The impact of the Avery Johnson hire at Alabama can clearly be seen as his second recruiting cycle comes to a close.

The early signing period for college basketball opened this week and The University of Alabama locked down a recruiting class that's been ranked as high as No. 2 overall in the nation. Johnson's personality and background has become a big draw in Tuscaloosa and the results are in the rankings.

It started Wednesday when the early signing period opened up. The Crimson Tide's three commitments all signed their national letter of intent, which was good enough to give the school the 24th ranked class in the country. Then on Thursday, Alabama had one of its biggest basketball recruiting days in program history when it beat out the likes of Kansas and Kentucky for two five-stars guards.

The nation's No. 7 recruit Collin Sexton announced his decision first on ESPNU and two hours later the state's No. 2 player John Petty made his announcement at halftime of his basketball game. Those two players vaulted Alabama to a consensus top 5 class for 2017.

The roster for the 2017-18 season is set to have six players that were ranked in the top 100 nationally out of high school when the season starts with Sexton, Petty, Reese, Braxton Key, Daniel Giddens, and Nick King.

The future is bright in Tuscaloosa and that newfound optimism is sure to be felt this year. Alabama opens its season tonight against Coleman Coliseum and the game is fewer than 1,000 tickets away from a sellout.

 

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