top 50 college basketball players for 2018-19
First thing is first, I want to say that as a personal code, I generally don’t like to slander other journalists because I know how difficult it is to remain successful in this field with our society consuming less and less traditional media and writing. There are a ton of people out there who are genuinely passionate about sports, are very good at writing, and would give pretty much anything to be able to write/talk about sports for a living.
Now that I’ve said that, it’s time to get serious. Jason McIntyre is an absolute joke of a journalist. McIntyre is the “hot take” guy that has weaseled his way into a blue “verified” check mark on Twitter and into a TV gig with Speak for Yourself on FS1. McIntyre is either lazy and unqualified or purposely spitting out ridiculous takes to gets likes and retweets.
If you are a die-hard college basketball fan, there is a decent chance you saw McIntyre’s 50 Best Players in College Basketball for 2018-2019. If you are a die-hard college basketball fan, you also know that McIntyre did not watch more than five games tournament games from last season and knows literally nothing about college basketball. To think that there are 50 players in college basketball better than Kansas State forward, Dean Wade, who has a really good chance to win Big 12 Player of the Year and be named to an All-American team, is borderline blasphemy. Not only was Wade left off the list, his teammate, Xavier Sneed, who is nowhere near the player Wade is, was on the list. The Idea that all three Duke freshman are better college basketball players than Purdue point guard and possible National Player of the Year, Carsen Edward, almost made me throw up. Clayton Custer, who rose to fame as the catalyst of Cinderella story Loyola Chicago, is very good, but not the twelfth best player in the country. Sagaba Konate, whose only skill is blocking shots and fighting off the urge to commit murder on the court, is not the 24th best player out of the 5000+ Division-1 basketball players. Markus Howard, who dropped 52 points in a game against Providence last year, is better than the 22 ranking McIntyre gave him. I could keep going on the errors made by McIntyre, but this would turn into a 4,000 word essay on why Jason McIntyre makes people who graduated with a degree in journalism look bad.
Here is a link to McIntyre’s article if you need a good laugh: https://thebiglead.com/2018/08/01/50-best-players-college-basketball-2018-2019/
I have decided to re-do his rankings the correct (or at least more correct) way. When ranking players, there is always some room for discussion. At least with my rankings, I can make an argument for why I have certain players where they are. I have separated my rankings into tiers because that is what all the cool journalists are doing these days, and it shows that I put a bit more thought into it than who my favorite 50 players are.
Now that I’ve said that, it’s time to get serious. Jason McIntyre is an absolute joke of a journalist. McIntyre is the “hot take” guy that has weaseled his way into a blue “verified” check mark on Twitter and into a TV gig with Speak for Yourself on FS1. McIntyre is either lazy and unqualified or purposely spitting out ridiculous takes to gets likes and retweets.
If you are a die-hard college basketball fan, there is a decent chance you saw McIntyre’s 50 Best Players in College Basketball for 2018-2019. If you are a die-hard college basketball fan, you also know that McIntyre did not watch more than five games tournament games from last season and knows literally nothing about college basketball. To think that there are 50 players in college basketball better than Kansas State forward, Dean Wade, who has a really good chance to win Big 12 Player of the Year and be named to an All-American team, is borderline blasphemy. Not only was Wade left off the list, his teammate, Xavier Sneed, who is nowhere near the player Wade is, was on the list. The Idea that all three Duke freshman are better college basketball players than Purdue point guard and possible National Player of the Year, Carsen Edward, almost made me throw up. Clayton Custer, who rose to fame as the catalyst of Cinderella story Loyola Chicago, is very good, but not the twelfth best player in the country. Sagaba Konate, whose only skill is blocking shots and fighting off the urge to commit murder on the court, is not the 24th best player out of the 5000+ Division-1 basketball players. Markus Howard, who dropped 52 points in a game against Providence last year, is better than the 22 ranking McIntyre gave him. I could keep going on the errors made by McIntyre, but this would turn into a 4,000 word essay on why Jason McIntyre makes people who graduated with a degree in journalism look bad.
Here is a link to McIntyre’s article if you need a good laugh: https://thebiglead.com/2018/08/01/50-best-players-college-basketball-2018-2019/
I have decided to re-do his rankings the correct (or at least more correct) way. When ranking players, there is always some room for discussion. At least with my rankings, I can make an argument for why I have certain players where they are. I have separated my rankings into tiers because that is what all the cool journalists are doing these days, and it shows that I put a bit more thought into it than who my favorite 50 players are.
Tier Two: The Almost-Locks to be All-Americans
6. Mike Daum – South Dakota State
7. Reid Travis – Kentucky 8. Dedric Lawson – Kansas 9. Dean Wade – Kansas State 10. Eric Paschall – Villanova 11. Cassius Winston – Michigan State 12. Rui Hachimura – Gonzaga 13. Lindell Wigginton – Iowa State 14. Jon Elmore – Marshall 15. Jontay Porter – Missouri 16. Nassir Little – North Carolina 17. Ethan Happ – Wisconsin 18. Naz Reid – LSU 19. Romeo Langford – Indiana 20. Kellan Grady – Davidson 21. Grant Williams – Tennessee 22. Tyus Battle – Syracuse |
Tier Three: The Possible All-Americans/Probably All-Conference
23. Zach Norvell - Gonzaga
24. De’Andre Hunter – Virginia 25. Shamorie Ponds – St. John’s 26. Tremont Waters - LSU 27. Charles Matthews – Michigan 28. Cam Reddish – Duke 29. Terrance Mann – Florida State 30. Quentin Grimes – Kansas 31. Killian Tillie – Gonzaga 32. Ty Jerome – Virginia 33. Jaylen Hands – UCLA 34. Caleb Martin – Nevada 35. Daniel Gafford - Arkansas 36. Payton Pritchard – Oregon 37. Josh Langford – Michigan State 38. Justin Robinson - Virginia Tech 39. Kyle Guy – Virginia 40. Udoka Azubuike – Kansas 41. Jordan Caroline – Nevada 42. Admiral Schofield – Tennessee 43. Zion Williamson – Duke 44. Sagaba Konate - West Virginia 45. Juwan Morgan - Indiana 46. Nickiel Alexander-Walker Virginia Tech 47. Jordan Poole – Michigan 48. Cody Martin – Nevada 49. John Petty - Alabama 50. D'Marcus Simonds - Georgia State |
Honorable Mentions:
James Palmer Jr. – Nebraska, Phil Booth – Villanova, Barry Brown - Kansas State, Jaylen Fischer – TCU, Jarrett Culver – Texas Tech, PJ Washington – Kentucky, Clayton Custer - Loyola (Chicago), Kamar Baldwin – Butler, Nick Richards – Kentucky, LaGerald Vick – Kansas, Makai Ashton-Langford – Providence, Remy Martin – Arizona State, Marek Dolezaj - Syracuse