New England 2012 Rankings Announced

New England Recruiting Report | Monday, February 13th, 2012

Typically lost within the specific order of updated rankings, are the greater stories about the respective class as a whole.  The class of 2012 is no different as there are a number of intriguing storylines. 

Top among them is the amount of change this class has endured, not just in terms of the rankings, but the players within the class as guys like Andre Drummond, Khem Birch, and Alex Murphy where all previously listed in 2012 only to move on to college a year earlier than originally planned. 

But with the former top ranked player in the country now a freshman at UConn, the new top ranked player in the country is once again from New England, as Nerlens Noel has been moved to 2012 rankings as he continues the process of reclassifying back from the class of 2013. 

Even without the likes of Drummond, Birch, and Murphy, New England’s class of 2012 has turned out to be exactly what it projected to be several years ago – one of the region’s best in recent memory. 

Noel, Kaleb Tarczewski, and Steven Adams all sit inside the top six players in the ESPNU100 rankings, while Ricardo Ledo, Mitch McGary, and Kris Dunn give New England six total prospects in the top 25 including four natives of the region. 

Not only is that better representation than New England has had since ESPN started ranking college basketball prospects back in 2007, but it’s actually equivalent to the total number of top 25 prospects the region has had in the last five years combined.

If that doesn’t put into perspective how strong this class is then consider this – 2012 isn’t just top heavy, it also has plenty of depth.  There are four more ESPNU100 prospects currently playing in New England in T.J. Warren, Georges Niang, Jake Layman, and Nikolas Stauskas while two others (Jakarr Sampson and Amir Garrett) where ranked within last year’s ESPNU100 when they were listed as seniors.  Fellow post-graduates Myles Davis, Aare Thomas, and Semaj Christon are rated among the top 100 prospects in the country, but like Garrett and Sampson, not listed in the current ESPNU100 because of their status as post-graduates. 

Put it all together, and New England features not just six of the top 25 prospects in the country, but 15 of the top 100, meaning the class of 2012 is New England’s best in recent years both in terms of star power and overall high-major depth. 

In total, New England’s top 80 college prospects in the class of 2012 include: 27 prospects playing in Connecticut; 24 in Massachusetts; 20 in New Hampshire; 19 in Maine; 1 in Rhode Island; and 0 in Vermont. 

Obviously those numbers are skewed because of the location of various prep schools around the region so to put the true locals in perspective, the current rankings feature 27 New England natives with 12 coming from Massachusetts; 10 from Connecticut; 3 from Maine; and one from both New Hampshire and Rhode Island. 

To view the New England 2012 rankings in their entirety please click here.