The Hoosier baseball teams begins its season later today down in Murfreesboro against Middle Tennessee State. First pitch scheduled for 4:00 pm. We put out the whole season schedule here.
Today's game can be listened to live at this link.
We're working on adding a new "Baseball" menu item for our front page that drops down into links for the Schedule, News Index, Roster and our IU baseball forum. Hope to have that later today along with a season preview piece.
More bad news for Illinois as one-time Indiana prospect and current Illini sophmore forward LeRon Black was arrested for allegedly threatening a bouncer with a knife. Black has missed most of the season with a knee injury but was one of John Groce's highest ranked signees since his arrival.
Groce's future may be more questionable now. The Illini recently hired a new AD and this could give him ammo to make a change given the last couple seasons and the usual motivation go get your "own guy" into the position.
Unusual situation with Rawle Alkins. He hasn't been suiting up for Word of God Academy last three weeks but not actually an injury issue per sources in that area. Alkins has visited UNLV and Arizona recently and still has two trips still to schedule with Indiana one of those possibilities.
Most of the speculation now on Alkins has Arizona in the lead with St. John's as a potential spoiler. Not much on other schools for the moment but he's still pointing toward an April decision.
Rawle is doing well in his school work as he alludes to his new USA Today Blog entry
Indiana plays Purdue on Saturday.
Several prospects are expected.
Fort Wayne 2017 6-foot-11 forward Malik Williams plans to visit IU for the game, his coach tells Peegs.com.
Hamilton Southeastern 2017 forward Zach Gunn also plans to visit IU on Saturday.
Gunn has made a host of unofficial visits to IU, going back to his sophomore year.
Indiana 2016 signee De’Ron Davis played the final home game of his high school career on Wednesday and had a monster performance.
Davis had a triple double with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 11 blocked shots and four assists as No. 2-ranked Overland (19-3) beat No. 8 Cherokee Park.
“We take pride in our defense,” Davis told reporters after the game. “We feel like we get our work in on defense and we can do well on the offensive end.”
(Check out Peegs com later in the day for a full story on Davis.)
Indiana 2016 signee Devonte Green is one of four finalists for New York Mr. Basketball.
Green is averaging 19.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game.
The 6-foot-3 combo guard was named first team all-state as a junior and has scored more than 3,000 career points in high school.
Former Hoosier Devin Davis has successfully returned to basketball at Odessa College in Texas. He's the team's leading scorer at 16.8 points per game and is shooting 49.7 percent from the field. He's even taking about three 3-pointers a game although just at a 28.0 percent clip. Leads the team with 8.0 rebounds, 0.7 blocks and is shooting 76.9 percent from the line.
Odessa is 22-5 overall and 11-3 in conference and at the highest level of juco ball.
Davis has offers from Houston, Illinois, Ole Miss, Colorado State, St. Louis, UConn, Tennessee, Nevada, Saint Bonaventure, Kansas State, USC, LSU, Baylor, Florida State, Missouri, Cincinnati, Virginia, Oregon, DePaul and South Carolina, his father tells Peegs.com.
As things stand now, Davis is planning to visit at least Houston, UConn, Ole Miss, USC, Kansas State and Oregon, his father said. The family’s plan is for the visits to occur after the season.
Indianapolis Lawrence North’s Kevin Easley has been one of the 2018 prospects to watch for a while now.
Peegs.com has seen Easley several times this season and one thing that stands out is how his 3-point shooting has improved.
Easley has a higher release and the 3-point shot is becoming more of a weapon for the 6-foot-5 forward. He shot 2-for-4 rom the arc in a 58-48 win over Ben Davis recently.
Lawrence North 2019 guard Dexter Shouse also shot well in that game, going 2-for-2 from the arc.
Butler, Xavier, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, St. Louis, Iowa and Oregon are among the schools serious with Easley at this point, his father tells Peegs .com.
The family has been in regular communication with IU assistant Tim Buckley, Easley’s father said.
They don't plan to take any visits until after the season as Lawrence North is a state-ranked team and the playoffs are around the corner.
Add Michigan State to the list of schools serious about Indianapolis Park Tudor 2017 forward Jaren Jackson Jr.
Jackson visited Michigan State on Sunday then Spartans coach Tom Izzo and assistant Dane Fife watched the 6-foot-9 versatile forward this week.
Maryland and Georgetown are two other schools to watch with Jackson, whose father played at Georgetown and won an NBA title with the Spurs, along with those who have been recruiting him for a while such as Indiana, Purdue, Butler, Michigan, Illinois, Notre Dame, Xavier and others.
For Indy area fans, tonight is the only opportunity this season that 2018 point guard Robert Phinisee plays in Indianapolis. The sophomore point guard will be at Indianapolis Tech tonight for an 8 pm game tonight in a conference tourney battle versus Marion. Peegs.com should be there.
Phinisee has an Indiana scholarship offer and has made multiple unofficial visits to IU.
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Kevin Wilson filled the lone open spot on his coaching staff with the announcement last week that former IU player and coach Mark Hagen will be returning to Bloomington. Hagen played for the Hoosiers from 1987-91 and was on Coach Wilson’s original staff at IU. He spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons at Indiana before joining the Texas A&M staff for three years from 2013-15. The Carmel, Indiana native will coach the defensive line under new defensive coordinator Tom Allen. Hagen met with the media on Wednesday to talk about returning to IU and Peegs.com was there. You can check out this video that Ken Bikoff shot of Hagen meeting the media.
Bringing Hagen back is a big deal for IU because he is a very good coach on the field and a top-notch recruiter off the field. Rivals.com has twice recognized him as one of the top recruiters in the nation. He has great ties to the state of Indiana, and now after his time down at Texas A&M he should have strong ties to one of the best states for high school football in the nation. The addition of Hagen and Tom Allen gives the IU program two coaches who have strong relationships to high school football in Indiana, but even more important than that is it gives the Hoosiers two coaches who are outstanding recruiters and that is far more important than their connections to the state of Indiana.
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The IU program also made junior college transfers Richard Lagow and Jayme Thompson available to the media recently. The two Indiana newcomers have been in Bloomington for a little over a month and they both said things are going very well for them right now. Peegs.com was at their introductory press conference and we have this video of them meeting with the media. There is also a full transcript of what both players said in their Q&A with the assembled reporters.
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Tomorrow the IU program will be hosting a big Junior Day event and several top targets for the Hoosiers are scheduled to be on campus. Peegs.com was able to confirm around 20 visitors for tomorrow’s Junior Day and we put up a preview story this morning. Here is the preview of the 2017 and 2018 recruits that are expected to be at IU this weekend.
One of the top prospects at tomorrow’s Junior Day is Ohio athlete Lynn Bowden. The talented prospect is a four-star recruit and he is listed as one of the top 250 players in the nation according to Rivals.com. Bowden recently spoke to Rivals.com Midwest Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt about his recruiting and he said IU and West Virginia are his top two schools. You can read the story that Helmholdt did on Bowden here.
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On Wednesday of this week the Indiana staff hosted a mini-Junior Day where they had around 10 prospects on campus for unofficial visits. Here is the list of recruits that made the trip to Bloomington for the event. While most of the players who were on campus on Saturday are prospects that need to be evaluated at summer camp before they will get an offer, there was a top target in attendance in Indianapolis Ben Davis defensive lineman LeShaun Minor. The three-star recruit is one of the top in-state players in the 2017 class.
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Another top in-state target for the Hoosiers is safety R.J. Potts. He is the son of former Indianapolis Colts running back Roosevelt Potts. The younger Potts is a four-star prospect at Fishers H.S. and he is ranked as one of the top 250 players in the nation by Rivals.com. Peegs.com recently spoke to Potts and we did this story on him.
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Earlier this week on Monday the annual Best of the Midwest combine was held on the east side of Indianapolis. There were a number of IU targets in attendance, including Ohio prospect Derrius Mullins. The three-star recruit had a great day as he was named one of the top D-linemen at the event. Peegs.com was there and after the camp ended we spoke to Mullins about his recruiting and he told us that IU is his top school. You check out that story along with the video highlights we shot of Mullins here.
Another Hoosier target that was at the Best of the Midwest camp was offensive lineman Bryce Bailey. Bailey is from Castle H.S. in Newburgh, Indiana which is down by Evansville. He is listed as a tackle by Rivals.com but he will probably be an interior lineman in college. Bailey was at IU last week for an unofficial visit and he spoke to Peegs.com afterwards about how that trip went. You can check out that story here.
Another in-state lineman that participated in the Best of the Midwest was Pompey Coleman from Ben Davis H.S. in Indianapolis. Coleman plays tackle in high school and looks like he has the size and athleticism to possibly stick there in college. He spoke to Peegs.com last week about his interest in the Hoosiers and about where things stand with his recruiting at this time. Here is that story that we did on Coleman.
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The Indiana staff has been busy offering a number of prospects in the 2017 class. Below is the list of recruits that have recently picked up an offer from the Hoosiers:
Louisiana DB JaCorion Andrews
Illinois LB Micah Awordian
Florida athlete Devan Barrett
Oklahoma DB Justin Broiles
Virginia LB Ellis Brooks
Illinois DL Izayah Green-May
Florida DB Quran Hafiz
Florida WR Jacquez Jones
Ohio DB Keontae Jones
Florida LB Ventrell Miller
California OL Kanan Ray
Oklahoma TE/DE Nick Robinson
Florida DL Bobby Roundtree
Florida DL Chris Whittaker
Today's game can be listened to live at this link.
We're working on adding a new "Baseball" menu item for our front page that drops down into links for the Schedule, News Index, Roster and our IU baseball forum. Hope to have that later today along with a season preview piece.
More bad news for Illinois as one-time Indiana prospect and current Illini sophmore forward LeRon Black was arrested for allegedly threatening a bouncer with a knife. Black has missed most of the season with a knee injury but was one of John Groce's highest ranked signees since his arrival.
Groce's future may be more questionable now. The Illini recently hired a new AD and this could give him ammo to make a change given the last couple seasons and the usual motivation go get your "own guy" into the position.
Unusual situation with Rawle Alkins. He hasn't been suiting up for Word of God Academy last three weeks but not actually an injury issue per sources in that area. Alkins has visited UNLV and Arizona recently and still has two trips still to schedule with Indiana one of those possibilities.
Most of the speculation now on Alkins has Arizona in the lead with St. John's as a potential spoiler. Not much on other schools for the moment but he's still pointing toward an April decision.
Rawle is doing well in his school work as he alludes to his new USA Today Blog entry
Indiana plays Purdue on Saturday.
Several prospects are expected.
Fort Wayne 2017 6-foot-11 forward Malik Williams plans to visit IU for the game, his coach tells Peegs.com.
Hamilton Southeastern 2017 forward Zach Gunn also plans to visit IU on Saturday.
Gunn has made a host of unofficial visits to IU, going back to his sophomore year.
Indiana 2016 signee De’Ron Davis played the final home game of his high school career on Wednesday and had a monster performance.
Davis had a triple double with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 11 blocked shots and four assists as No. 2-ranked Overland (19-3) beat No. 8 Cherokee Park.
“We take pride in our defense,” Davis told reporters after the game. “We feel like we get our work in on defense and we can do well on the offensive end.”
(Check out Peegs com later in the day for a full story on Davis.)
Indiana 2016 signee Devonte Green is one of four finalists for New York Mr. Basketball.
Green is averaging 19.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game.
The 6-foot-3 combo guard was named first team all-state as a junior and has scored more than 3,000 career points in high school.
Former Hoosier Devin Davis has successfully returned to basketball at Odessa College in Texas. He's the team's leading scorer at 16.8 points per game and is shooting 49.7 percent from the field. He's even taking about three 3-pointers a game although just at a 28.0 percent clip. Leads the team with 8.0 rebounds, 0.7 blocks and is shooting 76.9 percent from the line.
Odessa is 22-5 overall and 11-3 in conference and at the highest level of juco ball.
Davis has offers from Houston, Illinois, Ole Miss, Colorado State, St. Louis, UConn, Tennessee, Nevada, Saint Bonaventure, Kansas State, USC, LSU, Baylor, Florida State, Missouri, Cincinnati, Virginia, Oregon, DePaul and South Carolina, his father tells Peegs.com.
As things stand now, Davis is planning to visit at least Houston, UConn, Ole Miss, USC, Kansas State and Oregon, his father said. The family’s plan is for the visits to occur after the season.
Indianapolis Lawrence North’s Kevin Easley has been one of the 2018 prospects to watch for a while now.
Peegs.com has seen Easley several times this season and one thing that stands out is how his 3-point shooting has improved.
Easley has a higher release and the 3-point shot is becoming more of a weapon for the 6-foot-5 forward. He shot 2-for-4 rom the arc in a 58-48 win over Ben Davis recently.
Lawrence North 2019 guard Dexter Shouse also shot well in that game, going 2-for-2 from the arc.
Butler, Xavier, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, St. Louis, Iowa and Oregon are among the schools serious with Easley at this point, his father tells Peegs .com.
The family has been in regular communication with IU assistant Tim Buckley, Easley’s father said.
They don't plan to take any visits until after the season as Lawrence North is a state-ranked team and the playoffs are around the corner.
Add Michigan State to the list of schools serious about Indianapolis Park Tudor 2017 forward Jaren Jackson Jr.
Jackson visited Michigan State on Sunday then Spartans coach Tom Izzo and assistant Dane Fife watched the 6-foot-9 versatile forward this week.
Maryland and Georgetown are two other schools to watch with Jackson, whose father played at Georgetown and won an NBA title with the Spurs, along with those who have been recruiting him for a while such as Indiana, Purdue, Butler, Michigan, Illinois, Notre Dame, Xavier and others.
For Indy area fans, tonight is the only opportunity this season that 2018 point guard Robert Phinisee plays in Indianapolis. The sophomore point guard will be at Indianapolis Tech tonight for an 8 pm game tonight in a conference tourney battle versus Marion. Peegs.com should be there.
Phinisee has an Indiana scholarship offer and has made multiple unofficial visits to IU.
--------------------
Kevin Wilson filled the lone open spot on his coaching staff with the announcement last week that former IU player and coach Mark Hagen will be returning to Bloomington. Hagen played for the Hoosiers from 1987-91 and was on Coach Wilson’s original staff at IU. He spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons at Indiana before joining the Texas A&M staff for three years from 2013-15. The Carmel, Indiana native will coach the defensive line under new defensive coordinator Tom Allen. Hagen met with the media on Wednesday to talk about returning to IU and Peegs.com was there. You can check out this video that Ken Bikoff shot of Hagen meeting the media.
Bringing Hagen back is a big deal for IU because he is a very good coach on the field and a top-notch recruiter off the field. Rivals.com has twice recognized him as one of the top recruiters in the nation. He has great ties to the state of Indiana, and now after his time down at Texas A&M he should have strong ties to one of the best states for high school football in the nation. The addition of Hagen and Tom Allen gives the IU program two coaches who have strong relationships to high school football in Indiana, but even more important than that is it gives the Hoosiers two coaches who are outstanding recruiters and that is far more important than their connections to the state of Indiana.
-----
The IU program also made junior college transfers Richard Lagow and Jayme Thompson available to the media recently. The two Indiana newcomers have been in Bloomington for a little over a month and they both said things are going very well for them right now. Peegs.com was at their introductory press conference and we have this video of them meeting with the media. There is also a full transcript of what both players said in their Q&A with the assembled reporters.
-----
Tomorrow the IU program will be hosting a big Junior Day event and several top targets for the Hoosiers are scheduled to be on campus. Peegs.com was able to confirm around 20 visitors for tomorrow’s Junior Day and we put up a preview story this morning. Here is the preview of the 2017 and 2018 recruits that are expected to be at IU this weekend.
One of the top prospects at tomorrow’s Junior Day is Ohio athlete Lynn Bowden. The talented prospect is a four-star recruit and he is listed as one of the top 250 players in the nation according to Rivals.com. Bowden recently spoke to Rivals.com Midwest Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt about his recruiting and he said IU and West Virginia are his top two schools. You can read the story that Helmholdt did on Bowden here.
-----
On Wednesday of this week the Indiana staff hosted a mini-Junior Day where they had around 10 prospects on campus for unofficial visits. Here is the list of recruits that made the trip to Bloomington for the event. While most of the players who were on campus on Saturday are prospects that need to be evaluated at summer camp before they will get an offer, there was a top target in attendance in Indianapolis Ben Davis defensive lineman LeShaun Minor. The three-star recruit is one of the top in-state players in the 2017 class.
-----
Another top in-state target for the Hoosiers is safety R.J. Potts. He is the son of former Indianapolis Colts running back Roosevelt Potts. The younger Potts is a four-star prospect at Fishers H.S. and he is ranked as one of the top 250 players in the nation by Rivals.com. Peegs.com recently spoke to Potts and we did this story on him.
-----
Earlier this week on Monday the annual Best of the Midwest combine was held on the east side of Indianapolis. There were a number of IU targets in attendance, including Ohio prospect Derrius Mullins. The three-star recruit had a great day as he was named one of the top D-linemen at the event. Peegs.com was there and after the camp ended we spoke to Mullins about his recruiting and he told us that IU is his top school. You check out that story along with the video highlights we shot of Mullins here.
Another Hoosier target that was at the Best of the Midwest camp was offensive lineman Bryce Bailey. Bailey is from Castle H.S. in Newburgh, Indiana which is down by Evansville. He is listed as a tackle by Rivals.com but he will probably be an interior lineman in college. Bailey was at IU last week for an unofficial visit and he spoke to Peegs.com afterwards about how that trip went. You can check out that story here.
Another in-state lineman that participated in the Best of the Midwest was Pompey Coleman from Ben Davis H.S. in Indianapolis. Coleman plays tackle in high school and looks like he has the size and athleticism to possibly stick there in college. He spoke to Peegs.com last week about his interest in the Hoosiers and about where things stand with his recruiting at this time. Here is that story that we did on Coleman.
-----
The Indiana staff has been busy offering a number of prospects in the 2017 class. Below is the list of recruits that have recently picked up an offer from the Hoosiers:
Louisiana DB JaCorion Andrews
Illinois LB Micah Awordian
Florida athlete Devan Barrett
Oklahoma DB Justin Broiles
Virginia LB Ellis Brooks
Illinois DL Izayah Green-May
Florida DB Quran Hafiz
Florida WR Jacquez Jones
Ohio DB Keontae Jones
Florida LB Ventrell Miller
California OL Kanan Ray
Oklahoma TE/DE Nick Robinson
Florida DL Bobby Roundtree
Florida DL Chris Whittaker
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