Last month, we started our Sales Pitch series by ranking the schools in the ACC based on the quality of their enticements for men's basketball recruits and then moved on to the Big East, where we examined whether anyone in the league can close the recruiting gap on Villanova. We followed that up with the Big Ten, and the biggest first tier we've seen of any conference so far, and the Pac-12, where UCLA and Arizona are keeping the rest of the league at arm's length.
This week, we continue our exercise with the SEC. Long known as a football conference, the SEC is stockpiling talent on the basketball side at a rate not seen anywhere else in the country. Five of the top nine transfers are headed to SEC schools, as are seven five-star recruits -- four more than any other league. Kentucky is clearly the powerhouse of the SEC, but the rest of the conference is looking to close the gap.
As a reminder, ESPN spoke with a wide variety of anonymous coaches across college basketball's top seven leagues (as rated by KenPom and other relevant metrics systems), as well as nationally relevant programs beyond those conferences, for our Sales Pitch feature. Over an eight-week period, we'll rank the programs in order of which have the best sales pitches for recruits and transfers.