Walter Clayton Jr. among ESPN's top draft prospects who were unranked in high school
The Iona transfer began to focus on basketball after giving up football as a junior in high school, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to limited looks from college coaches during his senior year. Despite being unranked by the industry recruiting leaders, Clayton led Bartow High School to a pair of Class 6A state titles.
The only coach to take a chance on him? Rick Pitino at Iona. The head coaching legend developed Clayton into the MAAC Player of the Year and a priority guard in the portal once both left the school in the summer of 2023. Both 247Sports and On3 gave him a four-star grade as a transfer recruit, with the latter recruiting service placing him inside the top 25 for that year's portal class.
Clayton narrowed things down to a few options and heavily considered following Pitino to St. John's, but Todd Golden gave him the chance to be a part of the program turnaround in his home state of Florida. From there, the rest is well-documented Florida Gators history. All-American status, an SEC title and a national championship are just a few of the achievements at the top of Clayton's resume after two years with the Orange and Blue.
"I don't care that these guys weren't ranked high, they're bad ass players and they're going to the Final Four," Golden said after Clayton helped orchestrate a comeback win in the Elite Eight over Texas Tech.
After four years, the unranked kid who just decided he wanted to play basketball instead of football is a potential first-round pick. ESPN recently included Clayton in its list of the top five NBA draft prospects who were unranked coming out of high school.
"Clayton's game took another leap down the stretch of the NCAA tournament," wrote ESPN.com national recruiting director Paul Biancardi. "He shot 43% on pull-up 3s and 41% on catch-and-shoot attempts, according to Synergy Sports. Scouts see Jalen Brunson-like qualities in Clayton's game. He's a mature plug-and-play guard with size, clutch instincts and the ability to impact games in a variety of ways. He's also battle-tested after navigating the SEC gauntlet for the Gators en route to a championship."
While other previously unranked high schoolers may go ahead of Clayton — Washington State Shooting guard Cedric Coward and Michigan power forward Danny Wolf are both projected mid-first rounders — Biancardi gives the Florida point guard a late first-round grade.
"Clayton should benefit from other college prospects opting to return to school and chase NIL deals. His draft range starts in the first round, with Orlando at the 25th pick, and he shouldn't fall past the 76ers at No. 35."
It's worth noting that the only other SEC player on this list was Tennessee's Chaz Lanier, who is a projected second-rounder. As far as identifying underrated talent at the mid-major level, Golden and the Gators have one of the top systems in college hoops.
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