8 McDonald's All-Americans. Oh. My. God.

5 Stars. McDonald's All-American.

Must be some kind of player, right?

Maybe, maybe not. Duke's 2nd round loss to West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament prompted discussion about Duke's 8 McDonald's All-Americans, to West Virginia's zero.

With that in mind, I thought I'd take a little closer look at Duke's burger boys. I don't mean a statistical breakdown. I'm going to find each one on the Rivals150 from their days as a recruit, and see where they measure up. Not a scientific experiment, I understand. But it could be interesting.

DeMarcus Nelson has been solid for four years. He's a very good defender, and streaky on offense. If I were going to rank him today, however, I don't think I'd rate him a 5 star prospect. DeMarcus was 17th in the 2004 Rivals150. If you were to rank those players now, Nelson would likely drop. A quick sampling of some of the guys behind him: Al Horford (36th), Sean Singletary (56th), JamesOn Curry (72nd), Joakim Noah (75th), Chris Lofton (146th).

Greg Paulus was 11th on the 2005 Rivals150. One spot behind Tyler Hansbrough. Chris Douglas-Roberts, who is probably a better all-around player than Paulus, was 75th. Paulus was hyped because he was also a top quarterback recruit, so his basketball skills may have been embellished just a little.

Gerald Henderson was 11th in 2006, and I'm not going to argue with his spot. He is an amazing athlete, and has improved during both of his seasons at Duke. He doesn't have the jumpshot that I'd expect from a 5 star prospect who plays on the perimeter, but his shot does seem to be improving.

Jon Scheyer was 71st in 2006. That may actually be a little low for him, as he has been a very consistent player for Duke. His ranking does make me wonder exactly what the criteria is for selecting the McDonald's teams. There were 70 guys ranked higher than him, yet he was selected. Duke mystique??

Lance Thomas was 42nd in 2006. Based on what he's done at Duke, he should swap places with Scheyer. Thomas is the latest in a long line of failed attempts by Coach K to find a post player. Coach K tends to do that by recruiting a 6'8" wing player and sending him to Wojo's big man camp. That philosophy doesn't seem to work very well. Ask Shavlik Randolph and Josh McRoberts.

Taylor King was 37th in 2007.
Nolan Smith was 39th in 2007.
I will let the following comments count for both players: Jeff Teague was 57th and James Johnson was 62nd. I doubt that Wake Forest would want to trade. Daniel Hackett (66th) was a starter for USC. Also, I wonder how the 37th and 39th players end up in the McDonald's game. If recruiting rankings were always right, wouldn't the top 24 players be in the game?

Kyle Singler was 5th in 2007. He had a very good season, but he's ranked one spot ahead of Kevin Love (6th). I don't see how that happened. Singler seemed to hit the wall pretty hard at the end of the season, but prior to that he was playing at a high level. I'm not going to knock his ranking. I will question the quote that accompanies his profile, however: "Perhaps the most complete player in the 2007 class." Hmmm...the number one player from last year, a young man named Michael Beasley (have you heard of him?), would probably like to have a little talk with the author of that statement.

Basically, I would say that these 8 guys prove two things:

One, when it comes to ranking high school players, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Two, McDonald's likes players who commit to Duke. How else does the 71st player in the country get selected for the game?