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College basketball rankings: Alabama adds to roster; Antonio Reeves' return has Kentucky back in Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
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Nate Oats has established himself as one of the best player-getters in college basketball since arriving at Alabama, where he’s consistently enrolled five-star high school prospects like Brandon Miller and J.D. Davison and heralded transfers like Mark Sears and Aaron Estrada.
Now Oats has done it again.
Jarin Stevenson, who was rated by some as a five-star prospect in the Class of 2024, announced a commitment to Alabama and added that he intends to reclassify to the Class of 2023. In other words, the 6-foot-10 forward now plans to play for the Crimson Tide next season, which is why I’ve kept Alabama at No. 17 in Version 18.0 of the 2023-24 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings despite my decision to (for now) remove North Dakota State transfer Grant Nelson from the Crimson Tide’s projected roster.
I added Nelson to Alabama’s projected roster last week after it was reported he was on the verge of committing to Oats’ program. He still might do it, obviously. But the situation now seems more up in the air than it previously seemed. So, again, I’ve removed Nelson from Alabama’s projected roster (for now) and will wait to revisit it when he formally announces.
The only other movement in Version 18.0 of the Top 25 And 1 is connected to Kentucky, which I removed from Version 17.0 after it was reported that Antonio Reeves was enrolled at Illinois State and planning to graduate and transfer out of John Calipari’s program. Now, Reeves is back at Kentucky and expected to play for the Wildcats next season. So I’ve returned UK to No. 25, which is where the Wildcats were previously ranked. That development pushed St. John’s out of the Top 25 And 1. So Rick Pitino’s Red Storm are now what amounts to No. 27.
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