2000 Winners

1) Seton Hall (260 pts)

#2 Eddie Griffin

#15 Andre Barrett

#26 Marcus Toney-El

Damion Fray

Even with the decommitment of Rashid Dunbar, “The Hall” raised a lot of eyebrows with this tremendously talented class. Tommy Amaker definitely has his program headed in the right direction.

2) Missouri (236 pts)

#21 Travon Bryant

#32 Ricky Paulding

#43 Arthur Johnson

#72 Wesley Stokes

Omar Weaver reneged on his commitment and Travon Bryant has yet to qualify so this class could take yet another hit. Nevertheless, there’s still enough talent on board to make them the best bunch west of the Mississippi.

3) Connecticut (211 pts)

#10 Taliek Brown

#35 Scott Hazelton

#47 Caron Butler

Here’s another case where the RSCI rankings don’t do justice. Butler is a top 10 or top 25 caliber player but only comes out #47 in RSCI because many of the experts don’t include 5th year players in their rankings. Even with this anomaly, UConn is still in the top 5.

4) Michigan State (196 pts)

#1 Zach Randolph

#5 Marcus Taylor

With two top 5 ranked RSCI players, the Spartans’ quality will stand up to anyone’s quantity.

5) North Carolina (192 pts)

#24 Brian Morrison

#33 Adam Boone

#54 Neil Fingleton

Losing Jason Parker dropped this class from the #2 spot. Add to that the fact that if they had played their cards right, the Heels could have had both #2 Griffin and #15 Barrett would have ended up #1. Nevertheless, there’s enough talent here to minimize any crying over spilled milk.

6) St. John’s (177 pts)

#11 Omar Cook

#52 Mohammed Diakite

#63 Kyle Cuffe

Willie Shaw

Losing #3 Darius Miles to the NBA took the air out of this lofty class causing it to drop from the #1 spot. The Big East has put the rest of the basketball world on notice, though, as they pulled in 3 of the top 6 classes in the nation.

7) DePaul (173 pts)

#11 Andre Brown

#18 Imari Sawyer

Pat Kennedy cleaned up in his own backyard by bringing in 2 hometown top 25 players.

8) Texas (147 pts)

#40 Brian Boddicker

#50 Brandon Mouton

#66 James Thomas

Rick Barnes has been successful right off the bat at getting top notch players to take a serious look at the Longhorns.

9) Alabama (139 pts)

#4 Gerald Wallace

#59 Demetrius Smith

The Tide rebounded nicely from the 11th hour defection of #8 Mario Austin by getting Smith. Speculation which had Wallace going straight to the NBA didn’t pan out -- much to the delight of Bama fans.

10) Indiana (137 pts)

#9 Jared Jeffries

#56 A.J. Moye

Andre Owens

Possibly the most important recruiting class for Bob Knight in over a decade. Many were questioning whether he could still get it done with today’s high schoolers but Jeffries provided the answer

Honorable Mention:

  • Iowa (134 pts)

  • Kentucky (125 pts)

  • Oklahoma State (122 pts)

  • Rutgers (115 pts)

  • Mississippi State (105 pts)