No I am not but to today's kids really don't see IU like we did growing up. It has been talked about how today's recruiting is so much different today and a lot of kids don't want to stay home to play college basketball. Kids today have so much more options today than they did back in the 70's and 80's since all the coaches can easily see all of these kids. Most games are on tv so it is easier for families to see their kids play even if they leave the state.
Indiana Mr. Basketball, where they went. History
- Thread starter becauseIknow
- Start date
Scott,
You've been an IU fan over 40 years - but you don't remember what led to IU only having 3 Indiana players on that '87 team - namely, the talent in the classes from Alford's senior year to then were not very good?
1983
Mr Basketball - Alford
Blackmon -UK. James fell in love with Wildcat Lodge during his recruiting visit.
Mike Heineman - Connersville/Wisconsin. A player Knight later admitted he wished he would have looked at more.
Who else in 1983 from this state was worth looking at?
1984
Mr. Basketball - Brooks
Co-Mr BB - Lewis. Became a Boiler. Knight never made Troy (or Heineman from the year before) much of a priority because he thought he was getting something special in Brooks.
1985
Mr. Basketball - Jeff Grose, Warsaw. Went to Northwestern.
So in the 3 years preceding, Knight got two of the 4 kids he targeted - and he never seriously went after either Lewis or Heineman extensively because of Delray. THAT"S why he started bringing in JUCO's - which led to the great year in 1987. And nine of the 15 members of the team were from Knight's primary recruiting base - Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.
Knight would always focus on Indiana first - then branch outward. Did he get all the guys who were among the state's best players? Of course not; some just didn't want to play for a demanding guy like Knight. Ddin't mean they weren't worthy, some guys didn't want to deal with that for 3-4 years.
When Indiana had years of great talent in numbers, IU always got their share. Like in the stretch from 1987-91 - IU got 4 of the 6 individuals named Mr. Basketball and hauled in 10 Indians kids.
It's clear that 1987 was an aberration, not the norm.
I know the classes was not good back then and that is why you need to recruit nationally and not limit yourself to mainly recruiting locally.
sure there is some of that but a coach who is a better fit at IU could get more of the top instate kids. look at what Izzo and Matta or what Ryan did in their home state. it's undeniable but you will try anyway.
no one said to not get out of state kids ever. oh jeebus h christ lol
Look, my ideal class for 2017 would be Scruggs, Wilkes, Jackson and Williams but if don't and get players like Porter and Bamba I would be alright with that.sure there is some of that but a coach who is a better fit at IU could get more of the top instate kids. look at what Izzo and Matta or what Ryan did in their home state. it's undeniable but you will try anyway.
Wow...someone using the strategy of taking a post and stretching the meaning to ridiculous lengths to make a point. That never happens.
Another thing with the instate kids is that pretty much every game is on TV now. Back when most of us were growing up and watching the Hoosiers on channel 4 or what ever local channel we could it was the only game on. When ESPN started in the early years, you could get the Big East games, but outside of the National game on Sunday afternoon there were not a lot of games on TV. If you wanted your family to see you play, even on TV you had to go to IU, now just about every game is on TV, so you can go 2,000 miles from home and every game could be watched in your hometown.
Izzo and Matta laugh at this premise. they'll go to the final four with regional kids, thank you. lol
Skiles had legal issues, they tend to not want to have the award ceremony in the county lock up. Zach Randolph says hi
True - although Harden's dad was a big Converse rep. Politics always has played a part of Mr. BB voting.
I didn't realize it was 2000 miles from Indianapolis to East Lansing,
Nor did I realize it was 2000 miles from Indianapolis to Lexington .
And I always thought it was two hours from Indianapolis to Columbus Ohio - not 2000 miles,
Never said it was that far!!!!! Of course that would actually require some to read, but whatever. The point is you do not have to stay at home to be seen by your friends and family anymore. Yes even in Lexington and East Lansing though back in the old days if you were there you would not see IU games, so the fact that kids can go all over the country and still be seen, and the fact that these kids play all over country in the spring and summer plays into kids not feeling the need to stay home when making a decision.
Mark was my daughter's shooting coach at the Evansville Basketball Academy. I have followed UE since we moved to town and didn't realize he transferred to UE. I could have sworn he started there. I talked to Jewel about UE and local basketball and thought he had been a Mr. Basketball. His comment to me was that his senior class was pretty weak. He almost seemed embarrassed he was Mr. Basketball.
I have a friend whose son plays D1 basketball.
He went out of state to play and it's a 4 hour drive for my buddy and his wife to get to see their son play. Yeah, they can watch their son play on TV, but they've rarely missed a game since he was playing up in Indy as a 1st grader.
He - and others - have left the state because of Tom Crean. I know that for a FACT.
Crean doesn't come off well to many of the in-state HS kids. It's not that they want to "expand their horizons", it's because many of the top kids/coaches don't hold Crean in high regard. So they go elsewhere.
Seems odd that in state players don't like him but out of state players do like him.
So your buddy's son (this explains your personal distaste for Crean, glad that finally got cleared up) didn't go to IU because of Crean. Did he leave the state entirely because of Crean as well, or did they have a dislike of every D1 coach at the other nine institutions as well?
Actually, it makes a lot of sense. Players and coaches from around the state have been exposed to Crean more.
How is that unless they go down to IU every weekend and I doubt that those coaches go down to B-town that often. Also recruiting is done more during the spring and summer going around to AAU events and less of coaches going to the players high schools.
My buddy's kid would have loved to go to IU. He went out-of-state because the opportunity was better than what in-state provided. Culture was a big part of the reason.
I got exposed to how others in the state feel about Crean during Junior's recruitment. I've stated earlier I wanted Crean when the IU job was open in 2006, so it's not a dislike of Crean but rather the way he coaches.
Scott,
Players and coaches from here in this state all know one another - especially on the AAU circuit. Word gets around.
You can believe whatever you want. I didn't want to believe it when I first started hearing it. But after hearing it more that 2 dozen times over the past 6 years it became hard to ignore.
Just sounds like some of the state coaches get their feeling hurt if Crean does not pay enough attention to their players.
We also didn't get Bob Gibson because we had awarded our quota of "colored" scholarships. Think of the basketball player he would have been.
OMG!!!! lol
Justify Crean any which way you want, Scott. I'm telling you what I have seen 1st hand. Coaches are not gonna have issue over where their players go to college over "hurt feelings" - especially if the kids parents will have to drive significantly farther to see their kid play.
Is this really your opinion? Which high school coaches are you aware of whose feelings have been hurt?
I do not think anyone would argue that the programs culture 12-48 months ago was not very good. We had multiple arrests and failed drug tests and that was unacceptable. I do think, however, that that is starting to change. With the dismissal of three kids this past off season that were projected to be a big part of the rotation, with Stan leaving (who had at least one of the failed tests) I think there was a big push to improve the culture around the program. Honestly, I would bet that is why Fisher left as well, he did not like the culture that was surrounding the program at the time, and most would not blame them.
As with many other factors that surrounded the staff in the recent years, I think this was an area of improvement this year as well. Not sure if the dismissal decisions were CTC, the AD's or the Presidents, but at least the right decision was made in that case.
Not saying what you say is not true but we have had our share of Indiana kids the last few years so those coaches must like Crean and the rest don't. Again just seems odd the state of Indiana coaches are the only ones that dislike Crean.
Actually was trying to be funny. It just seems odd that the state of Indiana is the only place where the high school coaches dislike Crean.
Many of those kids IMHO shouldn't have been brought in to begin with.
Were they good talent-wise? Maybe (and that's debatable) but there was a culture problem in Bloomington upon their arrival. Now that some of them are gone it might get better. But between that and how Crean is viewed, than turned a lot of top kids away the last 4-5 years.
If coaches in the state dislikes him would make you believe coaches from out of state would as well.
Wouldn't Indiana coaches know him by far the best and be the most accurate judges of him and his program?
Not really unless they spend a lot of time down in Bloomington. Like I said before recruiting takes place more during the AAU season than the high school season so college coaches don't go to the high school as much as they use to.
Stan - as you might recall - got busted with Yogi for illegal consumption and false ID's. What you might not know is the reason they got busted - Yogi was trying to play the "don't you know who I am" card to the Excise officer (who was actually gonna let them go if they would have just shut up and went back to the dorm like he asked).
When Devin got hurt (the pic of that accident is one of the worst I've ever seen where someone makes it out alive) IU announced a couple days later that Troy and Stan both had failed drug tests over the summer. Again, over the summer. They finally announced punishment AFTER Devin got hurt, in part, to avoid another embarrassment - I've been told they weren't going to announce anything but were going to handle it "in-house".
Luke Fischer left because he was "homesick", right? Kent Sterling wrote a column just after Luke announced he was leaving IU telling about his time at IU and issues with a roommate. What Kent didn't say in the story, though, was that Devin (who was Fischer's roomie) and other team members smoked dope in their room all the time - hence the correlation to Luke's experience.
Thomas Bryant's mom stated after Devin's accident that she felt they hadn't been told the truth when they had visitied IU and "I don't want my son mixed up in that nonsense" or something close to those words. Thomas ended up and Bloomington because of the mess at Syracuse - but still ended up arrested 1 week into last fall. I heard momma came close to pulling him out of IU, but relented.
Is all of this Tom Crean's fault? That can be debated, but going lax on Hanner's OWI and giving him a measly 2 games set the tone. It helped foster the culture problem and allowed it to get worse, and contributed to many a player from this state going elsewhere.
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Forgot about Stan being the other one with Yogi. As I mentioned with all the issues going on at the time, I can see why some local coaches may not have been that high on the program and how things were going. After the welcome week incident last August all of those issues seem to have died off, and hopefully are done for good. If that happens, and the culture continues to improve I think a lot of the in state coaches will feel better about the program and we may see improved success with the in state kids.
I think you'd be surprised by how much high school coaches are still involved in the recruiting process and how well they know Crean.
