NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early takeaways from 2021 recruiting classes
DePaul has a top-5 class?
Villanova being in the top-5 of current recruiting classes isn’t much of a surprise, considering that they have multiple recent national titles. But another Big East program that has the No. 4 overall class is making some noise as well. Yet it’s a shocker in the DePaul Blue Demons.
The program was looking like it was turning around in the non-conference, going 13-1 and receiving top-25 votes. However, a disastrous 3-15 campaign in the Big East took them back to last place, losing any kind of momentum.
But head coach Dave Leitao and the coaching staff should get the “2020 Coach of the Offseason Award”, based on the amount of talent brought in. DePaul added five grad transfers to join Charlie Moore and Jaylen Butz for the upcoming season, along with five high school commits.
Although none of them are individually ranked higher than No. 74, the Blue Demons still landed four players ranked between 74 and 103. Ahamad Bynum is very important since he is from the city of Chicago, with 6’6 wings Keon Edwards and David Jones the future replacements for Romeo Weems.
Power forward Kok Yat most recently committed to the program, and 6’3 combo guard Brett Hardt Jr. has “hidden gem” potential as well. The coaching staff has landed talent all throughout the country, using both the prestige of the Big East and immediate playing time as key selling points.
Even as a program still “rebuilding”, DePaul Basketball figures to be a longterm factor in the Big East. And that has to be annoying for teams not named Villanova in the conference to deal with, particularly with UConn’s arrival as well. There’s real promise with the program if they can start winning at a high level, and these commits believe they can be the start of that.