NCAA Basketball: Could Jordan Brown’s commitment to Nevada start a trend?

Jordan Brown became one of the highest ranked players to commit to a mid-major program for the 2018-19 season.

While Duke basketball cleans up recruits at the top of the rankings like a Swiffer, smaller schools like Nevada are forced to fend for the top scraps, like Jordan Brown.

Sometimes, they get lucky.

Brown became the latest ESPN 100 prospect from the Class of 2018 to commit to a school when he chose the Nevada Wolf Pack. The star power forward picked Nevada over a handful of prominent Pac-12 schools, including Arizona and Cal.

In the process, he became the best-ranked prospect to commit to the school (according to ESPN) since Luke Babbitt ten years ago; he went on to become a WAC Player of the Year winner before the NBA swooped him up in the first round.

Brown’s commitment to the Wolf Pack should pay major dividends for a team who went to the Sweet Sixteen last year and expects to be one of the best mid-majors again.

But the more interesting question regards whether or not this could – or should – become a trend.

Brown is the highest-ranked ESPN 100 prospect to commit to a mid-major. Only four others on the list have so far: Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga), Carte’Are Gordon (Saint Louis), A.J. Green (Northern Iowa), and Jermaine Harris (Rhode Island).

The rich stay rich, the poor stay relatively poor.

College basketball is better when mid-majors are more competitive, though. When the NCAA Tournament rolls around,, fans love to watch Cinderellas make big runs through the tourney, just as Nevada and Loyola-Chicago did last year.

Then again, those teams, especially the latter, romped without major former recruits on the team. It’s fun to emphasize the mid part of mid-major. If top prospects fly to mid-majors around the country, distinguishing them from the top-flight programs will be a challenge.

It’ll take a year to see if Brown’s commitment will have any effect on the larger college basketball landscape. It probably won’t.

Next: Nevada's biggest threats in MWC

Nevada is going to be fun to watch in 2018-19, though.