John Calipari may have left town but the NBA-level recruits are still flocking to Memphis. New coach Josh Pastner (a Coach Cal assistant) took over and kept chasing the same players Calipari wanted when he had the job. The results are nothing less than spectacular and will keep Memphis as the dominant Conference USA team for years.

The Tigers’ freshmen class is ranked No. 1 in the country by ESPN and Scout.com. Pastner inked three potential McDonald’s All-Americans in point guard Joe Jackson of Memphis and forwards Will Barton of Baltimore and Jelan Kendrick of Atlanta. The seven-player class will ensure that Memphis remains the country’s dominant program outside the so-called BCS leagues.

The other big winners in the early signing period were North Carolina (as usual) and Ohio State. The Heels signed Iowa native Harrison Barnes, while the Buckeyes grabbed a big class led by center Jared Sullinger. The Big East did not grab its usual complement of highly-rated players. Syracuse, with center Fabricio Melo and guard Dion Waiters, enjoyed the best haul. Marquette and Georgetown also received some love in the various class ratings by the scouting services and Providence’s three-player class (Joe Young, Gerard Coleman, Ron Giplaye) can definitely be ranked in the top five in the conference, for whatever that’s worth.

Young, a top shooter, plays on a Houston Yates team that may be the best public school team in the country. The defending Texas state champs are clearly out to embarrass foes. In their first two games, they won 140-81 and 163-71.

Dayton is the runaway recruiting winner in the A-10. The Flyers wrapped up home-grown point guard Juwan Staten, one of the top guards in the country.

Peterson is one to watch

There can’t be a more creative, unorthodox or exciting player in the country than PC’s Jamine “Greedy” Peterson.

Is he a small forward, a power forward, a rebounding forward or a physical freak? Maybe a little bit of each. Barely 6-foot-6, Peterson shoots with a hitch in his swing, tips balls at the rim with either hand and seemingly always gets a finger on every rebound he’s in position for. No one can accurately describe most of his shots, but the basketball world is discovering he’s a player you have to watch.

That’s already happening on the Internet. A catalog of wild dunks is available on sites like YouTube and you have to see Greedy’s clip as he performs an eye-popping, between the legs slam at Alumni Hall. He actually tried to duplicate the slam during warmups the other night in Tuscaloosa. The Tide students urging him on were high-fiving each other even when the acrobatic slam whacked the back of the rim.

Peterson was the best athlete on the court in that game, stringing up 27 points and 14 rebounds. Watch for many similar efforts this season. This Friar season may largely be about finding pieces for the future, but one fact is clear: Greedy is a keeper.

Tough road for Penn

No Ivy team plays a schedule like Glenn Miller does at Penn. The Quakers opened with losses at Penn State and Villanova. Drexel, Davidson, Duke, Temple and Saint Joe’s await. Ouch! Penn slipped to 10 wins (6-8 in Ivy) a year ago and getting back to the upper half of the league is a must this winter. That may be hard. Not only is Cornell loaded, but Bryant coach Tim O’Shea was very impressed by Harvard’s talent level in a loss on Friday.

Tommy Amaker has two recruiting classes in place and newcomers Kyle Casey and Dee Giger clearly are good enough to be instant impact Ivy players.

Staying in Philly, the word is that Duke transfer Taylor King is a big-time find for Jay Wright’s team.

New item

It’s always great to check out the star freshmen this time of the year. Kentucky’s John Wall is clearly special but the word out of Lawrence, Kan., is that the best player on a loaded Jayhawk team may just be 6-7 forward Xavier Henry. That’s called an embarrassment of riches. … We know they lost to Villanova, but Dayton is deeper and better than it has been in a long while. Chris Wright is a dunking stud but Marcus Johnson, Kurt Huelsman and shooter Luke Fabrizius are all part of a dangerous team. The Flyers play for third place in Puerto Rico today against Kansas State. . . A three-point win over Brown can’t be too comforting for St. John’s. It only gets tougher this week with games versus Siena and at Temple. The recruiting wars didn’t go well either for the Storm. St. John’s tried to land the better New York City players but missed again when Tobias Harris signed with Tennessee, Devon Collier went to Oregon State and JayVaughn Pinkston chose to wait until the spring to pick a college.

kmcnamar@projo.com