Final Top 25 Reactions

Players, coaches and program directors sound off on the final Top 25 rankings.

With the final 2011 Summer Five-Star Top 25 officially in the books, we thought it'd be only fair to canvas the circuit for their reactions to the rankings.

We asked several players, coaches and program directors for their honest response -- Were the rankings fair? Were they happy with their final standing? Which teams should they be ranked ahead of? 

Here's what they had to say...

17U Reactions to the Top 25:

Coach Aaron Harrison Sr. (Houston Defenders): “How could I be upset with that? I’m elated with that. The kids worked hard. We're a team trains itself to play everybody, to play the best competition. We really appreciate it. I’m going to tell the kids right now.” 

Coach Clayton Williams (Dream Vision): "To me, unless you have the playoffs inviting the teams. It’s really weird. Some adidas teams lost to some Nike teams and then towards the end of the year, some Nike teams lost to some Adidas teams. I feel that if we played the Houston Defenders 10 times, we’d beat them eight times. They’re a really good team, but I just feel that if we played them, we’d match up really well. I feel that Super 64 was the toughest tournament at the end of the year.”

“We played Texas Assault earlier this year. We kind of hit a wall because we hit the gamut. They weren’t in a super pool and they could rest their guys. When we were in Milwaukee, we hit a wall. We played SYF in the championship and they beat us. It’s kind of hard to gage unless their is an NCAA tournament, getting all of these teams together. In the scheme of things, if you do it right after and do a top-8 playoff...Schedule permitting, you try and get them in one spot. I think that until you do that, I don’t think you don’t get a clear-cut No. 1 team. I don’t feel that the Houston Defeners are the best team in the country. I feel that they had the best opportunity playing BABC, and they won.”

Coach Pat Mullin (Eric Gordon All-Stars): “We beat the Houston Defenders at the adidas Invitational in a super pool game by 12 [points]. We led the whole game there. We beat Indiana Elite this season by nine or ten points. SYF, we beat by ten points at the Adidas May Classic in the final. In the super pool in Vegas, we be Florida Rams-Black by ten.”

“I would think that we would be between 20-24. Now, let me mention who beat us. All-Ohio Red beat us. New Heights beat us in Vegas in the final 32. 

We beat four of the five teams.”

16U Reactions to the Top 25:

Eddie Bright (President & General Manager, Sports U/Team IZOD): "Considering we started the season out of the Top 25, we weren't on anyone's radar screen and we should have been, winding up at No. 10 is great."

"We look forward going into next season. We know we'll be one of the top brands in the country. We had a great year, partly because Five-Star recognized us. We're excited about next year. Our 15s are monsters. Success breeds success. They're looking at what the 16s did this year and they're ready to come out of the gate." 

Dwayne West (Program Director, Garner Road Bulldogs): “That’s pretty fair. I know we played BABC and they pretty much hammered us. We made a run in the second half. I’d say BABC [would be No. 1], they won Nationals; you can’t argue with that."

"Just having the opportunity to be mentioned as a big team means that our program is doing well. And I’m not arguing with the rankings. All those guys [at Five-Star] put in good work. It’s good to know that people are looking at our team, just for people to see that they’re quality kids and a quality program. It’s a confirmation of our hard work.”

Marcus Bryan (2013 PF; Garner Road Bulldogs):“I think it’s fair. We played pretty good, we deserve to be up there. We didn’t too well against BABC or CIA Bounce so it’s definitely fair. I think we’ve got a good shot to be first next year. We’ve been together for a long time and we have the potential to be first next year.”

Anton Gill (2013 SG; Garner Road Bulldogs): - “I don’t know what to say honestly, That’s real big. If you look at what we did this summer are the teams ahead of us, BABC and CIA Bounce, we lost to, so I’m pretty happy with No. 4. I think next year if we have a good summer we should definitely be in the converstation for that top spot."

Coach Matt Green (Eric Gordon All-Stars): “I thought it was great. We didn’t get to play any of those Nike teams, so it’s hard to figure out. But overall we were 38-7, We beat at least four or five [top 25] teams. We beat some pretty good teams. I thought we played some pretty tough competition. If we didn’t win a tournament that was our only loss. It’s hard to say 1 and 2 because we never played them, but I think we could beat any team in the country.”

Zak Irvin (2013 Wing; Eric Gordon All-Stars): I think it’s a good ranking. We had a good season and I think when we play together we can beat anybody in the nation.”

Now let us know. What did YOU think of the final rankings? Which teams deserved to be ranked higher, lower or included in the top 25? Drop your responses in the comments below.