Recruiting rankings don’t tell you which players will ultimately succeed — just look at the top 10 recruits in 2012 — but they are a good measure of talent. Every coach wants to coach the most talented players they can, as long as they’re not complete head cases. Most coaches would rather recruit a ready-made scorer than someone they have to develop for years. Unless you’re making one-transaction recruiting pitches, it takes years to gather enough momentum to recruit those at the top of the class.
Colorado has recruited stars before and they’ve had excellent recruiting classes, but never have they had a surprise commitment from a top-50 player in a part of the country they don’t even recruit.