Four of OSU’s 2020 Basketball Recruits are Top-35 Recruits in OSU History

We were having a discussion today on the Chamber about what makes a great recruiting class. It’s a fun (and good) argument that makes sense to have when talking about the future of Oklahoma State hoops.

Especially in light of the fact that OSU just signed its best class — depending on how you look at it — since the famous (infamous?) 2005 crew.

One criteria that got brought up is average player rating. Classes are ranked depending on how many bodies you bring in. Right now, OSU has five players and the ninth-ranked class based on 247’s overall formula. However, if you go by average player rating (every player is assigned a rating — Cade Cunningham, for example is a .9997), OSU’s national ranking drops significantly. In other words, the current ranking is boosted by the fact that they have a big class (five players) coming to Stillwater.

Here’s the catch with player rating though: If you bring in three Cade Cunninghams and me (a 0-star), your average player rating is going to look good but not great (because me, the 0-star, is dragging you down). However, you still have three Cade Cunninghams (which is good!).

So going by overall ranking (buoyed by having a lot of players, who may or may not play) and by average player rating (artificially deflated because one or two of your guys might be ranked pretty low) are both problematic, especially in hoops where the rankings and ratings can be affected a lot by a small number of players.

Here’s the bottom line: You need dudes in college hoops. You’d rather have two dudes than five guys who might be good. Your class ranking will be poor (see: Arizona State, which has two top-35 players but is ranked in the 30s), but you still have two dudes.

So with that little 400-word intro as our caveat, I think if you look at the broad spectrum of OSU basketball, OSU is getting one dude and three other potentially really good players and one guy who could be a contributor. In fact — and this was going to be my entire point until I got sidetracked — four of OSU’s incoming players are ranked in the top 35 recruits in school history and all five are in the top 50.

Here they are in order.

Bold = incoming
Italicized = already on the team

1. Gerald Green — 1 (national ranking)
2. Cade Cunningham — 1
3. Le’Bryan Nash — 8
4. Marcus Smart — 10
5. Keith Brumbaugh — 12
6. Byron Eaton — 18
7. Obi Muonelo — 20
8. James Anderson — 21
9. Jawun Evans — 27
10. Roderick Flemings — 34
11. Ray Penn — 44
12. Michael Cobbins — 58
13. Karron Johnson — 60
14. Stevie Clark — 73
15. Kenneth Cooper — 70
16. Joe Burton — 74
17. Martavius Adams — 76
18. Terrel Harris — 75
19. JamesOn Curry — 80
20. Roger Franklin — 81
21. Marcus Watson — 88
22. Rondel Walker — 94
23. Jarred Shaw — 123
24. Mitch Solomon — 97
25. Avery Anderson — 123
26. Chris Harris — 128
27. Kalib Boone — 139
28. Cezar Guerrero — 111
29. Zack Dawson — 125
30. Isaac Likekele — 156
31. Donovan Williams — 147
32. Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe — 150
33. Igor Ibaka — 6 (JUCO)
34. Marshall Moses — 8 (prep)
35. Nick Sidorakis — 148
36. Markel Brown — 142
37. Cam McGriff — 139
38. Leyton Hammonds — 129
39. Reger Dowell — 171
40. Torin Walker — 179
41. Davon Dillard — 161
42. Lindy Waters — 162
43. Jeff Newberry — 14 (JUCO)
44. Yor Anei — 267
45. Brian Williams — 184
46. Aaron Pettway — 152
47. Montreal Pena — 316
48. Duncan Demuth — 330
49. Keylan Boone — 375
50. Maurice Calloo — 340

There’s a pretty clear cutoff here. Top 150 guys nationally and not top 150 guys nationally. You start looking the Cams and Ices and Markels of the world who are all top 150 guys and it’s easy to envision Rondel Walker, Donovan Williams and Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe all contributing immediately as freshmen to go alongside the No. 1 guy in the country.

My point in all of this (which I’m clearly struggling to convey!) is to show you the caliber of player OSU is bring in within the context of OSU’s recruiting history. Their ranking is in the top 10 because they’re bringing in five guys, sure, but four of those guys can (and probably will) play right away (and maybe all five).

While you’d love to keep knocking older players out of the all-time top 10 list in recruiting rankings (sorry, Ray Penn), Boynton currently has on his roster 25 percent of the top 32 guys since rankings started being kept in the early 2000s. That’s a lot of talent, and hopefully it will translate into a lot of wins.