We asked you which college basketball recruits you wish your school got. Here’s what you said.

You never forget the one that got away. Just ask a college basketball fan.

There’s a unique anxiety that comes with following recruiting for any devoted fan of a college basketball program. Your emotions are directly tied to the whim of a teenager, and the only thing on the line is the next one to four years of your happiness. There is no other sport that feels so fragile when it comes to assembling talent.

With recruiting season in full swing, we asked for your school’s most heartbreaking recruiting misses:

The answers ranged from 1974 to just last season. There are NBA superstars and players who were just damn good at the college level. This is what you told us.

Wade Houston was Louisville’s first ever African-American player. He was hired as an assistant coach in 1976 and held the position for 13 years. In 1988, he landed one of his biggest recruits: his son, Allan Houston.

Just before Allan Houston was set to arrive on campus, Wade was hired as the head coach at Tennessee. Allan was granted his release from Louisville and went on to become the Volunteers’ all-time leading scorer. He averaged more than 20 points per game all four years of his career.

What stings for Louisville fans is Houston’s Tennessee teams were consistently underwhelming, finishing with a 60-68 record over his four years and never making the NCAA tournament. Meanwhile, the Cards made the tournament three times over that span, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 1993 during Houston’s senior year.

The common thread here is that all of these NBA superstars were overlooked as recruits. Thompson was the only top-100 prospect of the bunch, and he checked in at No. 53 in the 2008 class rankings way, according to ESPN.

Wade was once considered the fifth best player in the state of Illinois before leading Marquette to the Final Four and becoming a top-five NBA draft pick. Curry’s father, Dell, was a legend at Virginia Tech but the Hokies only extended him an offer as a walk-on. Westbrook recently said he nearly accepted Creighton’s scholarship offer as a junior before high major offers came flooding in as a senior.

The takeaway here is that nothing is guaranteed based on recruiting rankings. Otherwise, Josh Selby would be an NBA MVP and not Steph Curry.

It’s been a rough decade for Illinois basketball. It feels like the program still hasn’t fully recovered from Eric Gordon’s decommitment and eventual flip to Indiana. Jon Scheyer was coached by Bruce Weber’s brother in high school but still ended up at Duke. Villanueva reneged on his commitment only after Bill Self left for Kansas.

Still, the defining document of Illinois’ recruiting woes is Cliff Alexander’s hat switcheroo. The fan reaction remains gut-wrenching:

The story of how Duncan slipped through Providence’s hands is just painful:

In the fall of 1992, then-Providence coach Rick Barnes only had one vacant scholarship yet he secured a pair of commitments, one from top target Eric Williams and the other from a little-known center from St. Croix named Tim Duncan. When Barnes sought permission to sign both players, the response wasn’t what he expected.

“I knew we had a guy that was going to transfer, maybe two,” Barnes told ESPN.com for a piece on noteworthy recruiting hits and misses. “I went to our athletic director and we went to the president, who was a priest at the time. I told him I wanted to sign Tim and he said, ‘But you don’t have a scholarship.’ I said, ‘I will.’ He wouldn’t let me sign him.”

Two players did transfer from Providence, but by then Duncan had already signed with Wake Forest.

Bird was actually on campus at Indiana for a semester. Then this happened:

After less than a month on campus he dropped out of school, finding the adjustment between his small hometown and the large student population of Bloomington to be overwhelming.^[6] He returned to French Lick, enrolling at Northwood Institute (now Northwood University) in nearby West Baden, and working municipal jobs for a year before enrolling at Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1975.

Imagine Michael Porter Jr. dropping out of school to work a municipal job. Times have changed.

Please, go read the great Bill Connelly at Rock M Nation about how missing on Hansbrough altered the trajectory of Mizzou Hoops. Yes, it’s two parts. Fortunately, things are a little better for the Tigers these days.

Monk’s commitment to Kentucky over his hometown program of Arkansas — where his brother once starred as a wide receiver — endures as one of the most painful recruiting misses of the last few years. The entire Arkansas team used to show up to his high school games.

Florida State was once thought to be the favorite for Wiggins. Both of his parents were athletes at FSU. The student body pulled out all the stops for his official visit:

He still landed at Kansas.

Just remember college basketball fans: The next time a prized recruit chooses another school, you are not alone. It happens to everyone.