Shabazz Muhammad: Top Recruit's Decision Will Shape Preseason Rankings

There have been a number of remarkable freshman in college hoops since the NBA mandated players to attend for at least one season.

Some, like Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist of Kentucky this year, have have helped win national championships. Others have earned personal accolades with regularity. Heck, Harrison Barnes was named a preseason All-American before he even stepped on a college court a few years back.

Shabazz Muhammad of Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) is that player this year.

Rated No. 1 overall by Rivals and No. 2 overall by ESPN and Scout, Muhammad is easily considered the most NBA-ready player in the 2012 class. 

He recently set the record for points scored at the Nike Hoops Summit, dropping 35 points and grabbing nine boards.

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports quotes on an NBA Western Conference scout saying, "Shabazz is by far the best player here. It's not even close. He's the only one who can play in the NBA tomorrow."

If that were an option, Shabazz reportedly would have considered it, but instead he's down to Kentucky, Duke and UCLA. None of those schools should surprise anyone considering the Wildcats and Blue Devils have each won a national championship in the last three years and UCLA has more history than anyone else.

Kentucky and Duke have also had great success with "one-and-done" players.

John Calipari has a great track record of putting star freshman into the NBA draft lottery and Mike Krzyzewski is no stranger to it either.

What these two coaches could do with a player like Shabazz, whose intensity on both ends of the floor is rivaled by none, will heavily affect the preseason rankings.

If he ends up with the Blue Devils, they'll instantly shoot to the top of the ACC and possibly the top of the country. The Wildcats, who lost almost all their star players this year, have no shortage of potential stars coming in. Adding Shabazz will put them over the top.

Whichever program Shabazz picks will help put them over the top.