Scout Unveils New 2011 Top 100, Maryland Commitment Sterling Gibbs Sees Big Boost in Rankings

The guys at Scout never sleep, do they? Late tonight they pushed out a new set of recruiting rankings for the 2011 class, right after we sort of had our own, inter-Maryland rankings. This is a pretty big deal; Scout is (by most estimations) the best of the three mainstream recruiting services, and there's definitely no better singular scout than Dave Telep.

Before we list all the Maryland targets, a few quick things that caught my eye:

• Sterling Gibbs is officially a four-star, the #18 PG in the country, and #78 overall. Schwing!
• Adjehi Baru is officially on the radar, a four-star that's the #7 C in the nation.
• Jabari Brown, our #1, is #1 by their measure, too. He's #15 overall, a five-star, and the #5 SG.
• Rod Days actually fell and Greg Lewis and Devin Langford basically remained off the radar. No bueno.
• LaQuinton Ross isn't quite a five-star anymore, but he's still good; #28 overall.
• Lastly but definitely not least, Mikael Hopkins is the #2 C in the country. That's shocking, and yes, it's above Desmond Hubert (by a long shot). It's also above previous super-stud Angelo Chol and behind only Rakeem Christmas. That goes against almost everything I've heard over the summer, but wow; that's amazing.

Overall and positional rankings of important targets are below:

#15 - Jabari Brown; #5 SG; 
#20 - Quinn Cook; #3 PG; 
#21 - Kyle Wiltjer; #5 PF; 
#24 - Dorian Finney-Smith; #6 SF; 
#25 - Mikael Hopkins, #2 C; 
#28 - LaQuinton Ross; #7 SF; 
#41 - Norvel Pelle; #8 PF; 
#71 - Adjehi Baru; #7 C; 
#74 - Desmond Hubert; #8 C; 
#78 - Sterling Gibbs; #18 PG; 
#91 - Nick Faust; #25 SG; 
#97 - Deuce Bello; #18 SG; 

And some notable names, including every commitment from the ACC and some former Maryland targets.

#5 - James McAdoo (UNC)
#16 - Michael Gbinije (Duke - former MD target)
#27 - PJ Hairston (UNC)
#38 - Hunter Mickelson (Arkansas - former MD target)
#57 - CJ Barksdale (Virginia Tech - former MD target)
#64 - Marquis Rankin (Virginia Tech)
#69 - Trevor Cooney (Syracuse - former MD target)
#80 - Tyler Adams (Duke)
#86 - Jordan Goodman (Georgetown - former MD target)

VT is building a great class, Duke and UNC are Duke and UNC, but other than that Maryland is holding steady. This is good.