For number one overall recruits coming out of high school, more times than not, their games won’t be the same. Whether they destroyed the competition thanks to their abilities in the low post or they scored a boatload of points on the perimeter, there’s a long list of ways in which they choose to get things done.
While their games might be completely different from one another, the one thing they have in common is that they were the best whenever they stepped foot on a high school basketball court.
Still, regardless of how great they were against inferior competition, not all great high school players got it done at the next level. With college basketball in the midst of having another unpredictable season, we’ve decided to construct a list detailing how former number one ranked high school players over the past 25 years have done in college.
It must be noted that not every credible website had the same player ranked as the best high school baller in the world but we went with the consensus. For the most part, a ton of these players were one and done. But, there were also a handful of guys that decided that they weren’t ready to make the leap to the NBA.
For all intensive purposes, we aren’t going to be looking at every year that particular player spent in college, only their freshman season.
There were a bunch of players that lived up to the hype of being the best high school player in the nation and others struggled. Take a look at who we believe performed the best in their freshman season in college after being considered the best high school ballplayer.