Last August, we highlighted the meteoric rise of center Xavier Booker from being on the cusp of the 2023 ESPN 100 to a five-star men’s college basketball rookie ranked in the top five. general.
Not all rookies do that significant of a jump, but it shows how much talent is needed to achieve five-star status. To climb the leaderboards, prospects need to hone their skills, develop their games, produce, and make the smallest adjustments to their games to improve.
Players build their resume with a combination of performance, production, potential and projection. Beneath the surface there are many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, such as effort, willingness to be a committed defender, playing instinct, body language and coaching ability.
There were plenty of high schoolers, ESPN 60 2024-ranked juniors and ESPN 2025 25-ranked sophomores who rose, like Texas five-star pledge Ron Holland, UCLA signee Sebastian Mack and the engagement of Butler Finley Bizjack.
But one thing is clear from the latest leaderboard update: we have a new recruit ranked #1 overall. It’s already a high bar to rank among the other five stars in the cycle, but to move up – even from #2 to #1 in this case – requires significant improvements.
We highlight 10 rookies who have taken their games to new levels over the past few months, starting with new top prospect Justin Edwards, continuing with Bronny James and ending with some key names in the 2024 and 2025 classes. .
