{"id":167544,"date":"2019-05-22T12:44:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T19:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilcomprd.wpengine.com\/?p=167544"},"modified":"2023-03-21T14:24:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T21:24:29","slug":"35-greatest-recruiting-classes-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/35-greatest-recruiting-classes-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"35 Greatest Recruiting Classes Of All Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Top 15 recruit and five star forward Precious Achiuwa<\/strong><\/a> of Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) announced last week that he would attend Memphis in the fall, it immediately boosted the Tigers\u2019 seven player haul to the top-ranked recruiting class in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n Achiuwa joins the No. 1 player in the country, James Wiseman<\/strong><\/a> (Memphis East), and four-star recruits Boogie Ellis<\/strong><\/a> (San Diego Mission Bay), D.J. Jeffries<\/strong><\/a> (Olive Branch, MS), Lester Quinones<\/strong><\/a> (IMG Academy, FL), Malcolm Dandridge<\/strong> (Memphis East) and Damion Baugh<\/strong><\/a> (Tennessee Prep).<\/span><\/p>\n Penny Hardaway<\/a>\u2019s <\/strong>squad will perform on the court, so we can't yet say if it's an all-time recruiting job, but his efforts got myself and my colleague Ronnie Flores<\/strong> on the discussion of the greatest recruiting classes of all time. So we started to dig, and dig, and dig some more.<\/span><\/p>\n Some 36 hours later, we had a list of 35 of the all-time great recruiting classes dating back to 1965 for your enjoyment, beginning with UCLA\u2019s <\/span>class of 1965.<\/span><\/p>\n *The list takes into consideration not only the player rankings in those respective classes (listed by number) by the most credible\u00a0recruiting lists we\u00a0could find, but also what immediate impact the class had during its time in college hoops.\u00a0College freshman were first eligible for varsity competition in the 1972-73 season. Classes are listed in chronological order.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n 1965 UCLA Bruins<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Lew Alcindor<\/a> (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Lucius Allen<\/a>, Lynn Shackelford<\/a>, Kenny Heitz<\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b>\u00a0The freshman team, led by these four first-year guys, blew out the varsity team, 75-60, in the inaugural game inside of Pauley Pavilion. Alcindor, Allen, Shackelford and Heitz spent their first season competing against other freshman teams and junior college programs, winning those games by an average of 57 points in front of massive crowds. All four moved into the starting lineup as sophomores and ran off three straight national championships led by Alcindor, arguably the greatest college player ever.<\/span><\/p>\n 1970 UCLA Bruins<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Bill Walton<\/a>, Jamaal Wilkes, Greg Lee<\/a>, Tommy Curtis, Vince Carson<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>The eventual best player in college basketball, Walton, and the rest of this class had to play freshman ball in 1971 and showed just how good they were as sophomores by going 30-0 and winning the \u201972 title over Florida State. UCLA won it again in \u201973 over Memphis, but fell to NC State in the \u201974 Final Four in the last season of this storied class.<\/span><\/p>\n 1972 Indiana Hoosiers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Quinn Buckner<\/a>, Scott May<\/a>, Tom Abernethy<\/a>, Jim Crews<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>This wasn\u2019t an immediate satisfaction class, but it produced long-term success. May was academically ineligible in the 1972-73 season, but his ability was on full display during his sophomore year.\u00a0Bucker actually was an immediate impact freshman (10.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg) on a team that advanced\u00a0the the NCAA Final Four.\u00a0<\/span>The Hoosiers went 31-1 in 1974-75 and lost to Kentucky in the regional finals, before going 32-0 in 1975-76, winning the national title over Michigan, 86-68. The \u201975-76 Indiana squad is the last team in college basketball to finish a season undefeated.<\/span><\/p>\n 1978 Louisville Cardinals<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Jerry Eaves<\/a>, Scooter McCray<\/a>, Wiley Brown, Derek Smith<\/a>, Poncho Wright<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>After recruiting National Player of the Year Darrell Griffith and\u00a0<\/span>Bobby Turner out of Louisville's Male High School in 1976, coach Denny\u00a0<\/span>Crum missed out on big targets like Albert King and Magic Johnson in 1977\u00a0<\/span>and didn\u2019t bring in much of note that fall.\u00a0He needed to hit big going into\u00a0<\/span>the 1979 season to surround Griffith with enough talent to make a run at\u00a0<\/span>the program\u2019s third Final Four in the Crum era. Although he didn\u2019t land a\u00a0<\/span>superstar, he brought in excellent depth and a gem in McRay, who was\u00a0<\/span>joined a year later by his younger brother Rodney out of Mt. Vernon, N.Y.\u00a0<\/span>Scooter and Smith were impact players and Eaves and Brown were good role\u00a0<\/span>players as freshman. Even without Turner and an injured Scooter, who was\u00a0<\/span>never the same after his freshman year, Smith and Brown stepped up around\u00a0<\/span>Griffith to develop the program its first NCAA title in 1980. This deep\u00a0<\/span>class made up the core of the team that made another NCAA Final Four\u00a0<\/span>appearance in 1982.<\/span><\/p>\n 1979 Kentucky Wildcats<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Sam Bowie<\/a> (3), Derrick Hord<\/a> (5), Dirk Minniefield<\/a> (20), Charles Hurt<\/a> (36)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>Bowie and Hord came in as top five recruits and the 7-foot-1 Bowie averaged 12.9 points and eight rebounds per game as a freshman, but battled injuries throughout his career. Hord, Minniefield and Hurt were all solid pieces during their four year careers, but weren\u2019t apart of the 1984 team which lost in the National Semifinals to Georgetown in Bowie\u2019s fifth year.<\/span><\/p>\n 1979 UCLA Bruins<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Darren Daye<\/a> (9), <\/b>Rod Foster<\/a> (28), Michael Holton<\/a> (43), Cliff Pruitt<\/a> (95)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: These four UCLA freshmen teamed with senior Kiki Vandeweghe to advance all the way to the NCAA title game, where it lost to Louisville led by Darrell Griffith. Larry Brown left for the NBA and left the program on probation in his wake and this group never achieved the projections set for it.<\/span><\/p>\n 1982 Duke Blue Devils<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Johnny Dawkins<\/a> (11), Mark Alarie<\/a> (43), Weldon Williams<\/a> (62), Jay Bilas<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(74), David Henderson<\/a>, Bill Jackman<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>After a rough second year in Durham 10-17, many fans were calling\u00a0<\/span>for coach Mike Krzyzewski\u2019s head, but this is the class that turned things\u00a0<\/span>around. Sure, Duke went 11-17 in 1982-83, but it also saw Dawkins (18.1\u00a0<\/span>ppg) develop into arguably the most important recruit in school history\u00a0<\/span>and the player that started a Duke dynasty that won five NCAA\u00a0<\/span>championships in the Coach K era. Alarie (10 ppg, 6.5 rpg), Henderson (9.1\u00a0<\/span>ppg) and Bilas (8.8 rpg) were also impact freshmen and this group made up\u00a0<\/span>the core of the team that advanced to the first Final Four in the\u00a0<\/span>Krzyzewski era, losing to Louisville in the 1986 NCAA title game.<\/span><\/p>\n 1985 Louisville Cardinals<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Tony Kimbro<\/a> (4), Pervis Ellison<\/a> (17), Kenny Payne<\/a> (22), Keith Williams<\/a><\/span>, Avery Marshall<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> After winning the 1980 NCAA title and advancing to the 1982 and\u00a0<\/span>1983 NCAA Final Four, it looked like Denny Crum\u2019s proud program wasn\u2019t on\u00a0<\/span>that level anymore after going 19-18 in 1985. A big reason for that was\u00a0<\/span>senior guard Wilt Wagner had to take a red-shirt for an injury. Similar to\u00a0<\/span>Scooter McCray in \u201978 and Lancaster Gordon and Charles Jones in '80, Crum\u00a0<\/span>found another Southern gem in Ellison. \"Never Nervous\u201d Pervis teamed up\u00a0<\/span>with Wagner to lead the Cardinals to their second NCAA title in seven\u00a0<\/span>seasons in 1986 and the Savannah, Ga. product was the first freshman ever\u00a0<\/span>named MOP of the NCAA Tournament. Kimbro was a three-year starer and Payne\u00a0<\/span>scored nearly 15 ppg as a senior.<\/span><\/p>\n 1986 Syracuse Orange<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Derrick Coleman<\/a> (6), Earl Duncan<\/a> (15), Stephen Thompson<\/a> (36), Keith Hughes<\/a><\/span>, Matt Roe<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>Pearl Washington, a New York City playground legend, and cable\u00a0<\/span>television, made Syracuse a household name in the mid 1980s and coach Jim\u00a0<\/span>Boeheim used that to bring in some excellent recruiting classes around\u00a0<\/span>that time. Although Washington left a season early for the NBA in 1986,\u00a0<\/span>Syracuse\u2019s recruiting class that season help the program get over the hump\u00a0<\/span>and advance to its first NCAA Final Four, where it lost to Indiana in the\u00a0<\/span>title game. Coleman (11.9 ppg, 8.8 rpg) starred immediately, Thompson was\u00a0<\/span>a terrific four-year standout and Duncan (after sitting out as a Prop 48)\u00a0<\/span>and Roe became valuable contributors on NCAA tournament teams after their\u00a0<\/span>freshman seasons. <\/span><\/p>\n 1988 Georgetown Hoyas<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Alonzo Mourning<\/a> (1), Milton Bell<\/a> (28), Ronny Thompson, Dikembe\u00a0<\/a><\/span>Mutombo<\/a>, John Turner<\/a> (JUCO)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> We were tempted to place the 1981 Georgetown class with No.\u00a0<\/span>1 player Patrick Ewing, but we decided to place another John Thompson haul\u00a0<\/span>with a No. 1 national player, Mourning (13.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg). What makes\u00a0<\/span>this class unique is the emergence of Mutombo, a Congo native who attended\u00a0<\/span>Georgetown on a USAID scholarship and spoke basically no English when he\u00a0<\/span>arrived. Although Bell eventually transferred and Turner dropped out,\u00a0<\/span>Mourning made the Hoyas a forced to be reckoned with right away as they\u00a0<\/span>advanced to the Elite Eight and they were quite competitive with the Twin\u00a0<\/span>Towers underneath for the next two seasons after that.<\/span><\/p>\n 1989 Indiana Hoosiers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Lawrence Funderburke<\/a> (7), Pat Graham<\/a> (15), Calbert Cheaney<\/a> (31), Greg Graham<\/a> (36), Chris Lawson<\/a> (76)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> This class was met with a lot of fanfare, especially with thoughts of pairing Funderburke with Bobby Knight, but the fun didn\u2019t last long. Funderburke only lasted six games before transferring to Ohio State after he butted heads with coach Knight. Pat and Greg Graham were solid pieces, but Calbert Cheaney ended up being the gem of that Hoosiers\u2019 class. Cheaney led Indiana to the 1992 Final Four and was the 1993 NCAA Player of the Year as a senior.<\/span><\/p>\n 1990 North Carolina Tar Heels<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Eric Montross<\/a> (2), Clifford Rozier<\/a> (5), Derrick Phelps<\/a> (12), Brian Reese<\/a> (13)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> All four played roles in their first seasons in Chapel Hill as UNC went to the Final Four in 1991, falling to Kansas, 79-73. Montross ended up leading the Tar Heels in scoring during their run to the 1993 NCAA national title where they defeated the next recruiting class on our list. Rozier ended up transferring to Louisville where he became an All-American, while Reese (11.3 points per game) and Phelps (8.1 ppg) started and played major roles in the title run.<\/span><\/p>\n 1991 Michigan Wolverines<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Chris Webber<\/a> (1), Juwan Howard<\/a> (3), Jalen Rose<\/a> (6), Jimmy King<\/a> (9), Ray Jackson<\/a> (76)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> There is no class more highly publicized and analyzed than the famed Fab Five. Webber, Howard, Rose and King were McDonald\u2019s All-Americans, and in fact, played on the same Mickey D\u2019s team. The Wolverines reached back-to-back National Championship games in 1992 and 1993, but fell to Duke and North Carolina, respectively. One of the more interesting facts about this team is it never won a Big Ten championship. <\/span><\/p>\n 1993 North Carolina Tar Heels<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Jerry Stackhouse<\/a> (2), Rasheed Wallace<\/a> (3), Jeff McInnis<\/a> (26)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>Stackhouse and Wallace were considered two of the top three players in the country along with Randy Livingston (LSU), while McInnis rounded out the trio of McDonald's All-Americans. Stackhouse and Wallace took some time away from returning starters Phelps and Reese and UNC faltered in the 1994 NCAA Tournament, falling in the second round to ninth-seeded Boston College.<\/span><\/p>\n 1994 Michigan Wolverines<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Jerod Ward<\/a> (3), Willie Mitchell<\/a> (16), Maceo Baston<\/a> (17), Maurice Taylor<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(18), Travis Conlan<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> After Michigan\u2019s Fab Five took college basketball by storm in\u00a0<\/span>1992-93, Coach Steve Fisher had the hottest program in the country in the\u00a0<\/span>mid 1990s. He parlayed that info fine recruiting classes in \u201994 and \u201995.\u00a0<\/span>The \u201994 group was labeled Fab Five II, but because leading recruit Ward\u00a0<\/span>never developed as advertised, the program never returned to the NCAA\u00a0<\/span>Final Four before facing NCAA sanctions at the end of the Fisher era.\u00a0<\/span>Still, the 1994 group was productive in Ann Arbor, especially Taylor (12.4\u00a0<\/span>ppg) and Baston, bookend forwards who were more tough than flashy in comparison to\u00a0<\/span>their predecessors on the frontline.<\/span><\/p>\n 1997 Duke Blue Devils<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Chris Burgess<\/a> (1), <\/b>Elton Brand<\/a> (6), Shane Battier<\/a> (7), William Avery<\/a> (51)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact: <\/b>Brand, Battier and Burgess were all McDonald\u2019s All-American\u2019s in 1997. Brand came in as an immediate double-double threat, averaging 13.4 points and 7.3 rebounds as a freshman. Avery (8.5 points), Battier (7.6) and Burgess (4.3) were strong supporting actors as freshmen. Duke lost to Kentucky in the Elite Eight in 1998, then fell to Connecticut in the 1999 National Championship game. Brand, a sophomore, led the team in scoring and rebounding that season and was the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NBA Draft by Chicago, while Avery went No. 14 to Minnesota.<\/span><\/p>\n 1998 UCLA Bruins<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Dan Gadzuric<\/a> (5), JaRon Rush<\/a> (10), Ray Young<\/a> (16), Matt Barnes<\/a> (39), Jerome Moiso<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/strong> Rush (11.4 points), Moiso (10.8 points) and Gadzuric (8.6 points) all showed early promise as long-term prospects, but things just didn\u2019t click. The team didn\u2019t meet expectations under Steve Lavin and Ray Young\u2019s career didn\u2019t pan out as most expected. The Bruins made a couple of decent NCAA Tournament runs, but the payer rankings of this group didn\u2019t meet the on-court production.<\/span><\/p>\n 1999 Kansas Jayhawks<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class: <\/b>Nick Collison<\/a> (22), Drew Gooden<\/a> (26), Kirk Hinrich<\/a> (46)<\/span><\/p>\n Impact:<\/b> This class wasn\u2019t as highly-touted as many on this list, but it was extremely productive. All three were immediate impact players as freshmen, Collison and Gooden both averaging double-figure scoring in their first season. All three of these recruits were on the 2001-02 team which lost to Maryland in the national semifinals, while Collison and Hinrich were on the squad which lost to Syracuse in the 2003 National Championship game.<\/span><\/p>\n 2002 Illinois Fightin\u2019 Illini<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Class:<\/b> Dee Brown<\/a> (19), Deron Williams<\/a> (38), James Augustine<\/a> (87)<\/span><\/p>\n