NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Ranking 9 teams in play for top-5 Mookie Cook
8. UCLA Bruins
As arguably the most prestigious program out west in NCAA Basketball, the Bruins are going to be an alluring option for any five-star prospect. They have a trio of top-30 prospects available in the 2022 class, led by Adem Bona and Amari Bailey. UCLA currently doesn’t have any commits in the 2023 class and with both Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez leaving soon, the wing position will be wide open for the future.
While the potential for minutes is there for Cook and head coach Mick Cronin is one of the better coaches in the sport, there are still some questions as to whether or not the offense is the best fit for NBA Draft prospects to showcase their skillsets. And with two other western-based programs in the running that has more ties to Cook, UCLA may not have the greatest odds here.
7. Texas Tech Red Raiders
New head coach Mark Adams has been very impressive in his first season leading the Red Raiders, despite leading scorer Terrence Shannon Jr. being injured for half of it. Cook fits the team’s model of a 6’6 versatile wing that can guard multiple positions while being even better than Shannon offensively.
The issue here is simply that Coach Adams just hasn’t been around long enough to be a sure thing in terms of developing prospects for the NBA-level compared to some of the others on this list. And while the program is on the rise and Lubbock is a solid place to play for a year, Texas Tech still is in the middle-tier of Big 12 Basketball, let alone NCAA Basketball overall compared to these other heavyweights.