UCLA Basketball: Writer Convinced 2023 Bruins Are A Top-Five Recruiting Class

With Berke Buyuktuncel and Aday Mara officially on campus, UCLA's seven-man 2023 recruiting class has officially been wrapped up.

Three of the members hail from the United States. Most recruiting services were able to see these players (Brandon Williams, Devin Williams, Sebastian Mack) in person, and thus they were ranked accordingly. Jan Vide (Slovenia) and Ilane Fibleuil (France) were later ranked retroactively.

Though Buyuktuncel and Mara were considered committed to the program, 247Sports had not ranked either player... until this week, when contributor Tracy Piersen did just that.

The ratings/rankings are in for #UCLA's international signees, and the 2023 recruiting class jumps up in the national team rankings: https://t.co/I9NzNd2uxl
— Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) September 5, 2023

Mara was ranked as the No. 15 player, nationally according to 247Sports. In the process, he was named a 5-star prospect. Buyuktuncel was ranked No. 36 nationally and is considered a 4-star prospect.

Collectively, Mick Cronin signed a monster class. It includes one 5-star (Mara) and six 4-star athletes (Buyuktuncel, Mack, Williams, Williams, Vide, Fibleuil).

With these recent updates to the rankings, where does UCLA sit in the national team composite rankings? According to 247Sports -- after ranking Mara and Buyuktuncel -- here's their top 5 list:

1. Kentucky
2. Duke
3. USC
4. UCLA
5. Connecticut

For any program to sign seven Top-100 prospects is a major deal. The crop Cronin is bringing to Westwood is a nice blend of future NBA talent combined with developmental types.

Mara and Buyuktuncel could very well be one-and-done types. Mack is getting a ton of hype based on his play from the summer. Vide and Fibleuil are two of Europe's most highly-touted prospects for their age.

Devin Williams played exceptionally well in Spain, and figures to be a major player once he fills out and gets stronger. Brandon Williams is at least a year younger than everyone else in this class. He's got a very tantalizing skill-set and one which could eventually translate to the NBA one day.

Even though Cronin may have missed out on a few of his earlier targets (Isaiah Collier, Andrej Stojakovic, Dusty Stromer, Jared McCain), the Bruins bounced back exceptionally well with an elite recruiting class.

If everything gels properly, we could be looking at UCLA as a sneaky NCAA Title contender.