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John Calipari has been hyping his 2016 class as the best he's ever landed, but the guys at 247 Sports don't seem to agree.
They just put out their final rankings for the 2016 class, and several Wildcats saw their rating/ranking decrease. Perhaps the most surprising move is point guard De'Aaron Fox, who fell four spots and was passed by fellow 2016 point guard Lonzo Ball and Frank Jackson, not to mention combo guard Markelle Fultz.
I'm sorry, bot those three are not all better than Fox. I've seen enough of them all and it's pretty ridiculous that all three passed Fox in the final rankings, especially Jackson. All of those guys are going to be great players, but Fox more than earned the right to have a top-five ranking, if not higher.
Shooting guard Malik Monk also took a big dip, falling five spots to the No. 10 spot. He too had an outstanding senior season and is a much better prospect than No. 10 in his own class.
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Forward Wenyen Gabriel fell six spots down to the No. 14 ranking. I can agree with this in the sense that Gabriel is still pretty raw and may not be a star right away, but he definitely has the potential to be a superstar by the time his college career is over.
Forward Sacha Killeya-Jones took the biggest hit of just about anyone in the final rankings. He fell 10 spots down to the No. 24 ranking, despite a great senior season in which he led his team to a state title, not to mention a spot in the McDonald's All-American Game. I'm pretty confident there aren't 23 players in this class better than him.
Forward Bam Adebayo did rise three spots...to the No. 12 ranking. So 247 just made a horrible ranking look less bad. Bam is closer to being the best player in this class than the 12th-best guy.
All said, I'll trust Cal's opinion of his guys more than whoever made these rankings.
The good news is UK isn't the only team getting slighted in these rankings. Louisville has a gripe with V.J. King at 33. There aren't 32 guys in this class better than King.
The same goes for Kansas and Udoka Azubuike. He may be a bit of a project who needs a lot of work with his conditioning, but I'm not taking anywhere close to 38 guys over him.
I'm starting to think the AP voters are who made these rankings. That's about the only way to explain these.
Here's the full top 40:
1. Josh Jackson
2. Lonzo Ball
3. Harry Giles
4. Markelle Fultz
5. Frank Jackson
6. De'Aaron Fox
7. Dennis Smith
8. Jayson Tatum
9. Jonathan Isaac
10. Malik Monk
11. Miles Bridges
12. Bam Adebayo
13. Thon Maker
14. Wenyen Gabriel
15. Terrance Ferguson
16. Lauri Markkanen
17. Jarrett Allen
18. Marques Bolden
19. T.J. Leaf
20. Zach Collins
21. Joshua Langford
22. Dewan Huell
23. Bruce Brown
24. Sacha Killeya-Jones
25. Omer Yurtseven
26. Omari Spellman
27. Mustapha Heron
28. Kobi Simmons
29. Rawle Alkins
30. Ty Jerome
31. Alterique Gilbert
32. Tony Bradley
33. V.J. King
34. Cassius Winston
35. Jay Huff
36. De'Riante Jenkins
37. Andrew Jones
38. Tyus Battle
39. Udoka Azubuike
40. Sam Cunliffe