Duke, Kentucky among those vying for top HS seniors
Forget what you just saw at the Final Four. There's a whole new game being played.
Kentucky is going head-to-head against Duke. Arizona and UCLA are squaring off. And Kansas, California and UNLV are in this ferocious competition — a chase for what two recruiting analysts said are an unprecedented number of top high school basketball recruits who have not settled on a college this late in the year.
The uncommitted include six players among the consensus top-10 and two others in the consensus top-20 — the type of players who usually have picked colleges by now, said Jerry Meyer, a recruiting analyst for 247Sports.
"It's crazy, man,'' Meyer told Paste BN Sports. "I've never seen anything close to this.
"The stakes are high. You don't win the national championship without NBA-caliber players.''
The stakes may be even higher considering a recent trend: Kentucky and Duke won two of the past four national championships with a starting lineup that featured three freshmen — the so-called "one-and-dones.'' Although their teams did not face off at the Final Four in Indianapolis this week, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Kentucky coach John Calipari are dueling for Brandon Ingram, a versatile 6-8 forward from North Carolina who's rated as high as No. 12 in the country.
"I've had a chance to talk with both of them plenty of times,'' said Ingram's father, Donald, of Krzyzewski and Calipari. "They're legends. They're Hall-of-Famers.''
And they're in need.
Duke already lost freshman forward Jahlil Okafor to the NBA this week and freshman forward Justise Winslow is expected to follow. Kentucky this week announced each of its top seven scorers is declaring for the NBA draft. Ingram's other choices include North Carolina, which must fill a void after forward J.P. Tokoto announced he's forgoing his last year of eligibility to go pro, and Kansas, which lost one-and-doner Kelly Oubre.
"Those are teams that have a major need and need him to fill that void,'' said Evan Daniels, director of basketball recruiting for Scout.com. "And he's the type of player that can change an outlook of a season.''
Ingram's father said he expects his son to choose a school by the end of April. But Meyer said he detects no sign of urgency among the uncommitted.
"The number one thing in my mind is recruits in general are becoming more savvy to the recruiting game,'' Meyer said. "Elite recruits, top-tier recruits now understand they have all the leverage. So why should they make a decision before they have all the information about there?''
Cheick Diallo, a 6-9 forward from New York, waited long enough for this information: Matt Abdelmassih, who had been recruiting Diallo as an assistant at Iowa State, will now be an assistant coach for St. John's under new head coach Chris Mullin.
Other roster-related information will be available by April 26, the deadline for college players to declare themselves eligible for the NBA draft.
"You just want to see all the opportunities,'' Malik Newman, a guard from Mississippi rated as high as No. 3 in the country among seniors, told Paste BN Sports. "It's not just, 'Hey, I like Kentucky, so I'm going to go there.' You want to go somewhere where your talents can be used to the full effect and you can get somewhere out of it.
"You can go to the NBA from anywhere. Damian Lillard made it to the league from Weber State."
Caleb Swanigan, a power forward from Indiana consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 recruits, announced on Friday while in Portland, Ore., attending the Nike Hoop Summit that he will go to Michigan State in the fall.
"I wasn't waiting for anything specific, except for making up my mind and giving myself time," Swanigan told Paste BN Sports before announcing his decision on Twitter. "I didn't want to rush into a decision. It's more that when I made up my mind, then I went to commit."
Swanigan said the departure of the Kentucky seven to the NBA draft will have ripple effects among the remaining top high schools players.
"That's usually how Kentucky plays out," he said. "A lot of guys leave and then a whole bunch of guys come in."
Rather than simply assessing a college's roster, some players have shown interest in shaping rosters. For example, Tyus Jones and Okafor signed with Duke as a package deal — then won the national title.
LSU signed Ben Simmons, rated by some as the nation's top recruit, and then got his pal, top-20 recruit Antonio Blakeney. Ingram's father said his son has been courted by AAU buddy Carlton Bragg, a top-20 signee with Kansas, in hopes they could pair up in Lawrence, Kan.
Brian Hershman of indihoops.com, which rates AAU teams, said the latest buzz is that top-10 recruits Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown along with Swanigan might "take their talents'' to Cal.
"People want to play more with their friends more in this era," said Brian Hershman of Indihoops.com, which rates AAU teams. "Seeing the success at Duke, it's going to perpetuate even more.''
But don't feel bad for Calipari and Kentucky. The Wildcats have already signed five-star recruits Skal Labissiere, a 6-10 center, and Isaiah Briscoe, a 6-3 point guard, along with four-star recruit Charles Matthews, a 6-6 forward as part of what has been ranked as the nation's No. 1 class.
Calipari has had the consensus No. 1- or No. 2-rated class every year since he took over at Kentucky in 2009.
"Time to get out on the road and recruit,'' he wrote via Twitter Friday. "As you know, this is a different deal at Kentucky. Need to sign two, possibly three more guys.''
"We're not signing guys to platoon,'' he added, referring to his two five-man units that allowed him to accommodate a roster with nine McDonald's All-Americans. "We're signing guys that want to play and who have a dream that we can all chase together.''
Contributing: Jim Halley in Portland, Ore.