiting me ever since I was a freshman in high school, and he's been to most of my games," Parker said. "But a lot of things went into it like, 'How will I be used on the floor?' (Spartans forward) Branden Dawson and I play the same position, and it would be kind of a controversy if me and him were on the same floor and we run into each other. I just wanted to go to a school that was fitting for me."

Assuming Parker is only in school for one year, this decision will not have a direct impact on Michigan State’s future; however two factors do come into play 1) Parker could easily end up being what separates the Spartans from the Final Four and a championship considering that he is currently excelling at the power forward position which also happens to be the one weak spot in East Lansing and 2) Parker was the first Top 5 prospect from Chicago (class of 2013 / 2014) to spurn Izzo and the Spartans 

While Parker’s decision hurt, Izzo was still gearing up for a big haul with the class of 2014 given all of the expected departures come the spring time. Jahlil Okafor, the 6’10” center and top ranked player in the 2014 class was an important target for the Spartans; however in October he cut his list down to four schools leaving Michigan State out in the cold. It’s long been noted that Okafor would play college ball with his buddy Tyus Jones, one of, if not the best point guards in high school hoops. While Izzo was also recruiting the Minnesota native in Jones he saw the writing on the wall early on in the summer and began to target other point guard options. 

One of those options was diminutive point guard Tyler Ulis (#29-2014) who saw his recruitment explode in the early stages of 2012. When Izzo saw Ulis play in January, the buzz was just beginning to build for the 5’8” point guard and it took until early May for Izzo to offer. At this time the Michigan State offer became the prized possession for Ulis and most assumed that Michigan State also became the new leader for his services especially considering former Spartan Travis Walton was his cousin. As Ulis continued to impress at each stop on the AAU and summer camp journey he also caught the eye of John Calipari with a 22 point, 17 assist effort against Jones in the Nike Peach Jam. After visiting Lexington, KY in both August and September the lure of playing for the Wildcats was too much for Ulis to pass up and he committed just days after his September visit. 

The Okafor and Ulis decisions stung, but it was the deterioration of Alexander’s commitment that made the deepest cut. Right now, Alexander is considered a Top 5 player in his class and right on par with Jahlil Okafor. A few years ago, he was a notch below and just a talented athlete that could dominate games on the defensive end but was still just a dunker on the offensive end. Izzo made trips to Chicago specifically to see Alexander during his beginning as a raw and powerful athlete while other schools were only sending assistants. Michigan State was the presumed leader early on and it seemed all but a guarantee that Alexander would end up a Spartan and Izzo would get the guy he coveted most. As Alexander began his rise up the rankings with routine double-doubles in AAU games this spring and summer it seemed the high pedestal that the Spartans stood on began to diminish. When it came time to take official visits, Alexander noted he had already taken numerous unofficial visits to Michigan State and wanted to check out other campuses. He visited Arizona, Memphis, DePaul, Kansas, and Illinois. After taking his official visits, Alexander decided he was done with visits and dropped the Spartans saying “Right now, no relationship. They’re not on my list anymore.”

With those words, the last and most important of the Chicago prep stars gave Izzo and the Spartans the cold shoulder. When asked about recruiting the city of Chicago a few days later during the Big 10 media day, Izzo responded:

“Everybody has its hot few years. I don't know if it's different in any city. I think there's always the same issues. But if there's good players, there's going to be a lot of coaches around. If there's a lot of coaches around there's going to be issues. I don't know if it's any different than anywhere else. But I don't know what else I can say. I don't want to get slapped by somebody for saying the wrong thing as far as talking about recruiting. A lot of good players, a lot of coaches and good players. There's a lot of middlemen."

It’s been a long time since Izzo received a Chicago commitment with the last one occurring in August 2002 when Shannon Brown announced he was headed to East Lansing. Almost 10 years later Izzo re-entered the Chicago recruiting scene and came out swinging. Whether it was the middlemen or other factors that contributed to the Spartan strikeouts is up for debate. Michigan State fans  departed from Chicago in a joyous manner this past week after watching their talented and experienced team; however at some point down the road Chicago will be the same city that caused their smile to fade.