Recruiting Winners and Losers

Now that Lance Stephenson has finally decided on a school (Cincinnati) and Xavier Henry is "staying at Kansas and that's final", the class of '09 is finally set. But didn't it seem like so much of this year's recruiting was done after the '08-'09 season ended?

Here is a quick look at the winners and the losers from the 2009 postseason recruiting process:

WINNERS:

• Kentucky
: this one should be obvious. The Wildcats hired John Calipari, who brought with him from Memphis a loaded recruiting class, headlined by DeMarcus Cousins and Darnell Dodson. Then, Cal added Eric Bledsoe, a top 25 recruit who will be backing up arguably the best player in the country PG John Wall. And does convinving Patrick Patterson to stay in school count?

Kentucky went from a team that made the NIT and looked to be losing their two best players to a team with one of the best recruiting classes of all-time and a consensus top 5 preseason ranking. All that, and they missed out on top 5 recruit Xavier Henry. Twice.

• Arizona
: Sean Miller found out quickly how easy it is to sell a player on the Arizona brand. Recruiting at a school that had just hired their fourth coach in four seasons and was losing their three best players, Miller was able to land five guys after being hired - Solomon Hill, Momo Jones, Derrick Williams, Kevin Parrom, and Kyryl Natyazhko. Add that to the fact that Nic Wise, a potential Pac-10 POY, returned for his senior season, and Arizona looks good to reach their 26th straight tournament.

• Cincinnati
: The Bearcats landed one of the best recruits in the country, seemingly out of the blue. Lance Stephenson was rumored to be headed to many places - Memphis, Arizona, Maryland, St. John's, Europe - but no one really knew Cinci was even an option until this past weekend. Combining Stephenson and senior Deonta Vaughn will give Mick Cronin one of the best 1-2 punches in the country.

• Memphis
: You would think after losing Coach Cal and all those recruits, the Tiger's would be considered losers. But Josh Pastner and his staff have been getting work in on the recruiting front. They landed a number of recruits in the last few months, headlined by top 25 '09 recruit Latavious Williams and top 10 '10 recruit Will Barton. But Pastner was also able to entice Elliot Williams, a Duke transfer and former McDonald's all-american, to come into the program. Williams could be eligible to play immediately due to an illness in his family.

LOSERS:

• Cincinnati
: Lance Stephenson may be a program changing basketball talent, but he may also be a program changer in the OJ Mayo sense. This guy has as many issues surrounding his character and eligibility as any recruit I can remember. From grades, to a documentary he may or may not have made money from, to an overbearing father, to his legal issues regarding an alledged sexual assault, this kid can't seem to stay out of an internet rumor. Cinci should compete for a Big East title, but at what cost? Mississippi State and Renardo Sidney could probably be put into this same category.

• Kansas
: Xavier Henry is coming to Lawrence, but just as Cinci will have issues with Stephenson, it is looking like Kansas may have some of the same problems. It is a range of issues - can Xavier get on board with Kansas's team-first ideal (Self has never had a one-and-done guy); will Carl Henry become too involved; what will Xavier bouncing after basically a semester (he isn't on campus now because he doesn't "like going to class") do to the Jayhawk program?; will he be willing to be led by potential first-team all-america Sherron Collins?

• USC
: The Trojans lost everyone: four players to the pros, four recruits to other schools (three went to Arizona), and their head coach. Kevin O'Neil has his work cut out for him.