NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing 5 new contenders for 5-star wing Liam McNeeley

Kansas Jayhawks

The Jayhawks were an original contender for McNeeley and look to be in the mix again. They’ll be without Kevin McCullar on the wings, and potentially freshman Johnny Furphy, who’ll be an NBA Draft candidate and could leave. The team does have four-star commit Rakease Passmore and recently landed former Florida guard, Riley Kugel.

So there’s going to be plenty of capable guys on Kansas for next season to make sure the depth concerns from this past season are no more. The question is whether or not McNeeley will have enough room for him to have a meaningful role on the team next season.

Kentucky Wildcats

In the “covid year era”, few teams have consistently played many freshmen big minutes. Kentucky has remained the exception, always having top-tier classes with guys who end up going to the NBA quickly. The latest examples from this past season include Justin Edwards, Rob Dillingham, and likely Reed Sheppard after strong first years.

The question here is what will the future roster look like for the Wildcats? Even if some guys are gone, there’s always another core of five-star freshmen players, including top-40 wings, Karter Knox, and Billy Richmond. And that doesn’t even include a transfer or two. On paper, McNeeley is better than them but it could be a big risk for him.