After-Summer HS Report: USA Underage Teams and Up/Down Stocks

With the month of August coming to an end, the experts at 247Sports have just re-ranked the 2020 basketball recruiting class of prospects. As it often occurs with these updates, there are multiple moves around the whole board, and although there have been not earthshaking changes nor massive surprises regarding the heavy-lifters, a bunch of players have caught our attention.

It is no surprise to find such changes in a 2020 board that features so many quality ballers, even more considering the period we’ve just closed. From the end of the prep season and the GEICO nationals to this point we’ve experienced the summer travel tourneys (those mostly organized by brands such as Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour) and multiple international games that have definitely affected some of the prospects stocks.

Let’s take a quick look at what has happened during the past few weeks, and how prospects have improved or worsened their outlooks by taking part (or not) on different scenarios:

USA Basketball Underage Teams Report

Junior National Team (Minicamp)

The team formed by players hailing from the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 high school classes featured 20 athletes from the 2020 class. Among them, we found budding stars in Evan Mobley (CA), Matthew Murrell (FL), and Sharife Cooper (GA).

A lot more names featured in the roster, but all of the aforementioned raised their rank in the last update:

• Stock Up: Evan Mobley - Not happy enough with being the No. 1 player in the class, having already committed to play college ball at USC, Mobley handcuffed himself to the position leading USA to a chip. I’m cheating here because Mobley couldn’t get higher than the first spot in the ranks, but to hell with it. He improved his already un-improvable position. Not a bad start to a much-hyped potential career.
• Stock Up: Matthew Murrell - Talk about improvement! The shooting guard playing out of Florida not only improved his position in the 2020 ranks, he basically broke them. He was the 62nd-best prospect when they were updated the last time, and his stock has raised 20 positions up to the 42nd-best spot (8th-best shooting guard) in the nation. He looks like a lock to play for Vanderbilt and they’ll gladly take him.
• Stock Down: Isaiah Jackson - He was called to be part of the 2020 roster at the USA minicamp. Victory. He fell 15 spots in the last rankings update. Ultra-defeat. That’s as ugly a drop as it gets. Ugh. LaMelo Ball’s running mate at SPIRE Academy last season will move to Michigan this year, and currently sits at the 30th spot in the rankings. We’ll have to see whether the change of scenario makes him good or not, but as far as the last update indicates, he’s trending down.

U19 National Team (FIBA U19 World Cup)

Back in July, the USA U19 National team beat Mali in the final to win the FIBA U19 World Cup. That makes it seven in a row for the Americans. As you could predict by just knowing he was part of the team, Cade Cunningham (FL) burnt the Mali national team to the tune of 21 points, seven boards, and seven dimes in the final game of the tourney.

Here is a look at some of the big-time names related to the U19 team to appear the ranks:

• Stock Up: Cade Cunningham - It looks like there were serious doubts about moving Cunningham into the first spot of the 2020 class ranks, but he ended in second position behind Mobley. Even with that, keep an eye on the combo guard playing for Montverde. I wouldn’t be surprised seeing him move past Mobley eventually.
• Stock Down: Scottie Barnes - Although not the biggest of drops (he just fell from No. 5 to No. 8 in the last update), Barnes seeing his stock go down is upsetting. He has a list of eight colleges lining up to get him on their roster next summer. He’ll play HS ball for powerhouse Montverde this year. He averaged 20 points, 8 boards, and seven assists at the Nike EYBL. He helped the U19 team get the gold. I mean, not a bad outcome, but other kids are getting over him easily. He better gear up.
• Stock Up: Jalen Green - To be fair, Green getting one spot up has more to do with Makur Maker dropping two than he having a monster performance. Don’t get me wrong, though. Green was the only player aside from Cunningham to finish the tourney posting ten or more points per game (he scored 10.1 per contest). Can’t argue he surely helped USA stay undefeated.
• Stock Down: Sharife Cooper - Although his ranking improved one spot in the last update, the snub from the U19 USA national team sucked for him. He surely has given him an extra motivation entering next season, but had it not been for Isaiah Jackson’s hyper-drop he wouldn’t have improved his stock.

Final Notes

Here are some other notes on the last rankings update from 247Sports, including some players that didn’t make an appearance on the prior parts of the article:

• Stock Up: Osasere Ighodaro - Look, I know Ighorado is definitely not a household name. I know he has not been called to play at international level. But you know what I know, too? That his stock can’t be higher than it is now. There have been just a handful of biggest bumps in all of the board. Ighodaro went 39 positions up in the last update to reach the 57th spot. He’s not committed yet and is getting more and more attention each passing day. Arizona has already offered him but it looks like Marquette leads the way.
• Stock Up: Jaden Ivey - Another super-riser is Ivey, from Indiana. He saw his rank improve a staggering 43 positions and now sits at the 78th spot in the 2020 class, already part of Purdue for the upcoming season. Not a bad acquisition for the Boilermakers considering Ivey is viewed as the third-best player to come out of the State of Indiana in 2020 and could easily end overtaking those ahead of him. Moving to LaLumiere definitely helped him.
• Stock Down: Joe Bamisile - The drop is hard. Now ranked 79th overall, Bamisile’s stock regressed 14 spots down the list. He’s now only the fifth-best player from Virginia and he will have it hard to take the positions from those higher than him hailing from VA. Not that Henry Coleman (No. 40) or Mark Williams (No. 34) are unreachable, but things doen’t look good for the future VTech guard.
• Stock Up: Caleb Murphy - Wait a minute. A 118-spot bump!? Offers from Missouri, Florida, Clemson, and Georgia (and that’s not even half of them)? What is going on here? Turns out Murphy became an All-Tournament performer at the Battle For Georgia, broke into the scene, and made a huge impact on everyone around the nation.
• Stock Down: Makur Maker - I already mentioned the younger of the Makers earlier. He dropped from No. 2 to No. 4 paving the way for Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green to the second and third spots in the 2020 class. To be fair, if we have to project Maker as a pro and take Thon Maker (his cousin) as the player he’ll end becoming, things wouldn’t look too good for him.