It's the final countdown

The Almanac is almost here. Here's a snapshot of what's coming. Plus, St. John's grabs another top 50 player, and a look at 247's rankings for the 24-26 classes.

Author

Mike Miller
September 19, 2023

Maybe SMU will be a valuable addition to the ACC. In just seven days, the school raised $100 million for its move to the ACC, and plans to contribute more than $200 million to offset the school not getting TV money.

Know what some of that money should go to? Information about their new basketball opponents. Perfect time for any SMU fan to buy The Almanac.

Let's dive in.

1. One day until your required reading arrives

OK, maybe most of those SMU fans are interested in football. Fair enough. But when you’re raising millions of dollars, what’s $20 — today’s the last day to get it for $15.99! — for an exhaustive season preview?

The brains behind it — writers and analysts at The Field of 68, Three-Man Weave, Heat Check CBB and Verbal Commits — have spent months culling information, rosters, stats, and storylines so you’ll be the most well-informed fan out there. Or coach. Or SID. Or gambler. Whatever. Just yesterday, the K-State roster and preview got tweaked to account for Will McNair. That’s the type of detail going into this.

For those of you who’ve been glossing over the mentions and the ads, here’s a reminder of what’s in The Almanac, Vol. 2:

  • Previews of every single D-I team. All 362. And we talked to coaches from every program.

  • Conference overviews, predictions, top players, and more. Those all look like this, with easy navigation from team to team, or from conference to conference.

  • A preseason Top 25, the Top 100 players, and a full NCAA Tournament projection.

  • The top backcourts, frontcourts, best freshmen, top mid-major players and breakout players.

  • Which coaches are on the hot seat, and which ones are ready for a jump.

  • A transfer portal breakdown.

  • And, courtesy of Evan Miyakawa, the Top Glue Guys in the sport.

If all that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. There are roughly 600,000 words that’ll take you weeks to read, and even more time to absorb. Then you’ll really be ready for the arguments we’ve had on our ongoing text thread, like if Antonio Reeves should be higher than No. 96 on our 100 top players list. Or if Fletcher Loyer is too low.

(Please direct angry tweets to @jeffgoodman)

Look, it’s gonna be a great day tomorrow when you login to your copy of The Almanac and take several, abnormally long bathroom breaks at work, then ignore your wife/girlfriend/kids to continue reading it at night.

Just … don’t get fired because you’re reading it too often. We’ll want you to buy Vol. 3.

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2. Another week, another St. John’s commit

Given Rick Pitino’s history, any college hoops fan knew he’d bring in talent to St. John’s. Just not sure anyone knew it’d be this fast.

After re-vamping the 2023-24 roster with transfers, the Johnnies added their second 4-star prospect in as many weeks. And this one’s big.

Khaman Maker, a 7-1 center out of Las Vegas, said Monday he’s headed to NYC as part of St. John’s 2024 recruiting class, joining Jaiden Glover, who committed last week. Maker chose St. John’s over BYU, Arizona State, and UNLV, among others.

As you might expect, he’s considered one of the top shot-blockers in his class. He led the Nike EYBL in blocks per game (2.8) this summer.

“I saw him play at the Nike EYBL. He is a legit 7-foot-1. Loved his motor,” one college coach told the NY Post. “Defensively, he was terrific altering shots and was a good rebounder. Was a very good finisher around the basket off of pick-and-rolls and lobs. Terrific prospect.”

That’s evident from any highlight reel featuring Maker. He’s usually either running the floor and dunking, or blocking someone. And he’s not a slow 7-1. He’s got some mobility.

Pitino has room for one more scholarship player in the 2024 class (right now; odds are there will be some transfers out after the season), and recruiting analysts believe he’s focused on adding a 5-star prospect.

That’s not hard to believe.

In other 2024 recruiting news:

3. Class act

All that 2024 talk has me thinking about the rest of the class. Seems like an ideal time to highlight the recent work done by 247 Sports on its updated 2024 rankings … and 2025 and 2026 rankings.

Why three updates at once? As Adam Finkelstein explains, there’s enough chatter about the best player regardless of class — which focuses on Cooper Flagg, Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa — and the reclassification trend that it made sense to highlight all three at once.

  • Flagg sits atop the class, but that’s no surprise.

  • The top 19 players are listed as 5-star prospects.

  • After today, half of the top 10 will be hard commits to schools. Only wing VJ Edgecombe and big Jayden Quaintance aren’t leaning toward a specific school right now.

  • Of the top 50, nearly half (21) aren’t leaning toward a specific school. Six more have crystal ball predictions in.

  • Guards occupy 20 of the top 50 spots. Of that group, only four are point guards.

  • There are 7 centers and 11 power forwards in the top 50.

  • UNC, Rutgers, Georgetown, Missouri and Notre Dame have the top five classes thus far, but given most schools only have one or two commits, that’s going to change. A lot.

  • Special shout to Harvard and Robert Hinton. He’s the only top 100 recruit heading to a non-Power 6 school thus far.

  • Cam Boozer’s the best of this class. Unless Dybantsa reclassifies.

  • Right now, only the top 10 players are viewed as 5-star prospects.

  • Four of the five prospects are listed as power forwards. The rest of the top 10 are guards.

  • Four of the top 20 prospects are point guards. Quite the contrast from 2024.

  • Efeosa Oliogu, a 6-5 wing, is headed to Maryland. He’s the only top 100 prospect listed as a commit thus far.

  • Dybantsa’s No. 1. His high school teammate, Tyran Stokes is No. 2. (For that matter, five Prolific Prep players are somewhere on these top 100 rankings.)

  • Eight other players are listed as 5-star prospects. That’ll certainly change.

  • There are 60 total players listed for 2026. Finkelstein notes that it should be viewed as a list of talented players, and not so much a pecking order because of their development over the next few years.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Alabama lost NBA talent. It lost key bench players. It lost three assistants. So how did Tide coach Nate Oats address all those departures this summer? He added some talent through the portal, but Jeff Goodman’s concerned that it won’t be close to what Bama had last season.

Links as you discuss the Roman Empire.

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