NCAA Basketball: Ranking the finalists for 5-star class of 2023 big Xavier Booker

Oregon Ducks

The Ducks currently have a star center freshman in Kel’el Ware, who is a projected “one and done” draft prospect. He’d have to be gone for there to be any chance to land Booker. And the team also still has N’Faly Dante and Nathan Bittle on the roster as well and both are best at the center position.

Oregon also recently gave out an offer to top-50 big recruit Isaiah Miranda, which may say how confident they are in landing Booker. The program is still a top-25 national program but if it’s still hard to see the center prospect going out west, especially in a potentially crowded frontcourt that is a little clunky on paper, regardless of who is still on the roster there.

Purdue Boilermakers

Head coach Matt Painter’s history with quality centers ranks among the best, with Trevion Williams and next season’s starter, Zach Edey, being the latest examples. In fact, Edey is viewed as a favorite to win Conference Player of the Year and put up All-American numbers. And unless there’s an NBA-level talent in the backcourt like Jaden Ivey was last season, the offense always runs through the frontcourt players.

Booker can certainly thrive at Purdue but the question will be whether or not they can convince him that they’re the best option within the Big Ten. The Boilermaker bigs haven’t always had the best draft evaluations and maybe it’s due to the style of play. That could be used against them on the recruiting trail.

Of the 10 programs, I have little belief that Cincinnati, Oregon, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Auburn are truly in it. And I’d include Gonzaga in that mix too because of the distance. Right now, Michigan State is viewed as the favorite but don’t be surprised if both Indiana and Purdue are involved until the very end for Xavier Booker.