Talk about your blasts from the pasts. Luke Winn at SI.com was writing about Patrick Patterson finally choosing Kentucky and how recruiting (and rankings) is as much about hope as anything else. Then he lists the top-10 recruiting classes from 2003 according to Rivals.com, as evidence that a top recruiting class means nothing:

9. Pittsburgh

Key recruits: Chris Taft, Aaron Gray, Walter Waters, Dante Milligan

A decent class, in that it produced two quality Big East big men (even if Taft was underwhelming at times) and three 25-win seasons … but the Panthers never made it past the Sweet 16.

This, of course was technically Ben Howland’s final recruiting class. Milligan transferred to UMass and is their 6th man. Walters never even came to Pitt (or academically qualified), and was released in August. His scholarship was given to Antonio Graves by Coach Dixon in August. Walters couldn’t even handle the academic workload at Cleveland State before disappearing. Aaron Gray was not a major recruit as Pitt battled Rutgers for his services. Taft was the only major recruit and his positive impact was his freshman year. His sophomore season, well…

Hard to imagine that was a top-ten recruiting class. Of course, looking over the rest of the top-10 they list, I almost believe it to be a joke. FSU? Oklahoma? Maryland? That was the top-3? Looking at the other classes, well, it’s astounding.

So, um, in light of that ESPN.com (Insider subs) has Pitt listed with the 20th best recruiting class for 2007 after the late signing period.

Coach Jamie Dixon had no spring signees, but his deep fall recruiting class made the top 20.

USC, Syracuse, Florida make the top-3. DePaul is #10 and Cinci is #14 according to this list.