DeAndre Ayton Commits to Arizona: What Are the Wildcats Getting?

Sitting in front of teammates holding up a "Hillcrest Prep Bruins" banner, DeAndre Ayton, the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2017, announced Tuesday night he is committing to the University of Arizona.

The best college basketball player in the country in 2015-16 was Bahamas-born Buddy Hield. The island nation might hold that distinction again in 2017-18 with Ayton—if he actually appears in a collegiate game before getting paid to play.

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More on that gigantic caveat in a bit, but let's first assume that—unlike Brandon Jennings and Terrance Ferguson, who committed to Arizona before opting to play overseas—this 5-star recruit stands by his commitment to the Wildcats and plays one season there.

If it happens, there's a good chance Arizona opens the 2017-18 season ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Head coach Sean Miller has a bunch of great players this season, but, as we forecast last month, Allonzo Trier is the only one who seems likely to declare for the 2017 NBA draft. Between Lauri Markkanen, Ray Smith, Rawle Alkins and Kobi Simmons, maybe one declares for the draft and the other three come back to join Ayton, 4-star point guard Alex Barcello and whoever else Miller still has up his sleeve on the recruiting trail.

That would be one heck of a rotation, especially if Ayton's game is anywhere near as good as he thinks it is.

"I compare my game after Kevin Garnett," Ayton said on ESPN's SportsCenter. "I can feel Kevin Garnett's energy when I watch film. He makes his teammates better; he competes every time. He has a motor and a great face-up game."

Scouts agree that the 7'0", 243-pound forward has at least that much potential.

Eric Bossi of Rivals.com raved in May about Ayton's motor, hands, rebounding and ability to find open teammates, calling him "arguably the best passing big man in 2017."

Renaldo Dorsett of 10th Year Seniors wrote about "the time Ayton ran in two minutes before tipoff and dropped 17 and 18 and beat North Carolina. He wasn't even a high school sophomore yet."

That exhibition game occurred in August 2014 while the Tar Heels were in the Bahamas for an international trip. That team had Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks, J.P. Tokoto and Justin Jackson, but it was the 16-year-old Bahamian who stole the show against that quintet of forwards likely to play in the NBA one day.

Fast forward three years and try to imagine what he can do with the added experience.

Scratch that. We don't have to imagine. In January, he had 52 points, 33 rebounds and 10 blocks in Hillcrest Prep's 71-67 win over Sunrise Academy, according to Tribune 242.

That's downright absurd. Those aren't just video game numbers; they're the type of video game numbers you get by punching in a cheat code to make everyone else smaller and playing the entire game in control of Anthony Davis.

If he plays college basketball, he's going to be special. NBADraft.net already has Ayton projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft.

But there's that "if" again, and get used to it, because it's one you're going to hear over and over again until Ayton is on Arizona's campus and given the green light to play by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

No matter how many times Ayton says he's committed to playing college ball, we'll believe it when we see it. Even if he wants to, he might not be allowed. That's because Hillcrest Prep is the latest in a long line of pop-up institutions that end up producing student-athletes who don't exactly meet the first half of that description.

Richard Obert of AZCentral Sports reported last November that Marvin Bagley III—the top recruit in the 2018 class—was leaving Hillcrest Prep because of "the negativity following the program."

Bagley's father was the associate head coach of the boys' basketball team, and he read the writing on the wall and skipped town with his sons. After all, the NCAA was poking around in the team's academic standing, USA Today kept Hillcrest Prep ineligible to be ranked in its national polls and the Hoophall Classic changed its opponent for a game.

As Obert noted, Bagley III had 51 points and 17 rebounds in a game on a Monday and was gone from the roster that same Wednesday. But Ayton remained with the program, putting up monster numbers while traveling the country.

According to another report from Obert in January, the prep school's program director switched the school's academic affiliation from Starshine Academy to Arizona Connections Academy, after the former was given this designation on the NCAA Eligibility Center's website: "Coursework from this school/program does not meet NCAA nontraditional core-course legislation."

Gregory Payan/Associated Press/Associated Press

That's, uh, not good. If you think Cheick Diallo and Tacko Fall had tough times getting cleared to play this past season, wait until you see how many reports of Ayton's coursework at Hillcrest Prep come out during the process of determining whether he took enough algebra classes to be qualified to dunk a basketball.

Adding fuel to the "might play overseas" fire, Ayton told SNY.tv's Adam Zagoria in July that more high school stars are seriously considering playing internationally or going straight to the NBA Development League.

"I think Terrance Ferguson opened their eyes up; I think a lot of dudes are gonna go overseas," Ayton said.

Will he be one of them?

As of Sept. 7, 2016, Arizona hopes not. Because if he's still queued up to become a Wildcat on Sept. 7, 2017, they'll be bearing down on the No. 1 overall seed for the 2018 NCAA tournament.

Recruiting info courtesy of 247Sports unless otherwise noted.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.