The top recruiting classes for the past three years are as follows:
2021 Memphis, Kentucky and Michigan
2022 Duke, Arkansas and Kentucky
2023 Kentucky, Duke and USC

This is their results this year.
USC 15-18 no NCAA
Arkansas 16-17 no NCAA
Michigan 8-24 no NCAA
Memphis 22-10 no NCAA
Kentucky 23-10 first round exit to Oakland
Duke 27-9 elite 8.
Duke is the only team to be quite successful during this recruiting classes.

Let’s look at this years final four teams and where their starters came from.

Alabama four of their five starters came from Ohio U, St Peters, North Dakota, and Cal State Fullerton.

NC State all five starters came from the following schools, Butler, Illinois State, Winthrop, Virginia and Missouri.

Purdue had one starter come from Southern Illinois

UCONN had two starters come from East Carolina and Loyola Md.

That is 12 of the 20 starters came via the portal. 9 of these starters came from lower level schools. The other three came from power five schools. All twelve of these players were not highly rated recruits.

This day and age, it’s not about getting the top recruits to be successful. It’s about putting a team together that plays like a team.

Duquesne got its exposure for getting to the tournament for the first time in 47 years and then winning a first round game. Clark and Grant were our catalyst and look where they came from. As far as those teams with the best recruits over the past three years, Kentucky and Arkansas at the moment, have 0 players. Kentucky, Arkansas, USC, and Michigan have new coaches. Hardaway at Memphis is on the hot seat. So don’t let this top recruit nonsense fool you. The proof is there, that you find the missing pieces of your returning core of players and play like a team.

To further reinforce this notion, go to ESPN top 100 basketball recruits and look at each year and see how many of these guys became successful.

Last edited by Wildwood13 (4/21/2024 8:08 am)