1999 Winners

1) Duke (351 pts)

#3 Jason Williams

#8 Carlos Boozer

#16 Casey Sanders

#26 Michael Dunleavy

Nick Horvath

The addition of Carlos Boozer makes Duke the hands down leader with a class that could rival the “Fab Four” class of Brand, Burgess, Battier, and Avery.

2) Florida (257 pts)

#1 Donnell Harvey

#7 Brett Nelson

#38 Matt Bonner

Billy Donovan does it again with what may be the best set of back to back recruiting classes in the nation.

3) Michigan (227 pts)

#6 LaVell Blanchard

#24 Kevin Gaines

#46 Jamal Crawford

Gavin Groninger

Leland Anderson

Getting Blanchard dramatically improved the quality of a class that already had a substantial quantity of excellent prospects.

4) Virginia (215 pts)

#23 Majestic Mapp

#28 Travis Watson

#37 Roger Mason

A impressive haul for Pete Gillen’s first try at UVa.

5) Kentucky (204 pts)

#2 Keith Bogans

#5 Marvin Stone

#92 Marquis Estill

Derek Smith

The only school with 2 top 5’s. Add in a couple of top 100 caliber players and this group is near the top of the heap. The tragic death of #84 John Stewart, who had committed to UK, causes this group to drop a bit from it’s midseason ranking.

6) Kansas (198 pts)

#21 Andrew Gooden

#22 Nick Collison

#62 Kirk Hinrich

Is Collison really a top 5 like a few services believe or merely a top 50 as the others indicate? The value of this class hinges greatly on the answer to that single question.

7) North Carolina (183 pts)

#4 Joe Forte

#15 Jason Parker

Short on quantity but long on quality. Though not on any of RSCI’s underlying top 100’s, John Holmes may make a few lists when the final rankings come out.

8) NC State (178 pts)

#11 Damien Wilkins

#33 Marshall Williams

#81 Clifford Crawford

Herb Sendek rebounded nicely from the unexpected transfer of Adam Harrington by bringing in Williams, who is rated similarly coming out of high school. Crawford could be a sleeper.

9) Cincinnati (172 pts)

#13 Kenny Satterfield

#17 DerMarr Johnson

John Grove

Leonard Stokes

Johnson, who leads Hoop Scoop’s prep school list, came out artificially low in the RSCI rankings because he wasn’t included with the rest of the high schoolers. He and Satterfield are top-shelf talent, though.

10) Connecticut (159 pts)

#32 Tony Robertson*

#45 Marcus Cox

#67 Douglas Wrenn*

This class would rank even higher if all the RSCI sources included 5th year players.

Honorable Mention:

  • Alabama (158 pts)

  • Michigan State (133 pts)

  • Stanford (121 pts)

  • Rutgers (107 pts)