NCAA Basketball: 25 best recruiting classes since 2000

Recruiting is the lifeblood of NCAA basketball. Which classes have defined the last two decades? Ranking the top 25 recruiting classes since 2000.

You need the talent to win games in any sport. In NCAA basketball, that means that winning starts on the recruiting trail. Some schools and coaches tend to perform better in that area than others. That is where the greats have differentiated themselves.

With the rise of the one-and-done era, recruiting has been as competitive as ever (which may have caused the things that led to the FBI investigation into the sport, but I digress).

Of course, landing a top-rated recruiting class doesn’t guarantee success, particularly in the one-and-done era. Only two teams composed of mostly freshmen (Kentucky in 2012 and Duke in 2015) have ever won a national championship, but many other classes have been highly successful, even if they didn’t enter school with a lot of hype.

Indeed, there are several classes that have defined the college basketball world since the turn of the century. How about the Florida group featuring Joakim Noah and Al Horford, or the Butler class that featured Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack? Neither class contained a five-star prospect, yet both deserve their place on this list.

Armed with hindsight, it’s time to evaluate which recruiting classes were actually the best since 2000. The amount of pure talent plays a role in our evaluation process – that’s why you’ll see Duke’s 2018 class on here – but the results are heavily weighted towards what the group was actually able to accomplish on the court. That’s why they play the games, right?

The impact of the members of the class has been considered as well. For instance, if members of the class were only role players on a championship team, they don’t get as much credit as one where members of the class were starters.

Got it? Cool. Now, without further ado, here are the best 25 recruiting classes in college basketball since 2000.