Stacking up state’s best in boys basketball recruiting since 2000
When it comes to the best high school boys basketball recruiting classes out of Wisconsin, the class of 2021 has as much potential as any in recent memory.
At the top is the highest-rated recruit from Wisconsin in the 2000s, Sussex Hamilton forward Patrick Baldwin Jr.
Racine St. Catherine's guard Tyrese Hunter (Iowa State), Brookfield Central forward David Joplin (Texas) and Nicolet forward James Graham (already enrolled at Maryland) are all four-stars ranked in the top 100 nationally.
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Brandin Podziemski is uncommitted but holds offers from Illinois, Kansas and Kentucky.
Cedarburg forward Logan Landers (Kansas State) and Nicolet guard Kobe Johnson (USC) are also headed to high-major schools. Many more, such as Oak Creek guard Jasin Sinani, Waukesha West guard Cam Palesse, Brookfield Central guard Ben Nau and Racine St. Catherine's guard Kamari McGee are going to mid-majors.
Time will tell how the class of 2021 stacks up to the groups that came before it from the state.
Here is how we rank the 11 best boys basketball recruiting classes out of Wisconsin since 2000, primarily taking into account class depth, college and NBA success, and recruiting school.
(Note: The 2019 and 2020 classes were considered incomplete for these comparisons at this time.)
11. 2010
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Key members: Evan Anderson, Vander Blue, TJ Bray, Flavien Davis, Josh Gasser, Troy Huff, Kyle Kelm, Steve McWhorter.
The 2010 class may not have had the flash of high-end recruits that others have, but it had impressive depth, proven by how many good college players it produced.
Vander Blue, a four-star, was a top-40 recruit nationally his senior
year at Madison Memorial, excelled at Marquette, won an MVP in the NBA DLeague and went on to play briefly in the NBA. Both Evan Anderson (Eau Claire North) and Josh Gasser (Port Washington) were highly touted threestars headed to Wisconsin; Gasser started on both of UW’s Final Four teams, was named an all-conference defender three times and is ninth alltime in minutes played in college basketball history.
Other college standouts include Troy Huff, a lightly recruited guard out of Brookfield Academy, who went on to score more college points than any other Wisconsinite this century (2,005) while at North Dakota.
TJ Bray (Catholic Memorial) was a hyper-efficient guard who scored more than 1,000 points and was named first team all-conference at Princeton. Kyle Kelm (Randolph High School, UW-Milwaukee) and Flavien Davis (Wisconsin Lutheran, Montana State) were threestar recruits who went on to average 7.1 and 11.9 points per game, respectively, in college. Include Steve McWhorter (Racine St. Catherine’s, Indiana State/ UW-Milwaukee) and the class had six players score more than 900 points.
Add in the likes of Ben Mills (Arrowhead, Colorado), Chip Rank (Cedarburg, Northern Iowa), Evan Richard (Cuba City, UW-Milwaukee), Kam Cerroni (Sussex Hamilton, UW-Green Bay), Chim Kadima (Milwaukee Lutheran, Loyola Chicago) and Steve Tecker (Northwestern, South Dakota), most of whom attended mid-majors, and you see just how deep the class was.
10. 2006
Key members: Troy Cotton, JP Gavinski, Trevon Hughes, Adam Koch, Andy Polka, Jerry Smith.
The class of 2006 featured 3 fourstar recruits, four college 1,000-point scorers, a Missouri Valley Conference player of the year and one NBA player.
Wauwatosa East guard Jerry Smith was considered the best player in the class and went on to excel at Louisville and appear in five NBA games. St. John’s Northwestern guard Trevon Hughes and Wisconsin Dells center JP Gavinski, both of whom went to Wisconsin, were the other four-stars.
Ashwaubenon forward Adam Koch was a lightly regarded recruit, but turned into the conference player of the year at Northern Iowa in 2010, the year the Panthers memorably defeated No. 1 overall seed Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
9. 2002
Key members: David Berghoefer, Draelon Burns, Dan Grunfeld, Coby Karl, JR Morris, Ray Nixon, Steve Novak, Boo Wade.
The 2002 class produced four 1,000point scorers in college, six who went to high-major schools and one, Steve Novak (Brown Deer), who played in the NBA.
Novak was a four-star recruit who played in a Final Four for Marquette and became arguably the program’s best shooter, scoring 1,567 points in four years. He played 11 seasons in the NBA and led the league in three-point percentage in 2011-12 with the New York Knicks.
Novak was outscored in college by Coby Karl (Homestead, Boise State), the son of former Bucks coach George Karl. Dan Grunfeld (Nicolet, Stanford) scored 1,000 points in college, as well.
The class also featured Badgers recruits Ray Nixon (Whitefish Bay Dominican), Boo Wade (Milwaukee Vincent) and Jason Chappell (New Berlin West).
8. 2005
Key members: JR Blount, David Dubois, Ricky Franklin, Marcus Landry, Wesley Matthews, Mike Schachtner, Gino Smith, Ryan Tillema.
Despite having only four players rated as a three-star or better, the class of 2005 produced seven 1,000-point scorers in college, the most of any class since 2000.
Wesley Matthews was the crown jewel. The Madison Memorial product was a four-star recruit, had a great career at Marquette and is now in his 12th season in the NBA. Matthews’ status as a top recruit and success at the college and professional levels give the 2005 class plenty of star power, but it doesn’t end there.
Marcus Landry (Milwaukee Vincent) was a three-star recruit and, like Matthews, one of the seven 1,000point scorers during a career at Wisconsin in which he won Big Ten tournament MVP. The others were Ricky Franklin (Milwaukee Riverside, UWMilwaukee),
David Dubois (Madison La Follette, Idaho/Western Illinois), Mike Schachtner (Somerset, UWGreen Bay), JR Blount (Whitefish Bay Dominican, Loyola-Chicago) and Ryan Tillema (Randolph, UW-Green Bay).
7. 2012
Key members: Sam Dekker, Junior Lomomba, Carrington Love, Tanner Plomb, Zak Showalter, JP Tokoto.
As far as one-two punches go, Sam Dekker and JP Tokoto formed one of the most buzzed-about duos in Wisconsin in recent memory.
The first five-star from the state since Brian Butch, Dekker committed to Wisconsin following his freshman season at Sheboygan Lutheran. He went on to score 1,363 points, help lead the Badgers to consecutive Final Fours while hitting multiple key shots along the way and get drafted 18th overall by the Houston Rockets.
Tokoto was a four-star recruit from Menomonee Falls who drew interest nationally from blue bloods and ultimately picked North Carolina.
The class also produced 1,000-point scorers Tanner Plomb (East Troy, Army) Matt Van Scyoc (Green Lake, Citadel/Indiana State), Carrington Love (Milwaukee Pius XI, UW-Green Bay), Charles Lee (Milwaukee Hamilton, Cleveland State) and Jordan Fouse (Racine St. Catherine’s, UW-Green
Bay), as well as high-major players Darrell Bowie (Wauwatosa East, Northern Illinois/Iowa State), Junior Lomomba (Madison Memorial, Cleveland State/Providence/Western Kentucky), Wally Ellenson (Rice Lake, Minnesota/Marquette) and Philip Nolan (Milwaukee Riverside), the latter of whom won a national title at UConn.
6. 2000
Key members: Sharif Chambliss, Scott Merritt, Freddie Owens, Dylan Page, Michael Southall, Mike Wilkinson.
The first recruiting class of the new millennium produced six 1,000-point scorers, five all-conference players and a conference player of the year.
While online recruiting rankings were not as popular as they would become within a couple of years, the 2000 class had plenty of nationally acclaimed prospects from Wisconsin, including Michael Southall, Scott Merritt and Mike Wilkinson.
Wilkinson, out of Wisconsin Heights High School, became one of the best college players from the state, scoring 1,532 points and finishing in the top 10 all-time at Wisconsin in points, rebounds, blocks, steals, free throws and minutes.
Southall was heavily recruited out of West Salem, with Kentucky ultimately receiving his commitment. Offthe-court
problems with drugs and alcohol led to his scholarship being revoked; the same happened with a later scholarship from Georgia Tech on separate charges. He wound up at Louisiana, where he scored 1,193 points over three years.
Merritt was a top-100 recruit out of Wauwatosa East who went to Marquette, where he started every game for the 2003 Final Four team and scored 1,049 points.
The final shot in the college career of Dylan Page (Amherst) was a layup that didn’t fall at the buzzer that would have given UW-Milwaukee a win over Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament, but the Horizon League player of the year season he had in 2003-04 was one of the best any player from the state has produced.
Sharif Chambliss (Racine St. Catherine’s, Penn State/Wisconsin) also scored 1,000 points, while Freddie Owens (Milwaukee Washington, Wisconsin), Lewis Monroe (Madison West, Auburn/Indiana) and Chris Charles (Greendale, Villanova) all went to high-major programs.
5. 2013
Key members: Deonte Burton, Luke Fischer, Jarvis Garrett, Bennett Koch, Bronson Koenig, Matt Thomas, Duane Wilson.
During a stretch from 2012 to 2015, this was the only year in which the state didn’t produce a five-star, but it made up for that with an unmatched five four-stars: Deonte Burton (Milwaukee Vincent, Marquette/Iowa State), Matt Thomas (Onalaska, Iowa State), Luke Fischer (Germantown, Indiana/Marquette), Bronson Koenig (La Crosse Aquinas, Wisconsin) and Duane Wilson (Whitefish Bay Dominican, Marquette/Texas A&M).
Of those five, both Burton and Thomas played in the NBA last year, Koenig is Wisconsin’s all-time leading three-point shooter, and both Fischer and Wilson scored more than 1,000 points during careers that saw them spend time at Marquette.
Five other players from the class scored more than 700 points: Toby Hegner (Berlin, Creighton), Kenneth Lowe (Little Chute, UW-Green Bay), Cody Wichmann (Pulaski, UW-Milwaukee), Bennett Koch (Ashwaubenon, Northern Iowa) and Jarvis Garrett (West Allis Central, Rhode Island).
4. 2018
Key members: Grant Basile, Tyrese Haliburton, Joey Hauser, Tyler Herro, Keshawn Justice, Jordan McCabe, Marlon Ruffin.
It seems crazy to think that two years out of high school this class already has produced two NBA lottery picks.
Tyler Herro (Whitnall, Kentucky) went 13th overall in the 2019 NBA draft and Tyrese Haliburton (Oshkosh North, Iowa State) went 12th overall in