NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing top-40 center Isaiah Miranda top 8 teams
USC Trojans
The Trojans have most of the same selling points as UCLA, without having that legendary title run in the 70s. They also have a five-star freshman center set to start this upcoming season in Vincent Iwuchukwu, who also could be around from 1-4 years. After seeing the success of the Mobley brothers of the past couple of years, USC is a place where frontcourt prospects are interested and overall, there isn’t a big logjam this program usually has roster-wise.
USC doesn’t have any class of 2023 commits and could use a huge group, depending on what the freshmen bigs do. The lack of clarity overall could force the team to focus on perimeter targets over the frontcourt but Miranda should still be the team’s top target outside of point guard Isaiah Collier for insurance in case Iwuchukwu is indeed a “one and done”.
Texas Longhorns
The Longhotns have little depth at center, with 5th-year senior Christian Bishop around for just one more year. They’re reportedly after five-star center Baye Fall but they may have a better shot at landing Miranda instead. The massive selling point here is that unlike most of the teams on this list, Texas can offer this recruit the starting spot on the 2023-24 campaign without much issue.
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Texas, under head coach Chris Beard has been landing a bunch of big names but the fit at times has been a question. Bigger and better frontcourt players and a key center can make things better and Miranda could be the answer for them. But without any geographical ties, can the Big 12 program make a real run here?