Class of 2022 rankings: Analyzing the top 6
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There’s no way Rochester’s Lilly Meister Lilly Meister 6'2" | PF Rochester John Marshall | 2022 State #55 Nation MN is the 6th-best player in Minnesota’s Class of 2022. That was my thought as we finalized the fall Prep Girls…
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Continue ReadingThere’s no way Rochester’s Lilly Meister Lilly Meister 6'2" | PF Rochester John Marshall | 2022 State #55 Nation MN is the 6th-best player in Minnesota’s Class of 2022. That was my thought as we finalized the fall Prep Girls Hoops ranking of the state’s top juniors. It simply doesn’t seem possible that a player with her combination of height, length, athleticism, touch and effort-level could not move up in the rankings.
In fact, in my opinion, it is entirely possible that we will look back 10 years from now and determine that it was Meister who will have had the best college career among the top six. She’s that good. As I said to someone a couple of weeks ago in the gym, it would not be at all surprising to me if Meister was four years into a professional basketball career in 2032, cashing paychecks to play the game somewhere in the world.
So how then does Lilly end up in the current rankings at #6? Good question. And one with no easy answers.
A panel of experts
As a reminder, when we last updated the 2022 rankings back in June, the top six looked like this:
- Maya Nnaji Maya Nnaji 6'4" | PF Hopkins | 2022 State #7 Nation MN , Hopkins (FBC North)
- Mara Braun Mara Braun 5'11" | CG Wayzata | 2022 State #21 Nation MN , Wayzata (North Tartan)
- Amaya Battle Amaya Battle 5'10" | PG Hopkins | 2022 State #29 Nation MN , Hopkins (Metro Stars)
- Mallory Heyer Mallory Heyer 6'1" | PF Chaska | 2022 State #36 Nation MN , Chaska (Fury 2022 UAA)
- Nia Holloway Nia Holloway 6'0" | PF Eden Prairie | 2022 State #45 Nation MN , Eden Prairie (North Tartan)
- Lilly Meister Lilly Meister 6'2" | PF Rochester John Marshall | 2022 State #55 Nation MN , Rochester John Marshall (Fury 2022 UAA)
Fast forward to November. There were 10 people involved in the current debate as we finalized the updated rankings of the top six players in the junior class. They included nine AAU coaches and/or club directors representing six different organizations. They know these kids well, and have been watching them closely for at least the past three years. I was the 10th vote.
To be sure that we were still on the right track with the top six, I asked each of the participants to rank the players as college prospects in their preferred order. In tallying the votes, we awarded six points for a first place selection, five for second place, three for third and so on down to a single point for a 6th place vote. To ensure that the selections would be as unbiased as possible, each of the participants was granted anonymity so that they could fairly evaluate the group. The results were fascinating.
How it turned out
Nnaji emerged once again as the #1 selection. That’s not surprising. The 6’4 forward, who played some this summer for FBC North, offers a combination of size, strength and athleticism that is extremely hard to find. As a result she has garnered a large number of high-major collegiate offers and the most national attention. I won’t list them all here but Nnaji recently announced a list of 13 programs that she was still considering. Interestingly enough, Maya was not a unanimous selection among our panel with just six of the 10 voters picking her for the top spot.
The rest of the results were particularly interesting. The selection for #2 came down to a coin flip between Braun and Battle, who are both coming off stellar performances in the summer season. In fact, two of our evaluators selected Braun as the #1 prospect in the class while one had Battle in that position. Five people put Braun in second; five chose Battle. Like we said, it’s a coin flip.
The discussion about the fourth spot was no less contentious as we debated the relative merits of Heyer, Holloway and Meister as collegiate prospects. If I were to summarize the discussion in the simplest way possible I would say this: It depends entirely on what type of player you are looking for in your program. All three have length. Heyer probably gets the edge in the strength and power department. Meister is the tallest and longest. Holloway is the most athletic. All three have terrific intangibles. They work hard, are team-first players and they’re all excellent students.
Each of the three players has a long list of college suitors from which to choose. In fact, Heyer and Holloway have already made their selection as each announced a couple of weeks ago that they had verbally committed to play for coach Lindsay Whalen at the University of Minnesota. That’s a big win for the Gophers, who are still in the mix for the services of Braun and Battle, as well. We’re not certain about Meister’s thoughts on the subject.
After tallying up the votes it turned out that the discussion about Heyer, Holloway and Meister produced a virtual stalemate, as well. Each of the athletes received at least one vote for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th positions, and there just isn’t enough evidence to separate them. As a result, the updated rankings look like this.
- Maya Nnaji Maya Nnaji 6'4" | PF Hopkins | 2022 State #7 Nation MN , Hopkins (FBC North)
- Mara Braun Mara Braun 5'11" | CG Wayzata | 2022 State #21 Nation MN , Wayzata (North Tartan)
- Amaya Battle Amaya Battle 5'10" | PG Hopkins | 2022 State #29 Nation MN , Hopkins (Metro Stars)
- Mallory Heyer Mallory Heyer 6'1" | PF Chaska | 2022 State #36 Nation MN , Chaska (Fury 2022 UAA)
- Nia Holloway Nia Holloway 6'0" | PF Eden Prairie | 2022 State #45 Nation MN , Eden Prairie (North Tartan)
- Lilly Meister Lilly Meister 6'2" | PF Rochester John Marshall | 2022 State #55 Nation MN , Rochester John Marshall (Fury 2022 UAA)
Yep, the order of the top six stayed exactly the same. In spite of her many assets and attributes, we just couldn’t justify moving Meister up ahead of Holloway or Heyer. And we couldn’t justify moving anyone down. All six are terrific high major prospects, and all six have similar odds of being highly successful in NCAA basketball. Now let’s hope there is a high school season of some sort so we can simply enjoy watching them do their thing. It promises to be a show.