NCAA Basketball: 25 best recruiting classes since 2000
By Brian Rauf
17) 2009 Kentucky Wildcats
If this list was based on producing NBA All-Stars, this Kentucky class would top the list without question. John Calipari’s first recruiting class in Lexington was great.
John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, the top two prospects in the country, teamed up with fellow five-star prospects Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe (along with four-star guard Jon Hood and JUCO commit Darnell Dodson) to lead a Wildcats team that went 35-3 overall and won both the SEC regular-season and tournament titles.
However, like that 2018-19 Duke team, Kentucky somehow didn’t make the Final Four, losing to West Virginia in the Elite Eight.
The real legacy left by this group came in the culture they set at Kentucky and really got the ball rolling on the one-and-done factory Calipari was able to turn the program into. Wall and Cousins, both First-Team All-Americans, were top-five selections in the 2010 NBA draft, while Orton and Bledsoe were also taken in the first round of the same draft.
Having four first-round selections set a record at the time. Wall, Cousins and Bledsoe have all gone on to become stars in the league. That being said, not making the Final Four keeps them this low on the list.