Serious question, can anyone here name the last 5 star recruit who actually graduated after spending 4 years at a school?
I was curious to the answer to this question, so I did some research and compiled a list of all 5-star rated recruits as rated by 247sports.com (yes results may slightly differ had I used ESPN/Rivals etc - this was just first and easiest to grab) from 2006-2019 - the "1 and done" era since the 2006 NBA CBA.
There were a total of 357 5-star recruits in this 14 year period (average of 25.5 per year).
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To answer the explicit question stated above - the most recent 5-star recruit(s) to either play all 4 seasons and run out of eligibility, or stay in school for 4 years until they graduated (but may have played less seasons due to injury/transfer) are:
From 2019:
1) Jalen Adams - UConn (recruiting class of 2015). Played 4 years at UConn.
2) Isaac Copeland - Nebraska (recruiting class of 2014). Played 2 years at Georgetown and 2 years at Nebraska. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
From 2018:
1) Theo Pinson - UNC (recruiting class of 2014). Played 4 years at UNC.
2) Marcus Lee - Cal (recruiting class of 2013). Played 3 years at Kentucky and 1 at Cal. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
From 2017:
1) Kasey Hill - Florida (recruiting class of 2013). Played 4 years at Florida.
2) Isaiah Hicks - UNC (recruiting class of 2013). Played 4 years at UNC.
3) Robert Hubbs - Tenn (recruiting class of 2013). Played 4 years at Tennessee.
4) Jabari Bird - Cal (recruiting class of 2013). Played 4 years at Cal.
5) Isaac Hamilton - UCLA (recruiting class of 2013). Played 3 years at UCLA after missing freshman year.
6) Austin Nichols - Virginia (recruiting class of 2013). Played 2 years at Memphis and 1 year at Virginia. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
7) Rodney Purvis - UConn (recruiting class of 2012). Played 1 year at NC State and 3 years at UConn. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
8) Rasheed Sulaimon - Maryland (recruiting class of 2012). Played 3 years at Duke and 1 year at Maryland. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
9) Danuel House - Texas A&M (recruiting class of 2012). Played 2 years at Houston and 2 years at Texas A&M. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
From 2016:
1) Alex Poythress - UK (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at UK.
2) Kaleb Tarczewski - Arizona (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at Arizona.
3) Kris Dunn - Providence (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at Providence.
4) Cameron Ridley - Texas (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at Texas.
5) Yogi Ferrell - Indiana (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at Indiana.
6) DaJuan Coleman - Syracuse (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at Syracuse.
7) Tony Parker - UCLA (recruiting class of 2012). Played 4 years at UCLA.
8) Devonta Pollard - Houston (recruiting class of 2012). Played 1 year at Alabama and 2 years at Houston. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
9) Kyle Wiltjer - Gonzaga (recruiting class of 2011). Played 2 years at Kentucky and 2 years at Gonzaga. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
10) Dorian Finney-Smith - Florida (recruiting class of 2011). Played 1 year at VaTech and 3 years at Florida. Sat out 1 year for transfer.
Those who we can add to the list pending for 2020:
1) Mustapha Heron - St.John's (recruiting class of 2016). Played 2 years at Auburn and 2 years at St.John's. Did not sit any years.
2) Andrew Jones - Texas (recruiting class of 2016). Played 4 years at Texas.
3) Carlton Bragg Jr - New Mexico (recruiting class of 2015). Played 2 years at Kansas and 2 years at UNM. Sat 1 year for transfer.
4) Chase Jeter - Arizona (recruiting class of 2015). Played 2 years at Duke and 2 years at Arizona. Sat 1 year for transfer.
5) Derryck Thornton - Boston Coll (recruiting class of 2015). Played 1 year at Duke, 2 years at USC and 1 year at BC. Sat 1 year for 1st transfer.
6) Dwayne Morgan - S Utah (recruiting class of 2014). Played 3 years at UNLV w/ a redshirt, and 3 years at S Utah with a redshirt. Did not sit any years.
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So we'll be at 29 over the most recent 5 year span.
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Looking only at players who were NOT on a college roster for the 2019-20 season - that left 310 of the 357 5-star recruits who have "completed" their college experience.
Of those players the average # of years a player spent at the college they initially signed with out of HS was: 1.85 years.
The average # of years a player spent at any/all colleges was: 1.97 years.
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If you look at the averages on a yearly basis from recruiting years 2006-2016 (2016 being the last year with 4 complete years of data).
Year : Avg # Years at 1st school / Avg # Years in college total
2006: 2.29 / 2.33
2007: 2.16 / 2.16
2008: 2.19 / 2.29
2009: 2.56 / 2.68
2010: 1.88 / 2.28
2011: 1.96 / 2.31
2012: 2.27 / 2.58
2013: 2.08 / 2.21
2014: 1.57 / 1.65
2015: 1.64 / 1.68
2016: 1.31 / 1.31
If you plot those values and fit a linear regression trend line (really wish I could embed images here :( ) - you get a slope of -0.086 and -0.087 respectively. Which means on average guys are spending ~.09 years less in school per year, or about 0.9 years per decade. Which jives considering in the 11 years above we went from basically 2.3 years to 1.3 years on average - thus a loss of a year per decade.
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If you want raw percentages out of 310 recruits who did not participate in 2019-20 season (out of 357 total).
players with 0 years: 14/310 = 4.52% (went overseas or sat out etc.)
players with 1 years: 131/310 = 42.26% (the 1-and-done's)
players with 2 years: 69/310 = 22.26%
players with 3 years: 44/310 = 14.19%
players with 4+ years: 52/310 = 16.77%