Bossi's Best: New head coaches on the recruiting trail

It is too early to know how every new hire is going to work out, but we do think it is interesting to take a look at how relative newcomers to their current job are doing on the recruiting trail. Today, we take a look around the country at coaches who are in no more than their third season in their current position who have helped to change the recruiting culture of their program.

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When Buzz Williams took over the Virginia Tech job in the spring of 2014 he was handed a program coming off of three straight losing seasons that hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2007. Williams hasn’t yet gotten Tech back to the Tournament, but he did help the Hokies produce their first 20-win season since 2010-11 last year and he’s got them in good position for a Tourney run with most of his team returning. The change has been felt on the recruiting front as well. Williams brought a top-65 prospect -- shooting guard Ahmed Hill -- with him from Marquette for the 2014 class while retaining Rivals150 wing Justin Bibbs. He landed three Rivals150 players in the 2015 recruiting class and has one of 2017’s best shooting guards already committed in Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Danny Manning has also done some notable work at Wake Forest, landing a total of three four-star prospects in 2015 and 2016 after the Demon Deacons had only landed one four-star in the previous four years.

The work that Jamie Dixon has done in a very short amount of time at TCU has been quite impressive. Dixon has landed four Rivals150 players (three of them four-stars) in just six months on the job when the program had only landed one other four-star prospect since Rivals.com opened for business. However, in Big 12 country we’re going to go ahead and give the nod to Smart as he gets ready to start his second season on the sidelines in Austin.

Since taking the Texas job in the spring of 2015, Smart convinced four-star guards Kerwin Roach and Eric Davis to remain loyal to the Horns while adding four-star wing Tevin Mack to a hastily assembled class. His 2016 class was the first he had a full recruiting cycle with and all he did was land a pair of five-star McDonald’s All-Americans in Jarrett Allen and Andrew Jones plus two more four-star prospects. On top of that, both of the Longhorns 2017 Rivals150 commits -- forwards Royce Hamm and Jericho Sims -- are in line to make a jump from three to four-star status in next week’s recruiting update. If anybody is going to break Kansas’ run of Big 12 titles, Smart looks to be lining up the most talent to do so.

The new Big East isn’t the Big East we all grew up with, but it has turned into a much better conference than many might have expected. Chris Holtmann looks to have Butler rolling right along, having landed three Rivals150 prospects and making a pair of NCAA Tournaments since taking the job. At St. John’s, Chris Mullin has already landed a foursome of four-star prospects with just one season under our belt. That being said, it’s the job Steve Wojciechowski has done with his first two classes that should help to get Marquette back into the NCAA Tournament. Since taking over for Buzz Williams, Wojciechowski has landed six Rivals150 prospects in his first two recruiting classes.

Only two coaches in the Big Ten fit the guideline of having two seasons or less under their belt, so the choice of Wisconsin’s Greg Gard is an easy one. However, even if the conference were loaded with more fresh blood in the coaching ranks it would be tough to beat Gard. Gard was named interim head coach in December of 2015 and because Wisconsin didn’t remove that tag until March of this year it made recruiting the 2016 class a bit tough. However, now that he’s had some time to really recruit, the Badgers have already landed three Rivals150 prospects from the class of 2017.

Out west, five coaches in the Pac 12 have two years or less experience at their current job. Somehow, Wayne Tinkle and his staff have turned Oregon State into a NCAA Tournament team, and they’ve landed three four-star prospects in their first two full recruiting classes. He also made the NCAA Tournament three times at Montana so he clearly knows what he’s doing.

For pure recruiting pop, though, Cal’s Martin gets the slight edge. Since taking over in Berkeley, Martin landed a pair of five-star prospects -- small forward Jaylen Brown and power forward Ivan Rabb -- in 2015, a four-star point guard in 2016 and he already has four-star combo guard Jemarl Baker on the hook for the 2017 class. If he can continue to recruit like this, Cal should continue to make trips to the NCAA Tournament like they did in 2016.

No other conference features as many fresh faces on the sidelines as the SEC where seven coaches are entering their first, second or third year on the job. Not surprisingly, no other conference has felt the impact of new coaches on the recruiting trail as everybody tries to find a way to compete with Kentucky. In his first full season on the job at Mississippi State, Ben Howland put together the nation’s sixth ranked recruiting class in 2016. As good as Howland has been, though, it’s hard not to give the nod to Bruce Pearl.

This year is going to be a big one at Auburn as we watch to see if the recruiting success leads to a change in the program’s fortune. However, the job Pearl and his staff have done on the recruiting trail is undeniable. Pearl’s 2015 and 2016 classes included a total of five four-star prospects plus five-star shooting guard Mustapha Heron. In 2017, the Tigers have the top recruiting class in the country at this point with five-star center Austin Wiley, four-star point guard Davion Mitchell and four-star combo forward Chuma Okeke.

He hasn’t yet coached a game in Bowling Green, but Stansbury has already proven to be quite formidable on the recruiting front. By landing 6-foot-11 five-star center Mitchell Robinson within a few months of taking the job, Stansbury pulled off one of the biggest recruiting coups of the Rivals.com era. Yes, Robinson had been committed to Texas A&M while Stansbury was an assistant there, and he was also a noted recruiter during his time as head coach at Mississippi State. Still, actually getting the deal closed on a recruit of the magnitude of Robinson at a place like Western Kentucky is a big deal. More importantly, Stansbury doesn’t look like he’ll be a one-trick pony. He’s also landed highly sought after transfer Lamonte Bearden from Buffalo, and Stansbury and his staff have the Hilltoppers in the running for to land four-star prospects like Rayshaun Hammonds, Josh Anderson, Devontae Shuler and Jay Jay Chandler from the class of 2017.