Early Playing Time for "Prep Unknowns" shows why PPV is a solid college indicator

Early Playing Time For “Prep.. Unknowns” once again shows why PPV is a college indicator

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Do us a favor. This April, take a snapshot of the Top 100 of the Prep… of your choice National Rankings and just tuck it away somewhere for safekeeping. Do this BEFORE we start telling you who all of the Blue Blood Programs are seriously looking at offering in recruiting, and definitely before June 15th.

Then, if you don’t mind subscribing for a month, actually, it’s free to simply look at our list, do the same thing for our Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Orange Levels.

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Just look at some of the names that we have that are higher than "the other sites," and don't worry about what clubs they play for or how much you have heard about them or not.  We don't tend to be influenced by the club coaches as much as the other sites do, they don't talk to us as often, and that is actually a good thing when it comes to being unbiased.  Just try and make notes of what happens when it actually comes time for the class to suit up on a college roster, what ends up being more accurate?  The PPV evaluation or some random ranking.

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Mania Ogebechie, Kalyssa Blackshear, and Addison Makun are great examples of exactly what we are referring to in the Class of 2025.  Their initial PPV (Prospect Player Value is again the Projected Value of them as a College D1 Prospect, not a HS athlete. was definitely much higher than their national rankings on each site before they received the “oh crap, a national powerhouse is recruiting them, we better bump them way up the rankings” because they realized a Top 8 program was recruiting or had signed them.

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All three of these athletes showed “high ceiling characteristics” in club volleyball that top reputable recruiting coaches like Todd Chamberlain, Dan Meske, DBK, and Jaylen Reyes sure seemed to love them , but they wouldn't find their way up into the top of the class rankings for several reasons. (didn't play on bigtime club, weren't the star of a team, didn't play open, weren't a sure thing recruit when they were 12 and 13, looked at academic schools early on, were from rural areas, etc).

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Manaia Ogebechie:

Even on our Signing Day show, when I talked with Coach Jaylen Reyes, he thanked us for really being the only ones “to get on board with their staff thinking Manaia was going to be as good as they did” and “you guys did that really early on, to good job for that”. Hey, we call that street cred, haha, but seriously, Reyes was right, the “experts” who make all the $ at this didn’t rank Ogebechie high all the way up until the point when they had to give her “the Nebraska bump” or it would hurt their recruiting class rank (however in the heck they actually determine those things

*The big thing that hurt Manaia early on was committing to Northwestern; that right there probably cost her 30 ranking spots.

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Kalyssa Blackshear:

I love this story and her story, to be honest. Blackshear was definitely a bit of a project a few years ago and had to grow into her frame (which she is still doing), but that is the skill and genius of the LVille staff. Plus, you had to see beyond how she was used on her club team, where she would get about 1 swing per match, so you really had to have vision for her future because you weren’t getting pictures of offensive excellence at club tourneys. You did get to see her block quite a bit. So I guess the couple of times that I saw her were anomalies, and she got some extra action (and I also saw her first invite to NTDP and her 2nd, which was a night-and-day difference in confidence). Perhaps we were just lucky to see Kalyssa and witness the long frame and how smoothly she moved on her slide; it was effortless. What convinced me was the first NTDP. She kept to herself, but when given opportunities, she often achieved results. I kept thinking she looked uncomfortable to be here, so I thought, man, you put this one in a spot where she is comfortable, watch out!

Kalyssa also played with her public high school team, and they were not great, so they didn't get a lot of recognition.  But Kalyssa was able to play all the way around the court, and she was having fun with her friends. These were simply random run-ins that made me once again think that in the right culture (well, how many times have I said how great Louisville’s culture is), this girl will flourish!  That is exactly what Louisville saw, and that is just what she is doing and what she ended up doing for USA Volleyball, as she ended up climbing their ranks and being one of the top middles on their rankings in the country, and qualifying for the National Team.

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Addison Makun:

I feel guilty because I thought that we did an excellent job of watching Makun and scouting him. Her PPV of 221 was significantly higher than any rankings anyone had for her, simply because she didn’t play at a large club in open, didn’t play for a large high school, and had little to no social media presence. She was as much of an unknown as possible for a star athlete these days. Come to find out after signing day that she was the target for the Cards, and that was the A1 option. We can now see why! Watching her on film does no justice to her game, but you can tell how physically dominant she is over girls in her age group, and you can see that she has that next-level explosion. So when we heard about her and just the names of Kentucky prospects we needed to watch, she stood out as the #1 athlete in the state for sure. What wasn’t known was what kind of volleyball player she was. That wasn’t answered until this past December, when she walked into her first NTDP session in Louisville during the Final Four training session. My first chance to see her in person, and apparently a few others in the gym, because I was asked three different times, “Hey, who is that middle over there?” and when that happens in a gym of that talent, it’s a very good thing. She was so good that night, I didn’t bump her high enough, and honestly, the 221 PPV should be a 251.

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People will read this and say, “Oh, it’s just someone pushing their own site and system,” and that’s honestly not it. I’ve said for three years now, I don’t understand the fascination with the rankings. I understand that coaches and colleges have to repost just for “banter and material on socials,” but even a certain media figure who reposts these rankings religiously has proven that they aren’t accurate and lack credibility. So why repost them as credible? What do they mean? We just posted an article today about Ireland Real and having her as the #1 college prospect in the class 16 months ago. One of the sites that consistently ranks players had her at #36 in the nation for quite a while. Now thousands and thousands of people subscribe, but do you think Texas, Wisconsin, and Stanford would make the #36 prospect in America their #1 target of their recruiting class? Now of course that site learned that Wisconsin and Texas were very interested in her and they did and “Updated Rankings” and she miraculously moved into the Top 10, but the PPV system looks at athletes college value as a prospect. Not what awards they are winning as an 8th grader.

We look at Manaia as a freshman in COLLEGE, not a freshman in HIGH SCHOOL, which, if you are a Husker fan, should be what you really care about. I think it’s what Jaylen and DBK care about.

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To Kalyssa, Addison, and Manaia, congratulations on doing something very rare: cracking the lineup for Top 5 programs very early in your careers and achieving success early on. Keep working and getting better and better so you can stay there. Also, congrats on not reading or listening to any rankings or predictions when you were younger and only worrying about what you can control.

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To the thousands that live religiously for those Rankings to be released, be Careful to worship them.