I’d resisted writing the obvious click-bait headline about UVA basketball having the nation’s top recruiting class for 2020.
Sorry, and I mean sorry as much to myself here as to you, for going against what I normally do.
Which is, to not go bonkers over things without context.
It’s obviously great news for Virginia basketball fans that, at this writing, and, hell, for the foreseeable future, the ‘Hoos have the #1 recruiting class for 2020.
The addition this week of Jabri Abdur-Rahim, No. 28 in the ESPN 100 for 2020, along with the previously-committed Reece Beekman, No. 40 in the ESPN 100, and Carson McCorkle, a four-star shooting guard, awesome news.
And it doesn’t even count that transfer Sam Hauser, a senior, who, since we’re talking about recruiting here, was a four-star in 2016, and No. 86 in that year’s ESPN 100, will be eligible in 2020.
I guess the argument is that he’s already a college player, but, whatever. He’ll be a new guy, and Tony Bennett and his staff had to recruit him.
So, we could add an asterisk to whatever the recruiting class ranking ends up being.
(See what I did there?)
Which is sort of my point, about why I resisted the click-bait.
The class is #1 now because Duke and Kentucky haven’t yet loaded up on the one-and-dones that they’re going to end up with by the time however this kind of thing ends up becoming official plays its course.
The UVA class will certainly end up being Top 10, maybe even Top 5.
And anyway, being #1 in some recruiting ranking means crap anyway.
The highest-rated class Bennett has had in his tenure at UVA is #8, back in 2016.
That class included: Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome, De’Andre Hunter, Jay Huff.
That class is the reason we’re going to be teary-eyed in November when they unfurl a banner at JPJ.
#8 … my ass.
I guess it’s good to celebrate even fleeting things, and this #1 ranking in the recruiting numbers for 2020 will prove to be fleeting.
More important will be when that class makes it so that another banner unfurls at JPJ.
Story by Chris Graham
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