Hoosiers hold at No. 1 in team recruiting rankings
November's early signing period is just a few months away. With seniors making official visits each weekend, the pool of available 2012 prospects continues to shrink as schools across the country look to bolster their recruiting classes. Because of that, it's time to update the team recruiting rankings for the senior class.
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While the rankings have been updated, the team up top remains the same. As they've done for a while, Tom Crean and the Indiana Hoosiers continue to keep a firm grip on the top spot in the rankings.
There haven't been any recent additions to the Hoosiers' class, but their stable of mostly local talent remains quite impressive. Leading the way are five-star talents Kevin Ferrell and Hanner Perea who are surrounded by a talented and capable group.
There hasn't been much change for the Hoosiers, but Providence roars into the rankings at No. 2 thanks to some impressive work from first-year head coach Ed Cooley and his staff. The Friars have landed a pair of national top 10 prospects, and what figures to be an instant impact backcourt in the Big East, in shooting guard Ricardo Ledo and point guard Kris Dunn.
Checking into the third spot is Arizona. Sean Miller and his staff continue to prove that they are formidable foes on the recruiting trail as evidenced by their ability to continue to draw five-star talent like power forward Brandon Ashley.
Thanks in large part to the rapid ascension of New Zealand-bred big man Steven Adams, Jamie Dixon and Pittsburgh enter the rankings in the No. 4 spot. Just as Pitt has packaged a steady, winning point guard like James Robinson with a potentially dominant big man, Baylor checks in at No. 5 by packaging top-five big man Isaiah Austin with the always steady and reliable L.J. Rose.
Looking at things from a conference standpoint, there are a total of seven conferences represented. While the landscape of conferences looks to be pretty unstable, the Big Ten (Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue), ACC (North Carolina, Florida State, Virginia, Maryland) and Big East (Providence, Pitt, Villanova, St. John's) share honors for most teams in the top 20 with four each. The SEC (Florida, Mississippi State) and Big 12 (Baylor, Texas) are the other multi-program conferences while the Atlantic 10 (Xavier) and Mountain West (UNLV) each have one representative amongst the nation's top 20 early recruiting classes.
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