Starting Five: Impact of five-star reclassification

What kind of impact do the reclassifications of five-stars Charles Bassey and Ashton Hagans have on the rankings in 2018 and 2019? What are the takeaways from Team USA's gold medal, North Carolina gets on the board and much more are discussed in this week's edition of Eric Bossi's Starting Five.

MORE: Sunday standouts from USA Basketball

Neither the move from Kentucky-bound Ashton Hagans from 2019 to 2018 or the commitment by Charles Bassey to Western Kentucky were major surprises last week. However, Bassey opting to go ahead and enroll at WKU to play for Rick Stansbury in 2018-19 was a bit of a surprise.

The moves by those two five-stars also mean changes in rankings. Hagans who had ranked No. 7 in the class of 2019, lands in the No. 13 spot in class of 2018. There are still legitimate concerns about how much Hagans lack of a reliable jump shot will hurt him in the transition to college, but he's big, he's fast, he can get to the rim and he has the tools to be an elite defender the moment he steps on campus. At No. 13, he's the highest ranked point guard in the class of 2018. Kentucky's No. 2 overall 2018 recruiting class adds a fourth five-star prospect but still trails Duke in the team rankings.

As for Bassey, he's physically ready to make the jump and plenty big to make a difference. But, the strong and athletic big man is still a work in progress as a low post scorer. Western Kentucky's class which had ranked outside the national top 50 prior to Bassey's commitment has risen all the way into the national top 25.

Because Bassey and Hagans moved from 2019 to 2018, there were two new openings in the 2019 rankings and room for a few new faces. However, we didn't want to just stick a couple of guys. -- in this case shooting guards Drake London and Jaylen Forbes -- in at No. 149 and No. 150. We wanted the new members of the Rivals150 to accurately reflect where we currently see them. At the same time, we didn't want to have adding two players cause 75-80 players rankings to experience slight changes.

So, we did some minor maintenance to the overall rankings. We moved a few guys up who would be moving anyway when we update the rankings before the July live periods and as a result there were a few major changes.

Cole Anthony moved up one spot to replace Bassey at No. 3 but skilled forward Jaden McDaniels makes a big move from No. 32 all the way up to No. 4. Also moving into the national top 10 is Kentucky-bound combo guard Tyrese Maxey.

Along with McDaniels moving to five-star status, Keion Brooks moved up to No. 19 and into five-star territory. The others who made big moves as a result of changes were Kahlil Whitney (72 to 32) and Kira Lewis (81 to 35) putting them within sniffing distance of five-star status while London came in at No. 72 and Forbes at No. 132.

Well, the United States under 18 national team certainly handled their business at the FIBA Americas Tournament in St. Catharine's, Canada. Led by tournament MVP, and now Kansas freshman, five-star guard Quentin Grimes, the USA blitzed host Canada 113-74 on Saturday night to capture a gold medal.

I was able to watch the gold medal game and parts of the rest of the tournament online while traveling to other events but had some quick hitting thoughts on some of Team USA's top performers.

It came as no shock that Grimes and North Carolina's Coby White carried the team offensively at times. Both are McDonald's All-Americans and they were the "vets" of the USA team. Grimes does a little bit of everything to go with his scoring while White is a pure scorer and dangerous jump shooter. It's one thing to carry an 18U team offensively, it's another to carry a college team as a freshman. While neither will be expected to be their team's leading scorer in their first seasons on campus, they will both be relied upon for some serious offensive punch and they look up to the task.

We have written all grassroots season about how productive and efficient Jeremiah Robinson-Earl has been in the paint and he backed it up in Canada. Robinson-Earl averaged 10.7 points and 8.5 rebounds in just 18 minutes per game while making 61.9% of his shots. Those rebounding numbers were good for fourth overall in the event, but using more advanced stats, his numbers jump to a whopping 19.1 rebounds per 40 minutes which was 3.4 a game better than any other player ranked in the top 20. The guy is just sound and productive in any environment and backed up his top 15 status in 2019.

Tyrese Maxey had to fight through an injury, but he also showed explosive scoring. His play during the spring and then with Team USA played a big role into his move to No. 7 overall in 2019 that I detailed above.

Cole Anthony was as expected playing the role of confident, high scoring combo guard who can really create and finish at the rim off the bounce.

Five-star Matthew Hurt being comfortable from international three-point line was very eye-opening. As a team the USA was good but not great from behind the arc making 35.9 percent from three, but Hurt made 60 percent of his tries over six games. There's no reason to think he can extend the range just a little bit more to one day be a dangerous NBA three-point shooter.

One last guy that really made an impression on me was Illinois' Ayo Dosunmu. I've always felt strongly that his ability to attack the rim off the dribble and use his size to finish would immediately translate to the Big Ten. I still feel that way. What I also feel translates is Dosunmu's ability to be a multi positional defensive stopper. Perhaps even right out of the gate. Self's coaching was pretty audible from the sidelines during the tournament and Dosunmu really seemed to respond well to getting pushed. All that bodes well for Brad Underwood and the Illini.

He had some turnover problems in the gold medal game, but that shouldn't take away from Andrew Nembhard's spectacular play. I don't think anybody has ever had any questions about his ability as a passer. He's gifted with superior floor vision. But, his alpha scoring throughout the event really impressed. Florida has an instant impact guy in Nembhard.

Also really standing out on the Canadian team were Emanuel Miller, Addison Patterson, A.J. Lawson and Tyrese Samuel. Miller is already in the Rivals150, but the combo forward didn't have a great second half to his high school season and had slid a bit. He sure looks to be back on his way up after some big-time inside/out scoring and good work on the glass. Patterson backed up his five-star status in 2020 as a wing who can scorer while Lawson did a nice job mixing things up inside and out. He could end up being a serious problem as a tall wing shooter. Finally, Samuel looks every bit the part of a solid four-star four man. Runs the floor, good athlete and a great body to. build on.

A four-star in the class of 2019, Lester Quinones did a nice job shooting the ball from deep. He can be a bit streaky at times but his size, strength and ability to be an explosive scorer make him a legitimate high major two guard.

Virginia freshman Francisco Caffaro from Argentina had some really nice moments. I was actually able to speak with Tony Bennett and his staff about Caffaro some last week while I was in Charlottesville for the NBPA Top 100. They are pretty confident that he's going to be a really nice piece for them. He's a big kid who will end up being awfully tough to move in the paint, has some skill and plays hard. I'm not sure just how productive he'll be as a freshman, but whether it is year one or year three he should end up a very good player for the Cavaliers.

I was all set to run a feature on 2020 power forward Day'Ron Sharpe at some point this week and the only thing that really stood out to me was that I was surprised he hadn't yet committed to North Carolina. Sharpe saved me the trouble of transcribing an interview and did what most thought he would do sooner than later by committing to Roy Williams and the Heels on Sunday night.

A homegrown talent who wasn't shy about his affinity for UNC, Sharpe looks like a very nice pickup. Currently ranked No. 90, Sharpe is a guy that we've discussed internally as needing to move into at least the national top 50 when we next update 2020. He's not a crazy athlete and doesn't have unusual size (though he is big enough and has time to grow more), but he's got great hands and he is pretty skilled. All of that makes a pretty good player and a nice early catch for Carolina.