The Blue Ribbon Pre-Season College Basketball Yearbook has named Kentucky freshman Skal Labissiere a pre-season All American for the 2015-16 season.
Chris Dorth explains how he decided to pick not 1, but 2 freshman on his All American squad.
There was a time that Blue Ribbon would never have placed unproven freshmen on its All-America team. But after consulting coaches, NBA scouts and respected media members, the decision was made to include not just one but two this year Kentucky’s Skal Labissiere and LSU’s Ben Simmons—along with Virginia senior Malcolm Brogdon, Iowa State senior Georges Niang, and Providence junior Kris Dunn.
“For a long time, the criteria we primarily used to select our All-America teams was past accomplishment in college basketball,” said Blue Ribbon editor Chris Dortch, who has been in charge of the book’s direction for the last 18 editions and was a Blue Ribbon writer and co-editor for years before that. “But in recent years I’ve been fortunate to assist NBA.com and NBA TV with their coverage of and preparation for the NBA Draft, and I’ve realized that NBA potential, especially when you’re talking about lottery picks, has to be used as a criteria if you’re choosing a team of the five best college players in the country.
“Kentucky has proven many times over in the John Calipari era, with players such as John Wall, Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, etc., that freshmen can impact the college game to a first-team All-America level, and then move on to become the first pick in the NBA Draft.”
By all accounts, Labissiere and Simmons are special players.
Calipari experienced a bit of déjà vu when he first saw Labissiere play.
“He can shoot it, he can handle it,” Cal said. “When I saw him the first time, I think he was in ninth grade, going into 10th, and when I watched him I said, ‘He used to be a guard.’ Because I saw it in Anthony [Davis], I saw it in Marcus Camby. I’ve seen it before. And they said he was. So he was, again, a young man that played guard and then all the sudden he grew.”
Read “BLUE RIBBON RELEASES 35TH ANNIVERSARY COVER, ALL-AMERICA TEAM” by clicking here.
Big expectations already for the big man from Haiti.
