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College basketball season is upon us which is one of my favorites. I thought it would be fun to see which cities, MSAs, and states have the most players in men's division 1 play.
If you want to know a MSA, city or state not listed here, let me know - and I can do it by conferences too.
By MSA, all conferences
1. New York City MSA: 296 players
2. Chicago MSA: 218 players
3. Atlanta MSA: 188 players
4. Washington DC MSA: 174 players
5. Los Angeles MSA: 157 players
6T. Dallas MSA: 128 players
6T. Houston MSA: 128 players
8. Philadelphia MSA: 108 players
9. Charlotte MSA: 93 players
10. Miami MSA: 92 players
11. Toronto MSA: 72 players
12T. Baltimore MSA: 71 players
12T. Minneapolis MSA: 71 players
I'm surprised by Minneapolis - St. Paul's ranking considering it's a hockey hotbed. I'm pretty sure it ranks number 1 in terms of players in men's D-1 hockey.
Assuming you’re grouping Ohio with the Midwest. If so, I would assume you’re dead on. Not much competition as New York football stinks for a state of its size. CT has an occasional player, and MA has a few decent teams (Everett, St. John’s Prep, Xaverian).
PA and NJ is a far superior football area than the rest of the Northeast.
Not to sidetrack the thread, but just to add in regards to NY and the post above, I would suggest to look at Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains, Rochester Aquinas, Syracuse Christian Brothers Academy(has multiple players currently in D1 programs), South Huntington St. Anthony’s, Chenango Forks, Maine-Endwell, New Rochelle, Brooklyn programs such as Lincoln, Erasmus Hall and South Shore; Freeport, Half Hollow Hills West, Buffalo Canisius, Buffalo Bennett, Troy, Whitesboro, Indian River, Cleveland Hill, Newburgh Free Academy, Monroe-Woodbury, etc. From this year: RoadToSyracuse.com, NYSSWA rankings, 2018
I’m curious as to how this would be adjusted if a player went the prep route and they are listed by that location versus where they actually come from.
For Football, PA and NJ*(many in its very good NNJ Catholic league actually come from parts of NY State and it is the same for its Basketball league too), as well as HI in terms of rate, are sleepers.
I was looking for something else, but just to add, the bolded sentence really impacts the numbers for NY State, as many kids go the prep route out of state.
^ MWJ, correct. PA and NJ are the dominant football states in the Northeast. You can take NYS and all of the New England states combined and they don't produce the same number of D1's as either of NJ and PA.
From 2002-2012 when Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic reigned supreme there was only 1 school in NYS (St. Anthony's on Long Island) who would play these guys annually. That is during the reign when Bosco was #1 in the nation twice. Along the way Bosco beat famous storied schools like DeLaSalle (CA), Moeller and St. X (Ohio), Miami Central, Manatee and so on. A who's who of the national elite programs.
I recruited nationally for Rivals.com since 2002 but had to give it up for personal reasons about 5 years ago.
For basketball, NYS is loaded. Sooo many kids from NYS have left and gone the prep route (not just locally but all over the country) for decades now.
Nothing was like NYC basketball pre-2000, nothing except maybe Texas football. The greates of the greats all grew up on the playgrounds of the city. Kareem, Connie Hawkins, on and on and on.
What I'm amazed by now is still seeing so many New Yorkers playing for all of the most elite schools nationally.
All that said, Mass and CT have always had some really good individual talent as well and have been overlooked in large part, well just because. They were never really in the national arms race for HS hoops and football the way most states are. Looking at you southern states and California and Ohio which is an insane football state. Doesn;t produce D1's the way it used to but Ohio/PA are like the birthplaces of smash mouth, hardnosed football. Now Texas, Georgia, Louisiana have kind of taken that title over along with the other big time football states.
Need this thread updated. All of those players are gone. Boston would be higher- I think.
Good luck trying to figure out who is really from where just going off of these recruiting sites because probably 25 percent of D1 high school kids are now attending prep schools or one of the different basketball focused academies. That's not even to mention the revolving door the transfer portal has made college rosters.
I was actually looking at rankings earlier today because I heard that Milwaukee Bucks' 2nd rounder Chris Livingston signed one of the new 2nd round exception guaranteed contracts ... though I'm not seeing it confirmed anywhere. Pete Nance also signed an exhibit 10 contract with the Cavs and I'm about 99 percent certain they will keep him around with the Charge this year in the G-League.
If Pete Nance is able to find his way on the roster, that would give Akron/Summit County 5 current NBA players: LeBron James, Larry Nance Jr., Pete Nance, Malaki Branham* and Chris Livingston. That's not counting Steph Curry who was born in Akron but raised in North Carolina.
*Branham, though, gets a * because he grew up in Columbus and moved to Akron before his freshman year, so that one is debatable.
Anyway, I know Akron has another sure-fire NBA player coming up in Darryn Peterson (No. 3 overall in the class of 2025 according to 247) and I was scrolling through their rankings to see where some of the other top local/Ohio guys were ranked.
I noticed that the No. 8 overall prospect had Raleigh listed as his hometown, but he is from and still lives in Cleveland. That's because he's now apparently at Word of God School in Raleigh. He was at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona prior.
The No. 22 overall ranked kid is also from Akron/Summit County and he goes to his local public high school. The No. 39 kid is from Cleveland and goes to his local public high school.
The No. 41 overall kid is from Toledo. He, like the kid who is ranked No. 8 was at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona, then came back to Toledo and attended a small Christian School there and now apparently is at La Lumiere School in Indiana.
So of those five highly ranked Ohio kids, if you want to be technical about it, I believe Peterson lives in Canton, which while only 15-20 minutes down the road is a separate MSA. That would make it only two of those five going to school in the MSA that they are from/live. Even taking him out, that's still two of the five who are playing out of state at basketball focused schools. Conversely, I noticed 247's top Ohio kid in the Class of 2024 goes to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson (between Cleveland and Akron), but looks like he is from Rochester, N.Y.
Good luck trying to figure out who is really from where just going off of these recruiting sites because probably 25 percent of D1 high school kids are now attending prep schools or one of the different basketball focused academies. That's not even to mention the revolving door the transfer portal has made college rosters.
I was actually looking at rankings earlier today because I heard that Milwaukee Bucks' 2nd rounder Chris Livingston signed one of the new 2nd round exception guaranteed contracts ... though I'm not seeing it confirmed anywhere. Pete Nance also signed an exhibit 10 contract with the Cavs and I'm about 99 percent certain they will keep him around with the Charge this year in the G-League.
If Pete Nance is able to find his way on the roster, that would give Akron/Summit County 5 current NBA players: LeBron James, Larry Nance Jr., Pete Nance, Malaki Branham* and Chris Livingston. That's not counting Steph Curry who was born in Akron but raised in North Carolina.
*Branham, though, gets a * because he grew up in Columbus and moved to Akron before his freshman year, so that one is debatable.
Anyway, I know Akron has another sure-fire NBA player coming up in Darryn Peterson (No. 3 overall in the class of 2025 according to 247) and I was scrolling through their rankings to see where some of the other top local/Ohio guys were ranked.
I noticed that the No. 8 overall prospect had Raleigh listed as his hometown, but he is from and still lives in Cleveland. That's because he's now apparently at Word of God School in Raleigh. He was at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona prior.
The No. 22 overall ranked kid is also from Akron/Summit County and he goes to his local public high school. The No. 39 kid is from Cleveland and goes to his local public high school.
The No. 41 overall kid is from Toledo. He, like the kid who is ranked No. 8 was at Hillcrest Prep in Arizona, then came back to Toledo and attended a small Christian School there and now apparently is at La Lumiere School in Indiana.
So of those five highly ranked Ohio kids, if you want to be technical about it, I believe Peterson lives in Canton, which while only 15-20 minutes down the road is a separate MSA. That would make it only two of those five going to school in the MSA that they are from/live. Even taking him out, that's still two of the five who are playing out of state at basketball focused schools. Conversely, I noticed 247's top Ohio kid in the Class of 2024 goes to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson (between Cleveland and Akron), but looks like he is from Rochester, N.Y.
That is Damarius Owens formerly of Rochester's Aquinas Institute(same school that first round draft pick Jalen Pickett attended before going to prep at SPIRE also in OH) and heading to Marquette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAwFpzAXTKE
Western Reserve also had Trey Autry, who attended Syracuse suburban HS Jamesville-DeWitt and is the son of current Syracuse University head Men's Basketball coach Adrian Autry. He's heading to George Washington for his Freshman season there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSW0RIRc01o
So, both are a couple of examples of what I was referring to in regard to NY and like you mentioned in general.
That is Damarius Owens formerly of Rochester's Aquinas Institute(same school that first round draft pick Jalen Pickett attended before going to prep at SPIRE also in OH) and heading to Marquette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAwFpzAXTKE
Western Reserve also had Trey Autry, who attended Syracuse suburban HS Jamesville-DeWitt and is the son of current Syracuse University head Men's Basketball coach Adrian Autry. He's heading to George Washington for his Freshman season there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSW0RIRc01o
So, both are a couple of examples of what I was referring to in regard to NY and like you mentioned in general.
Yeah, NY started the prep school trend like 25-30 years ago (at that time it seemed like they were mostly in the Northeast/New England ... then Oak Hill and a couple others).
Now, it's widespread all over the country. Ironically, the prep schools/sports academies here in Northeast Ohio you mentioned (Spire and Western Reserve ... along with International Sports Academy) really don't draw many Ohio kids for basketball. Part of it is the Ohio HS Athletic Association schools are very competitive (and easy to transfer from one to another) so it's only the true top tier kids who have left to get that next "bump" up in competition to the schools that play national schedules. But when they go, they aren't sticking around Northeast Ohio (well, Chris Livingston did for one year at Western Reserve, but that stunned everybody locally because at the time WRA was all about academics and would have been mopped up by 90 percent of Ohio High School Athletic Association schools ... and that was only 4 years ago).
I may be veering away from the topic, but I wonder why New York never nipped the prep school/basketball boarding school factory rush in the bud back when they were absolutely the state most affected by losing players? Seems like they could have not only kept their own top players home but been the state, especially because of the basketball legacy in NYC, to draw those top kids from across the country to schools in NY.
^ MWJ, correct. PA and NJ are the dominant football states in the Northeast. You can take NYS and all of the New England states combined and they don't produce the same number of D1's as either of NJ and PA.
From 2002-2012 when Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic reigned supreme there was only 1 school in NYS (St. Anthony's on Long Island) who would play these guys annually. That is during the reign when Bosco was #1 in the nation twice. Along the way Bosco beat famous storied schools like DeLaSalle (CA), Moeller and St. X (Ohio), Miami Central, Manatee and so on. A who's who of the national elite programs.
I recruited nationally for Rivals.com since 2002 but had to give it up for personal reasons about 5 years ago.
For basketball, NYS is loaded. Sooo many kids from NYS have left and gone the prep route (not just locally but all over the country) for decades now.
Nothing was like NYC basketball pre-2000, nothing except maybe Texas football. The greates of the greats all grew up on the playgrounds of the city. Kareem, Connie Hawkins, on and on and on.
What I'm amazed by now is still seeing so many New Yorkers playing for all of the most elite schools nationally.
All that said, Mass and CT have always had some really good individual talent as well and have been overlooked in large part, well just because. They were never really in the national arms race for HS hoops and football the way most states are. Looking at you southern states and California and Ohio which is an insane football state. Doesn;t produce D1's the way it used to but Ohio/PA are like the birthplaces of smash mouth, hardnosed football. Now Texas, Georgia, Louisiana have kind of taken that title over along with the other big time football states.
I dont think Mass and CT are overlooked anymore. In EYBL and Adidas AAU circuits Massachusetts is pretty dominant.
In my opinion we might be at a placee where some of the Mass an CT kids are overrecrutited in Basketball at this point. Football is still slightly underrecruited but changin fast. You used to couldnt get people to come up there. Now all the P5s make a stop or two in New England.
PA and NJ are sooooo far ahead of NY and NE in football though its outrageous.
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