Adding two of the top eight players nationally in the three weeks leading up to Wednesday's national signing day, Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey landed a class that is ranked No. 2 nationally.

"Even if those kids didn't have a number in front of their name, I would still recruit them, because I've watched them enough to know how good they are and what they can do for our program," Mulkey said. "We've won national championships here with players that didn't come to us with a number in front of their name, and we've won them with players that were highly-ranked. It brings recognition when they are highly ranked, but it doesn't win championships."

Although not as deep, this group will rival the 2009 class as the best in program history. That class included Brittney Griner, the nation's No. 1 player, and four other top-60 players.

Highlighting the 2016 recruiting class is 6-4 forward Lauren Cox from Flower Mound, Texas, who is rated the No. 1 prospect nationally by ESPN Hoopgurlz. She averaged 21.7 points, 15.3 rebounds and 5.4 blocks in leading Flower Mound to the state semifinals for the first time in school history and earned All-American, all-state and Gatorade Texas Player of the Year honors as a junior.

"Lauren is a very sharp, very intelligent and versatile player. Her basketball skills speak for themselves," Mulkey said of Cox, who has already won three gold medals playing for USA Basketball in international tournaments.

Cox joins 6-1 shooting guard Natalie Chou from Plano (Texas) West and 5-9 point guard Calveion "Juicy" Landrum from nearby La Vega High School.

Ranked No. 8 overall and No. 2 at her position, Chou averaged 22 points and 4.8 rebounds in leading Plano West to the Class 5A region finals. The first-team all-state guard also has international experience, playing for USA teams that won gold at the U17 World Championships and a silver in this year's U18 World Championships in Hungary.

"If you need her to shoot it, she can shoot it. If you need her to handle it, she can handle it," Mulkey said of Chou. "What's impressive is that every year I have watched her play, she has developed another part of her game."

A two-time Super Centex selection who was ranked as the 40th-best prospect nationally, Landrum has led La Vega to the state championship game each of the last two seasons. She averaged 14.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists last year as a junior.

"When you can get local products to stay at home, it speaks volumes," Mulkey said. "She comes from a very good high school basketball program, and I'm glad that her local fans will be able to get to see her play. After having watched her for many years, it will be exciting to finally see her don the green and gold. Juicy is an athletic combo guard with a scorer's mentality who can penetrate and distribute the ball."

It was a busy first day for the fall signing period, with men's basketball, softball, volleyball and men's golf also announcing their signings and first-year baseball coach Steve Rodriguez bringing in 15 new players.

In a sign of the times, as advanced technology leaves the fax machine behind, Baylor Associate AD for Compliance Keith Miller noted that 83 percent of the national letters of intent were received by either email or text messages.

Here's a look at some of Wednesday's other signings:

MEN'S BASKETBALL: Scott Drew bolstered his frontline of the future with the additions of 6-9 power forward Nuni Omot from Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College and 6-6 small forward Mark Vital from Advanced Prep International in Dallas.

Vital actually committed to Baylor two years ago, before his sophomore season at Washington-Marion High School in Lake Charles, La., and then played last year at Prime Prep Academy in Dallas before the school shut down.

Omot, who has grown seven inches since his junior year at Mahtomedi (Minn.) High School, averaged 12.4 points and 5.5 rebounds as a freshman last year at Division II Concordia-St. Paul before transferring to Indian Hills.

"We're really excited about both players," Drew said. "Nuni is a very athletic player who was 6-1 his junior of high school and is now 6-9, and his best years are ahead. Mark had a tremendous summer and garnered a lot of accolades because of how hard he plays and what a winner he is. I'm looking forward to seeing his monster dunks in the Ferrell Center."

SOFTBALL: Glenn Moore continued to tap into his program's Central Texas pipeline, signing shortstop Taylor Ellis from Midway and outfielder/infielder Maddison Kettler from West.

The Lady Bears also added outfielder Madi O'Neal from Huffman, Texas, and pitcher/outfielder Shelby "Goose" McGlaun from Humble, Texas.

A two-time all-state pick, Ellis was named Super Centex Player of the Year last season as a junior. "We've been waiting for this one since the 2010 Little League World Series, when we first saw Taylor play for the Midway Little League World Series team," Moore said. "Taylor is simply a great athlete. Expect to see her play up the middle, although she is not limited to that."

Kettler is an all-state pick and two-time district MVP who was ranked a top-10 recruit by FloSoftball. "She should see playing time early because of her ability to play the middle or outfield," Moore said. "She has great speed and will make things happen offensively, with the bat and on the bases."

O'Neal, a two-time district offensive MVP who earned all-state honors in leading Huffman Hargrave to the 2015 state championship, "is extremely competitive and a spark plug," Moore said. "I expect her to challenge for playing time in the outfield, but also to be a valuable asset on the base paths."

McGlaun is a two-time all-state pick who has already set single-season school records in on-base percentage and home runs as a hitter and strikeouts and ERA as a pitcher. "You can exepct to see Goose all over the field during her time at Baylor," Moore said.

BASEBALL: Steve Rodriguez made the most of his first recruiting class, signing eight pitchers and seven position players.

The former Pepperdine head coach used his California connections to sign right-handed pitcher Daniel Caruso from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, catcher Andy Thomas from Murrieta and infielder Davis Wendezel from San Clemente.

Closer to home, he picked up a pair of prospects from McLennan Community College's World Series runner-up team in right-handed pitcher Collin Sharp and infielder Tucker Johnson from China Spring, along with Lorena High School and San Jacinto right-handed pitcher Montana Parsons.

The other pitchers in the class are right-handers Ian McEachern of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., Hayden Kettler of Coppell, Texas, and Jimmy Winston of Houston Lamar and left-handers Ryan Lekich of Port Neches-Groves and Cody Bradford of Aledo.

Rounding out the 15-player class are outfielders Hunter Seay from Keller and Trevor Harris from Southlake Carroll, San Jacinto infielder Tucker Cascadden and catcher Shea Langeliers from Keller.

VOLLEYBALL: Looking to add some strength at the net, first-year volleyball head coach Ryan McGuyre signed middle blockers Daria Richards from Okemos, Mich., and Nicole Thomas from Midlothian, Va.

The 6-2 Richards is a two-time all-conference and all-region selection who led her team to a pair of conference titles while earning watch list recognition from the Junior Volleyball Association. "I think she can be unstoppable off of one foot and we're looking forward to her making an immediate impact," McGuyre said.

Thomas is a 6-1 middle blocker that led James River High School to consecutive conference championships. "Overall, I think she's going to be such a good fit for the program," McGuyre said of Thomas. "She's such a brilliant athlete. And there's some rawness there so that once we get into the gym, she's going to soak things up very, very quickly."

MEN'S GOLF: After losing four seniors off a team that won three tournament titles a year ago, second-year head coach Mike McGraw has signed a class that includes two of the top four recruits from Texas.

"Recruiting at home is very important to me," said McGraw, who signed Cooper Dossey from Austin Vandergrift, Colin Kober from Southlake Carroll and Travis McInroe from Plano West, who are all ranked top 200 nationally and top 25 in the state.

The runner-up at last year's Class 5A state tournament, Dossey is the No. 2-ranked recruit in Texas and 16th nationally. He has 10 career top-10 finishes in AJGA competition, including a win at the 2015 AJGA at Traditions.

Kober, ranked No. 4 in Texas and 27th nationally, is the reigning Class 6A state champion and also won the 2015 AJGA Davis Love Invitational.

McInroe, the 2014 TAPPS state champion, is ranked No. 21 in Texas and 186th nationally. He also was the runner-up at the 2015 Junior PGA Championship and the 2014 Legends College Preview, where he fired a competitive course record of 63.