Recently 2 of the nation’s top recruits Shabazz Muhammad and Nerlens Noel made their college choices known.
Muhammad is headed to UCLA and Noel to Kentucky.
That means 91 of the top 100 high school basketball players have made their college choice. Here is the top 100 list from CNNSI. Even in the one and done era you win with talent.
Where are these players headed to by conference? We’ve added Texas A&M to the SEC’s tally. We didn’t put Pittsburgh and Syracuse in the ACC yet or take into account any another conference moves…
ACC – 20
Big 10 – 15
Big East – 14
Pac 12 – 13
SEC – 11
Big 12 – 11
Other – 7
Undecided – 9
Is there anything we can say from these results? First the ACC will have large influx of talent coming into the conference and it’s not just going to Duke and UNC. 8 other ACC schools will have top 100 players joining their team as well.
The ACC has had some struggles in recent years especially in the bottom half of the conference, but if recruiting keeps up at this rate things won’t be down for long. We touched on this topic back in February, as better days may be ahead for the ACC.
Only 7 players chose to attend non major conference schools. To go along with a less than stellar NCAA tournament where only 2 mid majors made to the sweet 16 and none to the elite 8, it’s going to be tougher and tougher for a mid-major to break through.
Am I saying there won’t be any Butler type Cinderellea runs to the National Title game? I’m not saying it won’t happen, but I’d be stunned if there’s another mid-major that makes it to back to back title games. Honestly it’s going to take some special set of events to get a mid-major to the Final 4 more than once every few years I think.
The Big 10 was arguably the country’s best basketball conference this year. They are second on this list with 15 top 100 players. Looks like the Big 10 is in great shape for the future.
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