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College basketball rankings: Bronny James' commitment moves USC up latest Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
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Bronny James ended his high-profile recruitment Saturday by publicly committing to USC. It’s a development that compelled me to move the Trojans up to No. 13 in Version 11.0 of the 2023-24 CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 preseason college basketball rankings.
James, the son of the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, LeBron James, is a four-star prospect ranked 26th in 247Sports’ Class of 2023 rankings. He’s a 6-foot-3 combo guard who enthusiastically competes on both sides of the ball and generally plays very much within himself.
On a surface level, James is not necessarily an obvious starter for the Trojans considering they’re enrolling Isaiah Collier, a 6-foot-4 guard who is the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2023, and bringing back Boogie Ellis, a 6-foot-3 guard who was last season’s leading scorer. Regardless, at worst he projects as a rotation player talented enough to add depth and shooting to a team that should be the favorite to win the 2024 Pac-12 regular-season championship.
Kansas remains No. 1 in the Top 25 And 1 thanks to the recent addition of former Michigan All-American Hunter Dickinson. A possible KU starting lineup now looks like this:
That’s a starting lineup with size, shooting and experience, one so strong that former top-35 prospects Arterio Morris and Ernest Udeh will likely begin games on the bench. Combine that with the fact that Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer Bill Self — a man who has made 24 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and earned No. 1 seeds in 10 of the past 16 NCAA Tournaments — will be the person developing the roster and coaching the team, and I personally believe the Jayhawks should now be considered the favorites to win the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
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