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.