Arizona's class among keys to signing period

This is the heart of the fall recruiting period, with home visitations, official campus visits and coaches scouring high schools and junior colleges in search of unheralded prospects.

Indiana's Mike Davis would like to wave hello to a big-time class to capitalize on a title game appearance.(Allsport)

The NCAA has continued to accelerate the recruiting process by allowing contact from schools to now occur during a prospect's junior year. That is one reason 64 of the Hoop Scoop's top 100 seniors have already verbally committed.

But there are still plenty of big fish remaining. The ones that will change the fortunes of the fall and determine just who is going to be great a couple years down the line.

Here are a half dozen recruiting scenarios, questions and situations that should be watched as the November signing period draws closer.

Arizona

Whom the Wildcats will wind up with is going to determine so much to so many other places. Arizona is currently in the mix with four of TheInsidersHoops.com's top 13 players:

1. No. 3 Ndudi Ebi, a wing from Houston;
2. No. 7 Brian Butch, a big man out of Wisconsin;
3. No. 8 Mustafa Shakur, a Philadelphia point;
4. No. 13 David Padgett, a 6-10 forward from Reno, Nev.

The Wildcats could get them all, they could get none of them. Though if history is any indication, Lute Olson is going to sign at least one.

Arizona is a hot program, enters the season as the likely preseason No. 1, and Olson is about to get enshrined into the Hall of Fame. Throw in a great campus, a history of getting guys to the NBA and plenty of media exposure and the Wildcats should be attractive to someone.

But which one?

If the 'Cats get Ebi -- riding the Houston recruiting ties of assistant Josh Pastner -- then Texas, Indiana and Duke lose out.

If they get Butch, then they beat out Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Marquette. Padgett is also looking hard at Stanford, North Carolina and Kansas. Shakur could wind up at N.C. State, keeping the momentum going in Raleigh, or ACC rival Virginia.

"Arizona could make or break a number of people's recruiting classes," recruiting analyst Dave Telep said. "They are the most tied up with guys, but for some reason are not getting a lot of publicity."

Which means they aren't the talk of all those internet recruiting boards. Not that Lute Olson cares. He always gets his share and leaves someone else out in the cold.

Luol Deng

The nation's top prospect (non-LeBron James division) is still officially considering a bunch of college options (Indiana, Virginia, George Washington), but this might come down to a head-to-head battle between Duke and Missouri. Which means it is Mike Krzyzewski against his former player and longtime assistant, Quin Snyder, for this 6-foot-7 small forward playing in New Jersey.

Interesting? Yes, this could get very interesting.

Snyder was in part responsible for rewriting the Duke recruiting manual during the 1990s. He helped turn the Blue Devils back into a national powerhouse, able to attract top players after a steady diet of Greg Newtons and Joey Beards left the program sliding toward relative mediocrity.

Upon arriving at Mizzou four seasons ago, he turned that program into a national recruiting force again and led the Tigers to the Elite Eight a season ago. He is a tough, resourceful recruiter, but can he trump his mentor? Or is Duke just going to grab the best player it wants as usual? Time will tell.

Indiana

The Hoosiers advanced to the national championship game a season ago, answering a lot of questions surrounding not only the coaching ability of Mike Davis, but the future of the program in the post Bob Knight era. It stands to reason IU should have a nice recruiting haul this fall.

And the Hoosiers might. Or they might not.

Currently IU has no commitments. But it also hasn't been told no by any of its top priorities.

Presently IU is very much in the mix with Louisiana native Vakeaton Wafer, a smooth wing, power forward Trevor Arizi of Los Angeles, tough forward Brandon Bass of Baton Rouge, La., skilled forward Charlie Villanueva and junior college big man Nick Dewitz, not to mention Deng and Ndudi.

That's six of the nation's top 20 seniors and a coveted junior college recruit. Which means the next couple of weeks represent a major stretch for Davis as he tries to build on the phenomenal season he put together in his first year as the Hoosiers' full-time coach.

He could put together a monumental recruiting haul. Or he might be scrambling for Plan B.

Valparaiso

Until the national letters of intent are signed, sealed and arrive on coach Scott Drew's desk, the question has to remain out there: Is Valpo really going to sign a recruiting class with three of HoopScoop's top 100 prospects?

Every indication is yes, the Mid-Continent Conference power has perhaps the greatest mid-major recruiting class of all time firmly committed.

The three-man group includes 6-11 Kenneth Harris of nearby Hammond, Ind., 6-6 Oumar Sylla of Long Island and 6-2 Jimmie Miles of Homewood, Ill.

All three have been verbally committed to Valpo for months and all three are adamant they will sign in November. Harris represents the highest-rated recruit to a non-power conference program since Adonal Foyle signed with Colgate in the early 1990s.

"It is certainly the best mid-major recruiting class in a long time," Telep said. "Sylla is a guy who I think can play at a high-major level. And with Harris, every guy who enters a league like that does that as a project. He enters as a prospect. There have been guys that good, but it is the result of Western Kentucky-like strides. This guy is a big-time player. He steps in and it is his league."

Trevor Arizi

UCLA is now in the hunt for this top 20 forward from Los Angeles Westchester and, if history is any indication, when the Bruins really want an L.A. kid, the Bruins get him. And this is a guy Steve Lavin could really use.

The loss last week of recruit Evan Burns, the city's best player last year, to academics, means the Bruins could use a talented young forward. They also don't want to miss out on the top city player again. But UCLA got in late with Arizi, meaning they have to make up ground on Florida, Indiana, UNLV and Southern California.

James Lang

All summer when you asked the 6-11, 330-pound center where he is going to school, he'd tell you Louisville. He has always said Louisville. The kid loved Louisville and loved Rick Pitino. The top-10 prospect verbally committed a month ago.

But if you ask his mother, Wanda Harris, she'll say it remains to be determined, and Alabama, UAB, Georgetown and Kentucky are all possibilities. The player lives in Birmingham. The mom lives near Mobile, where she has been meeting with various coaches without her son being there.

On Sunday, the Lexington Herald-Leader asked Lang's assistant coach at Central Park Christian about Lang's verbal to U of L.

"As far as the earlier commitment to Louisville, that's not valid," Donovan Broadnax said.

So just what the heck is going on? That is hard to say and depends on whom you want to believe.

Making predictions in the recruiting game is generally disastrous, but we will fearlessly make one anyway: Lang winds up a Cardinal; when you are that size, you speak for yourself.