Washington Basketball Recruiting 2017 Class Ranked Nation’s Fifth Best
By Bret Stuter
The Washington Basketball Recruiting program has great success finding NBA talent. The 2017 recruiting class will likely be the best in recent history
The Washington Huskies Basketball team has produced some high quality NBA prospects. In 2016, the team produced Marquese Chriss and Dejounte Murray. This year the team have top ranked prospect Markelle Fultz.
But third time is the charm. In fact, the Washington Huskies 2017 basketball recruiting class is projected as the fifth best in the nation per ESPN.
The list of committed players from ESPN are as follows :
- Michael Porter Jr Small Forward 6-foot-10 212 pounds Seattle, WA Nathan Hale High School ESPN Grade 97
- Daejon Davis Shooting Guard 6-foot-4 175 pounds Seattle, WA Garfield High School
- Jaylen Nowell Shooting Guard 6-foot-5 191 pounds Seattle, WA Garfield High School
- Blake Harris Point Guard 6-foot-3 190 pounds Chapel Hill, NC Word of God Christian Academy
- Mamoudou Diarra Power Forward 6-foot-9 205 poundsSaint Louis, MO St. Louis Christian Academy
More Than Basketball
Head coach Lorenzo Romar has frequently attracted solid recruits to his program, despite the team’s struggles to earn an invite to the NCAA Tournament. He ran aground in lean years from 2012-2014, but the program appears to be back on track, and then some. But success evades his team on the basketball court.
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It’s come up as a discussing point that top recruit Markelle Fultz had with ESPN’s Jeff Goodman:
"“I’ve had a great experience here,” Fultz said. “I don’t regret coming here at all. I came here for more than just basketball. One day the ball will stop bouncing, and I think Coach [Lorenzo] Romar is helping me in so many ways.”"
Just Wait ‘Till Next Year
Right now, the Huskies are 9-10 and are a very long shot to make the tournament this year. As such, questions are being asked about the coach’s ability to get the most out of his players. Perhaps something as simple as embracing basketball analytics, or coaching tweaks, could yield positive results? For now, the team seems to come up short.
But that could all change. The Huskies can run a version of small ball, sometimes flooding the court with guards. Next year’s class will load up the team with as many as four ESPN top 100 recruits in the nation. With so much talent incoming in one year, the team will have all the firepower needed to win some games.
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Lorenzo Romar gives his players more than just W’s on the teams record. Hopefully, the Class of 2017 will give more W’s to their coach.