In your opinion? I am just asking because I see them rated almost equally.
Sorry I missed your question yesterday. A lot of the info I get is fourth hand but I do feel very confident that it is accurate that the coaches had Anderson higher on their board in this case, and the way things went down I think it makes sense. We had been talking to Stokes for a long time, but a better opportunity arose in Anderson, whom we had scouted early, but he didn't think much of us at the time, which was pre Big East announcement and we moved on to other targets in the fall.
When Anderson was released from his LOI we pounced on the opportunity. You didn't see our coaches flying to NY to lock up Stokes at that point because Anderson was now listening to what Christian had to say and saw the opportunity he had to be a starting point guard in the Big East, which was a big part of what drew him to Providence. Meanwhile Stokes never made it here, though he wanted to come, he would have liked to have gone to Iowa too, but the Hawkeyes were no longer recruiting him.
As for the rankings, everything I have seen shows Anderson as a notch above Stokes. Espn ranks Anderson as a 3 star prospect with a score of 89. They have Stokes rated as a two star player with a score of 86. Rivals has Anderson as a 3 star and hasn't bothered to rank Stokes and Max Preps has Anderson as a 4 star player. The national ranking that I have seen for Anderson have him in the high 30s to low 40s for point guards while Stokes is not rated as high. In my opinion, Anderson is the crown jewel of the class so far, and while Stokes would have been a solid serviceable player for us, Kyan is more Division 1 ready at this time, he is a better passer and has more experience as a pg than Stokes. With a healthy wrist, Anderson is also a quality scoring threat.