Despite UNC Love, Oklahoma State Still Very Much in Mix for 5-Star Bacot

Each week, Rivals.com’s National Basketball Analyst Corey Evans takes questions on twitter and responds in a mailbag post he calls #TwitterTuesday. Well this week, due to the amount of questions he received, he decided to follow-up #TwitterTuesday with a piece called “Wednesday’s Leftovers.”

Wednesday’s Leftovers: A dark horse for former Kentucky commit DJ Jeffries, how things look for Oklahoma State, Florida & Ole Miss, and the eventual homes for Oscar Tshiebwe & Boogie Ellis https://t.co/t43sdvfhoT pic.twitter.com/3iDAYOBIle

— Corey Evans (@coreyevans_10) August 1, 2018

In his article, Evans is asked to list Oklahoma State’s top 2019 recruiting targets.

“Target one, two and three is Armando Bacot. The five-star recently cut his list to Oklahoma State, UNC, Duke, VCU and Georgia. Many believe that Chapel Hill will be his next stop, but OSU head coach Mike Boynton and assistant David Kontaxis have established a strong enough of a rapport with Bacot and his family that they could find a way to lure the super-polished center.” [Rivals.com]

As Evans mentions above, Bacot recently narrowed his list down to five schools, which Kyle Boone wrote about here. All signs are pointing to Roy Williams and the Tar Heels, but Evans believes the Cowboys still have a shot based on the relationship the coaching staff has built with the five-star center.

According to 247Sports, Bacot would be the highest ranked OSU commit since Marcus Smart in the class of 2012 and the eighth highest ranked commit of all-time. Bacot has a .9907 rating, which would slot between James Anderson and Jawun Evans (pretty decent players!)

His commitment could start a snowball of top recruits wanting to play for coach Boynton in Stillwater. The talented big man has stated that he plans on taking official visits in the coming months, and he could commit before the early signing period starts in mid-November.