Auburn takes commanding lead for Yohan Traore according to On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine

by:Jamie Shaw•03/24/22•

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Glendale (AZ) Dream City Christian five-star power forward Yohan Traore is expected to make his college decision next week. Yesterday, I put in a prediction for Auburn with 95-percent confidence.

The Tigers now hold a significant lead for Traore on the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM). My prediction gave Auburn a 93.6-percent chance to land On3’s No. 6 overall player in 2022.

Michigan is next with a 1.9-percent chance, then Gonzaga at 1.2-percent, and Texas Tech with a less than 1.0-percent chance to land Traore.

On3 released RPM to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.

It factors machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.

Traore continues upward trend in rankings

Traore used a big summer to catapult himself into five-star status. When On3 updated its 2022 rankings recently, Traore rose from No. 12 to No. 6 in the class.

On3 is higher than the industry on Traore as the power forward is ranked No. 17 in the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

On3’s scouting report on Traore.

“Traore has a strong frame. Broad shoulders. Moves feet well laterally. Can switch on screens, move feet with a perimeter guy. Good weakside shot blocker. Is comfortable facing up, can rip through and get downhill. Has developed his jump shot from 3-point range; is now a threat. An explosive vertical athlete. Runs the floor well. A solid rebounder can drift in and out at times here. Is undersized for a five. Moves in a unique manner for a 6-10. A native of France.”

Why 95% to Auburn

While it was known Yohan Traore was down to LSU and Auburn when he made his first decision, I explained his thoughts on Traore and Auburn yesterday in his Ranking the Contenders article.

“Auburn was the general thought of where Traore would end up the second LSU parted ways with Will Wade. Traore took note of the season Auburn had this year and the energy around the program. Bruce Pearl did a good job establishing a relationship. However, the Jabari Smith factor plays a significant role, especially with the sets run to get him the ball.”

I continued in my final thoughts, saying, “Jabari Smith has been all the rage in college basketball this season. While he and Traore are different players, they are in the same position. Smith was a big draw for On3’s No. 6 player in the class. Like him or hate him, Bruce Pearl does a great job of creating relationships with his players, and his enthusiasm just drips off him. Texas Tech and Michigan identified Traore early, and Gonzaga snuck into the mix later, but Auburn just offered too much for the former LSU recruit at the end of the day.”