When freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey walk into Rutgers’ Trapezoid of Terror for the Scarlet Knights’ home opener, they’ll make history. The five-star prospects are the highest two recruits to ever suit up for Rutgers.
It’s a trailblazing duo, but they’re far from alone.
Cooper Flagg is the best recruit Duke has landed in the history of modern recruiting rankings. Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, Miami’s Jalil Bethea, Arizona State’s Jayden Quaintance, BYU’s Egor Demin and Illinois’ Will Riley will also have that stamp as the program’s top-rated recruit in the internet era.
Alabama’s Derrion Reid, Maryland’s Derik Queen and Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman are each the second-highest-rated recruits for their respective clubs.
Call it an intended benefit of the influx of Name, Image and Likeness revolution. There will always be haves and have-nots in college basketball, but programs like BYU and Arizona State –– who own zero Final Four appearances ever, combined –– now have the resources to recruit some of the best prospects in the world.
But the situation is everything, even for some of the best recruits in the country who hope to be in college for one year before signing lucrative NBA paychecks. Let’s dive into some of the bigger scheme questions surrounding all 20 five-star recruits from the highly-anticipated Class of 2024.
Realistic expectation: Starting forward
Burning college question: Will Duke’s frontcourt have enough spacing around Flagg?
Duke is poised to try and play Flagg, Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown and enormous center Khaman Maluach together to give the defense some insane rim protection, absurd court coverage…
..
