These college basketball teams have already secured Top 25 recruits for the 2023 class
On Monday afternoon, five-star point guard Kylan Boswell announced his commitment to the Arizona Wildcats, becoming the latest highly touted basketball recruit from the junior class to make an early pledge to a college team.
In all, seven of the top 25 prospects in the 2023 class composite rankings from 247Sports have already picked their college destinations. The list is heavy with blue-bloods — Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina all have one so far — and the fight over the top players in the junior class is sure to heat up in the coming months.
Here’s a look at the schools that have already added a possible game-changing recruit for that 2023 cycle.
Arizona
Boswell’s decision this week was another huge victory for Wildcats Coach Tommy Lloyd, who has Arizona projected as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in his first season in charge of the program. Boswell is the point guard of the future in Tucson, a relentless competitor from the same high school that produced Kentucky’s TyTy Washington. (Boswell’s program director referred to him as “TyTy 2.0” in an interview with the Herald-Leader this season).
There’s already been speculation that Boswell could reclassify to 2022 and play college basketball next season. For now, he’s the No. 11 overall prospect in the junior class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings for 2023.
Duke
Jon Scheyer has the No. 1 recruiting class locked up for the 2022 cycle, heading into his debut as Duke’s head coach next season. He’s working on the same outcome for 2023. Scheyer and the Blue Devils have already landed commitments from two top 25 players in the 247Sports and Rivals rankings. Point guard Caleb Foster is No. 12 on the 247 site, No. 14 at Rivals.com and No. 19 on ESPN’s list. Power forward Sean Stewart is No. 13 at ESPN, No. 21 at Rivals and No. 25 at 247Sports. (Stewart’s 247Sports composite ranking is still at No. 28 overall).
Scheyer is likely to get more five-star commitments. Duke is already the Crystal Ball favorite for No. 3 recruit Mackenzie Mgbako and No. 23 composite recruit Jared McCain, with the Blue Devils also in the mix for a few others near the top of the 2023 rankings.
Kentucky
UK, of course, locked up a commitment from in-state star Reed Sheppard early in the recruiting process, landing that pledge before Sheppard had started playing his junior season. The North Laurel combo guard’s profile has exploded over the past year, and he’s now ranked by both 247Sports and Rivals.com as the No. 17 overall prospect in the 2023 class. He’s unlikely to be the highest-ranked player in Kentucky’s final class, however.
UK has extended scholarship offers to seven other top 25 juniors. In order of their 247Sports composite ranking, those players are DJ Wagner (No. 1), Kwame Evans Jr. (No. 2), Mgbako (No. 3), Mookie Cook (No. 4), JJ Taylor (No. 5), Matas Buzelis (No. 10) and Justin Edwards (No. 16). John Calipari will get some of those players, and UK is still looking like the favorite for Wagner, who has spent most of this 2023 cycle as the unanimous No. 1 recruit in the class.
Louisiana State
Florida point guard Marvel Allen — the No. 18 overall prospect in the 2023 composite rankings — committed to LSU in January, citing his relationship with Coach Will Wade as one of the main reasons for that pledge. Wade’s program will make its third consecutive NCAA Tournament this season, and the Tigers have the nation’s No. 11 recruiting class — topped by five-star prospects Julian Phillips and Yohan Traore — coming in for next season.
Wade also had top-10 national recruiting classes in 2021 and 2020.
North Carolina
Things could be going better in Hubert Davis’ first season as UNC head coach. The Tar Heels are squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and while Davis’ 2022 recruiting class is pretty good — No. 13 nationally — it doesn’t have any five-star commitments. The next cycle should bring bigger things.
North Carolina already has a pledge from New Jersey combo guard Simeon Wilcher, the No. 13 overall recruit in the 2023 class. UNC might also be the favorite for South Carolina forward GG Jackson, who was recently ranked by Rivals.com as the new No. 1 player in the 2023 class. Jackson is expected to make a college decision relatively soon, and he’s been viewed as a possible candidate for reclassification to 2022.
North Carolina State
N.C. State landed a huge commitment with the Dec. 1 pledge of in-state point guard Robert Dillingham, who also took an official visit to Kentucky in the fall. At one point, UK was considered to be the favorite to land Dillingham’s commitment, but the Wolfpack swooped in and got him instead. As the No. 9 overall player in the 2023 composite rankings, he’s the highest-rated high school junior so far to commit to a college. He’ll also be N.C. State’s first top-50 addition since No. 7-ranked Dennis Smith Jr. signed with the program in 2016.
Stanford
Georgia combo guard Kanaan Carlyle was a major pickup for Stanford, which hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2014 and has had just one winning record in the Pac-12 under Coach Jarod Haase, who’s in his sixth season leading the Cardinal program. (Stanford signed five-star recruit Harrison Ingram in the 2021 class and top-10 recruit Ziaire Williams in the 2020 class).
Carlyle is No. 20 overall in the class of 2023 composite rankings.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
