Mode Analytics, which previously mapped out where college football players are from, has turned its attention to the much more timely sport of college basketball. The map above shows which states have produced the most current D1 players, relative to their college-age male populations.
Maryland is number one, producing 58 players per 100,000 college-age males, followed by Louisiana (52 per 100,000), Delaware (47), Tennessee (46), and Georgia (44). 148 players hail from Indiana—which has historically produced the most NBA players and high-school All-Americans per capita. That's 43.4 per 100,000 college-aged males, only the seventh-highest rate in the nation. It might be time to take away the Hooiser State's basketball hotbed crown.
The interactive maps also let you toggle by position, conference, and team. While top recruits can end up anywhere, it's clear that major conferences are still geographically rooted. Here's each state's per capita production of ACC players:
Here's the Big 10:
And here's the Pac-12:
Finally, for the hell of it, here is each state's per capita production of centers. Wyoming has only produced two, so go ahead and roll your eyes at their per capita figure, but it's goofy to see that Iowa has produced eight to New York's 13, even though New York has over 800,000 more college-age males.
There are about fives times as many DI college football players as there are basketball players, so the sample size prevents these maps from delving into individual counties. It would be interesting to look at major metro areas, as many basketball centers—notably DC, Philly, and New York—draw talent from a larger region that contains more than one state.
There's plenty more to explore in the data; go check it all out on Mode's Github.