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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Roster-building in men’s college basketball is an art. Or a nonstop pain in the neck, if you ask coaches. So perhaps it’s instructive to take a look at how the teams that are in this year’s Final Four were built.
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Drawing a sweeping conclusion about results from the often random NCAA Tournament is a dicey proposition. But for the second straight year, the Final Four is noticeably light on blue-chip recruits. Last year’s quartet of UConn, San Diego State, Florida Atlantic and Miami didn’t feature a single McDonald’s All-American. This year’s group — UConn, Purdue, NC State and Alabama — has just one McDonald’s All-American and/or five-star recruit: Connecticut’s Stephon Castle. There’s not another top-35 recruit, per the 247Sports Composite, who didn’t transfer in on any of the rosters.
Veterans, not freshmen, continue to be a winning formula. We looked at the top rotation players from each Final Four squad to see how each team went about assembling its roster (in alphabetical order).
Alabama
Nate Oats has had no trouble attracting five-star talent to Tuscaloosa, including last year’s national freshman of the year and No. 2 NBA Draft pick Brandon Miller. But this Crimson Tide team is relying more on transfers, with five Division I transfers and a junior college import. Bama’s top three scorers — Mark Sears (Ohio), Aaron Estrada (Hofstra, by way of Oregon and Saint Peter’s) and Grant Nelson (South Dakota State) — all began their careers at mid-majors. “Those guys are all mid-major players with a chip on their shoulder,” Oats said. “They played well enough that now they get an opportunity to prove they belong at this level, and they’re still trying to prove it to this day. They’re going to try and prove it Saturday that they belong at this level.”
Starters: Three seniors, two freshmen
Transfers (6): Sears, Estrada, Nelson, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (Cal State Fullerton), Mohamed Wague (West Virginia) and Nick Pringle (junior college, by way of Wofford)
Recruits: Rylan Griffen (No. 53 in 247Sports Composite), Sam Walters (No. 57), Jarin Stevenson (No. 106) and Mouhamed Dioubate (No. 112)
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Connecticut
Dan Hurley seems to have this roster-building thing down. Of course, it’s easy to say that about a guy who won the 2023 national title, lost three key starters and might win another. But this Huskies team is a mix of veterans who have spent a couple of years in the program, like Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban, plus some key transfers and the lone five-star, likely one-and-done freshman.
Starters: Two seniors, two sophomores, one freshman
Transfers (3): Cam Spencer (Rutgers, by way of Loyola Maryland), Hassan Diarra (Texas A&M) and Tristen Newton (East Carolina)
Recruits: Castle (No. 10), Solomon Ball (No. 45), Clingan (No. 56), Samson Johnson (No. 57), Jaylin Stewart (No. 66), Karaban (No. 95)
NC State
If there is a Team Transfer Portal here in Arizona, it’s definitely the Wolfpack. They have seven transfers, including the five players who have started throughout this postseason run. Kevin Keatts has tightened his rotation during the NCAA Tournament, so NC State is basically playing only the seven transfers. “None of those guys started at NC State,” Keatts said. “They’re NC State people now, don’t get me wrong. It’s a different world. Sometimes you have really good players. In our situation, we brought in eight new guys this year. Seven of those guys were from the transfer portal. It’s worked for us. It may not work for everyone else.”
Starters: Four seniors, one junior
Transfers (7): DJ Burns (Winthrop, by way of Tennessee), DJ Horne (Arizona State, by way of Illinois State), Casey Morsell (Virginia), Michael O’Connell (Stanford), Ben Middlebrooks (Clemson), Mohamed Diarra (Missouri), Jayden Taylor (Butler)
Recruits: Dennis Parker Jr. (No. 125)
Purdue
Evaluate, recruit and develop is the Matt Painter way. Purdue added one key transfer in the offseason — Lance Jones, who has injected the lineup with much-needed perimeter quickness — but otherwise this is a team of guys Painter recruited and convinced to stick around West Lafayette. And while there are four former top-100 recruits, the team’s two best players are Braden Smith, who barely cracked the top 200, and Zach Edey, who was famously ranked in the 400s coming out of high school. “We’re trying to sign high school guys and develop them and grow them,” Painter said. “We’ll have had two transfers in four years. That’s the fewest amount of any high-major program in the country, by a long shot. We just signed six high school guys in the fall. We want to continue to do what we’ve done, and we’ve been successful with that.”
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Starters: Two seniors, three sophomores
Transfers (1): Jones (Southern Illinois)
Recruits: Trey Kaufman-Renn (No. 44), Caleb Furst (No. 65), Fletcher Loyer (No. 96), Myles Colvin (No. 97), Ethan Morton (103), Camden Heide (No. 135), Smith (No. 198), Edey (No. 436)
(Photo of Purdue’s Matt Painter and Braden Smith: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
