Many of the nation's brightest prospects in the most recent recruiting class didn't necessarily select the most obvious schools.
Kentucky, Duke and Kansas have landed many of the notable one-and-done performers over the last decade. But according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports, those three schools landed only two of the top 12 recruits in this year's freshman class: Kentucky guards Brandon Boston Jr. (No. 5) and Terrence Clarke (No. 8).
In the meantime, four of the top seven players chose Oklahoma State, Southern California, Stanford and Florida State.
Jerry Meyer, the director of basketball scouting at 247Sports, says he noticed this trend starting in 2015. That's the year four of the top eight recruits selected LSU (Ben Simmons), California (Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb) and Mississippi State (Malik Newman). One year earlier, seven of the top 13 prospects had chosen either Duke, Kentucky or Kansas.
"That was when like, boom, things started to change," Meyer said. "That's when it got in my consciousness, that we've got a phenomenon starting here, and it's continued."
Kentucky, Duke and Kansas are still obviously getting their share. Kentucky had the nation's No. 1 2020 class and Duke ranked third, while Kansas signed the nation's No. 21 prospect in guard Bryce Thompson. But other schools are attracting elite talent as well.
That list starts with Cade Cunningham, the nation's No. 1 recruit last year. Cunningham chose Oklahoma State and stuck with the Cowboys even when they received a postseason ban from the NCAA as part of the federal corruption investigation into college basketball.
Cunningham's brother, Cannen Cunningham, is an assistant on Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton's staff.