NCAA Basketball: Biggest takeaways from the 2019 recruiting classes

1) A year for non-traditional powers

Normally, we see the country’s elite prospects end up at the top-tier powerhouse programs. Heck, Duke was the attraction last season because of the freshmen star power they had.

This year will be different. We’ve had years in the past where a top prospect ends up playing for a non-traditional power – Ben Simmons at LSU and Markelle Fultz at Washington immediately come to mind – but we haven’t seen a widespread distribution of talent like we’re going to in 2019-20.

The nation’s top three prospects (Wiseman – Memphis, Edwards – Georgia, Stewart – Washington) are all headed to non-traditional powers. All of those schools are also bringing in top 10 classes, raising expectations for all three. USC (No. 6) and Florida (No. 7) are also bringing in highly ranked classes.

As a result, I don’t expect to see the clear separation by a handful of teams in the sport’s top-tier that we saw last season. More programs than normal should have really good seasons, and that makes the upcoming year one of the toughest to project.

Can Memphis be an elite team relying almost solely on freshmen? How relevant can Edwards make Georgia? Will the incoming classes at Washington and Oregon carry their respective schools to the top of the Pac-12?

Blueblood programs like Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina will still be really good, but there are many legitimate challengers to them at the top of the polls.