Kawhi Leonard High School Ranking
- Thread starter Win9ForKy
- Start date
I'll say this as someone who watched Jon Hood play....this ranking has more to do with underrating Kawhi than over-rating Jon Hood.
Hood got injured and didn't even get to play in the post season his Junior and Senior years of High School. He got hurt before his Junior year at UK and had to sit out a full year to recover....right during a time he possibly could've broken in the rotation. Not to mention, he came into Kentucky during prime Cal years and got buried under elite talent.
But I do think injuries played a big part of his story. IT doesn't get mentioned a lot, but before injuries took their toll, the man was a 6-6 wing that could bring the ball up the court and had unlimited range. Not super quick, but then again injuries made that even harder. He wasn't going to play for Cal ever...but he lived his dream so I guess he's happy with that.
Like real talk, I watched him play as much as I did Travis Perry and think Hood was much better in High School. He was better than Noah too. He played against a much better Region 2 and the state as a whole during that period....
Hood got injured and didn't even get to play in the post season his Junior and Senior years of High School. He got hurt before his Junior year at UK and had to sit out a full year to recover....right during a time he possibly could've broken in the rotation. Not to mention, he came into Kentucky during prime Cal years and got buried under elite talent.
But I do think injuries played a big part of his story. IT doesn't get mentioned a lot, but before injuries took their toll, the man was a 6-6 wing that could bring the ball up the court and had unlimited range. Not super quick, but then again injuries made that even harder. He wasn't going to play for Cal ever...but he lived his dream so I guess he's happy with that.
Like real talk, I watched him play as much as I did Travis Perry and think Hood was much better in High School. He was better than Noah too. He played against a much better Region 2 and the state as a whole during that period....
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Ranking high school kids is tough . Especially when alot of times guys aren’t going against good competition most of the time .
Hood had an incredible mid range game and getting to the free throw line. He set the state high jump record so he was an athlete at one point
No offense but I find that hard to believe. TP and Noah performed at a high level in the State Tournament against tougher competition and both their colllege careers have already exceeded Jon Hood’s 4 years.
Scotty Hopson shelvin mack and Darius miller was the 3 best players in one season our state has seen in years
Ty Shawn Edmondson was awesome too
Interesting. Folks too often, at least in my view, hold on to some variation of "most points = best player". Example, I think Butler was our best player this year, but Otega is always going to dominate that kind of talk (not to mention official honors from media and fans). Maybe a better example was last year - I thought Sheppard was the best basketball player on the team, but Reeves scored a bunch so he was all conference, all america, etc. Anyway, not sure if you're right above (I didn't see enough of any of the 3 in high school to say), but I support the sentiment!
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If jon hood had played for Pope he would have had a better career
See the difference
Jon Hood was injured his Junior and Senior years during the tournament. So how can you compare his tournament performances when he was hurt both years. But also, it seems you didn't ready my posts where I made the point that injuries held him back. Seriously, go read my post again, maybe you just skimmed through it.
But during Jon Hood's time at Madisonville....here are some of his competitors just in the region during his time. Not the state....the region.
-Albert Jackson(Georgia) was at Hop Central
-Scotty Hopson(Tennessee) was at UHA
-Anthony Hickey(LSU) was at Christian County
-Ty Edmonson(St. John's & OVC POY at APSU) was at UHA
That's not even mentioning the other great athletes and players....the region was much better during that time. I was there. I watched. SO that's also not true that Perry was facing tougher competition.
There was a reason Hood was a consensus top 50 player....I would imagine if Hood had played on this current Kentucky team and been forced into a role due to 3-4 major injuries, he likely would've played too. Instead he was behind John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, Doron Lamb, Brandon Knight, etc. etc.
Well the region was much tougher during Hood's time.
TP is a great player, so I'm not trying to do this to put him down because I think he's great. He would be good in ANY ERA. The kid is a baller. But I want to give Hood his respect.
But if Jon Hood had played as a 7th grader(held back too) and his dad was coaching....and he was playing teams like Dawson Springs, Livingston County, etc. during his early years. And then had a group of guys his own age that grew up with him and had all that chemistry, combined with playing in a historically down region 2.....Hood likely would've had better results. Not to mention, people forget Lyon County had 2 other Division 1 players on their team as well...and that's a big deal for Kentucky.
Hood was a consensus top 50 player in the country from my memory....so he was respected. And class of 2009 was a really good class too. So he kinda was more respected in high school than Perry was as a prospect.
I mean here is probably the biggest Region 2 regular season matchup in the last 25 years at least....Hood going up against the #5 player in the nation Scotty Hopson...in his own region.
Bud Mackey might have been the best in that class had he stayed out of jail.
Yeah I see the difference. Both Noah and Perry were exponentially better shooters. Hood wouldn’t have prospered in Pope’s offense.
Hood has probably played with more NBA All Stars as teammates than Leonard lol.
He wasn't at Kentucky.
But in terms of how they were viewed in High School, Hood was better. He was rated higher. He played better competition.
But in all honesty, does Perry project to ever really be more than an end of the bench guy like Hood was? I mean Hood was competing with some of the best players in school history for time while coming off a major injury....but again do you think Perry would ever crack the rotation during Cal's years either? 2010-2014? The answer it no.
In terms of PER, which is a pretty accepted measure of how to look at a player. So if you're using metrics and such, it doesn't look like Perry was some way better player. He played before 3-4 guys in front of him got hurt. Hood was competing with Miller, Liggins, Poythress, James Young, etc. for PT.
Hood: 10.5 PER
Perry: 6.3 PER
I mean no. I have eyes and such. I just know you ignore any points made because you can't argue. I've refuted everything you've thrown, but you throw out simplistic points. So I get your game. You'll start insulting me because you can't really find any basis to your arguments.
IF you're going to just say he isn't good, then we can say that about Perry too. By your own logic. Because Perry's numbers were not good this year. So if we're basing it on that, then year...Perry wasn't good either. In terms of our roster next season, Perry is likely the 13th best player of the 13 we have.
I actually was more of a Scotty Hopson fan, but I'd imagine you don't really watch or know much ball. You just see the numbers and highlights and make your judgements. You probably never went to many games. Travis Perry isn't even a top 3 Region 2 player in the last 25 years if I'm being honest. But you haven't been to many games or know the players. You probably never even knew who Scotty Hopson was....or even the guy in my profile pic(who was probably one of the best all around athletes in state history too)
But the fact is....Roy Williams, Billy Donovan, Bill Self, Bruce Pearl, and Coach K all thought Hood was good enough to bring on campus and talk to him says more than some random guy on a message board.
You're wrong
Hood was a really good shooter coming out of highschool.
Ok, I guess everyone was wrong back then to rank him in the top 50. Even top 25 at one point nationally.
Jon Hood was a shell of himself while at UK. His legs were shot. He jumped 6'9 on the high jump in highschool and probably couldn't jump 3 ft at uk
Cool.You need to get your eyes checked. 🤣
Perry wasn't good this year either.
Perry was the worst player of our scholarship players.
Refute that?
I'm guessing this kid probably wasn't even alive when Jon Hood played high school and is just checking numbers.
But doesn't realize that Perry's numbers were very bad this year....but he played so playing and being bad is better than sitting the bench behind better players. Even if one had played more and would've been similar....some people don't have fully formed brains where logic and depth of understanding.
No, everyone that watched both are telling you one thing and because perry plays for a coach who may give him a chance , you believe the opposite.
Well I guess in his world Michael Porter started more games and had slightly better numbers, so he was better than Dominique Hawkins ever dreamed of being! But that's what kids do that read a box score.
2016 Alex Poythress: 10 points & 6 rebounds
2015 Karl Towns: 10 points & 7 rebounds
They're basically the same player! No need to look at anything else. THe numbers are the numbers....I mean maybe we should look at minutes played and something about the platoon....but nope!
Apparently I was mistaken when I accused you of merely being related to Hood. I’m now convinced you’re his dad!!!! My bad! 😂😂
Me and Hood had a mutual friend and we’d all play COD together pretty frequently. Every kill hood made, he’d yell “ACEEE HOODDD”
I hate to mute that guy
I hate to mute that guy
Dude, if you can’t admit Hood was WAY overranked then there’s little hope for you.
I didn’t watch him in HS, but I watched every bit of his UK career …and there never was a time when he didn’t look overwhelmed and in way over his head here. Hell, we had walk ons during that period (see Jarrod Polson) that looked better suited to play here than Hood. You really want us to believe it was just injuries alone that made him unable to shoot or guard a fence post here?
I mean look at who was coaching and who we was playing behind. I'm not saying he would've ever been great, but as a shooter....didn't we go through several years of bringing up how Calipari would just not play shooters enough to let them get in rhythm. I mean Hood never deserved to play....but was he ever going to play on those 2010 & 2011 teams? Then by 2012 a season ending injury.
Not saying he'd would've ever been elite, but sometimes injuries and system can be a big factor in why someone doesn't succeed. That's why I bring it up....would Perry or Noah have had bigger or similar roles had they come to Kentucky at the same time as Hood? No, they wouldn't have.
Sometimes circumstance forced your hand....
Just say that Skal hadn't been a bust.....do you think Cal would've ever played Derek Willis? Remember that....then Willis started playing well and then solidified himself in the rotation...because if Skal had been great then Skal, Lee, & Poythress would've played all the minutes. Willis gets inconsistent minutes...then we always wonder what-if and many will say he was an over-hyped white in-state player. But he got a chance.
It's hard to be a shooter when you're not getting regular minutes and in a system that's really not built for catch and shoot. He came to a program that was much more about creating your own shot.
Bro, you can put all the lipstick you want on Hood but the bottom line is either he’s got IT or he doesn’t. The eye test and demonstrated performance says Hood doesn’t have it. It’s really not that difficult. Quite simple frankly.
I think you are correct in a lot of ways, but Hood could have got spot minutes in 2011, That wasn’t a terribly deep team, 2012 had a great rotation but he could have been the 8th man had he been healthy and worthy of playing. Willis has better size, and shot the ball better in games. That’s why he played.
Well we now know both Perry and Hood will go down as Kentucky players that really just couldn’t make it in the rotation.
Well, if they are you should listen to them. Jon’s father and mother were terrific basketball players.
Jon’s injury was really devastating.
He would have never been a starter at UK but pre injury he was damn good.
Whomever said Scotty Hopson was better is probably right. But Scotty didn’t come to UK.
Even before his injury Jon would have struggled to guard SEC athletes. After his injury he couldn’t guard high school players.
I enjoy reflecting on this list from time to time to see where our players were ranked in high school, to how they really turned out in college, and going on to the league. I don't like how it has lost rankings on some players over time like Patrick Patterson. He should be way higher on the list
Good point about Lyon Co. as a whole.
Perry never gets to UK without Reddick and Shoulders.
When I saw Hood in High School, I wasn't impressed at all.
I thought he was too slow and un-athletic to be considered a high D1 prospect.
I thought he was too slow and un-athletic to be considered a high D1 prospect.
A couple of weeks ago a buddy and me were talking and I could not remember Shelvin Mack's name. I just kept saying the kid from Lexington who made it to the league. He played at Butler.
He did lack speed/quickness, so he never was going to work at a place like Kentucky with DDMO and man to man that Calipari coached. I think if healthy and in a system like Iowa runs, he could've been really good in a slower Big Ten. But he just was not the type of Calipari player.
