Looking at the rosters of the blueblood basketball programs - Kentucky, Duke, UNC, and Kansas specifically - all have multiple five-star prospects, and seem to land at least one five-star player (usually more than one) every year.

Meanwhile, it's been nearly a decade since Maryland has secured the services of someone in that elite category (Mike Jones in 2003).

To define an elite program as one that is expected to at least compete for a Final Four berth every year, is it necessary to get a five-star recruit every year to reach that level, or can it be done with players ranked in the 25-100 range; solid four-star players?

I'm not implying that we'll never get to the point where we start getting five-star players on a regular basis, just asking if it's possible to be considered an elite program without Top-25 players.