Inside Our Best Of New England Rankings

Ethan and Steve explain how they created their new player rankings, aiming for transparency about evaluation and projection. They discuss the difficulty of ranking high school and prep prospects amid variables like role, opportunity, team context, and competition level, noting clearer top tiers but thin margins in the middle of lists. HoopWise released top-50 rankings for 2026 and 2027, will use watch lists for younger classes, and plans semi-regular updates (while 2026 is final). Their approach weighs translatable skills, outlier physical traits, versatility, consistency, winning impact, leadership, and input from college coaches, while acknowledging the transfer portal’s impact on high school recruiting. They cite examples and emphasize rankings differ from awards and that many strong players fall outside the top 50.

 

Topics

01:05 Why Ranking Is Hard

04:52 Rankings Format and Updates

07:23 Steve Evaluation Priorities

12:03 Prospects vs Best Players

14:52 Success Stories and Translation

18:41 Girls Guard Skills and Defense

25:01 Prep vs Public Balancing

29:29 Portal Era and Competition

31:56 Rankings Perspective and Wrap