The final RSCI rankings for the Class of 2010 have been released, and while there is no surprise at the top, the end result is still no less impressive: Harrison Barnes is the #1 player in the Class of 2010.
Since the RSCI started in 1998, only Amare Stoudemire, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Greg Oden have been able to claim both the top ranking and an average ranking of 1.
You can now add Harrison Barnes to that list.
Barnes was ranked #1 by 5 of the 6 services in the index (plus Bob Gibbons, who was removed). He was prevented from becoming the 4th unanimous #1 by Rivals, which went (way) against the grain by naming Josh Selby as its top recruit. Barnes also joins LeBron James as the only two wing forwards to ever hold the top spot (no WG ever has). No word yet if this means we should all book our calendars for a decade from now, when Barnes will use the thing that replaced, the thing that replaced, the thing that replaced Skype to tell a national audience which NBA team he will sign with...
As for the other Tar Heel recruits, Reggie Bullock received a cumulative ranking of 15 (#2 WG) and, despite being the 8th-ranked PG, Kendall Marshall came in at #25 overall, which is generally considered the cutoff for the 5-star / 4-star designation.
As far as class rankings go, UNC's class tallied 262 points, which trailed only Kentucky (407 points) and Memphis (298 points). Classes are ranked by the RSCI based on assigned point values to each recruit that are inversely related to their position on the Index (i.e. Barnes = 100 points, Sullinger = 99 points, etc.). The 407 scored by Kentucky is the 3rd highest score in the history of the RSCI, trailing only Duke's 2002 class (421 points) and UNC's 2006 recruiting haul (426 points). It should also be noted that most of the players in the Duke and Carolina classes stayed in college for at least 3 years. I have a sneaking suspicion that the same will not be true of the 2010 Kentucky class.