NCAA Basketball: Arizona State, Arkansas among 10 biggest winners of 2024 recruiting classes

6. Baylor Bears

Scott Drew has masterfully built Baylor into an attractive landing spot, both with freshmen and with transfers. Headlining the Bears 2024 recruiting class includes a trio of elite prospects: five-star SG/SF VJ Edgecombe and four-star PG Robert Wright alongside four-star forward Jason Asemota.

Pairing Edgecombe, a potential lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, alongside Duke transfer Jeremy Roach and Jayden Nunn gives Scott Drew a three-guard starting lineup -- something Drew has been familiar with by utilizing the George, Flagler, Cryer trio in 2022-23 and the Walter, Dennis, Nunn trio in 2023-24. In other words, the two experienced guards with one high-upside guard mold should once again bode well for Drew, making the Bears a Final Four threat in 2024-25 thanks to being a big-time winner in the 2024 recruiting class.

5. Missouri Tigers

Is it a safe assumption to predict that the Missouri Tigers will win a game in the SEC this season? Third-year head coach Dennis Gates is trying to erase Missouri’s disastrous 2023-24 campaign from recent memory -- and he is doing it quickly. The Missouri Tigers welcome the fifth-best composite recruiting class in the country, according to 24/7 Sports, highlighted by 6-foot-6 forward Annor Boateng, 7’0, 300 LB big-man Peyton Marshall and 6-foot-6 forward Marcus Allen.

While Marshall and Allen can play a steady reserve role for the Tigers, who also welcome a strong transfer portal class, it’s Boateng who can provide a quick, downhill spark with a skill set that is showing signs of progression, according to Adam Finkelstein, director of scouting for 24/7 Sports. Because of the ruinous nature of last year’s campaign, an elite recruiting class is a reason for optimism in 2024-25 for the Missouri Tigers.