Iowa State men’s basketball: Georges Niang ranks in top 10 on ESPN player rankings
By Brian Spaen
Iowa State forward Georges Niang is ranked in the top 10 of ESPN’s top 100 college basketball player list.
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Specifically, Niang is seventh on the CBBrank rankings. Here’s what ESPN said about their decision.
"Back from his injury and noticeably slimmer, Niang’s impact on the Cyclones is almost too much to quantify. A point-center who can pass as deftly as he can score, the junior needs to be great to fill the void left by Melvin Ejim and DeAndre Kane."
The only other Big 12 player to make the top 10 is Juwan Staten on West Virginia, who’s largely considered to be the best guard in the conference and a candidate for player of the year.
Most notable is Wichita State, who has two players in the top 10: junior guards Ron Baker at eighth and Fred VanVleet at fifth. It goes without saying that the Shockers could have one of the best backcourts in the country if not the best.
Rounding out the top four is Louisville junior forward Montrezl Harrell, Duke freshman center Jahlil Okafor, North Carolina junior guard Marcus Paige, and Wisconsin senior forward Frank Kaminsky.
Okafor is the only freshman that made the top 10. There are three seniors and the other six are juniors.
So how did ESPN rank all the players on their CBBrank list? Here’s the formula:
"Using the ESPN Forecast model, our engine for creating more accurate sports predictions and opinions, we asked a panel of 35 ESPN experts from across our various platforms to come up with a list of the top 100 players in college hoops."