NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Ranking 11 contenders for 2022 F Kyle Filipowski

8. UCLA Bruins

After making the Final Four as an 11 seed, no one is doubting head coach Mick Cronin and his program now. And if star wing Johnny Juzang decides to return for another year, the Bruins will be a preseason top-10 team for next season. Add 2022 commits Dylan Andrews and Amari Bailey and this is a team set to return back to national prominence.

There are a couple of reasons why UCLA is so low for Filipowski. The first is that he’s from deep out east in Massachusetts and the Bruins are the current lone west coast option. The other is that the Pac-12 program has much more viable options to target, including five-star forwards Mark Mitchell and Sadraque Nganga. This is a scenario where unless there’s true heavy interest on either side, that UCLA won’t be in the long-term picture in this recruitment.

7. Iowa Hawkeyes

This is an intriguing option, as Filipowski fits the kinds of stretch forwards that head coach Fran McCaffery has worked with in the past, including star forward Aaron White and the most recent National Player of the Year Award winner Luka Garza. The offense would fit the four-star prospect very well and with grad transfer Filip Rebrača set to leave after next season, could seemingly start as well.

The only concern I’d have here with Iowa is that once Joe Wieskamp and Jordan Bohannon depart after next year, the team will take a potential nosedive in the Big Ten ladder. That doesn’t even include losing forward Keegan Murray if he has a breakout campaign in 2021-22. This would be a scenario where the prospect would have to wait and see how the roster works out, or else he could be left with playing with a roster full of McCaffery’s.