NCAA Basketball: Top 25 recruiting programs of the 2010’s

15. Louisville Cardinals (Big East/AAC/ACC)

Average recruiting ranking: 30.33

Louisville competed with three different conference affiliations during the 2010’s but their success level was very high in all of them. Rick Pitino was the head coach for the vast majority of this time and the program walked away with the 2013 National Championship* as well. Chris Mack has followed in this footsteps fairly well with an NCAA Tournament in his first season at the helm during this past season as well. In total, the Cardinals reached the Big Dance in eight of the past 10 years, including six of those with a top-4 seed.

Due to the combined efforts of elite coaches in Rick Pitino and Chris Mack, it should come as no surprise that Louisville made this list. They have landed some tremendous recruiting classes over the years and that includes a stretch of back-to-back four top-10 recruiting classes in five years from 2013-2017. As a result, it is hard to single out one group as clearly the best on paper. The five-stars that committed to the program over the 2010’s include Samuell Williamson, Chane Behanan, and V.J. King. The Cardinals, though, excelled with regards to landing four-star prospects with bright futures. Some of those went on to play in the NBA such as Montreal Harrell, Gorgui Deng, Terry Rozier, Donovan Mitchell, and the list goes on.

Louisville seems to be moving back to being one of the elite teams in college basketball under Coach Mack. The Cardinals are widely projected to be a top-10 team in the nation during this coming season and the recruiting wins just continue to pile up. They have struggled a bit since joining the ACC but the program now seems to be turning the corner. This could be the breakout season in the conference that Louisville needs to assert itself as a consistent power next to UNC, Duke, and Virginia.