PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GLENN NELSON
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The past year, we've gone from Blue Star's Fall Showcase to the Nike Tournament of Champions to the Boo Williams Invitational, USA Basketball trials and crisscrossing the country in late June and July, viewed hours of video, called plenty of coaches on all levels, and debated endlessly.
And this is what we came up with - our second class of national rankings, but our first that go 100 deep.
We've been a bit of a tease - releasing All-Americans one day, Player of the Year the next - and we continue to be. Today, you get the first 50 players in our Hot 100 for the 2007 class. You'll get the other 50 tomorrow. You have to understand: HoopGurlz.com is based in Seattle, Wash., where we like to enjoy life with a nice, bold cup of coffee, gazing out the window at all that natural beauty.
Click Here for HoopGurlz.com 2007 Rankings
There are a few things we want you to know before you dive headlong into the rankings.
First of all, these are the kids we have seen - either in person or on tape. Seeing with our own eyes is the philosophy that drives our rankings and ratings. There is no other way to have utter confidence in, as well as defend, our work. We welcome help - and have received an outporing of it the past year - in locating rankable girls, but we'll want to watch and evaluate them ourselves. The longer we do this, by the way, the more kids we'll see during our regular course of beating bushes around the country.
We have an explanation on how to submit leads and thank you in advance:
Click Here for Information on Player Rankings and Profile Pages
Back to the see-with-our-own-eyes philosophy. Yes, we'll say it now: We've missed some kids. Don't panic or scream. Please tell us who they are. These rankings are a live list. They can and will change. We will add players and rearrange the list as necessary. By the end of the season, maybe we'll end up with 200 players ranked. Who knows.
Some other clues that may help keep your blood pressure down: Our player database is live, which means the minute we enter a player, she appears and she is defaulted as a one-star prospect. One-star ratings usually mean we haven't had an opportunity to evaluate the player yet. Again, if you have an affiliation with that player, you can help us. Also, you are not viewing our rankings, in any class, unless you are on the "Top" tab and see numbers in the "Nat'l Rank" column. Our database otherwise sorts players in the "Overall" tab that sometimes surprises even us.
Say hello to "Hal" (note: this is a cultural reference for which you probably have to be in at least your thirties to understand; ask your parents).
Want to know what the stars mean? They aren't just bling. The following is a guide:
- Five Stars: Elite prospects with college All-American and conference player of the year potential.
- Four Stars: Prospect for major Division I programs.
- Three Stars: Prospect for major Division I programs and/or standout at mid-major programs.
- Two Stars: Prospect for mid-major Division I programs and/or standout at low major programs.
- One Star: Default rating or any recruitable Division I prospect.
Finally, yes, we care what you think. We even have a message board, that's become quite active during the past couple months, on which people across the country discuss players and teams from around the country.
Click Here for National HS & Prospects Forum
The HoopGurlz.com Rankings Panel:
Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. He also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. Glenn previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). He can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.
Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women's Basketball at HoopGurlz.com and Scout.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz and Scout.com. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chansen@scout.com.
Nancy Pfaff is Eastern Analyst for Women's Basketball at HoopGurlz.com and Scout.com. More commonly known as Husky Nan on the Internet, where she is considered one of the nation's authorities on women's basketball and has been evaluating and ranking girl's basketball players for years (www.HuskyNan.com). Nancy also is a senior writer for UConnFan.com and moderator for one of the largest sports communities on the Web, the Boneyard. She can be reached at huskynan@yahoo.com.
HOOPGURLZ'S RANKINGS PACKAGE FOR 2007:
Preseason Hot 100 (Part II)
Preseason Hot 100 (Part I)
Preseason Player of the Year
Preseason All-Americans
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