FWIW, whenever the question of the biggest recruiting miss comes up I believe one of the most overlooked and significant one was Clem Haskins who graduated from high school in 1963. He was not recruited by UK and never considered it a possibility but grew up a UK fan. Unfortunately he had decided to sign with Louisville the month prior to UK officially opening up their athletic program to black athletes.
If UK had moved a little sooner and Rupp had taken advantage of it, it's likely Haskins would have been willing to sign with UK. This would have opened the path for Unseld to sign in 1964 and Butch Beard to sign in 1965, as one of their major concerns was the fact that they didn't want to be the first. And who knows who else after that?
The 1966 UK team would have had Clem Haskins and Wes Unseld. Beard would have been a freshman. If that had happened the entire fortunes of UK basketball in the late 60's and early 70's would have been completely different, and it's unlikely UCLA would have been nearly as successful as they were.
