Five-star KU signee Bryce Thompson ranked No. 19 in Class of 2020; Muscadin No. 136
Incoming University of Kansas combo guard Bryce Thompson’s national recruiting ranking remains the same while power forward Gethro Muscadin’s rating drops two slots in the final Rivals.com Top 150 for the class of 2020.
Thompson, a 6-foot-4, 180-pound graduate of Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, held the No. 19 national ranking that he possessed when he signed with KU on Nov. 13, 2019. Thompson. who achieved coveted five-star status, averaged 25.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game his senior season at Washington High.
“Bryce had an amazing year,” Booker T. Washington High coach Conley Phipps told the Tulsa World. “He’s a phenomenal player. It’s been amazing to see the level that he’s taken his game to since the state tournament last year. He’s the best offensive player in the country and one of the best overall players in the country.”
Thompson achieved a 3.28 grade-point average in high school. He scored 1,945 points over his high school career and is expected to be an immediate contributor in KU’s rotation, perhaps as a starter.
”As great a player as he is, he’s an even better human being,” Phipps told the Tulsa World. ”He’s been a joy to coach every day. It’s been an unbelievable ride for me to coach him the past three years.”
Muscadin, a 6-10, 215-pound native of Haiti who played last season at Aspire Academy in Louisville, Kentucky, fell two slots from No. 134 to 136 in the final Rivals.com individual rankings. He played his sophomore and junior seasons at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas before moving to Kentucky for his final campaign.
“He’s a runner. He’s a jumper. He’s a shot blocker,” KU coach Bill Self said of Muscadin, who averaged 12.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks a game his senior season. “His activity level is very high. We feel like he is a guy that could develop into one of the better big men in this class.”
Muscadin missed several games during the 2019-20 campaign because of a leg fracture.
“I still feel I”m underrated, have got a lot of work to put in,” Muscadin told Schuz Views Website. “I got hurt in the middle of the season. I’m just now coming back. I’m called second best (prospect in state of Kentucky behind junior Zion Harmon). I’ve got a lot to prove.”
Latrell Jossell, a 6-foot, 160-pound Chicago native who played point guard his senior year at Central High in Keller, Texas, did not appear in Rivals.com’s final rankings. He was unranked all season long.
“He’s very impressive. He’s far better than his rating. He’s extremely fast and can really shoot,” Self said of Jossell, who played in just three games this past season because of a high ankle sprain injury. He averaged 13.2 points per game as a freshman at Central, 13.8 points his sophomore year and 18.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game his junior season.
“I was pretty sad with how it all ended,” Jossell told Jayhawkslant.com. “I thought it was just a little ankle injury. The injury took place, I want to say, in November. I had a couple of ankle injuries, so I really expected to be back in like two or three weeks.
“It kind of took longer than that,” he added. “The trainer told me that it was a grade 3 at first, and I didn’t know if that was true, but the doctor said it was, too, and it took like a month-and-a-half or two to recover. Then, I had to get back into shape. It was a long process and the season had just started. It was just bad timing.”
He’s been full speed of late, “working out at the park getting some shots up, getting back into a groove a little bit. The whole time I was out, I wasn’t really doing anything.
“There was nothing that I could do, really. I was out for a long time, so I’m just trying to get back into a groove.”
KU’s fourth signee, Tyon Grant-Foster, a 6-6, 190-pound junior-to-be out of Indian Hills CC in Iowa, as a juco player was not eligible for the rankings.
Grant-Foster averaged 16.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game his soph season at the Iowa junior college.
The former KC Schlagle High player hit 48.3% of his shots last season including 33.5% from behind the three-point arc, and 72.2% from the free-throw line.
In the final game of his Indian Hills C.C. career, Grant-Foster scored 29 points in 25 minutes against Dawson Community College.
“Tyon is very long and extremely skilled,” KU coach Self said. “He can play basically anywhere on the floor, one through four. He’s good with the ball, has great vision and is a terrific athlete. His motor is always running.”
OSU signee top player in Class of 2020
Oklahoma State signee Cade Cunningham kept the No. 1 ranking, while G-League bound combo guard Jalen Green remained No. 2 and USC center Evan Mobley No. 3 in the class of 2020.
Cunningham is a 6-7 combo guard from Montverde (Florida) Academy; Green a 6-5 shooting guard from Prolific Prep in Napa, California and Mobley a 7-foot center from Rancho Christian High School in Temecula, California.
B.J. Boston, a 6-7 shooting guard from Sierra Canyon High in Chatsworth, California, who is headed to Kentucky, was ranked No. 4. KU will play Oklahoma State twice and USC and Kentucky once on next season’s regular-season schedule.
KU’s recruiting class 12th best in country
KU’s recruiting class of Thompson, Grant-Foster, Muscadin and Jossell was ranked 12th best of all teams according to Rivals.com. The best recruiting class went to Kentucky followed by Duke, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, Indiana and KU.
Wall didn’t want to play on same team as Henry
Five-time NBA all-star John Wall is no fan of former KU shooting guard Xavier Henry. Wall, the No. 1-ranked player in the recruiting class of 2009 according to RIvals.com, in the spring of 2009 agreed to play college hoops for Kentucky coach John Calipari, who had just left Memphis for UK.
However, after playing with Henry at the Nike Hoop Summit, Wall told Calipari he would not attend Kentucky if Henry signed with the Wildcats.
“Xavier was a talented player but he was just shooting the ball so much, so mad he wasn’t getting the ball, I called Cal up and was like, ‘Cal when you switch to Kentucky, if he’s coming, I promise I won’t go,’” Wall explained to 247sports.com. “I told him that straight up. I told him I can’t go because I was like me, DeMarcus (Cousins) , E-Bled [Eric Bledsoe] and all of these guys are about to sacrifice and he has to sacrifice. We’re not going to get a lot of shots. We all are used to averaging over 25 or more on our team and we’re not about to be like that and I don’t think he could buy into that.”
Henry, the No. 8 rated player in the class of 2009, played one season at KU; Wall one season at Kentucky. Injuries have derailed Henry’s pro career. He played in the NBA from 2011 to ‘15.
“I think his (Henry’s) brother was trying to go to school too and I think Cal ended up not bringing him and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to Kentucky,’” Wall said. C.J. Henry also played a year for the Jayhawks. “I think if Xavier would have went then I would’ve ended up going to Miami,” Wall told to 247sports.com.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Five-star KU signee Bryce Thompson ranked No. 19 in Class of 2020; Muscadin No. 136."
