Now in the meat of the first and early signing period, we do our best to decompress a bit and look back at what has occurred and what might happen in the days ahead. Before the end of the week, we will hit on a number of topics as our panel of analysts will give their insights on some of the topics at hand. 

Which outlier school made noise?

TCU hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1998. There are only a handful of players that are currently playing high school basketball that were even born when that happened. New head coach Jamie Dixon has been to the tourney 11 times since 2004. Everyone in basketball knows Dixon will help get the Horned Frogs back to the Dance. It starts with recruiting. Landing RJ Nembhard over the likes of Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Texas and Oklahoma was key. Snagging another Texan in Kevin Samuel was important. The top 125 level prospect had an offer list that went 20 schools deep. And on the first day of November, the Horned Frogs landed Aussie wing Lat Mayen, who many believe is the top HS senior from down under. The three-man class is top 25 level good. That’s historic by TCU standards. Returning to the NCAA starts in recruiting. It may have started with this 2017 class. –Justin Young

While I could say Western Kentucky, as Rick Stansbury has already done amazing work at the helm in Bowling Green, and Auburn, Virginia Tech, Washington, and Alabama have done fabulous work out on the trail, I am actually going to stick in the Big 12 here with my own answer. Sure, Jamie Dixon has done some things that many Pitt fans clamored for in recent years, but how about we look up to the top-ranked school within the league? Iowa State, a program that mainly relied on finding under the radar talent within the high school realm and working the transfer wire in the past, the Cyclones have put together a group consisting of three top-125 commitments this fall. Steve Prohm has never recruited for a school at the high-major level; not as an assistant coach and not as a head coach. That is until now. Sitting with the best class in a juggernaut of a league known as the Big 12, yeah, that’s enough for me in giving dues to what ISU has done within the 2017 cycle. –Corey Evans