LEXINGTON, Ky. _ One year after Penny Hardaway and Memphis came out of nowhere to rocket to the top of the recruiting charts, John Calipari and Kentucky are back in their accustomed place in the rankings.
The long-running Recruiting Services Consensus Index rankings were finalized for the class of 2020 this week, and UK took the No. 1 spot for the eighth time in 12 recruiting cycles under Calipari, who had gone three years without a top-ranked RSCI class.
Last year, it was Memphis _ led by No. 1 prospect and longtime UK target James Wiseman _ that took the top spot. The year before that, it was Duke at No. 1 with a class led by the all-star trio of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cameron Reddish.
In both of those years, Kentucky was No. 2.
The RSCI rankings predate the 247Sports composite rankings by more than a decade and attempt to build a master list of the top high school seniors in the country, using in-house rankings from Rivals.com, ESPN, 247Sports and longtime recruiting analyst Van Coleman to come up with one overall order of players.
In 12 classes under Calipari, the Wildcats have now finished first in the RSCI rankings eight times, with three No. 2 finishes and one placing at No. 3.
This year's UK class ended a skid in the individual rankings. No Kentucky signee had placed in the top five in the RSCI rankings since Skal Labissiere finished in the No. 2 spot five years ago. And no UK signee had finished better than No. 10 since 2016. In this cycle, shooting guard Brandon Boston was placed at No. 4, and fellow shooting guard Terrence Clarke finished tied for No. 8 (with former UK target Greg Brown).
That makes Kentucky the only program in the country to land two top-10 recruits for next season. It's the first time UK has landed multiple top-10 recruits in one class since 2016, when De'Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo and Malik Monk finished sixth, eighth and ninth, respectively.
The Wildcats' incoming group also features four other highly touted players: power forward Isaiah Jackson (No. 26 in the final RSCI rankings), point guard Devin Askew (No. 28), power forward Lance Ware (No. 39) and wing Cam'Ron Fletcher (No. 52).
Despite all that talent, Kentucky barely held off Duke for the No. 1 spot.
The Blue Devils have six signees in the RSCI top 50, led by forward Jalen Johnson at No. 11, point guard Jeremy Roach at No. 20, combo guard D.J. Steward at No. 24, and center Mark Williams at No. 25. No other school had four top 25 signees.
North Carolina finished at No. 3 _ with six total recruits and three top 20 signees _ and then came an interesting twist in this evolving recruiting landscape.
Jeff Crume, who has put together the RSCI rankings since 1998, noted that the G League _ if it were a school _ would have a talent haul worthy of the No. 4 national ranking in this recruiting cycle. The NBA developmental league's revamped preps-to-pros program has already reeled in four recruits from the 2020 class: Jalen Green (No. 2), Daishen Nix (No. 16), Isaiah Todd (No. 17) and Kai Sotto (No. 55).
Tennessee and Gonzaga round out the top five, at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.
Memphis, which landed five top-100 recruits last year to achieve the No. 1 ranking, has zero top-100 commitments for 2020.
It's likely there will be a couple of future tweaks to the rankings as top players from the 2021 class _ such as Jonathan Kuminga and Moussa Cisse _ continue to consider reclassification into 2020, though there are no realistic possibilities that would bump UK from the No. 1 spot in the RSCI rankings.
