Akok Ranked in ESPN 60

New England Recruiting Report | Saturday, August 26th, 2017

Putnam Science Academy and Mass Rivals junior forward Akok Akok was ranked 59th in the country according to the updated ESPN 60 announced on Thursday.

Akok's national ranking comes on the heels of a grassroots season in which the New Hampshire native solidified himself as a national prospect.. He exploded onto the scene in the month of April, with two huge sessions on the Adidas Gauntlet, and subsequent scholarship offers from Louisville, Virginia Tech, Providence, and N.C. State among others. He was then invited to both the NBA Player's Association Camp and the Adidas Nations event in June.

While his individual numbers weren't quite as high in the month of July, he still showed the same unique combination of being able to protect the rim defensively and stretch the floor offensively that led UConn, Creighton, Texas Tech, South Florida, and Seton Hall to make offers as well.

ESPN updated their national rankings this week by releasing the ESPN 100 on Wednesday, the ESPN 60 on Thursday (click here to view the full ESPN 60), and then the ESPN 25 on Friday.

With NERR's updated New England 2018 rankings coinciding with those releases, the ESPN 60 will serve as a precursor to updated New England rankings in the class of 2019 which will begin to roll out next week.

Akok's spot in the ESPN 60, along with Chol Marial's transfer outside of the region (to IMG Academy in Florida), has all but solidified Akok's spot atop New England's rising junior class to start the school year, which will be a significant jump for a guy who was ranked 7th in the region prior to the start of the grassroots season. That should be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to movement as quite a lot has changed in the last four months.

Updated 2020 rankings and the release of our initial 2021 list won't take place until after the Elite 75 Frosh/Soph on Saturday, September 16th.