In the midst of all this ACC and National Championship-winning action by Virginia's baseball and men's lacrosse teams, ESPN released late last week a very early college basketball Class of 2012 recruiting rankings. Checking in at No. 5 are the Virginia Cavaliers, whose most recent coup includes Rivals 5-star small forward Justin Anderson, who decommitted from Maryland earlier in the month and has been shown the light.
ESPN describes Anderson as a "high-octane wing with the ability to make game-changing plays at both ends of the floor." ESPN also compliments the complementing (see what I did there?) SF and Rivals 4-star Evan Nolte, Georgia's state player of the year, who can drive into the line as well as he can hit it from the perimeter while in transition.
Also, don't sleep on Rivals 4-star Mike Tobey, the third ESPNU Top 100 in the class. He's a 6'11" center with raw, natural talent -- talent which includes having good hands in the paint!! That's certainly a welcome skill set for Cavaliers fans. Remember Nick Vander Laan? Precisely.
Obviously this is a very early outlook at how the final Class of 2012 will play out, particularly as a number of other ACC squads have not yet made their big 2012 push (Carolina checks in at No. 4 while NC State comes in at 6th). That said, this is so far shaping up to be one of Virginia's most highly touted classes in quite some time, and I for one am excited to see where we are this time next year.