NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Pros and cons of Jalen Warley final 6 teams

Virginia Cavaliers

Pros

Still technically the defending national champions, Virginia and head coach Tony Bennett’s stock has risen greatly in recent years. That includes great development from the guards, including Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, and Kihei Clark, who will be starting next season after averaging 10.8 ppg and 5.9 apg.

Besides playing for a program now annually contending at the top of the ACC, Warley would be a great fit for the Cavaliers and their top-notch defensive system. He would likely have to wait a year behind Clark as a freshman but this recruit could become the new star of the program down the road and compete for a future national title.

Cons

Many top-tier recruits have recently had Virginia in their respective final lists but the team has failed to land any that has been ranked in the top-40. A big part of it has to be the painfully slow offensive pace, which greatly limits how much production players can have on a nightly basis. It didn’t stop multiple players from eventually getting drafted but not only did they have to stay for multiple years, but also had to go on a title-winning run for the extra boost.

Could Warley break the streak and commit? It’s always possible but the system, while being the greatest strength for the program at the moment, is still problematic on the recruiting trail. Any player who desires to be a potential 20 ppg scorer in college just isn’t going to pick Virginia.

While Florida State seems to be the leader by the recruiting experts, a recent tweet by Jalen Warley himself seems to indicate that a surprise is coming. That gives hope to one of the other programs still in the running, who would love to pull off the upset and land a five-star caliber perimeter talent to bolster their own 2021 class.