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Marvin Bagley’s decision to reclassify and play college basketball this year at Duke created shockwaves in college basketball.
On the recruiting side, Bagley’s decision knocked Kentucky’s recruiting class from their previous #1 ranking.
Bagley makes four five-star prospects for the Blue Devils, along with point guard Trevon Duval, shooting guard Gary Trent Jr., and forward Wendell Carter.
Also in Duke’s 2017 class are top 100 players Alex O’Connell and Jordan Tucker, as well as three-star prospect Jordan Goldwire, who is mostly known for choosing Duke over Eastern Kentucky in one of the weirder pieces of recruiting news for this class.
Kentucky’s recruiting class is Calipari’s largest at Kentucky, with a total of eight players.
Nearly all of the major recruiting services, including 247 Sports, Rivals, ESPN, and Scout have leapfrogged the Blue Devils over the Wildcats in the latest recruiting rankings. Scout, ESPN, and 247 have made Bagley the #1 prospect in 2017, over Michael Porter Jr., and DeAndre Ayton.
Since John Calipari has been at Kentucky since 2009, either Kentucky or Duke has held the top recruiting ranking each year. Unsurprisingly, those two schools have combined for three national titles, four Final Fours and nine Elite Eight berths.
Even though Kentucky no longer has the top spot, this still has the potential to be one of John Calipari’s most productive classes in the long term. Many of his classes have featured a host of one-and-done talent, something that appears to be lacking in this class, though it does have several instant-impact college guys.
That means several players in this class could be here for two, three or even four years. It may not produce a high draft pick, but it has the potential to produce a lot of wins for the foreseeable future.