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Rock Chalk Talk: Basketball
Anything pertaining to basketball: college, pro, HS, recruiting, TV coverage
Anything pertaining to basketball: college, pro, HS, recruiting, TV coverage
I *do* believe in Tom Konchalski!
8 years 1 month ago - 3 months 2 days ago #17326
by HawkErrant
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain "Innocents Abroad"
NOTE FROM HE (2026-01-17):
hoshi and I were chatting over coffee and pastries this afternoon at Tous les Jours and both agreeing that we really liked Melvin "Dawg" Council, Jr. The discussion led to past KU guards we liked, with the "baby faced assassin" Devonte' Graham being perhaps my (and definitely my wife's) favorite recruit who excelled at KANSAS despite being a low or unranked recruit. That led to my racking my brain trying to remember the name of the high school hoops talent scout who recognized the potential in Devonte' when he was at Brewster Academy in 2014, even if Rivals (#72), 247Sports (#92) and ESPN (NR) recruiting gurus did not truly appreciate his potential.
His name was Tom Konchalski.
Tom passed away at age 74 in February 2021, and in 2023 he was enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, MO . That same year he was posthumously recognized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the 2023 John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, instituted by the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Board of Trustees in 1973, is the most prestigious award presented by the Hall of Fame outside of Enshrinement. Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn (NMBHOF Class of 1964; a KU Jayhawk disciple of Phog Allen, whom Bunn played for from 1917-20 and the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee, serving 1949-64), the Bunn award honors coaches, players, and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional and/or the international game.
The text of this post was originally written March 10, 2018 in response to a post about senior Devonte' Graham's success at KU. - HE
I do! I do! I DO!
Here is a repeat of a post from 2 years and 5 days ago that I included in a thread started by Bayhawk titled "Graham is clutch! nfm."
====================================
Back on the old board I posted an article about Tom Konchalski. I can't find the exact article today, but here is what I can find and what I remember.
On Tom Konchalski and High School Basketball Illustrated:
A player who receives a five-star rating in HSBI is projected to be “a major contributor” by his sophomore season for “the average nationally ranked [Division I] team”; a player given one star will be the same for “middle-of-the-road Division III programs.” More often than not—much more often than not—Konchalski’s projections pan out. “If Tom says a kid’s going to be a star, you can mark it down,” says Howard Garfinkel, a co-founder of the famed Five-Star Basketball camps. “He’s a very keen judge of talent.”
nymag.com/news/sports/66474/
A “5+” player is the highest rating HSBI gives. Think Kyrie Irving.
Tom rated Graham a 5, according to Graham's coach at Brewster Academy.
I'm not at all surprised at Devonté's progress, and am in fact very glad to see that he is a little ahead of schedule!
====================================
Back in 2013 about 220 college coaches paid $400 a year to subscribe to HSBI, a 16 issues a year, hardcopy-only publication. I do not know if Self & Co are subscribers, but clearly Devonté's prep school coach was, and our "baby-faced assassin" has more than lived up to Tom Konchalksi's expectations.
For more on Tom, here's another article from 2013:
NY Times: Basketball Prospector ,
and one from just 5 months ago:
AllThingsHoops.com: Tom Konchalski: The Most Important HS Basketball Scout in the Country
Enjoy!
hoshi and I were chatting over coffee and pastries this afternoon at Tous les Jours and both agreeing that we really liked Melvin "Dawg" Council, Jr. The discussion led to past KU guards we liked, with the "baby faced assassin" Devonte' Graham being perhaps my (and definitely my wife's) favorite recruit who excelled at KANSAS despite being a low or unranked recruit. That led to my racking my brain trying to remember the name of the high school hoops talent scout who recognized the potential in Devonte' when he was at Brewster Academy in 2014, even if Rivals (#72), 247Sports (#92) and ESPN (NR) recruiting gurus did not truly appreciate his potential.
His name was Tom Konchalski.
Tom passed away at age 74 in February 2021, and in 2023 he was enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, MO . That same year he was posthumously recognized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the 2023 John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, instituted by the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Board of Trustees in 1973, is the most prestigious award presented by the Hall of Fame outside of Enshrinement. Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn (NMBHOF Class of 1964; a KU Jayhawk disciple of Phog Allen, whom Bunn played for from 1917-20 and the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee, serving 1949-64), the Bunn award honors coaches, players, and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional and/or the international game.
The text of this post was originally written March 10, 2018 in response to a post about senior Devonte' Graham's success at KU. - HE
I do! I do! I DO!
Here is a repeat of a post from 2 years and 5 days ago that I included in a thread started by Bayhawk titled "Graham is clutch! nfm."
====================================
Back on the old board I posted an article about Tom Konchalski. I can't find the exact article today, but here is what I can find and what I remember.
On Tom Konchalski and High School Basketball Illustrated:
A player who receives a five-star rating in HSBI is projected to be “a major contributor” by his sophomore season for “the average nationally ranked [Division I] team”; a player given one star will be the same for “middle-of-the-road Division III programs.” More often than not—much more often than not—Konchalski’s projections pan out. “If Tom says a kid’s going to be a star, you can mark it down,” says Howard Garfinkel, a co-founder of the famed Five-Star Basketball camps. “He’s a very keen judge of talent.”
nymag.com/news/sports/66474/
A “5+” player is the highest rating HSBI gives. Think Kyrie Irving.
Tom rated Graham a 5, according to Graham's coach at Brewster Academy.
I'm not at all surprised at Devonté's progress, and am in fact very glad to see that he is a little ahead of schedule!
====================================
Back in 2013 about 220 college coaches paid $400 a year to subscribe to HSBI, a 16 issues a year, hardcopy-only publication. I do not know if Self & Co are subscribers, but clearly Devonté's prep school coach was, and our "baby-faced assassin" has more than lived up to Tom Konchalksi's expectations.
For more on Tom, here's another article from 2013:
NY Times: Basketball Prospector ,
and one from just 5 months ago:
AllThingsHoops.com: Tom Konchalski: The Most Important HS Basketball Scout in the Country
Enjoy!
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain "Innocents Abroad"
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