Grading the Performances from the High School All-Star Games

The high school all-star games are typically the first chance we get to see the highly-anticipated crop of incoming freshmen showcase their skills amongst equals. It's important not to get too carried away with showings in these games considering the national rankings are based on four plus years of organized high school competition and the gauntlet of AAU debauchery. Nonetheless, these games are the best fodder we have for the upcoming season of college bball, so we must acknowledge them. I listed a few of my winners and losers based on performances at the McDonald's game:

WINNERS

Harrison Barnes: This guy could not play anywhere but UNC. His game will be described as smooth so many times next year that it will make everyone sick (Brett Favre is a gunslinger and Jerome Bettis is from Detroit). The best part about Barnes is that his game is EXACTLY what UNC lacked last year. As the Admiral aptly noted, Larry Drew has been the whipping boy of Raleigh, but that is not completely fair. Drew obviously isn't as good as Ray Felton or Ty Lawson, but Ole Roy found a way to win a lot of games without those guys over the last twenty years. Barnes showed range, high basketball IQ, and an NBA-ready physique. I kind of felt the same about Xavier Henry last year, but hopefully Barnes doesn't prove to be as off-putting as Xavier.

Jared Sullinger: Sully was right at home at the McDonald's game, and put on quite a show for his strong contingency of fans. I was impressed until I got a little deja vu recalling Felipe Lopez's McDonald's performance in NYC before four disappointing years at St. John's. Dare I speculate that Sullinger is the type of man the Admiral would love to build his team around. Big, physical, and skilled. He's going to be a force in the Big Ten, and the knock on him coming out of college will probably be whether he is athletic enough to bang with NBA bigs. For the time being though, he looks impressive.

Tobias Harris: Harris got hurt in the McDonald's game, and will probably be out of commission for several weeks, so the fact that I included him as a "winner" is a testament to how impressed I was with him. Harris was bigger, more athletic, and more skilled than I anticipated. I think that after Barnes, he projects as the best NBA prospect in the class right now. Bruce Pearl has yet to actually develop an NBA prospect, so hopefully for Harris's sake, he hasn't already peaked.

Terrence Jones: I loved the efficiency and versatility of his game. Jones can shoot, put the ball on the floor, rebound, and pass. He seemed to have a high basketball IQ, and although he only grabbed three rebounds, his reputation as a solid rebounder gets him a pass for that game. Besides, who rebounds in all-star games? That's bush league.

LOSERS

Brandan Knight: Knight made the same mistake that many top flight players do at the McDonald's game. He tried to use it as a forum to show that criticisms of his game are unfounded. Therefore, he took way too many threes to try to prove that he's a shooter. He should have just played his game and found open teammates, and he would have been fine. The game-winning shot was a nice touch, though. If it's any consolation, I predicted that Mike Conley, Jr. and Jordan Farmar would be complete busts in college after underwhelming McDonald's performances. Unless I'm mistaken, neither of those guys finished a season in which his team failed to make the Final Four. If you're still reading this after that revelation, then you're probably just an old friend of mine. Thanks, I appreciate your loyalty.

While on the subject of Knight, I will get an obligatory dig in on the Worldwide Leader, if I may. ESPN re-ranked the top prospects and dropped Knight behind Kyrie Irving after the McDonald's game. That's kind of like when they dropped John Wall behind Avery Bradley and Favors after the McDonald's game last year. Sidebar: ESPN owns rights to the McDonald's game but not the Hoop Summit Game. Ergo, (in my humble opinion) in ESPN's eyes, great performances in the Hoop Summit game pale in comparison to putting on a show for the ESPN audience at the Hamburger Classic. It was fun watching ESPN repeatedly referring to John Wall as the third ranked player in the ESPN top 100 last winter when Wall became a national sensation. Hopefully Knight, who seems like a great kid, enjoys similar success.

Keith Appling: Apparently Appling has a scorer's mentality. He took fifteen shots in seventeen minutes in the McDonald's game, and may have actually played so selfishly, that remaining recruits would go out of their way to avoid standing around and watching Appling next season in East Lansing. Izzo hasn't had too much trouble with people playing for themselves instead of his team, but he's going to have a tall task in getting Appling to learn a thing or two about shot selection.J