Arizona’s Sean Miller among the best recruiters in the country

It’s not exactly a secret that the best teams usually have the best players.

And in college basketball, the best players often enter college pretty highly ranked by scouting services.

While landing four and five-star recruits does not guarantee success, it certainly doesn’t hurt a team’s chances.

Of course, the top players know they are coveted, and thus have plenty of options when it comes to choosing a school.

Yet, a couple of coaches seem to stand above the rest, and one of them is Arizona’s own Sean Miller.

According to CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish, the Wildcats’ coach is behind only Kentucky’s John Calipari in the recruiting game.

Granted, Kentucky has been operating on another level with at least six more five-star commitments from the Classes of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 than any other Division I program. But Arizona has gained at least three more commitments from five-star prospects during that time than everybody besides Kentucky, which means Arizona is comfortably in front of Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and even Pac-12 rival UCLA.

Parrish says Miller’s success is even more impressive given that before taking the Arizona job in 2009 he had never worked west of the Mississippi.

But if Miller has proven anything, as Parrish notes, it’s that the best coaches can recruit wherever they are.

Now it’s up to Miller, who has never guided a team to the Final Four, to take his collection of talent to the next level.

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