Starting Five: Five-star Banchero's list, changes for 5-star Burnett

Five-star junior big man Paolo Banchero has nine schools left. Who could pluck him out of Seattle?

This week in Starting Five, we look at Banchero's list, is a school getting in with five-star NImari Burnett, R.J. Davis gets back on the visit trail this weekend and more.

Over the weekend, 2021 five-star Paolo Banchero announced that he is down to a group of nine that consists of Baylor, Duke, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Kentucky, Memphis, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.

With each move the No. 2 player in the junior class makes, it becomes more clear that he isn't the lock he was initially figured to be to stay home and play for the Huskies.

Don't get me wrong, the Huskies are in a good spot with Banchero and are making him a priority. But, given that he's already set up official visits with UNC (9/27), UK (10/11), Duke (10/17), Tennessee (10/25) and Gonzaga (1/18). Those are some pretty heavy hitters in today's game and they are giving him increasingly more attention.

Banchero isn't expected to make a decision in the near future and lots is left to play out. But, if I were to handicap the teams with the best chance of beating Washington, I would look at Duke and Kentucky. There's been a lot of positive buzz on the recruiting grapevine regarding their chances so it's going to be interesting to see what kind of talk starts circulating once Banchero starts hitting the road in two weeks.

It hasn't even been a week since Nimari Burnett chopped his school list to a final four of Alabama, Michigan, Oregon and Texas Tech.

But, it looks like Memphis -- who is also heavily involved with Burnett's high school and summer teammate and fellow five-star Jalen Green -- may be getting themselves onto his list.

Penny Hardaway has ramped things up and it sounds as if he may be generating some traction on this one. There's a good chance Burnett gives the Tigers legitimate consideration. That said, they will have some catching up to do.

Burnett has already visited Michigan officially and the Wolverines are fighting hard. But, the two programs who may have some separation from the pack could be the two he's visiting over the next couple of weekends, Oregon and Alabama.

Whenever I talked to Burnett in the spring or summer, he brought up that he was hoping to develop more as a point guard in college because he feels he needs to do so for his future beyond college. I don't see him as the kind of guy who expects to run the show full time, but at the end of the day, the ability to sell helping convert him to a point guard could end up being a big key.

Also down to four schools, four-star senior R.J. Davis is going to be getting back on the visit trail beginning this weekend.

Davis officially visited finalist Georgetown in June and this weekend he will head to Pittsburgh. He'll head to Marquette the next weekend and after a few weekends off the road, he's set to see North Carolina the second weekend of October.

So, how would I handicap things as Davis heads into the last month or so of his recruitment?

The high-scoring combo guard with a dangerous three-point shooting stroke has done a good job of playing things cool, but if I had to pick a team to bet on heading this last stretch I would go with Pittsburgh.

Kentucky already held the nation's top rated recruiting class for 2020 when five-star shooting guard Terrence Clarke. His reclassification from 2021 to 2020 has now given John Calipari and the Wildcats a pretty sizeable early lead for the top class in the country.

So, after finishing with the No. 2 ranked class each of the last three years, will 2020 be the year that UK finishes back on top? I'm going to say yes.

Obviously plenty more has to shake out, but the class of Clarke, five-star B.J. Boston, top 35 Lance Ware and top 40 wing Cam'Ron Fletcher is a heck of a start and I don't see them being done. Five-star big man Isaiah Jackson is a very strong possibility and they are doing pretty well with other five-stars like Isaiah Todd and Greg Brown along with four-star Clifford Omoruyi.

There's always going to be reclassification talk with the top end juniors and UK has been talked about as legit contenders to be the landing spot for Banchero and fellow five-star Devin Askew if they do make the move.

It's not like they ever fell off, but the Wildcats had gotten used to that No. 1 team recruiting spot, so "only" finishing in second place for a few years was spawning some crazy talk about something being wrong. Clearly, there's not and the Wildcats are looking good to be back in their familiar top spot when the class of 2020 is done making their decisions.

Finally, Harvard picked up a big score on the recruiting trail when they landed the commitment of big man Justice Ajogbor.

The product of the Arden (N.C.) Christ School is a big and strong post presence and the type of post prospect that is tough to land in the Ivy League.

Ajogbor has some touch, pretty good hands and is potential beast in the low post for Tommy Amaker. Now, he has to get onto campus and play to his potential, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying that Ajogbor should have the potential to be an All-Conference or potentially even Conference Player of Year type before he finishes up at Harvard.