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
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