NCAA Basketball: Early predictions for class of 2022 top uncommitted recruits
By Ian Mumm
The live-period for 2022 NCAA Basketball recruits has officially opened and programs are looking to get head starts on future stars. Which teams could land these five-star prospects?
At midnight this past Sunday, NCAA Basketball coaches were allowed to begin reaching out to recruits in the 2022 class. While fanbases are getting to know their incoming players from the 2020 class and starting to identify dream targets for next year’s 2021 class, coaches and scouts have been extremely busy reaching out to high school sophomores to build relationships with top prospects. Offers are being handed out left and right beginning to paint a picture of player schools value the most.
In the coming months, a larger majority of the NCAA Basketball world will begin to recognize the extraordinary amount of talent the 2022 class has to offer. The spotlight on the 5-star talent will continue to grow, especially with potential rule changes regarding entrance into the NBA. Adam Silver noted in an April interview that the “One-And-Done” rule for college recruits to jump to the NBA has the potential of being removed beginning with the 2022 NBA Draft.
The effects of changing this rule will ripple throughout college basketball recruiting and coaches must adjust their strategy to fill their rosters. While some players will undoubtedly consider and pursue this route to the NBA, much like the G-League’s new developmental pathway, each must assess their own situations realistic to make the jump. Top recruits will still feed into college basketball and it’s never too early to predict where they might land.
Dior Johnson, the 5th-best prospect overall committed to Syracuse, is the only top-10 recruit to have decided on a school thus far. While it’s still early in the recruiting process for a lot of these players, Dior’s move to the prestigious Oak Hill Academy for the remainder of his high school career seems to cement the status of his commitment to Jim Boeheim and the Orange.
That’s without mentioning the elephant in the room regarding the top prospect in the class, Emoni Bates. He’s being mentioned as the biggest thing to come out of the high school ranks since Kevin Durant or in some cases LeBron James. Bates is the first player mentioned when discussing the potential rule change to the NBA’s ‘one-and-done’ rule. After mentioning Michigan State as his dream school earlier this year, the overarching belief is that he will either be a Spartan or immediately head to the NBA.
Much more uncertainty surrounds the remaining prospects in the top-10, but where are the top-10 uncommitted prospects likely to land when it’s all said and done?