NCAA Basketball: 25 biggest team winners from 2021 recruiting classes

6. Baylor Bears (No. 13 overall class)

The Bears used the transfer portal to get some key pieces to help get the national championship this season and is looking to use the title and the exposure to start landing bit-time prospects. That’s started with this recruiting class, landing five-star forward Kendall Brown, along with top-40 shooting guard Langston Love and four-star international forward Jeremy Sochan.

Baylor doesn’t usually have one-and-done prospects so these players could very well be around for the long haul, which will keep the talent level for the program at a top-15 level nationally. And if the developmental skills of the coaching staff remains the same, we’ll likely see an All-Big 12 star or two from this group. It won’t be long before five-stars regularly start committing to the Bears.

5. Dayton Flyers (No. 22 overall class)

After having a historically good 2019-20 season and being unable to play in the NCAA Tournament, it was looking as if the Flyers weren’t going to reap the benefits from the success. But then head coach Anthony Grant and company got great news, landing top-50 forward recruit DaRon Holmes. He’s the highest-rated commit to the Dayton program ever and a huge name to play in the Atlantic 10.

The Flyers also landed two other top-10 all-time commits in Malachi Smith and Kaleb Washington, both of whom will have an impact on the team next season. Add a couple of key transfers and Dayton is in a positon where they’ll remain in the hunt near the top of the conference. They’ll likely have to wait a year after the super senior of Richmond and Saint Louis leaves but 2023 could be the year of the Flyers.

4. Tennessee Volunteers (No. 3 overall class)

The class was already set to be good with five-star point guard Kennedy Chandler and four-star wing Jahmal Mashack, which helps replace outgoing guards Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer. But the backcourt wasn’t the issue last season, because the frontcourt had many problems down the stretch of this past year.

Tennessee landed a pair of highly-talented frontcourt prospects this offseason, including five-star recruit Brandon Huntley-Hatfield after reclassifying. The addition of top-50 center Jonas Aidoo adds even more depth both this year and in the future once John Fulkerson departs. This top-3 class has the Vols in contention next season thanks to the balance provided by the recent frontcourt additions.