5-star recruits like Terrance Ferguson are bringing basketball back in the SEC

Terrance Ferguson got a first-hand view at what an elite prospect looks like as he entered his sophomore season at Deion Sanders' disgraced Dallas basketball factory, Prime Prep. Ferguson was a rising sophomore still growing into his lanky 6'7 frame in those days, and the scouts that packed his practices weren't there to see him.

The main attraction was a burly point guard with an explosive burst to the rim who had just put the finishing touches on a dominant summer that would skyrocket him to the top of the class of 2014 rankings. Emmanuel Mudiay might have had a year of high school left to complete, but it was evident to anyone paying attention that he would be an NBA lottery pick before long.

Jump forward two years and everything is different but nothing has changed. Mudiay is among the Vegas front-runners to win NBA Rookie of the Year after being selected with the No. 7 pick in June's draft by the Denver Nuggets. Prime Prep closed its doors following years of financial mismanagement and a suspect academic reputation. Meanwhile, Ferguson has blossomed into the final remnant of the school's five-star past. On Monday, Ferguson put an end to his recruitment by giving a verbal commitment to Avery Johnson and Alabama.

Ferguson worked his way into becoming the No. 11 recruit (per 247Sports' composite) in a loaded class of 2016 by flying around the world with USA Basketball the last three summers. He won gold in Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates and Greece, playing for his country, with the last stop coming against competition two years older than him at the FIBA U19 World Championship in July. In the process, he's become a player that looks like the NBA prototype for a shooting guard.

Ferguson has the size (6'7, 185 pounds), shooting stroke and athleticism that pro scouts love in a wing. The class of 2016 doesn't lack hyper-athletic players at the top of the rankings with Malik Monk, Josh Jackson and Dennis Smith Jr., but Ferguson might have more bounce than all of them. His game is still catching up to his tools at this point, but it wouldn't surprise anyone if he follows Mudiay's path all the way to becoming a lottery pick.

Ferguson is the type of talent that conceivably could have played at any school in the country. Instead, he'll go to a football school that has only landed one other five-star recruit since ESPN started tracking recruiting in 2007. Elite basketball recruits aren't supposed to play in the SEC unless they're at Kentucky, but Ferguson is the latest in an emerging group of young talents choosing to play against John Calipari's Wildcats, not for them.

The SEC landed exactly one five-star recruit who chose to play somewhere other than Kentucky in the class of 2014, but that's starting to change. Just look at the top talent in the class of 2015: consensus top recruit Ben Simmons brought Antonio Blakeney with him to LSU, Malik Newman chose Mississippi State over Big Blue Nation and P.J. Dozier decided to stay at home at South Carolina.

A day before Ferguson committed, another five-star wing, Mustapha Heron, picked Bruce Pearl and Auburn. Take a look around the conference and even Vanderbilt has a potential lottery pick in junior center Damian Jones.

Of course, the SEC has landed elite recruits before. Bobby Portis (Arkansas), Jerell Martin (LSU) and the underwhelming Florida duo of Chris Walker and Kasey Hill were each deemed five-star recruits by ESPN in 2013. It's not like recruiting is everything, either: Florida was the top overall seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament off the strength of four seniors for a team that went to the Final Four.

Still, it's been a minute since the conference as a whole was as exciting as it is right now. Kentucky will still be Kentucky even if losing seven players to the draft means they won't have a realistic shot at going undefeated. Around the conference, nearly every program has a reason to be excited. Newman and Dozier feel like once-a-decade recruits at Mississippi State and South Carolina respectively, and a year later Ferguson can be just that for Alabama.

Alabama hired Johnson in part because his NBA connection might appeal to someone as talented as Ferguson. When he arrives in Tuscaloosa a year from now, he should have a strong group of sophomores to work with. Power forward Donta' Hall and shooting guard Kobie Eubanks headline a quality class of 2015 for the Tide, which should have Johnson's team set up for a serious run in the SEC next year once Ben Simmons gets out of the way.

#SECBasketballFever might have started as a joke, but it won't be for long. Football schools can hoop, too.