Recruiting is the lifeblood of a college basketball program -- but that doesn’t mean it’s the only factor that produces a successful team. If it was, we could just roll out the recruiting class rankings and decide national champions the easy way. Obviously, having talent is fairly necessary for winning at the highest levels, but is there a consistent correlation between getting top-notch recruiting classes and general success?
After going through ESPN’s rankings of the last four recruiting classes, several programs stood out as underachieving and overachieving. And we put a little more stock into wins and success over the course of a full season as opposed to just getting hot in the NCAA tournament or suffering a surprising early exit.