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NBA DRAFT: First-round pick factories | Ten prospects that are undervalued

The 2018 NBA Draft is here and while the players involved can no longer help their former schools on the floor, there is always the chance that achieving stardom could help out with recruiting down the road. Which school could gain the most by their guy really hitting it off in the NBA? As usual, Rivals.com national analysts Eric Bossi and Corey Evans have Rival views.

I tried to look at this from as many different angles as I could and the three guys that stood out to me were Michael Porter Jr. of Missouri, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Kentucky and Collin Sexton of Alabama. Kentucky doesn't exactly need any recruiting help but the one (silly) knock against John Calipari has been that he doesn't develop non five-stars and as a former four-star Gilgeous-Alexander's success could help to end that. At Alabama, Sexton could be that one guy that Avery Johnson could sell to future recruits as an example of where he sees the program headed. But, at the end of the day I went with Porter and I'll tell you why.

As much as I can remember any recruit doing in the last five to 10 years, Porter Jr. picking Missouri injected a level of enthusiasm and interest into a program that you just don't see too often. Sure it helped that Cuonzo Martin was coming in as a new head coach, but Tiger fans had been through some rough times and the arrival of Porter Jr. with his father, five-star brother Jontay Porter and top 50 big man Jeremiah Tilmon gave much needed recruiting pop to the program. Then, even though Porter Jr. barely played during his one year in Columbia due to injury he was the constant center of attention and drove lots of traditional and social media traffic. Even more importantly, Martin and everybody else helped to turn the program around in year one. If Porter Jr. is truly healthy and can go on to become the All-Star type player that he has been expected to be for years now, he's a guy that Martin and Mizzou can sell for years. Porter spent much of his youth growing up in Columbia, he still has ties to the program -- through his brother and father Michael Porter Sr. who is an assistant -- and he's likely going to be back on a regular basis.

Look at what Kevin Durant has meant to the Texas program. He was only there one year and nobody cares about what he did while there or that the coach he played for is now at Tennessee. What they care about is that he was there, he still reps Texas and that recruits associate him with the Longhorns.

If all goes well, Porter Jr. can be that guy for Missouri. Combine that with what he's already meant and it's hard to see anybody else in the 2018 Draft having more long term impact on a school's recruiting than Porter has and could for Missouri.

No one is going to argue with the work that Chris Beard has done during his short time at Texas Tech and what he achieved at his prior stops at Angelo State and Arkansas Little Rock. He has mixed together an onslaught of the underappreciated or overlooked high school prospects and turned them into teams that succeeded during conference play and in March.

While he may continue to hit on slightly recruited prospects that evolve into Big 12 honorees, Zhaire Smith's success sholdfurther legitimize Beard’s standing on the recruiting trail.

Beard can continue to sell his coaching record, one that currently sits at 75-29 and has already put a scare in many in the Big 12 and beyond. The next step is landing some of the more talented prospects, recruits that do not just want to win in college but also be developed, showcased and then have the opportunity to quickly hear their names called by Adam Silver.

Up until this point, Beard’s opponents have one argument to be made against him: he has yet to produce an NBA Draft pick and that Texas Tech, as a program, hasn’t had an NBA draft selection in 14 years. That will all be put to bed tonight thanks to Beard’s lasting imprint on Smith, someone who enrolled as a thought-to-be undersized, undeveloped forward and quickly became a first-round selection.

Beard has gotten the job done by developing and cultivating lightly recruited talent within his program; imagine what he can do now with the ace in his pocket that he has in Smith’s quick journey to the NBA.