Rivals150 Revisited: 2009 Edition

In a somewhat annual event, I took a closer look at the final Rivals150 rankings for this fall's incoming freshman to see how the Big Ten recruiting fared in the nation's eyes.

"A bit better" was the answer, perhaps in part due to last season's league-wide improvement. Again the Big Ten ranked fifth among all conferences. But the 19 signees were up slightly from a year ago despite a drop in the total number of Top 150 recruits Big Ten states produced ... all without Ohio State signing a single player for 2009.

As you can see below, it was a down year among Ohio preps. Conversely, Minnesota churned out a bumper crop. And as we know, the Illini are back on their horses when it comes to recruiting and Bruce Weber got a good chunk of his in-state talent to stick around. So did Thad Matta just luck out that he didn't need any players this year or was this a part of his master plan?

Here's where coaching comes into play when looking at these lists. The SEC (17) ranked just behind the Big Ten in total Top 150 signees, but landed eight of the top 30 recruits -- seven of them five-star recruits. The Big Ten only had one five-star recruit (Royce White) in the top 30. Even when you factor in the Calipari effect at Kentucky, this is a big disparity. However, last year's performances back up the notion that the Big Ten is set up very well to take advantage of the talent it does get. We'll see if that continues this season.

2009 Rivals150 recruits: 19
Indiana: 5
Illinois: 4
Michigan: 2
Michigan State: 2
Minnesota: 2
Wisconsin: 2
Penn State: 1
Purdue: 1

Players-by-State in 2009 Rivals150: 27 (2008: 30)
Illinois: 7 (7)
Minnesota: 5 (2)
Indiana: 4 (4)
Pennsylvania: 4 (3)
Michigan: 3 (2)
Wisconsin: 3 (1)
Ohio: 1 (9)
Iowa: 0 (2)

Same rules as last year apply for why I pulled this particular data, though I should note one thing. I counted D.J. Richardson as an Illinois product and Johnnie Lacy as a Wisconsin product since these players went the prep school route for their final year only. If you look strictly at the "hometowns" that Rivals provides, you get a skewed picture of which states produce the most talent each year based on the prep school powerhouses that are based in states like New Hampshire (Brewster Academy, Tilton School), Nevada (Findlay Prep), Virginia (Oak Hill Academy, Hargrave Military) and Massachusetts (Notre Dame Prep).

Statsheet.com uses the RSCI rankings to provide a plethora of info, charts and graphs on this same subject. Over the last five years, consensus Top 100 centers and point guards have been the toughest players to find. Only Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan State pulled at least one player from the RSCI Top 100 into the conference this fall.