The 2025 Rankings: The Elite Eight
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If anybody ever thinks that being a basketball scout is a simple job, they’ve never had to rank a draft class with seven of the top players in the entire country cloistered into just over 100 miles. Every college coach…
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Continue ReadingIf anybody ever thinks that being a basketball scout is a simple job, they’ve never had to rank a draft class with seven of the top players in the entire country cloistered into just over 100 miles. Every college coach has their opinion. Every high school coach has theirs. Other scouts have helped. Parents have “helped.” It’s been a process.
In the end the rankings are still going to be exactly right for one subset of people and very, very wrong for the majority. Though we’ll never agree on where these eight players should be ranked, at least we can all agree that we should be out there enjoying Oklahoma Girls Basketball because we’ve got two more seasons of some of the best high school basketball players we’re gonna see in our lifetimes.
Here’s a look at what makes these eight players stand out from the rest of the class that shapes up to be the best recruiting class in the United States for the year 2025 in most opinions.
Back at No. 1 is Keziah Lofton Keziah Lofton 5’11” | CG Bethany | 2025 State OK who just keeps proving that she is the best pure scorer in this class. Her arsenal of moves to get through traffic and get to the rim has always been ahead of peers, but she just keeps adding and adding. Last season saw her become the leader we all knew she would be as she added to her assist numbers in a big way in route to a championship with her Bethany squad. Coaches I talked to all agreed that with future projections as a basis for scouting, Lofton has a very bright future in store. Her ability to take defenders off the dribble and create her own shot is built for a league like the WNBA. Before that though, she’ll be attending her dream school, OU, where she’ll likely average 30 points per game in Coach JB’s offense.
If coaches and other scouts weren’t voting for Keziah, they were voting for Keeley when it came to who should be at No. 1, which makes sense. She’s been there. Alas, there can only be one. There’s a reason that Parks got so many votes and still has college coaches tripping over themselves to get to Norman and see and be seen by her. She is also a shot creator. A floor general. A dedicated defender and student of the game. She has proved herself resilient and she continues to grow in the game, which is no doubt why the number of offers that she has continues to grow and grow. A three-level scorer, look for Keeley to put up big time numbers once again for the Tigers this season!
I’m not sure there’s ever been a player more perfectly suited for the school that they’ve committed to than McKenzie. Every time I see her play, I can picture her out there against anyone in the Big-10. In a few years, when she’s out there with Nebraska against some of those big, powerful college kids, I don’t think anybody’s gonna be worried for McKenzie. She’s gonna hold her own. Okay, well, maybe her parents, but, even they know it’s probably the opponent who should be scared. Especially now that it’s looking like Mathurin’s three-point shooting is becoming an even bigger part of her deadly offensive arsenal. This isn’t the last set of 2025 rankings, and it definitely doesn’t have to be the stopping point for Mathurin’s climb up the charts.
Watching video recently of Marcayla, it was great to see that she still plays with that same joy and explosiveness that she did when I saw her a year or so ago, before my hiatus. Of course, in Coach Rabu Leyva’s offense, it’s hard not to have fun. Back then, about the same time she was being scouted and offered by Baylor, where she is now committed, I thought she might have been a little raw still. Working off of pure athleticism a lot more than most. I mean, yes, she was and is incredibly athletic. But, with time and even more and more training, she looks like an absolutely elite level basketball player. With even more time to go before she heads down to Waco, it will be fun to see Marcayla’s continued ascent, as well.
One of the best parts about this unbelievable Class of 2025 in the state of Oklahoma is that you can pretty much just talk to any coach or scout out there and call all of these athletes by their first names. It’s like, they’ve been Lebron-first-name-only-type stars for years now. Janiyah is a big part of that. Walk into a gym and you’re bound to hear somebody talking about something that Janiyah did. She broke some ankles. She hit a step-back three. Whatever it was, it got some ohh’s and ahh’s and it got people talking about her. Another player with a game perhaps built for a level after college, Williams has colleges clamoring to be the in-between investment in her life. In the meantime, don’t miss the Janiyah show.
To me, Sania Richardson Sania Richardson 5’5″ | PG Grind Prep | 2025 State OK is the closest of the athletes in this “Elite Eight” to being ready to take a college basketball team on her back and lead it to big things. As time goes on, college coaches seem to be figuring out that it doesn’t matter how tall that back is if it carries you to championships. Sania’s vision is unmatched in the top-8 players and her handles have been known to make highlight video material of even the best defenders. I’ve told coaches and been told by coaches that if not for her height, Sania would have been recruited over almost everyone in this class. I can only hope that the continued slights, even by myself in this capacity, help to drive Sania to do the greatest things possible in every realm where she endeavors.
Avery has been on a recruiting rocket ship these last several months. Much as her height has exploded since our initial freshmen rankings where she was ranked No. 39, so has the interest in the now 6’2″ Shooting Guard. Already with the handles and defensive dedication of a guard and now with the length and height of some bigs, Avery is a bit of a unicorn. She is a three-level scorer and is still fluid enough on her feet to stay in front of smaller, faster guards. Her three-point shooting has always been tremendous, but just gets better and better as she grows closer and closer to rim height. She has whittled her schools down to eight with Oklahoma State being the most recent visit.
Highlights
You hear the word or words “college-ready” thrown around a lot when it comes to Brandie and that is mainly because of her size. She is a true six-footer and she is very, strong. But, she has the handles and mobility of a guard. You’ll find her playing pretty much anywhere, including in the paint where she grabs a large number of rebounds and puts a hurting on anyone brave enough to bring it down the lane. She is a tough player who is built for the D-I game and perhaps the most exciting part? She just keeps improving and improving every time I see her play! There’s a reason that more and more schools are offering her each month and I would expect that pattern to continue as they discover how ready this junior is to play college ball.