Muhammad's decision has implications for western powers
AK Murthy
The recruiting world took center stage on ESPN's college basketball signing day special yesterday, as top 2012 prospect Shabazz Muhammad announced his intent to play collegiately for UCLA. Not only do we have a clearer picture of next year's college hoops landscape, but Muhammad's decision has plenty of implications on the programs vying for dominance out west.
Let's not sugar coat anything. For the past two years, the former Pac-10 and current Pac-12 have been bad. Like, awful. The MWC, among other upstart mid-major conferences, have been out-achieving the Pac to the point where their status as a "Power Six" league was rightfully challenged.
But like so many things, college basketball is cyclical. Good programs don't stay down forever, and though all the Pac-12's heavyweights seemingly went dormant at the same time, they won't stay that way. Dormant volcanoes can still erupt violently, and that's what we're about to see happen to the Pac-12 in the 2012-13 season and beyond.
To be clear, it's not simply the addition of Muhammad that's going to juice the Pac-12 back to national prominence, individual players don't make or break conferences. Muhammad is a big boost, but it's the abundance of 2012 stars who are also going or staying westward that is going to resurrect the conference.
Muhammad is joined at UCLA by fellow five star prospect Kyle Anderson, who is also lauded as a program changing recruit. Anderson is one of the nation's most uniquely skilled players, as he stands 6 foot 8 but plays the point guard position.
Between Muhammad and Anderson, UCLA has star power and then some. But they are also bringing in the sharp shooting Jordan Adams and are in the hunt for Georgia big man Tony Parker, one of the best uncommitted players in the country. Even without Parker ESPN slated UCLA as the third best 2012 class, but UCLA isn't the only Pac-12 program stockpiling prep talent.
Arizona, who had the consensus #1 recruiting class before Nerlens Noel chose Kentucky, is also putting a few more bullets in the chamber. Last year's post-challenged Wildcats squad will welcome a trio of top 10 big men in Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley, and Grant Jerrett, as well as one of the class' most dynamic scorers in combo guard Gabe York. The influx of talent should make last year a distant memory for all the Sean Miller-ites across the desert, as Arizona's young core gives them an excellent backbone for the coming years.
What we have here is the Pac-12's most historically dominant teams hoarding talent like nobody's business. If you'll allow me to wax poetic for a moment, as the league's shining lights over the last 25 years, a healthy UCLA and Arizona is good for the Pac-12 and west coast basketball in general. After falling from the precipice of college basketball's elite, both schools have sharpened their claws in anticipation of next season's opportunity to pounce back into the spotlight.
And that means only good things for the conference, because the only way the Pac-12 is going to emerge from its current lull is on the coattails of Bruins and Wildcats. UCLA and Arizona's star laden 2012 classes are a much needed shot in the arm for a league that has limped through the past 100 weeks or so, but on a more structural level, the new wave of talent coming through the Pac-12 is the first step toward the conference's reemergence.
