2012 Consensus Recruiting Rankings: Post-July

With Rivals releasing their post-July 2012 recruiting rankings this afternoon, we can now roll out our updated 2012 Consensus Recruiting Rankings.

There isn't much change at the top. Shabazz Muhammad is still the top prospect in the country with Andre Drummond sliding right behind him as the nation's second best prep player. And while Muhammad is the consensus No. 1 recruit, its not technically a consensus; 247 Sports is the only outlet of the five that we compile in our rankings to rank Drummond over Muhammad.


We'll get into the breakdown of our rankings in a bit, but before we do, some housekeeping. For an explanation of how, exactly, we came up with the numbers we did, click here and scroll down to directly below the spreadsheet. The only change, in addition to the new two outlets we have ranked, is that we've now incorporated a column titled change which, you can probably guess, is the difference between where the player was ranked pre-July and post-July.

To find the full rankings on their individual sites: Rivals, Scout, ESPN, CBS, and 247.

Without further ado, hit the jump and check out the 2012 post-July Consensus Recruiting Rankings and our breakdown:



The most interesting debate in these rankings comes at the very top -- Shabazz or Andre.

Most believe that, as of this moment in time, Muhammad is a better basketball player than Drummond. The 6'5" lefty swingman is a freight train attacking the basket with the ability to throw down dunks that sound like a cannon being fired. Once he figures out how to consistently knock down a perimeter jumper, he'll be borderline unstoppable offensively. Drummond, however, may have more potential. His size, athleticism and skill-set leave coaches at every level salivating. The issue with Drummond is that he has developed a reputation -- fair or not -- for coasting and showing a lack of effort. His potential is through the roof (one recruiting analyst told me that if Drummond had, in fact, entered college this fall, he would have been the No. 1 incoming freshman), but does he have the work ethic is reach it?

It begs the question -- do you rank a player based on how good he can be, or how how much of that potential he will eventually tap?

Moving on, perhaps the most interesting player in these rankings is Steven Adams. After a stellar summer and a dominating performance at the Adidas Nations tournament, the native New Zealander and Pitt commit turned into one of the most highly-regarded prospects in this class. He's ranked fifth by Rivals, eighth by Scout, and ninth by 247. But he's not in the either the ESPN or the CBS rankings, which is why he drops all the way down to 50th overall. Adams attended high school in New Zealand until this fall, when he finally enrolled at Notre Dame Prep. That move wasn't made until after both CBS and ESPN had released their rankings. Rest assured, he will be in them the next time they are updated. And his consensus ranking won't be double digits, either.


Despite not being ranked by two different outlets, Adams still jumped up 40 spots, but he still didn't crack the top five in terms of the biggest movers. That award would go to Colorado commit Josh Scott, a center that managed to crack just one top 100 (99th, according to ESPN) in July. After proving he could finished around the rim this July, Scott is now ranked by all five outlets, jumping from 134th to 67th overall, peaking at 47th, again according to ESPN. Jake Layman (up 65 spots), Javan Felix (up 64 spots), Prince Ibeh (up 56 spots) and Tyrone Wallace (up 41 spots) round out the five biggest risers.

Felix is the most impressive name on this list. He wasn't even in our rankings prior to July, but the talent point guard and Texas commit put on a show with his New Orleans-based AAU team during the month.

Perhaps the biggest riser during July was Marcus Smart. Coming into July, Smart wasn't ranked higher than 17th by anyone and sat at 24th overall. After a July where the 6'3" Texas proved to be a versatile and physical winner, he shot up to No. 10 in our rankings and no lower than 15th by any of the five outlets. Providence commit Kris Dunn had a similar ascent. The Connecticut native, and Ed Cooley's point guard of the future at Providence, shot up 21 spots from 41st to 20th and is now regarded as the best point guard in the country no named Kyle Anderson. Danuel House (43rd to 26th), TJ Warren (37th to 23rd) and Sam Dekker (45th to 31st) also shot up the top of the rankings.

Kareem Canty is without a doubt the biggest loser. The native New Yorker was ranked 85th overall -- and as high as 62nd by Scout -- prior to July, but he tumbled (at least) 52 spots and no longer has a place in any of the five top 100 lists we use. Anrio Adams (97th), Jordan Adams (103rd), Jordan Hare (107th) and Skylar Spencer (110th) all fell completely out of the rankings as well.
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Class of 2012 Consensus Recruiting Rankings

Wednesday afternoon kicked off the July live recruiting period.

For those that don't follow recruiting too closely, what that means is that, for the first time since March, college coaches will be allowed to physically watch high schoolers play at AAU tournaments and camps. For the upper-echelon programs, this live period consists of sitting in gyms and allowing the players you are recruiting to see you in the stands. For the rest of the country, its all about scouting. Finding the players that you think are going to slip through the high-major cracks but are good enough to have an impact at the mid-major level.

The start of the live recruiting period is also a perfect time for the folks that cover recruiting to update their top 100 lists based on the past three months worth of basketball. As such, it also means that we will update our consensus recruiting rankings.


First things first -- we've added two new rankings to our database. CBSSports.com is cleaning up in the world of college hoops media. For recruiting coverage, they've added Jeff Borzello, partnered with MaxPreps, and started a much-improved top 100 list. We've also added the top 100 list from 247Sports. I have no idea who puts that list together, but based on the writers I'm familiar with on the 247Sports network, I'm going to assume that its a reliable list.

Before I get into a breakdown of the rankings, some necessary linkage. You can find the top 100 lists for each site here: Rivals, Scout, ESPN, CBS, and 247. For an explanation on how we got the numbers and what, exactly, they mean, click here and scroll down below the spreadsheet.

And finally, click here to see the Consensus Class of 2012 rankings prior to being updated.




The biggest change here is the most obvious -- Shabazz Muhammad has taken over the No. 1 spot. The only publication that doesn't rank him as the top prospect is ESPN, and they haven't updated their rankings since late May, which means that the dominating performances that the 6'5" wing had in June have not been factored in. Its pretty clear that 6'10" center and Connecticut native Andre Drummond is the second best prospect in the country, while Isaiah Austin, a seven-footer from Texas, is third.

It gets fun after the top three.

Mitch McGary is fourth in our rankings, but he is only ranked higher than fifth in one of the five lists. He seems like a safe bet to be a very good player in the future, but the more interesting recruits sit behind McGary in our rankings. DaJuan Coleman is ranked fourth by both Scout and CBS, but he is outside the top ten is just as many lists. 247 has him Coleman at 12th while Rivals slots him at 18th.


Coleman is sixth in our rankings, while Kaleb Tarczewski sits right above Coleman. Coleman, Tarczewski, and McGary are all bigs, meaning that five of the six best recruits in the class of 2012 are big men. There's more -- 14 of the top 20 players in our rankings are big men, and that's not including Kyle Anderson, a 6'8" point forward. Rest assured, guards are at a premium in this class.

Breaking down rankings is fun and all, but what's more interesting is looking at how and why the rankings changed. Take, for example, Anthony Bennett. The 6'7" Canadian-native missed much of last season with a knee injury, but exploded up the rankings after dominating performances at the Pangos All-American and the NBPA top 100 camps. He went from 22nd to 7th according to Rivals, 66th to 11th according to Scout, and from 45th to 20th in our rankings. That ascent will look even more impressive when ESPN updates their rankings, where he is still sitting at 46th.

Another guy that climbed in the rankings was Adam Woodbury. After an MVP-worthy performance at the NBPA top 100 camp, Woodbury went from 74th to 39th in our consensus rankings -- including a jump from 99th to 50th according to rivals. Like Bennett, that rise will look even more impressive once ESPN updates their rankings. He's currently 57th, but Dave Telep said he probably deserves to be sitting somewhere between 25-40 right now.

I hope you enjoy poking through those numbers as much as I do. There's plenty in there is look through.
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