The early signing window opened on Wednesday, and the majority of the 2023 Rivals150 have signed their respective letters of intent. Some schools are off to faster starts than others, however, and a few of the sport’s heavy hitters are among those lagging a bit behind. Today, Rivals.com’s Rob Cassidy has a look at some of the more notable programs with work left to do.
RELATED: National Signing Day news and notes | Biggest uncommitted prospects
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2023 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2024 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team
2025 Rankings: Top 40
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SYRACUSE
It’s difficult to get too worked up about an empty commitment list these days, as holding back scholarships for transfer portal use can be a wise strategy in this era. Still, the Orange not having a single high school prospect in the fold in mid-November is surprising to say the least. As much as it hurt to miss on Mike Williams, who recently chose LSU, the more concerning part of the situation is the fact that it looks like there isn’t much left out there for head coach Jim Boeheim at this juncture. Baltimore-based center William Patterson is an option, but things look murky beyond that. This will likely be a small class by design, but it still seems as though Boeheim will have his work cut out for him when it comes to working the portal.
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LOUISVILLE
The Cardinals have some talent in the fold for 2023, but the big recruiting splash fans expected when Kenny Payne took the reins of the program hasn’t taken place. The Cardinals two-member class is made up of a pair of forwards in top-100 prospects Kaleb Glenn and Curtis Williams Jr., who are both talented prospects and put the frontcourt in good hands. The business of landing a guard has been significantly more challenging. Louisville missed on prospects such as Elmarko Jackson and George Washington III. They also seem to trail in-state rivals Kentucky in the chase to land five-star DJ Wagner, whose grandfather works for the UofL program. Payne is involved with Lone Star State-based guard AJ Johnson, the No. 9 player in the country, but is yet to get the five-star on campus and needs to find a way to defeat Texas if they hope to land Johnson’s pledge.
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OKLAHOMA
The Sooners have just one commit thus far, but could reel in a big fish on Nov. 11, when four-star wing Kaden Cooper is scheduled to announce. Oklahoma is standing toe-to-toe with Alabama when it comes to battle for Cooper, and head coach Porter Moser could use a win to point to after last season’s 19-16 performance and ensuing struggles when it comes to landing highly ranked prospects. Cooper’s decision won’t make or break the Moser Era in Norman, but landing him would do plenty to paint a brighter picture of the future of OU hoops. Everyone likes an in-state kid, after all.
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UCLA
The Bruins are probably going to be just fine, and commits and Brandon and Devin Williams (no relation) are big-time gets for a program that has made a deep tournament run in each of the last two seasons. Even still, this UCLA class ranks seventh in the Pac-12 due to a few high-profile misses that sting regardless of how solid the foundation in Westwood seems to be. Losing out on Ron Holland after dumping a pile of resources into his recruitment wasn’t ideal. Neither was seeing Stanford overtake them down the stretch in the race to land Andrej Stojakovic, for whom the Bruins were long favored. There’s certainly no reason for alarm on a large scale, but the 2023 cycle certainly hasn’t been ideal thus far.
