Tar Heels top the ACC again
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The ACC stands head and shoulders above the other power conferences on the recruiting front in 2010 with seven teams in the top 25. North Carolina leads the way in the ACC (No. 3 overall) after winning an intense recruiting battle for Harrison Barnes. He joins fellow five-star Reggie Bullock and highly ranked four-star Kendall Marshall. Duke has its top-10 prospect in Kyrie Irving. A balanced class with four four-star prospects has Wake Forest at No. 3 in the ACC. A couple of impact guards - Ryan Harrow and Lorenzo Brown - have N.C. State at No. 4 in the conference. Tony Bennett's five-man balanced class, in his first year at the school, places Virginia at No. 5. Maryland's class is led by a couple of four-star prospects in Terrence Ross and Mychal Parker. Florida State also boasts a couple of four-star recruits in Okaro White and Ian Miller.
Best recruiting battle
The recruiting saga of Harrison Barnes, the No. 2 overall prospect in the Rivals150, was certainly a classic. With practically every school in the country recruiting him, Barnes narrowed his list down to his hometown school Iowa State and Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and UCLA.
At one time Kansas was strong with Barnes, but his attention began to become fixated on the ACC. Duke had the upper hand early, with coach Mike Krzyzewski extending an offer before UNC's Roy Williams. However, once Williams identified Barnes as his top recruiting target, North Carolina quickly made up ground on Duke and eventually beat out the Blue Devils for Barnes' signature.
Top two classes
With Barnes joining five-star prospect Reggie Bullock and four-star prospect Kendall Marshall, North Carolina captures the top spot in the ACC recruiting rankings and the No. 3 spot nationally. More importantly, these were Williams' top three recruiting priorities, giving North Carolina a perfect record in recruiting the 2010 class.
Duke might have lost out on Barnes, its top recruiting target, but Krzyzewski still has a strong class headed to Durham, N.C. Elite combo guard Kyrie Irving leads the three-man class, which also includes top-50 combo forward prospect Joshua Hairston and Rivals150 combo guard Tyler Thornton
Deep classes
Wake Forest and Virginia landed five-man classes which have the schools in the top 15 nationally. Four of Wake Forest's recruits are four-star prospects, with forward Travis McKie (No. 50 overall) leading the way.
Virginia's strong class is even more impressive when one considers it was put together by Tony Bennett in his first year as the Cavaliers' coach. His prize recruit is shooting guard K.T. Harrell. Although he is the No. 35 prospect in the Rivals150, Harrell does not have much of a national reputation. Three of the other Virginia recruits are also ranked in the Rivals150.
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