Talent distribution: the PAC 12
Now on to the 5th part of our look at how talent is distributed in the major conferences. For definitions, sources, or other potentially meaningless bric-a-brac take a look at one of our earlier pieces. So far we've covered the Big Ten, the ACC, the SEC and the Big-12.
Today it is the PAC-12. Since we're assuming that you've either a) read the earlier stuff, or b) clicked the link, let's just jump right in.
The PAC-12 currently has 35 players who were consensus top-100 recruits. This is nowhere near the level of the ACC (56) or the SEC (50), but it's close to the Big Ten (40) and the Big-12 (31, distributed among two fewer schools than the Pac-12).
Here is how that talent is distributed:
The short story is that UCLA is absolutely loaded. They have ten consensus top-100 players, and that claim can only be made by one other school in the nation (Florida). Arizona is also loaded with seven, while Stanford has five, USC three, and everyone else one to two - except for Oregon State and Washington State which are shut out of the top-level talent.
But the majority of the 2012 NBA 1st rounders were consensus top-40 recruits. We'll back that out to top-50 and see how it looks:
Again, UCLA's talent level is sick. Arizona's five top-50 recruits put them among the elite in the nation, and still they aren't even close to UCLA. Lot of teams settle into 8-man rotations come conference play, and the Bruins could do that will all top-50 kids.
Six other PAC-12 schools have one top-50 player apiece.
But what about the elite of the elite - the consensus 5* players?
UCLA and Arizona hold 8 of the 9 in the conference. If you're picking anyone else for the 1 or 2 spots during the regular season, you're probably going to be wrong.
