Early signing period: Pac-10
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Arizona coach Sean Miller is proving that he can do it on the recruiting trail where his class of five-star Josiah Turner and four-stars Nick Johnson and Sidiki Johnson checks in atop the conference and at No. 9 nationally. In Jabari Brown, the Oregon Ducks landed the Pac-10's only other five-star prospect and the trio of three-stars - Brett Kingma, Bruce Barron, Austin Kuemper - was strong enough to give them the nation's No. 19 class.
Headlined by local star Anthony Wroten, who just missed the five-star cut, Washington checks in at No. 21 nationally, with the only other nationally ranked class. With one each, Stanford, UCLA and Arizona State were the other conference programs to land a four-star, while USC was the only other school in the conference to land a Rivals150 player in wing Byron Wesley.
Best recruiting battle
For the longest time, it seemed that the only possible destination for Brown would be Washington. The California five-star visited and liked the Huskies early. But Dana Altman arrived in Oregon and the Huskies took a commitment from local combo guard Hikeem Stewart. With Anthony Wroten looking as if he was going to Washington, the Ducks were able to sell Brown on becoming the face of their program and locked him up.
Earning honorable mention was Arizona, which locked up Turner by defeating Kansas and Arizona State. The Sun Devils landed local four-star point guard, Jahii Carson, who had initially committed to Oregon State.
California no longer locked
For years, the Pac-10 has relied upon the state of California to stock its rosters. While the state still produced eight Pac-10 signees during the early period, only four of them were among the Rivals150. In a somewhat surprising move, just as many ranked Californians chose to leave the Pac-10, as five-star Norvel Pelle, four-stars Juan Anderson and Wesley Saunders and three-star Kevin Bailey all felt the draw of other conferences.
Point of contention
Though it was a rough year overall for the Pac-10 on the recruiting trail, the conference did sign a trio of dynamite point guards. Turner at Arizona, Carson at Arizona State and Wroten at Washington are all competitive playmakers. That trio ensures that there should be some classic point guard duels in the years to come.
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