NCAA Basketball: 10 intriguing storylines to watch for 2021 recruiting class

1. How the G League affects NCAA Basketball recruiting

In the past few years, NCAA Basketball head coaches have been dealing with the prospect of top players going overseas for a season and getting paid, before heading to the NBA Draft. It’s gone from one every few years for purely academic reasons to now high school stars now seeing it as a viable option. A year ago, it was five-star recruit RJ Hampton to make that move along with LaMelo Ball, whose eligibility was in serious doubts anyways.

The newest threat now comes from the NBA itself, creating a G League Select Team featuring some quality high school stars that’ll get direct guidance and development, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars of salary, and even some endorsement money. Three players from the 2020 class have accepted offers, including Dashien Nix from UCLA, Isaiah Todd from Michigan and top-5 recruit Jalen Green. International big man Kai Sotto also will be joining the G League as well.

There are others currently linked to the new initiate, including Makur Maker and the No. 1 overall player in the 2021 class, Jonathan Kuminga. With only one team at the moment, there are only a few spots to go around that would make sense for players to make that kind of leap. But for sure, there will be several top-10 players in the following recruiting class that’ll take up the offer.

Will that stop the NCAA Basketball head coaches from making a big push to land them? Absolutely not. But teams such as Duke and Kentucky won’t be affected by this since they’ll have other five-stars to target. But for a Michigan, who only had one five-star (Todd) on board, losing them to the G League this late in the game will be a tough blow to overcome.