De’Anthony Melton (left) and Brandon Williams are all smiles after capturing their second consecutive CIF state title at Crespi of Encino. Melton’s big senior season put him at No. 4 in the final 2016 Cal-Hi Sports Hot 100 and expect Williams to make upward movement in the 2018 Top 65. Photo: Ronnie Flores
We continue our boys basketball coverage for Gold Club members with a final look at the state’s top college prospects in the senior (2016) class. Our final 2016 Cal-Hi Sports Hot 100 shows four new players and a higher ranking for some who excelled late into the post-season. Our final 2015-16 rankings for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 classes will be published by the beginning of the summer live period on July 6.
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The final 2016 Cal-Hi Sports Hot 100 is based on evaluations from the entire 2015-16 post-season (from final round of league play to the CIF State Championships) through the Spring Evaluation for unsigned seniors and Summer League period for returning players. Our post-summer Cal-Hi Sports Hot 100 was based on last year’s summer evaluation period and showcases. Our winter rankings for the class of 2016 was based on performances through fall leagues and the 2015-16 regular season.
The Cal-Hi Sports Hot 100 and underclass lists are based on college potential, not high school performance, although the baseline of where we begin with each prospect begins with high school performance. We traditionally base our evaluations on high school performance much more than our competitors, most of whom have evaluated the state’s boys basketball and football prospects beginning in the last decade. We’ve been evaluating the state’s top prospects for over 25 years and have recruiting lists and Hot 100s going back to the mid 1980s.
We’ll follow this report with our final 2015-16 player rankings for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 classes. In the coming months we’ll continue publishing our archived Hot 100s as part of the most comprehensive California state player rankings you’ll find on the Internet that you can sort through using the easy-to-use dropdown menu below.
The previous rankings in the final edition of the 2016 Hot 100 refers to the player’s position in the winter Hot 100 we published in February. To see where California players place in national player rankings, check out the Hoop Scoop, our partner for boys basketball national player rankings.
It’s conceivable the two best players in the country played in California — one for a traditional CIF school and the other for an academy-type program. It was a season for the ages for senior point guard Lonzo Ball of Chino Hills, as he recorded a new state record 25 triple doubles in leading the Huskies to a historical 35-0 season and mythical FAB 50 national championship. Ball was a cinch choice for Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Basketball and earned all but one of the credible national player of the year awards (Gatorade’s choice was Duke-bound Jayson Tatum of Missouri), but still finishes No. 2 in the final Cal-Hi Sports Hot 100.
