Mark Myers put up a story on the Rocket Report about this years recruiting class. The Rockets have some great looking prospects coming in next season. Some experts have said this is Joplin's best class ever and the best in the MAC this year.
I'm casting my vote today for Florentino Valencia from Chicago Crane High as the MAC Freshman of the Year next season.
Any arguments?
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Being a Chicago resident, never heard of Florentino so can't speak to his prospects. Followed the largest ISHA conference class tourney this year because I knew of a couple of kids playing. Crane didn't make it to the Final Four, but they could have been in a different class. Any of you NIU posters hear of this guy?
Here's the bottom line, in my opinion. Any Chicago prepster with the talent to play DI ball has several premier college hoops choices within a three hour drive of the Loop (U of I, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame, Wisconsin...and stretching the boundary one hour gets Indiana), then throw in Northwestern ( great school, lousy sports, but the degree still says NU) plus considerable mid major choices (MAC's own NIU, Loyola, UIC). I doubt all of them missed on a gem recruit that went to a place where he's guarenteed little major market media coverage to a program that has not made noise in years. OR, there are some issues the Rocket Sports Information department is not releasing. Just my gut talking.