Brooks and Hart Bring Strong Recruiting Experience to Kentucky

Mark Pope has made major steps in building a coaching staff at Kentucky by recently naming Alvin Brooks III and Jason Hart as two of his top three assistants who will share recruiting duties along with Cory Fueger who came to UK from BYU with Fox. Brooks will also be named Associate Head Coach.

The hires are receiving national recognition and praise from those in the college basketball and recruiting industries. Between Brooks and Hart, there were nine five-stars, and 23 top-100 recruits according to Rivals who joined each program while both were at their respective schools.

Both coaches definitely left their schools in better shape than when they arrived. There was a National Championship, a Final Four, two Elite Eight's and three Sweet 16 appearances during the combined tenures that didn't have a whole lot of basketball accomplishments to brag about previously.

The recruiting hauls are impressive by each coaching staff. We dug deeper to find out just how good it was. Here are lists of the high school players that signed with each university while Brooks and Hart were there. They were not the lead recruiters for all of these players, but is does serve as a measuring stick for exactly how good each staff recruited.

Alvin Brooks III joined the Baylor coaching staff in 2016. The first recruiting class that had his involvement was a year later in 2017. In that time, the Bears inked five 5-stars. Two more, Jason Asemota and Robert Wright III, had five-stars through much of their high school careers before falling just outside in the final rankings. Jeremy Sochan would have been a five-star had he attended a high school inside the United States. So the argument can be made that the five-star number could be as high as eight.

During that time Baylor landed nine players inside the top-100. But one thing is clear. The Bears' recruiting efforts got better and better over time. All eight of the top players signed since 2021. Only one player out of seven has been ranked outside of the top-31 since 2022.

Brooks has had a lot to do with that. He was the lead recruiter for Keyonte George, Jakobe Walter, and V.J. Edgecombe. All three are five-stars who were ranked in the top-15.

During his tenure at Baylor there ha begun to be a steady pipeline to the NBA. Jeremy Sochan went with the ninth pick in 2022. Davion Mitchell went at No. 9 as well. He transferred to Baylor in 2018 from Baylor. Keyonte George was drafted at No. 16 in 2023. Kendall Brown was drafted in the second round at No. 48 in 2022, and Jared Butler went a year earlier in the 40th spot. Edgecombe is considered to be a lock for the 2025 draft.

Jason Hart came to USC in 2013, and stayed through 2021. Andy Enfield served as the head coach the entire time, and despite being a football school the staff pulled their fair share of impressive recruiting coups.

The Trojans landed four five-stars between 2018 and 2020 with Evan Mobley being the highest rated player at No. 4, and the most notable. There were also signatures from seven top-50 recruits during that eight year span, and 14 inside the top-100. There were 11 new Trojans brought in who were not ranked.

Mobley was the third overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Other who made the league under Hart's guidance were Onyenka Okongwu at No. 6 in 2020, Kevin Porter Jr. at No. 30 in 2019, De"Anthony Melton at No. 46 in 2018, Chemezie Metu at No. 49 in 2018, Isaiah Mobley went No. 49 of the second round in the 2022 draft.

Hart wasn't done there. As the Head Coach of the NBA G-League Ignite from 2021 through 2024, he directed such future NBA talents as Scoot Henderson who went third in 2023, and Dyson Daniels who was the eighth pick in 2021. Ronald Holland, Matas Buzelis, and Dink Pate are other players under Hart's leadership who are expected to walk across the NBA Draft stage this coming June.