The same caveats that apply to football recruiting rankings for the most part apply to basketball as well. Read too much into them at your own peril. That said, how your recruiting class is perceived is far from insignificant, and generally if you find yourself ranked among the top five teams nationally you're probably doing something right, and your class is probably loaded with players that are at least expected to be pretty darn good.
The top five nationally is exactly where Anthony Grant's 2011 recruiting class falls after reeling in the signature of highly coveted 5-star guard Trevor Lacey over the likes of Kansas and Kentucky. Rivals.com has released their final team recruiting rankings, the the Crimson Tide finished #5 in the nation, behind only Kentucky, Duke, St. John's and Arizona.
Here's what the Rivals staff had to say about Grant's stellar class:
Anthony Grant has been known as a recruiter since his days as an assistant and he's still at it. His latest recruiting victory is the spring signing of five-star in-state prospect Trevor Lacey. Joining Lacey is Randolph, a versatile combo guard who may explode with maturity and four-star Rodney Cooper is a wing whose best basketball is ahead of him. Also a four-star prospect, Jacobs is an athletic, hard-working post player who should be highly productive at the collegiate level. Gueye is considered one of the top post players in the JUCO ranks.
The entire top 30 can be found here. The SEC was well-represented, boding well for the future of a conference that has dropped in strength a bit over the past half decade or so. Kentucky was #1, Alabama #5, Arkansas #7, Mississippi State #12, Florida #24, Georgia #25 and Vanderbilt #29.