May 1, 2029
Draft night is a joyous occasion at the Sims home. It's always exciting when Graham hears the name of one of his players. It's a dream come true when that name is his son's.
Duncan Sims is chosen with the #21 pick in the first round. Georgetown's
Dwayne Ecker is perhaps the next most familiar name among the first round picks; he's taken at #19.
Here are the national recruiting rankings for the Class of '29:
Code:
2028 Recruiting Rankings
# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Villanova Big East SF Asher Wise ***** 3 1 0 0 0
2. Oklahoma Big 12 C Arron Yingling **** 0 3 2 0 0
3. Vanderbilt SEC SG Marlon Messinger ***** 1 3 0 0 0
4. Kentucky SEC SF Timothy Hanrahan ***** 1 3 0 0 0
5. Notre Dame Big East SF Derek Stines ***** 1 2 1 0 0
6. Texas Big 12 C Broderick Hagood ***** 3 0 0 0 0
7. Southern California Pacific-10 SF Alfredo Brown ***** 1 1 2 0 0
8. Missouri Big 12 SF Lawrence French ***** 1 2 1 0 0
9. North Carolina ACC PF Rolland Hyde ***** 1 1 2 0 0
10. Lafayette Patriot League SF Tracey Burger ***** 2 0 0 0 0
11. Georgetown Big East SG Damarion Logan ***** 1 1 1 0 0
12. Michigan State Big Ten SF Garret Driver ***** 1 1 1 0 0
13. Mississippi State SEC SF Steven Luna ***** 1 2 0 0 0
14. St. John's Big East PF Michael Burke **** 0 3 1 0 0
15. Oregon Pacific-10 SF Justin Woody **** 0 2 4 0 0
16. New Mexico Mountain West SG Parsifal Gyron ***** 2 0 0 0 0
17. Wake Forest ACC C Laurence Drummond **** 0 3 1 0 0
18. California Pacific-10 C Conrado Rubio **** 0 3 0 0 0
19. Utah Mountain West SF Preston Jones ***** 1 0 3 0 0
20. Ohio State Big Ten SG Gaston Young **** 0 3 0 0 0
21. UCLA Pacific-10 SG James Breazeale ***** 1 0 3 0 0
22. Southern Mississippi Conference USA PG Ismael Damon ***** 1 0 3 0 0
23. Boston College ACC C Daniel Hinojosa ***** 1 1 1 0 0
24. Tennessee SEC PG Jerry Cousins **** 0 2 2 0 0
25. UNLV Mountain West PG Jacob True **** 0 2 2 0 0
I will freely admit we got lucky with this year's class.
Asher Wise (#1),
Justice Stafford (#10), and
Peter Segal (#14) give us three of the nation's elite players, and
Kris DeMello (#74) is no slouch, either.
And look at
Lafayette!
Tracey Burger is the #2 player in the class, and he's on his way to College Hill. I took a long look at Burger, but I preferred
Asher Wise. Burger's 9 Academics rating scared me away, too. The Leopards' other recruit, PF
Joshua Dent, is the #19 player in his class. He's also an academic risk, with a 24 rating.
Code:
# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Villanova Big East SF Asher Wise ***** 3 1 0 0 0
5. Notre Dame Big East SF Derek Stines ***** 1 2 1 0 0
11. Georgetown Big East SG Damarion Logan ***** 1 1 1 0 0
14. St. John's Big East PF Michael Burke **** 0 3 1 0 0
26. Providence Big East SF Charles Stallworth ***** 1 0 2 0 0
31. Pittsburgh Big East PF Olen Davis **** 0 2 1 0 0
33. Louisville Big East C Israel Choi ***** 1 0 1 0 0
34. West Virginia Big East SG Edward Trueblood **** 0 2 0 0 0
40. Cincinnati Big East SF Stuart Pratt **** 0 1 2 1 0
51. Marquette Big East SF Corey Fancher *** 0 0 3 0 0
55. Seton Hall Big East SG Steve Casey **** 0 1 2 0 0
68. Rutgers Big East SG Jerry Marrufo **** 0 1 1 0 0
91. DePaul Big East PG Gary Kittrell *** 0 0 1 2 0
147. Connecticut Big East C John Barnes *** 0 0 2 1 0
156. South Florida Big East SG Jackson Hayes *** 0 0 1 2 0
249. Syracuse Big East PF David Nevarez *** 0 0 1 1 0
Big East teams tend to recruit well, and this year is no exception. We did pursue Notre Dame's prize catch,
Derek Stines, and we offered
Damarion Logan the chance to choose us instead of staying close to home and playing for Georgetown.
Our
Prestige score remains at
100, but our
Facilities rating drops to
90 from 92. I've never seen that happen in FBCB. It's not a large drop, but still.
Our
budget for the season looks like it will remain at
$800,000. Vanderbilt's is $820,000, but that's the only program I know of with more money to work with than we have. The "blue bloods" like UNC and Kansas, and the elite programs of our universe, like Georgetown and Southern California, have the same budgets as Villanova.
Lafayette's is up to $587,000 now.
There will be a new team in the Patriot League this season, one that could give
Lafayette a run for its money.
Duquesne, coming off a 30-5 season, has moved up from the Atlantic 10, trading places with hapless Army.