With less than a week before the college basketball season tips off in Las Vegas, the contenders and blue bloods have been written about and previewed incessantly. So today, we here at I've Got Five On It have taken a slightly different approach to previewing the season with a look at five vastly different programs that have the opportunity to make five vastly different statements to recruits in the classes of 2025 and 2026.
Below, national analyst Rob Cassidy explores what each coaching staff can say to recruits with a big season on the hardwood.
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LOUISVILLE
The statement it needs to make: "This isn’t as big of a disaster as it seems."
How much progress is enough progress to quell an angry mob? There’s no obvious answer here, but it certainly feels like “a metric ton” works in place of a measurable goal here. It’s one thing to stumble out of the blocks. It’s quite another to follow up the worst season in program history with an exhibition loss to D-II Kentucky Wesleyan. Alas, Kenny Payne and his Louisville team has done the latter. It’s not just the fan base that is unsure about the future, however, it’s recruits as well.
Payne and company did an extremely commendable job of signing prospects such as Dennis Evans, Ty-Laur Johnson and Kaleb Glenn last cycle when you consider the calamity that unfolded inside the KFC Yum! Center, but things on the trail are trending toward becoming a lot more difficult as doubt tightens its grip on the program. It doesn’t seem as though a slight improvement in last year’s 4-28 record will be enough to ease anyone’s mind about the direction of the program, so Payne and his staff will need to make a monumental statement this year if they are to prevent the bad vibes from snowballing on the recruiting trail.
The Cardinals have landed just one 2024 commit in the form of three-star T.J. Robinson, and recruiting players with options in the classes of 2024 and 2025 feels like a pipe dream as things stand.
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GEORGIA
The statement it needs to make: "We’re ready to take the next step."
Things in Athens are as good as they’ve been in years. The Bulldogs have five-star prospect and legitimate NBA prospect Asa Newell in the fold for 2024, and the jewel of the class could soon be joined by fellow top-50 prospect Khani Rooths, for whom Georgia is seen as the leader. On Tuesday, Mike White and his staff landed top-100 junior Jacob Wilkins. The big picture is of a program on the verge of a breakout.
The Bulldogs improved their record by 10 wins in year one under White and if they improve again, look for the recruiting momentum to continue to snowball. Georgia is already viewed as a program on the rise in the SEC, but a next, massive step forward feels within reach if things on the court continue to trend in the right direction.
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NORTH CAROLINA
The statement it needs to make: “Last season was a fluke.”
There’s cause for major concern at North Carolina obviously. The Tar Heels reached the national title game in Hubert Davis' first season as head coach and are recruiting at an extremely high level. One missed NCAA tournament is not exactly alarming. The fact that the program has missed the event in back-to-back years just once since 1974, however, should be in the back of everyone’s minds.
That’s all to say that North Carolina needs a bounce-back year in the season ahead if the Tar Heels hope to continue recruiting the level they currently are and avoid letting doubt creep into the perception of the program. This, of course, should be no problem, as the Tar Heels boast a talented roster and one of the best freshmen point guards in the country in the form of wizard facilitator Elliot Cadeau. A second-straight underwhelming season wouldn’t doom Davis, but it would almost certainly make recruiting a bit more difficult.
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STANFORD
The statement it needs to make: “Our faith in Jared Hasse was well placed.”
Most thought Stanford would be under new leadership this season when it became obvious that head coach Jared Hasse would miss the NCAA tournament yet again. Alas, Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir opted to bring his coach back for another year and place him under a microscope in the process. It feels as though the eighth-year Stanford coach will need to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time since taking the reins in order to extend his tenure and keep hold of the talented point guard he recently landed.
Cardinal commit Elijah Crawford has other major options and could ask out of his letter of intent (assuming he signs next week) if things go south. Stanford has not been to the NCAA tournament since 2014 and has lost much of the basketball-related allure it built with an impressive run in the 1990s and early 2000s.
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GEORGETOWN
The statement it needs to make: "Georgetown is the place for DMV talent to stay home and win games."
There are few areas of the country more stocked with talent than the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area and it feels like the next few cycles are particularly loaded. This is good news for a Georgetown program that made one of the splashiest hires of the offseason and heads into the year led by proven winner and Northeast native Ed Cooley. Cooley’s name alone holds weight based on his impressive run at Providence, but it feels like the Hoyas will need to show massive improvement from the 13-50 combined record they amassed in the final two years under the last regime.
Georgetown feels a bit like a sleeping giant in the Big East based on its location and the prominent place it holds in DMV-area culture. Reviving it will take some serious improvement but wins could revive the recruiting buzz more quickly than some expect.
