2013 Kansas recruiting class cracked ESPN’s Top 25 hauls of the one-and-done era

From left Jamari Traylor and Brannen Greene congratulate Andrew Wiggins, center, after Wiggins hit a long three-point basket to end the first half. Also celebrating at right are Wayne Selden and Joel Embiid Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014 at Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.
by Mike Yoder

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello and John Gasaway recently put together a list of the top 25 recruiting classes in the 15-year one-and-done era of college basketball.

And while Duke and Kentucky dominated the list — combining to take the top seven spots and holding down 17 of the 25 spots overall — Kansas did make an appearance.

The one key caveat for the creation of the list is that it was formed based on recruiting rankings and projections when the players signed. It did not take into account the way the signees’ college careers actually played out.

That helps explain why the list included so many Duke and Kentucky classes and also leads one to believe that the number of Duke and Kentucky entries on a list of the best classes that panned out probably would have been half as long.

Kansas coach Bill Self has developed a reputation as an elite recruiter and gone head to head with, and won, several recruiting battles against the Blue Devils and Wildcats.

But in terms of a top-to-bottom class that was stacked with highly rated prospects at the outset of their college careers, none of Self’s classes in the last 15 years has been better than the 2013 class that included Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Wayne Selden Jr., Frank Mason, Conner Frankamp and Brannen Greene.

That group ranked ninth on ESPN’s list, one spot behind North Carolina’s 2006 class that broke the Duke/Kentucky stranglehold and featured three Top 10 prospects.

By numbers alone, KU’s 2013 recruiting haul was a monster class. KU has had just three classes in the Self era that included more than five players — seven in 2008, six in 2012 and six in 2013.

And five of the six players in that 2013 class were ranked in ESPN’s top 50, with three of them — Wiggins at No. 1, Embiid at No. 6 and Selden at No. 14 — ranking in the top 14.

Adding strength to the class was the fact that the lone future Jayhawk not ranked in the top 50 that year was Frank Mason III, who went on to become national player of the year.

Mason’s stellar career was not factored into the rankings, but it’s also hard to ignore.

A big part of the reason Duke and Kentucky had so many classes on this list is the fact that both programs have committed so heavily to recruiting one-and-done talent.

Kansas has, too, to some degree, but not nearly to the same level as those two other blue blood programs led by John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski.

Making one-and-dones a regular part of your program year in and year out increases the need for turning over large classes and bringing in more top-rated, one-and-done talent on a regular, oftentimes annual, basis.

During the 15 years considered for…