AAC Basketball: 5 biggest takeaways from 2019 recruiting classes
A whole lot happened with AAC Basketball on the recruiting trail in the past year. What were the biggest overall takeaways?
Around this time a year ago, the top recruiting team for AAC Basketball was Penny Hardaway and Memphis. They landed three of the league’s quartet of four-star prospects in the 2018 recruiting class (Houston had the other in their lone commit of Nate Hinton). Outside of Wichita State with seven total recruits tying Memphis, there was nothing truly notable from last year’s group.
Fast forward to now and let’s say there were some differences. All 11 AAC teams bring in at least two recruits, with East Carolina having a whopping eight newcomers. Wichita State will be one of the youngest teams in the country with another six newcomers to the program. And Dan Hurley has a nice group of freshmen for UConn, ranking second overall in the conference.
But there’s no debate at all with who landed the top spot for AAC Basketball. It’s the Memphis Tigers, although their class this time around makes last year’s look like chump change. Not only is it the top class in the league, but it’s also actually No. 1 overall, ahead of the likes of both Duke and Kentucky.
There’s a lot to go further with the Tigers and the impact of this recruiting class in particular but don’t forget the other 10 teams in the AAC as well. The conference as a whole should benefit greatly from this crop of newcomers down the road. Here are my biggest overall takeaways from what the league is bringing in.