Arizona Basketball: Top 5 recruiting classes under Sean Miller

No.2 – Class of 2017

National rank: 3rd

Pac-12 rank: 1st

Players: Deandre Ayton, Brandon Randolph, Ira Lee, Alex Barcello, and Emmanuel Akot

Leading freshman scorer: Deandre Ayton led all freshman and team in 20.1 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game.

The Class of 2017 is No.2 for a couple of reasons, but the true reason is that they only had one true star, Deandre Ayton. The other four had the skillset to be great their freshman season but never put up the numbers to put them at the No.1 spot.

What Ayton accomplished in just one season for Arizona Basketball as a 7-foot freshman was GOAT like. Records, Pac-12 and National year-end accolades, Ayton dominated college basketball. Yes, he wasn’t able to get the Wildcats past the first round of the NCAA Tournament but that shouldn’t take away what he did at Arizona.

Ayton, of course, went on to become the first-ever player in Arizona Basketball history to be drafted as the No.1 pick in the NBA Draft– that’s all. He has gone on to have a great start to his long career in the NBA.

Ayton was the only starter of the incoming freshman, the other four saw limited playing time off the bench. No one received more than 11 minutes per game. Brandon Randolph had the most points of the bench with 3.7 points per game, followed by Alex Barcello and Ira Lee with 2.4 points per game and Emmanuel Akot had only 1.8 points per game.

Reason for lack of minutes is because the Wildcats had a core starting lineup that played a majority of the season. Not known to really use his bench, Miller didn’t really give them the chance to showcase the talents. After the 2017-18 season was done, the entire starting lineup left, which opened up the door for these four to shine.