FanPost

Top 10 Recruits and the NBA

S -Last week Gary Parrish wrote a column titled; "Data Suggests top-10 prospects are virtually guaranteed to make the NBA." He used aggregate rankings put together by "247Sports" and looked at all the recruiting classes since 2006, the first year of the one and done rule. As the title so subtly hinted at, Top 10 recruits tend to make the NBA. Of the five classes whose eligibility have expired 46 of 50 top 10 recruits (92%) went on to play in the NBA.

Upon reading this, my first thought was "poor Paul Harris." But turns out the aggregate rankings had him at #11, so he didn't count. Then I went ahead and looked up every SU recruit since 2003 (their archives didn't go back any further) to see how we did. Below is a breakdown by rank, and then an individual run down of each and every recruit from 2003 to 2013. For purposes of the breakdown, I didn't include players who still have eligibility in the figures. *Rautins, Southerland, and Riley didn't show up in their data base, so I used their Rivals rankings instead of the aggregate 247 rating. There could be other omissions in the 247 archives that I didn't catch.

Recruits rated #1-10: 1 of 1 played in the NBA 100%

Rated #11-25: 5 of 6 played play in the NBA 83%, this assumes Ennis will play in the NBA, Coleman and Christmas fall in this category but we're not included

Rated #26-50: 2 of 7 29%, I'm assuming (perhaps optimistically) that Grant will play in the NBA, Tyler Roberson was not included in the figures

Rated #50-100: 1 of 5 20%, I am not including Fair (too tough to call) and B.J. Johnson

Rated #100+: 4 of 9 44%, not included are Cooney, Patterson, and Obokoh

Individual Recruits:

Donte Greene #9, 2007: Played in the NBA

Paul Harris #11, 2006: 2nd Team All-Big East

Fab Melo #14, 2010: Played in the NBA

Jonny Flynn #19, 2007: Played in the NBA

Dion Waiters #21, 2010: Played in the NBA

Darryl Watkins #22, 2003: Played in the NBA

Rakeem Christmas #22, 2011: still eligible

DaJuan Coleman #22, 2012: still eligible

Tyler Ennis #23, 2013: 1st Rd Pick in NBA Draft

Michael Carter-Williams #26, 2011: Played in the NBA

Eric Devendorff #32, 2005: H.M. All-Big East

Mike Jones #33, 2006: missed his puppy, went home to S.Carolina w/o ever playing

Terrance Roberts #38, 2003: 963 pts, 716 rbs

Tyler Roberson #40, 2013: still eligible

Mookie Jones #43, 2008: not a gunner, only shot when he actually had the ball

Josh Wright #47, 2004: Self-described greatest player in the history of Utica/Rome area

Jerami Grant #48, 2012: 2nd RD Pick in NBA Draft

Scoop Jardine #55, 2007: 2nd Team All Big-East

Kris Joseph #57, 2008: Played in NBA

Dayshawn Wright #58, 2004: played in 10 games as Freshman

Louie McCorsky #64, 2003: 427 pts, transfered to Marist as a Senior

Rick Jackson #64, 2007: 2nd Team All-Big East

C.J. Fair #84, 2010: 3rd Team AP All-American

B.J. Johnson #91, 2013: still eligible

Trevor Cooney #106, 2011: still eligible

Brandon Triche #119, 2009: 3rd Team All Big East

Dashonte Riley #123, 2009: still eligible at Eastern Michigan

Baye Moussa Keita #147, 2010: solid 4 year contributor

Ron Patterson #178, 2013: still eligible

Chinso Obokoh #181, 2013: still eligible

Arinze Onauku #191, 2005: played in the NBA

David Brennan-McBride #212, 2006: played 23 minutes over 2 seasons

Kristoff Ongeneat, #248, 2007: all around bad ass

Sean Williams #288, 2007: rarely played, transferred to Fullerton for Junior Year

Demetris Nichols unranked, 2003: Played in the NBA

James Southerland unranked, 2009: Played in the NBA

Andy Rautins unranked, 2004: Played in the NBA