Hereâs the latest recruiting article from Thad âthe Mummyâ Mumau. Thadâs column runs over at smartnewsnc.com , and he graciously allows us to reprint it here. Thanks Thad!
Getting the cream of the crop, or at least their share, is nothing new for Atlantic Coast Conference basketball teams.
They signed six of the top 20 high school seniors in the nation, as ranked by prepstars.com, during Novemberâs early signing period. That is more than any other conference.
The Big Ten and Pac 10 share second place with four top-20 additions apiece. The Big East has two.
North Carolina is the only ACC school with more than one signee ranked in the top 20. The Tar Heels landed No. 8 Ed Davis, a 6-foot-8 power forward from Richmond (Va.) Benedictine High School and No. 10 Tyler Zeller, a 6-10 center from Washington (Ind.) High.
Other top-20 prizes heading to the ACC are No. 11 Al-Farouq Aminu, a 6-8 power forward from Norcross (Ga.) High (WAKE FOREST); No. 13 Chris Singleton, a 6-8 power forward from Dunwoody (Ga.) High (FLORIDA STATE); No. 15 Iman Shumpert, 6-4 wing guard, Oak Park (Ill.) River Forest (GEORGIA TECH); and No. 16 Elliot Williams, 6-4 wing guard, Collierville (Tenn.) St. Georgeâs (DUKE).
In addition, five other prospects ranked in the top 50 are headed to the ACC. Maryland gets No. 41 Gus Gilchrist, 6-9 center, Camp Springs (Md.) Progressive Christian and No. 49 Sean Mosley, 6-4 wing guard, Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances; Carolina gets No. 26 Larry Drew, 5-11 point guard, Woodland Hills (Cal.) Taft; Virginia gets No. 37 Sylven Landesberg, 6-6 wing guard, Flushing (N.Y.) Holy Cross; and Wake gets No. 43 Ty Walker, 7-0 center, Wilmington New Hanover.
Only four members of the 2007 top-20 club chose ACC schools, and three of those are at Duke.
The Blue Devils signed No. 5 Kyle Singler, No. 16 Taylor King and No. 20 Nolan Smith, while No. 19 J.J. Hickson picked N.C. State.
Three additional top-50 players wound up in the ACC.
UNC dominated the 2006 class, signing three prospects ranked in the top 10 and two more in the top 50. In all, ACC schools landed six top-20 players.
No. 3 Brandan Wright, No. 4 Wayne Ellington and No. 7 Ty Lawson headlined the Tar Heelsâ haul. Georgia Tech signed No. 5 Thaddeus Young and No. 19 Javaris Crittenton, with Duke getting No. 17 Gerald Henderson.
ACC signings from the 2005 class were headlined by No. 2 Tyler Hansbrough, who chose Carolina, and No. 3 Josh McRoberts, who picked Duke.
The Blue Devils also got No. 18 Greg Paulus and the Tar Heels added No. 19 Danny Green.
So, UNC and Duke landed all four of the top-20 players going to the ACC. Four others from the top 50 signed with ACC schools.
The 2004 class saw Carolina sign No. 5 Marvin Williams and Duke sign No. 11 DeMarcus Nelson. Nine additional top-50 prospects joined ACC schools.