Signing Day: Pac-12 Basketball Rewind
By Andrew Kahn
Today is Signing Day in college football, a national holiday for recruiting junkies. And while there are always busts and unheralded studs, recruiting analysts on the whole do a good job of assessing talent in football and basketball. With that in mind, let’s take reflect on the Pac-12’s most recent basketball recruiting class.
The top player in the Pac-12’s class according to 247sports.com’s composite rankings was Arizona’s Stanley Johnson. The nation’s No. 3 overall recruit has definitely lived up to the hype. He’s a candidate for National Freshman of the Year and Pac-12 Player of the Year and should be a lottery pick in this summer’s draft. Two four star (out of five) recruits haven’t made nearly the same impact. Point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright is only playing 10 minutes a game, as senior point guard T.J. McConnell is playing at a very high level. Craig Victor decided to transfer to LSU. Dusan Ristic, a 7-footer from Serbia, was not as hyped but has proven to be a very skilled big man for Sean Miller. Arizona is loaded in the front court so Ristic is only playing nine minutes a game, but he looks like he could develop into a key player. Rated outside the top-200, it seems he was underappreciated.
UCLA had the conference’s second-best class thanks to five-star freshman Kevon Looney. The 6’9” forward has displayed a nice inside-out game and has been a monster on the boards for the Bruins. Like Johnson, he appears to be a one-and-done prospect. Thomas Welsh, a 7-foot center, is averaging four points and four rebounds in 16 minutes of action. Another four-star, Jonah Bolden, was ruled academically ineligible before the season started.
Stanford’s class was ranked third. Reid Travis, Michael Humphrey, and Robert Cartwright were all four-star prospects. Travis was injured for most of the Pac-12 schedule but is back; he’s averaging 7.3 points and 6.5 rebounds. Cartwight and Humphrey don’t see as much action and have been far less productive; same with the other freshman, Dorian Pickens. It’s too early to make definitive statements on any of these players but none of the Stanford rookies have stood out.
USC has the youngest roster among major conference teams in the country and has relied on freshmen more than any team in the Pac-12. The Trojans’ four-man class was ranked fourth in the league. Guard Jordan McLaughlin leads the team in minutes and assists. The 6’5” Elijah Stewart is long and athletic, but he has struggled with his outside shot (29 percent).
Only three players not already mentioned cracked 247sports’ top 100: Dominque Collier at Colorado, Brekkot Chapman at Utah, and Dillon Brooks at Oregon. Collier is playing 18 minutes a game and averaging 3.5 points. Chapman has been a nice piece for the deep Utes. The big man is averaging 6.7 points and has hit 12 of 24 threes. Brooks has been superb for the Ducks. He’s second on the team in minutes and scoring (12.6 points per game) and averages 4.5 rebounds. He’s a physical, fearless player who was probably underrated at 98.
But even Brooks can’t match Utah’s Jakob Poeltl. The 7-foot Australian doesn’t show up on 247sports’ rankings but is appearing on NBA draft boards. He’s the starting center and leading rebounder for the No. 13 Utes. So while it’s always a good bet to bring in the highest-rated recruits, there are gems like Poeltl waiting to be uncovered.
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Andrew Kahn is a regular contributor to CBS Local who also writes for Newsday and The Wall Street Journal. He writes about college basketball and other sports at AndrewJKahn.com. Email him at andrewjkahn@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @AndrewKahn.
