Last month, we started our Sales Pitch series by ranking the schools in the ACC based on the quality of their enticements for men’s basketball recruits and then moved on to the Big East, where we examined whether anyone in the league can close the recruiting gap on Villanova. We followed that up with the Big Ten, and the biggest first tier we’ve seen of any conference so far, and the Pac-12, where UCLA and Arizona are keeping the rest of the league at arm’s length.
This week, we continue our exercise with the SEC. Long known as a football conference, the SEC is stockpiling talent on the basketball side at a rate not seen anywhere else in the country. Five of the top nine transfers are headed to SEC schools, as are seven five-star recruits — four more than any other league. Kentucky is clearly the powerhouse of the SEC, but the rest of the conference is looking to close the gap.
As a reminder, ESPN spoke with a wide variety of anonymous coaches across college basketball’s top seven leagues (as rated by KenPom and other relevant metrics systems), as well as nationally relevant programs beyond those conferences, for our Sales Pitch feature. Over an eight-week period, we’ll rank the programs in order of which have the best sales pitches for recruits and transfers.
Tier 1
A clear one-team tier at the top of the conference. Outside of access to local talent, Kentucky is unparalleled in the league in most categories. It’s one of the blue blood programs in college basketball and is up there with North Carolina among the best jobs in the sport. The Wildcats have the most wins all time, they’ve won eight national championships and been to 17 Final Fours.
So while it’s going to be the Tier 1 recruiting job in the SEC regardless of who is at the helm, it’s still worth mentioning that John Calipari had a historic run of recruiting success during his first decade in Lexington. Over his first 10 seasons at Kentucky, Calipari had five No. 1-ranked recruiting classes and five No. 2-ranked recruiting classes. He had another No. 1 class in 2020 and was No. 3 in 2019 and No. 5 this year.
“The biggest thing with kids now is how can I get to the NBA,” one SEC coach said. “And Cal has shown he is able to create a path for a lot of his guys to get to the NBA. Even some of his ‘lower-level’ guys still get looked at, because when you play at a program like Kentucky, they’re pro-ready. People look at you differently when you consistently develop pros — and it’s tenfold for Kentucky. The tradition of Kentucky basketball. You walk into that arena, it’s different. The way they travel. It’s all at a different level than everyone else.”
The lack of consistent top-tier talent coming out of the state isn’t a problem for Kentucky, which recruits nationally more than nearly any other program in the country. But the one potential trouble spot for the Wildcats, according to coaches in the league, is expectations — both in terms of Final Fours and national championships, but also from the standpoint of recruits needing to be ready from day one.
“The pressure is the only thing,” one coach said. “You’re not doing anything there that somebody else hasn’t already done, unless you go undefeated and win a national championship. So you can get lost in the fold. You go to a different school in the league and you create a legacy. We’ve been able to use that in the past. You won’t be under as much pressure, you’ll be remembered at a much higher level.“
Calipari has previously echoed those very sentiments, with his oft-repeated “Kentucky isn’t for everyone” mantra.
“There’s a small group of players that can deal with the pressure and expectations of playing at a Kentucky, so you only wind up recruiting a handful of guys,” one SEC coach said. “And you look at a guy like [Alex] Poythress [a five-star recruit who played at UK from 2012-16]. At different points, he was considered a bust in college, but he’s had a good [professional] career. But there are some guys there, if they aren’t one-and-done, they’re viewed as damaged goods.”
Calipari changed up his roster-building methods this spring, hitting the transfer portal and coming out with four experienced pieces to anchor next season’s team — Kellan Grady (17.1 PPG at Davidson), Sahvir Wheeler (14 PPG at Georgia), Oscar Tshiebwe (8.5 PPG at West Virginia) and CJ Fredrick (7.5 PPG at Iowa). While No. 5 is Kentucky’s lowest recruiting class ranking since Calipari took over, the Wildcats also have arguably the nation’s top transfer class coming into Lexington.
Tier 2
Florida Gators
Arkansas Razorbacks
Tennessee Volunteers
Alabama Crimson Tide
The gap between Kentucky and everyone else in the league is sizable, but the next tier is tight among three or four schools.
Florida is clearly in Tier 2, and the Gators can make a strong case for being the second-best program in the league. The Gators won national championships under Billy Donovan in 2006 and 2007, and have missed just four NCAA tournaments in the past 22 years.
“You’re the lone SEC school in the state of Florida,” one coach said. “There’s so much talent in there. And it’s just Florida, Miami and Florida State. They’re the flagbearer for the SEC in the state. They’re really close to Atlanta. Gainesville isn’t too far off from other places … . And it’s not just tradition, it’s recent history, too. It’s national titles within the last 15 years, they have guys that are in the NBA, that’s important. Their facilities aren’t that bad. And it’s 60 degrees and sunny in the winter. And for kids in the south, that can’t go overlooked.”
Some coaches in the league voiced a perception that Donovan made the program seem better than it was, as UF has hardly any history beyond Donovan, Lon Kruger and Mike White’s recent modest success.
“The fan support isn’t what it is at Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, even Auburn,” one coach said. “Unless they’re winning national championships, that place [the O’Connell Center] isn’t full. And they play in an older facility, although they’ve renovated it.”
Arkansas has really solidified its standing in the league over the last few years. The Razorbacks have plenty of tradition from the Nolan Richardson era, and Eric Musselman has rejuvenated the program since taking over for Mike Anderson, guiding the team to the Elite Eight this past season. Even during the lean times between Richardson and Musselman, though, the Razorbacks still recruited at a high level — and that’s mainly due to the abundant in-state talent.
Prior to Musselman taking over, the last in-state ESPN 100 recruit to leave the state for college was Malik Monk, who went to Kentucky in 2016. The three ESPN 100 prospects in 2017 and 2018 all went to Arkansas, and then Musselman landed all four ESPN 100 prospects from the state in the 2020 class.
“The kids in the state, their parents grew up in the era of Nolan Richardson and all the amazing teams they had,” one coach said. “Arkansas is king in that state. There’s not a ton of competition in the state. It’s a big talent pool, and they all want to play the style of play that has made Arkansas successful.”
One big thing Arkansas has going for it is its status as a basketball school. In some conferences, that might not matter — but in the SEC, it’s unique. Another advantage the Razorbacks have developed under Musselman is their ability to land transfers, something that Musselman and his staff carried over from Nevada.
“Being perceived as a basketball school, I think that’s an advantage for them,” a longtime assistant said. “There’s times during [football] signing day in the winter or spring football, that stuff creeps into a really good SEC [basketball] season for a team. For Arkansas and Kentucky, that stuff is separate. During basketball season, Arkansas basketball is always a bigger story. Texas A&M could have a great basketball season, but if they sign seven five-stars and four four-stars in football, that’s a bigger story for a week. There’s no pro teams in the state, and really nobody else at all. Mississippi has Mississippi State, Auburn has Alabama, Arkansas doesn’t have that.”
Tennessee doesn’t have the top-of-the-line history that Florida and Arkansas possess in terms of national championships and Final Fours, but the Volunteers have been highly successful over the last 15 years under Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes — and went to a Sweet 16 under Cuonzo Martin in 2014. They also were consistent winners at the turn of the century under Jerry Green. The Vols have produced pros, have money and a very strong fan base.
“They have the best arena in college basketball [Thompson-Boling Arena]. It’s an amazing gym. The outside looks like s—, but the inside is beautiful,” one coach said. “As far as the best college basketball atmosphere goes, it’s not. But the fans are amazing. Crazy, maybe delusional, but they’re great. They show up. They have unbelievable facilities all over campus, the athletic department pours a ton of money into their program, their facilities. They had recent success under Coach Pearl, and Coach Barnes has kept that level of success going.”
Barnes has also recruited better than nearly every school in the league outside of Kentucky in recent years, landing five five-star prospects in the last three classes: Josiah-Jordan James, Jaden Springer, Keon Johnson, Kennedy Chandler and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield
“Knoxville is such a better town than the other places in this tier,” one coach said. “And Tennessee has everything that blue bloods have except for the history.”
Alabama feels different than the other three schools in this tier, mostly due to its status as a football powerhouse and a program that lacks some of the tradition of Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee. But Nate Oats did win the SEC regular-season and conference tournament titles last season, the Crimson Tide have some of the most significant internal support in college athletics and plenty of talent has come through Tuscaloosa.
Since ESPN’s recruiting database began in 2007, Alabama has landed at least one ESPN 100 prospect in every single class except one, and a number of those prospects have come from inside the state.
“I think Alabama football has a lot to do with it,” one coach said. “That stuff is important on weekends and on visits. The fan base is there. Nate has done a good job. They might be Tier 3, but as far as resources go, in terms of being a state school, I think it’s always had the potential to be really, really good. Time will tell. But all kids in the state of Alabama want to go to Alabama.”
Oats has also developed a reputation for being ahead of the curve when it comes to offensive innovation. The Crimson Tide play fast, they shoot a ton of 3s and they have completely ignored mid-range shots.
“They’ve landed [J.D.] Davison. They’ve gotten [Josh] Primo. They’ve gotten the kid Charles Bediako this year. They have been on a bunch of top guys’ lists. They’ve done a really good job,” a rival coach said. “I think Alabama sneakily has really good in-state basketball. Herb Jones, in-state. John Petty, in-state. Alex Reese, in-state. You look at those guys, Petty is going to put on an NBA uniform, Kira Lewis did last year, Herb Jones is going to put on an NBA uniform, Reese was a really good four-year player. From an in-state perspective, that’s pretty rich.
“And Nate uses analytics heavily in recruiting. If a kid is looking at four teams, they’ll stack them up using different analytics. And they have their niche with their system, the 3-balls and layups and the 4-point line in practice. That’s their pitch. And I think they can say they’re going to recruit nationally because of their brand. It’s a football brand. And now they had a really good year, which will help them branch out nationally.”
Tier 3
This tier shuffled considerably over the course of the polling process, with Alabama mentioned enough to make it to the bottom of Tier 2 and Missouri just missing Tier 3. Which left LSU and Auburn.
LSU’s recruiting success will be looked at cynically by some coaches in the league and fans around the country due to the allegations surrounding Will Wade, including the NCAA alleging last summer that Wade either arranged for or offered “impermissible payments” to 11 potential recruits or individuals associated with those prospects.
But there are two factors to consider, even while acknowledging the smoke around LSU. The first is that the Tigers have recruited effectively under coaches besides Wade. They’ve been to four Final Fours, had a long history of success under Dale Brown, and have produced some historically good college players from Pete Maravich to Chris Jackson to Shaquille O’Neal to Ben Simmons.
“A lot of it has to do with the coaching staffs they have had,” one coach said. “They’re really good recruiters with really good relationships that can convince guys to come down there and play at a place that’s done it in the past. It’s also one of those schools that have been helped by football. And regionally, they’ve had really good players in Louisiana.”
The second factor is that LSU isn’t the only school accused of operating in gray areas (or worse) on the recruiting trail. The Tigers might be the most recently well-documented of the group, but there were coaches contacted for this piece that refused or had trouble ranking recruiting programs due to the perception of cheating within the SEC. Auburn, which has not had clean hands during the Bruce Pearl era — is among that group.
“It’s not recruiting. Some of that stuff is not recruiting,” one coach said. “So it’s hard for me.”
“We’re all grown men, we get it, it’s a tough business,” he continued. “But I can’t have a straight face and play a role in pretending some of these guys are innocent.”
One of the topics of conversation Tiers 3 and 4 sparked was the football school vs. basketball school debate, and how some programs have done a better job — Alabama, LSU, Auburn — of taking advantage of the brand of its football program to elevate the basketball program.
“You can use it as a tool,” one coach said. “Having good relationships with the football staff. Football weekends in the SEC are better than anywhere else in the country and it’s not even close. Bringing a kid on a visit for a football gameday; when you have kids on campus, all football fans know their recruits. Teams that use it in a positive way and not as competition, can be really successful with it. Auburn, Alabama, LSU are using it as an advantage in recruiting. The general fan base is already there. If you’re good, people will come and support you.”
Auburn bounced back and forth between Tiers 3 and 4 among the coaches we surveyed, but the Tigers have recruited at a high level under Pearl. Since his first full recruiting class in 2015, Pearl has landed 12 ESPN 100 prospects and five five-star prospects — and that helped the Tigers get to their first Final Four in program history in 2019.
“The only reason they’d be in Tier 3 is Bruce Pearl,” one coach said. “The excitement he’s brought, his ability to do really well in Georgia has maybe put them in that tier. Before him, it was clearly a Tier 4 school. It’s a really hard job. You’re not getting kids out of the state of Alabama because they’re all going to Alabama. Basketball hasn’t been a huge priority there. I will say their fan base does really love their basketball. They have the best atmosphere in the league. And their proximity to Georgia helps. They’ve taken some really, really good players out of there.”
Multiple coaches mentioned Auburn as having one of, if not the best, atmospheres in the SEC. The Tigers also have some level of history and tradition, but it’s been Pearl’s success in the Peach State getting prospects like Jabari Smith, Sharife Cooper, Isaac Okoro, Chuma Okeke and Jared Harper that has brought winning ways to the Plains. They also are clearly the school recruiting above their weight class the most in the league.
“It was one of the worst jobs in the league when they got there. It’s been elevated to somewhere in the middle,” one coach said. “It’s been their proximity to Georgia and a great fan base… With Georgia and the transfer portal, they’ve found ways to get some kids.”
Tier 4
Missouri Tigers
Georgia Bulldogs
Texas A&M Aggies
All three schools in this tier had at least one coach vouching for it as a potential Tier 3 recruiting job.
Leading this tier is Missouri, which is a very good job in a vacuum, but struggles recruiting within the league due to location.
“You think of guys in that part of the country, all their friends, all their teammates, they’re going to Big 12 schools and they want to play with them or against them. That’s tough,” one coach said. “Missouri is going to have trouble recruiting Georgia, Alabama and Florida. It’s just easier to play for someone closer to home. It’s a disadvantage. But Cuonzo [Martin] has done a really good job keeping them competitive.”
“When you go to Columbia, there’s snow on the ground, it’s 25 degrees. You go to Athens, Georgia. It’s 50 degrees and sunny. You feel like you’re in a winter city at Missouri,” another coach added. “I think there’s in-state talent and in surrounding areas that they can get to. They can get to Chicago, they can get to St. Louis. But outside of the Porters [Michael Porter Jr. and Jontay Porter], they’ve recruited a bunch of four-year guys.”
The Tigers have solid tradition and history, with five Elite Eight appearances under their belt. Each recent coach besides Kim Anderson has had a decent amount of success, with Quin Snyder and Mike Anderson each reaching an Elite Eight, Frank Haith winning 30 games in the Tigers’ final year in the Big 12, and Martin going to two NCAA tournaments in his first four seasons.
“They really don’t belong in this league geographically, but they have one of the best atmospheres,” one coach said. “When it’s rocking, it’s rocking. They’re just out of place.”
A byproduct of Auburn (and Kentucky and Florida and other schools) constantly poaching from the state of Georgia has been the Bulldogs’ struggles to recruit their own home turf. Georgia is one of the most fertile talent bases in the entire country, and certainly the most fertile talent base in the SEC. But the Bulldogs have generally failed to consistently keep the best players home. Anthony Edwards was an exception, but Georgia struggled in his one season.
Despite the fact that Georgia has been to just three NCAA tournaments since 2002, some coaches in the league still view it as a sleeping giant sort of job.
“It should be an easier job than this,” one SEC coach said. “But it’s a tough job because most Georgia kids don’t want to go to Georgia. That’s historically been their problem. Florida, Auburn and Kentucky are coming into that state and plucking their best players. It’s going to have to be the right coach that has incredible ties in the state. That’s the only way you’re going to get kids to go there. You look at football, they’ve gotten it going, can that help basketball?”
“It’s an awesome city. And you’re 50 minutes from Atlanta,” another coach added. “But it’s another job where there’s a lot of in-state talent. You just have to get kids to stay at home and then pull kids regionally.”
Texas A&M has a lot going for it. The Aggies have plenty of money and resources, very good facilities and are within a couple of hours of both Houston and Dallas. The state of Texas consistently produces dozens of high-major prospects every single year, and A&M should be able to get its share of that group. On the negative side, A&M not only has to battle national programs for local prospects, but Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech and Houston are all in the mix — and all have had more recent success than the Aggies.
“The state produces so many great players, it’s such a big state, and they have tons of money,” one coach said. “They have far more access to recruits than, like, Missouri does.”
The Aggies were on the negative side of the aforementioned football vs. basketball school debate, however, in terms of taking advantage of the boost a strong football program can provide.
“They’re in a perfect location. But they’re one of those schools, no matter how good or bad football is, football is going to reign supreme. A win against a top-15 team in SEC play is going to get overshadowed by signing day,” one coach said. “Also, you’re in a good location with big cities around you, but College Station as a city, there’s nothing there. College Station and Starkville are probably your two worst cities in the league.”
Tier 5
Vanderbilt Commodores
Ole Miss Rebels
South Carolina Gamecocks
Mississippi State Bulldogs
This group made up the clear bottom four, although Vanderbilt received one vote as being in the top half of the league as a recruiting job.
The Commodores have plenty of positives. The location, the amount of talent in the state, the national brand it has as an academic institution all put it in a different category than the rest of the schools in this tier.
“It’s the best city in the SEC, Nashville. What else could you ask for in a city?” an SEC coach said. “The high academics can be a plus if it’s the right kid. Jeffery Taylor, John Jenkins. That team had three top-32 picks in 2012. So there’s that. You’ve gotten really good players there. The draw is how good of a city it is, how good the academics are, they have a really cool arena.”
Along those same lines, however, Vanderbilt can’t consistently recruit the same level of prospect as the rest of the SEC due to its academic requirements.
“Vanderbilt can recruit more nationally for players because of their academics,” a coach said. “But it’s hard to get kids into that school. Makes it more difficult.”
“It’s good academics right in the middle of one of the poorest education systems in the country,” another coach added. “Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee — routinely near the bottom in education. [Editor’s note: All five of the states mentioned were ranked in the bottom 20 of the most recently published U.S. News & World Report education rankings, though Tennessee, at 33rd, was the highest-ranked of these.] It’s hard to get players in, which can be difficult. And their history is poor.”
Ole Miss ranks near the bottom of the SEC in most basketball-related categories. The Rebels have virtually no history, making just nine NCAA tournaments in program history, with one Sweet 16 appearance as their highlight. Their basketball fan base isn’t huge, the atmosphere isn’t great, and the program has produced two NBA players in the last 23 years.
But the Rebels can recruit Memphis and are generally one of two schools competing for the top talent in the state of Mississippi.
“They’re the best of this tier,” one assistant coach said. “You’re in a better city than Mississippi State, so you should have an upper hand for in-state talent. Oxford is a cool college town. You’re really close to Memphis. You’re close to Birmingham. Two major cities where there’s players. You have the in-state stuff. There’s not a bunch of NBA guys, but every couple of years there’s an NCAA tournament team. And football-wise, they’re not great, but it’s a great tailgating environment, a game day visit would be fun for a recruit. Their facilities are pretty good and they’re all in one area. Campus is beautiful. Their environment isn’t packed, but it’s not dead either.”
South Carolina has been to a Final Four more recently than any team in the league besides Auburn, and head coach Frank Martin just finished his ninth season in Columbia — only one other coach in the SEC has a longer tenure at his current school. The Gamecocks have also had three players in the NBA in the past four years: Sindarius Thornwell, PJ Dozier and Chris Silva.
“They’re one of the few schools in the league where the current coach brought the most success to the program. The Final Four banner, Frank did that. And parents like Frank,” one coach said. “The facilities have gotten better, they’re not as good as others in the league, but they’ve improved. The fan base is pretty good. When they’re winning, they’re there. When they’re not winning, they’re not as supportive. But that’s most schools in the league besides Kentucky.”
Two big things were mentioned as challenges for South Carolina: its perception as a football school and its location in ACC country.
“They’ve had some pretty good players from the state, but not nearly as much as other places in the league,” an opposing coach said. “They also aligned themselves with the SEC for football in the 1990s, but the most significant athletic achievements at the school haven’t been football. Most kids view it as a football school, even though it’s not. They have to remind guys they have basketball history. They don’t have the history to sell, they don’t have the best facilities.”
Rounding out the league is Mississippi State, which faces challenges due to location and a relative lack of high-profile players in the NBA.
“It’s the worst city in the league,” one coach said. “Their arena hasn’t been updated in years and they haven’t produced a ton of pros before the last couple years. They’re a distant second in their own state to Ole Miss, they’ve been to one NCAA tournament in the last 12 years.”
At the same time, that same coach said Ben Howland and the Bulldogs have recruited above their weight class as well as anyone in the league over the last few years. They’ve produced three NBA players in the last two years: Quinndary Weatherspoon, Robert Woodard II and Reggie Perry, and Howland has landed 10 ESPN 100 prospects and one five-star recruit since taking over in 2015.
“It’s not an easy job to recruit, but they’ve done a commendable job getting good players,” he said. “They’ve gotten a bunch of top-100 players. And not even looking at the recruiting rankings, but look at who they’ve gotten from the portal. They’ve gotten talented transfers, especially this year. Garrison Brooks, D.J. Jeffries, another kid I liked in Rocket Watts. They’ve overachieved in recruiting.”