(Picture via Getty Images)
I had the mind-boggling thought this morning of just wondering who were Kentucky's top basketball recruits over the last 13 plus years and to compile them into a list, now that we know how the majority of them have turned out career-wise. I do plan to include this year's recruiting class, but, I believe it will still be really fascinating to take a look back on.
I usually go off of the rankings from 247Sports because I have found those the most trustworthy over the years.
Top ranked recruits under John Calipari at Kentucky all-time.
Nerlens Noel
Anthony Davis
Skal Labissierre
Julius Randle
John Wall
DeMarcus Cousins
Shaedon Sharpe
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Andrew Harrison
Karl-Anthony Towns
Brandon Boston Jr.
Brandon Knight
De'Aaron Fox
Justin Edwards
Aaron Harrison
Marquis Teague
Robert Dillingham
Cason Wallace
Alex Poythress
Terrence Clarke
Bam Adebayo
Enes Kanter
EJ Montgomery
Terrence Jones
James Young
Malik Monk
Dakari Johnson
Hamidou Diallo
Tyrese Maxey
Kevin Knox
Ashton Hagans
Trey Lyles
Jamal Murray
Kahlil Whitney
Chris Livingston
Jarred Vanderbilt
Keldon Johnson
Isaiah Briscoe
Wenyen Gabriel
PJ Washington
Archie Goodwin
Nick Richards
TyTy Washington
Daimion Collins
Daniel Orton
Marcus Lee
Immanuel Quickley
Tyler Ulis
Kyle Wiltjer
Devin Booker
Okay, so I was completely blown away after reviewing this list. There are some big names that rank really low on this list of fifty. Also, I was surprised with how high some of these players rank from the recent classes we've had, especially the class coming in 2023.
The entire list that I pulled from, which has the players ranked starting from 2000, which is obviously outside of the section of Calipari recruits, but you can view it here if you would like to. There are only about four additional names that would've cracked the top-fifty.
Let me know in the comments which name was ranked much lower than you would have ever guessed before reading this. I'm intrigued to hear what you guys think.