NCAA Basketball: 25 best recruiting classes since 2000

7) 2005 Kansas Jayhawks

Five-star prospects and McDonald’s All-Americans Julian Wright, Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers highlighted what has turned out to be the most important recruiting class of Bill Self’s tenure at Kansas, with four-star forward Micah Downs also joining the group and providing depth in the frontcourt.

Like most Kansas teams under Self, this group won the Big 12 regular-season title every year they were on campus and they won three straight Big 12 Tournament titles to boot. However, they were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2006, serving as the last time this group would fall short of expectations.

Downs transferred to Gonzaga after that first year, but the three five-star recruits returned and led the Jayhawks all the way to the Elite Eight. Wright then left for the NBA, leaving Chalmers and Rush as the two leaders of the 2007-08 team – and they delivered.

They were the two leading scorers on a team that went 37-3 (the most single-season wins in Kansas history) and famously knocked off Memphis in the national championship game thanks to one of the NCAA Tournament’s most iconic shots.

Both Chalmers and Rush opted to ride off into the sunset after that and both carved out solid NBA careers as role players. Chalmers even won a couple of titles with the Miami Heat. That said, both will be most remembered for the illustrious collegiate careers they had at KU.