Chet Holmgren's commitment to Gonzaga on Monday meant one of the strangest recruiting cycles in college basketball history is one step closer to finishing. There hasn't been in-person recruiting, campus visits, in-home meetings or coaches scouting players in gyms in more than a year. The 2021 class has survived, however, and for the most part, the recruiting class rankings don't look too different from previous years.
With just a few ESPN 100 prospects still on the board in 2021, here are the big storylines for the updated class rankings:
Michigan remains No. 1: Very few new coaches in recent college basketball history have had the impact, both on and off the floor, of Juwan Howard. He not only led the Wolverines to a 1-seed and Big Ten championship this season, but he has them atop the recruiting class rankings. Moussa Diabate and Caleb Houstan are legit one-and-done prospects and should be able to keep the momentum Howard is building in Ann Arbor.
Gonzaga continues growth into powerhouse: Six straight second-weekend NCAA tournament appearances, 1-seeds in three of the past four NCAA tournaments, 30-plus wins in five straight seasons -- and now the No. 1 recruit in the country. Mark Few and Gonzaga are a legitimate college basketball power. Jalen Suggs set the tone last year as the program's highest-ranked recruit, and the top-ranked senior Holmgren (and five-star guard Hunter Sallis) takes it up another level.