LEXINGTON, Ky. — The basketball recruiting rankings for the class of 2022 have been finalized, and the Kentucky Wildcats are quite a bit further down the list than usual.
UK holds the No. 10 overall spot in the final Recruiting Services Consensus Index rankings for the 2022 cycle. The RSCI, which has been around since 1998, annually compiles the nation’s top recruiting classes. The website takes player rankings from several major services and calculates a composite ranking for every top prospect, using a simple formula to rank the nation’s top classes. Once the RSCI player rankings are calculated, the nation’s No. 1 recruit is worth 100 points, with the No. 2 recruit at 99 points, and so on.
Jeff Crume, who runs the RSCI site, used 2022 rankings from 247Sports, Rivals.com, ESPN, On3.com and longtime national analyst Van Coleman this year. Crume noted to the Herald-Leader that this is the first time Kentucky has ended up outside of the top five nationally since John Calipari arrived as the program’s head coach with the 2009 class.
The nature in which the rankings are constructed — along with some other variables — led to the relatively low ranking.
Kentucky’s class has just two top-100 signees, a major change from past years. Those two are Cason Wallace, the No. 8 player in the RSCI rankings, and Chris Livingston, who is No. 13 on the list. Late addition Adou Thiero is not ranked in the top 100 nationally.
Livingston was ranked as high as No. 10 overall (by Rivals) and as low as 24th (by On3), with four of the five recruiting services used by RSCI putting him in the top 15.
Wallace had a couple of major outliers. He’s ranked No. 4 by On3.com, No. 5 by 247Sports, and No. 7 by Rivals, but Coleman put him at No. 18 overall and ESPN has him at No. 20 nationally.
Obviously, both are highly ranked in the grand scheme of things, but having just two top-100 signees hurts Kentucky’s overall standing on the RSCI list. All nine of the teams ahead of the Wildcats in those rankings have at least three top-100 recruits, with six of those teams having four or more such players.
The Shaedon Sharpe saga also carried over to the national recruiting rankings. If Sharpe — formerly the No. 1 prospect in the 2022 class — had stayed with that group and not enrolled early at Kentucky, his presence in the rankings would have bumped UK up to No. 4 nationally, just a few points behind defending national champion Kansas.
Sharpe announced last week that he would keep his name in the 2022 NBA draft, leaving Kentucky without playing a game for the Wildcats. So, obviously, his effect on the final recruiting rankings are the least of UK’s concerns there.
Kentucky also lost a commitment from Skyy Clark, who is No. 32 on the final RSCI list, late in the 2022 cycle. (Clark has since committed to Illinois). If he had stayed with UK’s class, the Cats would have been No. 5 in the final team rankings. If Clark and Sharpe had both stayed with UK for the 2022 class, Kentucky would have been No. 2 nationally.
The Wildcats’ class was ranked No. 1 in the country in each of Calipari’s first five recruiting cycles at Kentucky, and their group was either No. 1 or No. 2 every year under Calipari until 2021. Last year, UK’s class was ranked No. 5 overall, a drop from the norm that coincided with a larger reliance on the transfer portal. The Cats’ high school recruits weren’t as highly touted, but they did bring in Oscar Tshiebwe, Sahvir Wheeler, Kellan Grady and CJ Fredrick as transfers.
This year, UK has added just one transfer — former Illinois State guard Antonio Reeves — but the Cats have five returning contributors from last season’s team, plus Fredrick, who was forced to miss the 2021-22 campaign due to injury.
Duke tops the rankings
A familiar name is back on top of the RSCI rankings.
The Duke Blue Devils will enter their first season under new head coach Jon Scheyer with the No. 1 overall recruiting class, thanks largely to commitments from three top-five players: Dariq Whitehead (No. 1), Dereck Lively (No. 2) and Kyle Filipowski (No. 4). The Blue Devils also have No. 22-ranked Mark Mitchell and No. 61-ranked Jaden Schutt. (Duke will also welcome late reclassification Tyrese Proctor, who might be one of the top 25 prospects in the 2022 class but joined the group too late to be added to most of the national rankings).
In the 14 recruiting cycles that John Calipari has been at Kentucky, the Wildcats have had the No. 1 class in the final RSCI rankings eight times, while Duke has achieved the feat four times. Gonzaga (2021) and Memphis (2019) landed the No. 1 class the other two years.
Duke is also looking like an early favorite for the top class in the 2023 cycle. The Blue Devils already have commitments from Mackenzie Mgbako — the No. 3 overall player in the rising senior class — as well as top-25 national recruits Sean Stewart (No. 11), Caleb Foster (No. 16) and Jared McCain (No. 24).
Who’s No. 1 in 2022?
There’s not much agreement on the No. 1 player ranking for the 2022 class.
Four different high schoolers are ranked No. 1 across the five national lists that the RSCI used to form its consensus. Three of those prospects will play for Duke in the 2022-23 season.
Rivals.com ranks Dariq Whitehead as the No. 1 overall player, while On3.com puts Kyle Filipowski in that spot, with both ESPN and Van Coleman ranking Dereck Lively at the top. Arkansas signee Nick Smith Jr. is the No. 1 prospect in the 247Sports rankings. Whitehead is the only player in the class with a top-five ranking from all five national recruiting services.
This class marks the first time since 1999 that four different players have received the No. 1 ranking from at least one of the major recruiting services. In that year, seven different recruiting sites were used to compile the RSCI ranking, and Donnell Harvey, Keith Bogans, LaVell Blanchard and DerMarr Johnson all landed a No. 1 ranking from at least one of them.
Bogans, of course, ended up as one of Kentucky’s all-time leading scorers. He was the No. 2 overall player in the RSCI rankings that year. Harvey, who played one season at Florida, was No. 1. Duke recruit Jason Williams was No. 3 overall.
This 2022 class was hurt at the top by the reclassification of Emoni Bates, Jalen Duren, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, any of whom might have been ranked No. 1 nationally if they’d decided to stay in this group.
Arkansas is ranked No. 2
With Duke holding a commanding claim to the No. 1 spot in the 2022 cycle, it’s Arkansas that comes in at No. 2 nationally, yet another recruiting coup for Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman.
This is the first time since 2011 that Arkansas has landed in the top 10 in the final RSCI rankings and the first time the Hogs have ever been in the top five in the RSCI, which dates back to 1998.
Musselman, who has been one of the masters of the transfer portal in recent years, will bring in No. 3-ranked Nick Smith Jr., along with McDonald’s All-Americans Anthony Black (No. 14), Jordan Walsh (No. 17), top-100 recruit Derrian Ford, and two other high school players.
Alabama was No. 4 on the final RSCI list, bolstered by a class that features four top-100 players and two five-star recruits — Jaden Bradley and Brandon Miller — who once held Kentucky offers.
Kentucky is the only other Southeastern Conference school in the final rankings.
The complete top 10, in order: Duke, Arkansas, Kansas, Alabama, UCLA, Southern Cal, Texas, Ohio State, Virginia and Kentucky.
