Last 4 Mcdonald's All-American games (Why the SEC is down)

[Seinfeld]

If anyone wonders why the SEC is down in basketball, look no further than the last four McD's rosters and where those players signed.

2006 - ACC(7), Big 10(3), Big East(2), Big 12(5), PAC-10(5). The SEC? 0

2007 - ACC(5), Big 10(2), Big East(5), Big 12(5), PAC-10(4). The SEC? 1

2008 - ACC(8), Big 10(2), Big East(4), Big 12(1), PAC-10(5). The SEC? 2

2009 - ACC(9), Big 10(0), Big East(5), Big 12(4), PAC-10(1). The SEC? 1

I know it's not all about all-americans, but the SEC has gotten it's collective tails whipped in recruiting over the last four years. To really put things into perspective, there are five individual schools that have gotten more all-americans than the entire SEC combined over that period.

 

[Delmar]

is how young the SEC teams are. The said last night of the final four teams there is 1 freshman and 1 sophomore starters amongst all teams and the rest are juniors and seniors. That was hard for me to believe.

 

[Croomp]

just sayin.

 

[Irondawg]

another problem is that honestly the southeast I don't think produces that many McDonald's HS AA's as the northeast and west coast. At least that I can think of - we have one or two here or there, but not a ton to recruit from. Then you have the fact that in honestly most of the HS coaches in the southeast simply aren't that good and the fact that football is still king down here. If Allen Iverson had grown up in Alabama, he probably chooses football over basketball (he was a great football player as well).

I talked to a DI assistant coach at a camp a few years ago and he was lamented to poor skill set so many of the MS players had compared to other camps he worked. He said there was some raw talent there but it would probably take 3 years to teach them basic stuff and break all the bad habits so it just wasn't worth recruiting them unless their athletic ability was way above other players.

In our own backyard let's take Ravern as an example - here was a 4-star player that 2 years later still struggles to dribble and play defense and at 6'7 gets about 2 rebounds a game. In HS, didn't matter b/c he just shot over everybody. Granted he's a great outside shooter but that was the only skill set he had that was anywhere close to D1 level when he arrived.

That said, we still generally produce enough raw athletes that by the time they are Jr's and Sr's the conference produces a few teams capable of playing with just about anyone.

 

[SanfordRJones]

If Allen Iverson had grown up in Alabama, he probably chooses football over basketball (he was a great football player as well).

I understand what you're saying, but Iverson grew up the Hampton Roads, VA, area, which is a pretty good area for football. Coming up with names off the top of my head, it has produced Percy Harvin, Mike Tomlin, Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress, Ronald Curry, and Dwight Stephenson.

Fow what it's worth, a lot of baseball talent comes out of that area, too (e.g. David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman).