Texas tops recruiting in the Big 12
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Give Rick Barnes and his staff at Texas a lot of credit. Having suffered through the recruiting saga of five-star DeAndre Daniels, the Longhorns rallied to lock up five-star point guard Myck Kabongo when he wavered. Kabongo teams with three four-star prospects from within the Lone Star State to give Texas the top class in the conference and one that ranks 8th nationally.
For No. 14 ranked Baylor, Quincy Miller is a top 10 prospect and four-star Deuce Bello is one of the most athletic prospects in the country. Oklahoma State lands right behind Baylor at No. 15 with elite five-star prospect LeBryan Nash and four-star scoring guard Cezar Guerrero.
On the strength of several spring signings, Kansas is the final nationally ranked team from the Big 12.
Outside of the nationally ranked classes, Texas A&M is the only Big 12 team with a four-star prospect in its class.
Best recruiting battle
The recruitment of LeBryan Nash turned into quite a battle. The winner, Oklahoma State, got the early jump on Kansas and Baylor because the five-star wing's brother Byron Eaton played for the Pokes and because of assistant Butch Pierre's close relationship with Nash's summer coach, Tony Johnson.
Baylor became strong during the middle of the recruitment but ended up focusing its efforts on Quincy Miller and Deuce Bello. Kansas made a late rally and nearly got Nash to change his mind after visiting for the Late Night festivities.
However, an argument can be made that the best recruiting battle in the conference was for five-star Ben McLemore. The native of St. Louis, who had originally hoped to sign early, became the center of an intense recruiting battle between Kansas and Missouri. Kansas won out in the end, but many in his family felt that Missouri was the best place for him and convinced him to hold off until the spring before he made a decision.
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