Most of the guys listed as unsigned have gone to the new G League Ignite team for HS prospects, including Jalen Green and #15 Isaiah Todd. Kenyon Martin Jr was drafted in the 2nd round this year, eligible because he did a year of prep school after graduating high school. 

Howard can land a top 20 player and GW can't because Howard is an HBCU and GW is as opposite of an HBCU as there is. Simple as that.

The Dude wrote:

Pikiell and Hobbs landed a top 55 player, The Zags signed #6, (and 3 players in the top 65)  Kenyon Martin Jr, remains unsigned, as does the #1 ranked player Jalen Green.  USC and OK St landed 2 and 3, interesting turn of events.  

Duke has a deep class but notably no Top 10s, The A10 didn't sign one Top 100, a little disappointing, and one more noteworthy signing, #16 to Howard, 6'11 235 Makur Maker.  A VA product is 15,  and remains unsigned, super long shot but if Howard can land #16 why can't GW one day get a top 15?

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings/_/class/2020

We did once get a top 15: Yinka Dare. 

I realize that it’s a long time ago, but it’s probably once in a generation that we would land a player at that level.

Our best bet at a Top 100 recruit would have been Kwame Evans Jr. but I think that ship has sailed with all the high major offers he's received.  I don't think kids turn down a school like Kansas to go to their dad's alma mater anymore.

Unless this should change, it's really a shame that after playing Howard several times in recent seasons, we will not likely have an opportunity to go up against Makur Maker.  It's the type of OOC game that's being strongly encouraged this season (a short bus ride) and without fans, I'd "even be OK" (LOL)  playing the game at Burr Gymnasium or perhaps at the new Entertainment & Sports Arena (where the Mystics and Go-Go now play).

It's been reported that a big reason Makur chose Howard was because of the volatile racial climate of the country this year. He may not have selected Howard in any other year. The idea of highly touted black players attending HBCU's instead of BCS schools has been floated around by several outlets/writers in recent years due to racial incidents, a couple players gave a small consideration to attending an HBCU, but none were serious until Makur chose Howard in July. NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders took the Jackson State head coaching job a few months ago, maybe he'll be able to get a couple 5-star/top 100 recruits to sign with Jackson State during his tenure

The A10 may not have signed any top 100 guys out of high school, but a number of former top 100 transfers from BCS schools will be eligible this year, including Bishop and Moyer for GW. I'm expecting that most of these transfers will provide a significant boost to the conference.

The Dude,  the A10 will need a coach(es) to establish a string of NCAA tournament appearances/dominance before they can consistently land top 100 guys. Shaka Smart, Wade and Dan Hurley were landing top 100 guys before they left. Or a coach can give an assistant job to the coach of a big-time high-school program who then is able to convince a top 100 player(s) to sign, which is what UMass did last year when they landed Tre Mitchell. I expect Anthony Grant at Dayton and Travis Ford at St.Louis will be able beat out BCS schools for top 100 players on a somewhat consistent basis because they'll be winning and they coached at BCS schools before they arrived in the A10

Hugh,  I had no idea that Kenyon Martin's son was a 2nd round pick or even eligible for the draft, and I watched pretty much the entire draft!! With the fact that his father was a very good NBA player for years(#1 overall pick in 2000), I'm surprised that JR didn't go to college to improve his draft position. 

GWmayhem,  is it too late for GW to schedule Howard? If COVID causes cancellations of games, scheduling games against teams that are nearby seems like a good idea, especially Howard now that they have a high-profile, potential 1st round NBA pick on their team. 

The Dude wrote:

In all seriousness, Kansas vs GW aside... more broadly it is an interesting conversation, are you better as a top 50 (lets say top 50 vs top 15/top 100) attending Duke Kansas Michigan etc, competing for playing time, maybe sitting on a bench, maybe playing right away, or would you better getting 3-4 years being a star/one of the stars at a non elite power 5?  Let take VCU when they are A10 elite, or the kids that chose Xavier, back in the day, or the current kids picking Dayton??

Clearly there is some case to case, but if you had a son who was a top 50, would you take the best Power 5 offer???  How much of taking those offers, over say instant playing time for Dayton or St Marys (or yes, GW when GW is upper tier A10) is just about the prestige of big name schools?  Even if you are not a top 50 or top 100 out of HS like Obi Toppin, but have the talent of one, you will thrive in The A10, would Obi have gotten as much of a showcase playing for a ranked BCS team? Perhaps?
 

Dude, I reached out to a friend of mine, a neighbor whose son is actively being recruited by D-1 schools.  Without giving away who he is, I can say that he is part of one of the area's AAU Clubs.  I posed the question you asked, about why players invariably (or mostly) choose the Power 5 schools (even the bad ones) over the mid-majors where they could get more playing time and such, and he answered with another area to consider..

He indicated that the AAU coaches have pipelines, relationships with the Power 5 schools.  When offers are made, it can be highly beneficial to the clubs if their players accept these offers (or are strongly considering them), so that they will continue to get offers for their players in the future.  

Obviously the kids will do what they want (and their parents want), but I intuit from this this comment that when an offer like this is made, the coaches aren't necessarily motivated to push their players to lower conference schools.  This is just an opinion, not any kind of data-based fact, but I could see why it's tough for the A-10 schools to get the top 100 kids.

Further, I can see why so many kids transfer after their first year, when they see that maybe the school they chose isn't going to give them the stepping stone to make it to the pros, which clearly is going to be the objective for most top 100 players.

Something to think about for sure.

Really cool look at Makur Maker to Howard and possible impact the landmark signing might have...

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-does-makur-maker-mean-for-the-future-of-hbcu-sports/