Marquis Rankin (carolinachallenge.net)
Since Wake Forest cannot hand-pick their basketball recruits after they blow up like North Carolina and Duke, it is always nice when the basketball staff is ahead of the curve and builds relationships early on with some of the best players in the nation. This seems to be the case with Deacon recruits in the class of 2011, as several have seen their stock rise significantly in the latest rankings released Tuesday by both Scout and Rivals. The main targets for Wake appear to be face-up forward Quincy Miller and athletic point guard Marquis Rankin. Miller, from Winston-Salem, and Rankin, from Charlotte, have been on Wake's radar for quite some time but have been also hearing from many of the top basketball schools in the country recently. In fact, Quincy Miller received an offer from Duke last week and Rankin unofficially visited North Carolina.
A couple other high profile names that Wake Forest has been in contact with lately include C.J. Barksdale and Trevor Cooney. Barksdale is a high-energy 6'7" forward from Virginia and Cooney is a 6'4" sharpshooter from Delaware. Definitely keep an eye on these names as well as the others listed below. Hopefully, the early work by Dino Gaudio and company will pay off in the class of 2011. It seems very promising at this point in time.
Prospect Scout Ranking Rivals Ranking
Quincy Miller 8 3
Marquis Rankin 16 13
C.J. Barksdale 25 50
Trevor Cooney 30 78
P.J. Hairston 19 23
Deuce Bello 40 46
Damien Leonard 22 15
Zach Price 38 52