On Wednesday Tom Crean and Chuck Martin flew to New York to catch several prospects including highly regarded junior Rawle Alkins of Christ the King (Queens area). In that game Alkins pulled off a triple-double-- 13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists and his team prevailed over Long Island Lutheran, 69-66.
Last week the New York Post had this in-depth feature on Alkins.
Long Island Lutheran features several players we think are on the Hoosier radar in 6-foot-9, 230-pound junior Rojaye Campbell and 6-foot-1 junior guard Devonte Green. The latter is the younger brother of San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green.
Davon Dillard told our Jeff Rabjohns that the two Indiana coaches were also expected to be at Our Savior New American during that NYC area stop. Dillard is the 6-foot-5 wing we featured recently. Originally from the Gary, Indiana area, Dillard has Indiana among his five finalists.
Indiana also has serious interest in Dillard's teammate, 6-foot-7, 215-pound Kassoum Yakwe. He's a junior currently ranked No. 116 in that class. He's a power forward as he plays higher than his height due to his long reach and athleticism. Played alongside Thomas Bryant last summer on Team SCAN in the Nike EYBL series.
Speaking of Bryant -- last week we wrote here that Syracuse may not be as strong as many had believed. Well the news this week certainly won't help the Cuse cause. If you missed it, the school confessed that "past mistakes occurred" and self-imposed a ban on the school's postseason this year for men's basketball. That's led to a lot of criticism since the team is 15-7 and not in the current projections of this year's NCAA field.
The NCAA has not released its finding yet and could issue stiffer penalties on its own.
A number of things are being investigated including Fab Melo's academic record and a YMCA internship program.
Kentucky now looks like the biggest competitor for Indiana with Bryant. Missouri is the farthest school in his final four from home and struggling this season, sitting at 7-15 overall and 1-8 in the SEC under new coach Kim Anderson.
Having another Rochester area guy at Indiana in Emmitt Holt helps and Chuck Martin continues to make progress. A good finish to this season should help as well.
As mentioned here last week, 7-foot Johnny Hamilton is another late big man possibility. Hamilton is raw offensively but the Trinidad native is active and a very good shot blocker as this video shows:
YouTube highlight reel
This one may not heat up but if interested there are full games of his Jacksonville (TX) College on Youtube to watch
Another 2015 development to come about this week is not a new name. Indiana is expected to take another look at East Chicago Central point guard Hyron Edwards. He's only about 5-foot-10 but had early offers from Indiana, Illinois and Purdue only to watch that interest dissipate over time. Nobody in our network has even done a story on him since June but he's having a big senior season.
On January 29th Edwards scored 44 points in a 80-62 win over Gary West and topped that the following game in a 45-point night last Saturday in a 105-95 OT win at South Bend Adams.
He plays alongside another borderline high major player in junior Damion Jefferson but Jefferson was recently suspended and Edwards has subsequently taken on more of a scoring role for the 12-3 Class 4A team in Jefferson's absence.
Again this may be one to look at it if Yogi Ferrell leaves this spring for pro opportunities.
Along those lines --Gary Parrish of CBS Sports put out a mock draft last week for the 2015 NBA draft that included three Hoosiers (story link). He had James Blackmon Jr. going 35 to Philly, Yogi Ferrell going 44 to Miami and Troy Williams going 54 to the Lakers.
The top 30 are first rounders and the only guaranteed contracts.
Other mocks of note out there aren't assuming all three head to the league this spring:
Draft Express - have Yogi going No. 36 and have Williams and Blackmon in the 2016 draft. Williams going in the first round at No. 25 and Blackmon going No. 32.
ESPN - they haven't done a Mock in awhile but on their big board have Williams at No. 36, Blackmon at No. 46 and Ferrell is just No. 123.
Blackmon and Ferrell haven't helped themselves the last couple weeks. In conference play Blackmon's field goal rate is now just 38.3 percent and Ferrell is at 40.3 percent. Yogi, however, is sporting an assist to turnover ratio of over 3-to-1 in league play and that's a very high mark.
On a related note, many here get on Stanford Robinson for turnovers but he's only had four total in the Big Ten season and is the only Hoosier besides Ferrell to have more assists than turnovers.
As far as the injuries to Blackmon and Hanner Mosquera-Perea, I tried to tackle this question on the board this morning:
I think you'll see James play on Sunday but no official word from Indiana. Coach Crean seemed optimistic about it after the UW loss given the five days still to rest and remember it wasn't a severe sprain since he came back and played on it at the end of the Rutgers game.
Based on everything we've heard on Hanner it will be at least another week or two. Two weeks ago coach Crean said mid-February for him and haven't heard anything to indicate he may be back sooner than that. So maybe for the Feb 15 home game against Minnesota? Definitely could use him against Maurice Walker as he's a bit of nightmare match-up with IU's current lineup.
We could learn more on Hanner tomorrow since that's probably the next time media can ask coach Crean about him
------
If you haven't caught the news about Josh Speidel, the Columbus North player was critically injured in a bad auto accident earlier this week. He had traumatic head injury and at least as of yesterday was in a medically induced coma. Josh was a likely Indiana All-Star and despite some Big Ten interest had signed early with Vermont.
Anyone can help his family with medical expenses by going to this web page on GoFundMe.com. You can also tell people to find that by going to GoFundMe.com and have them type in his name or #JoshStrong Josh is a great kid who lives just down the street from our family and someone my kids have known well since elementary school, so any help would be appreciated.
-------
You may have seen my board post but want to welcome Ken Bikoff back here as a contributor. He's going to be with us on a part time basis, at least through the end of the basketball season. For you younger fans he was a regular here for a long time during our partnership with Inside Indiana and provided a lot of great features and video work. Most recently Ken has been working with Campus Insiders and is continuing in that endeavor.
Ken's primary focus will be giving us a jump start with our multimedia (podcasts, video shows, etc.) and social media, especially with getting our Facebook page going. Along those lines if you can 'Like' us there or help us promote it in other ways, that would be most appreciated.
----
Finally for those that have had some login issues and have noticed the schedule page and other things haven't been updating like normal, there is an explanation. Rivals over the last couple weeks has migrated to new servers and that has caused the normal hiccups with such a move. Much better infrastructure set-up that should help us bring out our new message boards in the coming weeks. It did already help us get through football signing day without crashing. Given the volume we get here that day, that was no small accomplishment. But it has led to some other minor annoyances and let some things get less prioritized.
I think things should get better soon now, especially since signing day is behind us, but wanted everyone to know most of the issues are more on Rivals end, not yours. And I know having to log back in all the time was a problem, even for me here.
Anyway, thanks for your patience and I think what's going on behind the scenes will pay off in the long run.
----------
Here is our weekly football report:
Indiana finished off a good 2015 class on Wednesday when they signed 22 prospects to go along with the two UAB transfers that are already on campus for a total of 24 newcomers to the program. The biggest thing the staff wanted in this class was length at the skill positions on both sides of the ball and they got with the group of DBs and the group of WRs they have added.
On defense the Hoosiers signed nine defensive prospects with three D-linemen, two linebackers and four defensive backs. The staff did a very good job of getting some long and athletic DBs for their defense. It would not be surprising to see two or even three of them on the field this fall in the two-deep.
On the offensive side they worked very hard on bringing in size and length at wideout and it looks like they hit a homerun with they guys they signed. Two years ago when the IU offense was one of the best in the Big Ten and in the country they had bigger receivers like Cody Latimer and Kofi Hughes that had the ability to make contested catches. Last year the Hoosiers did not have that and it caused the passing game to bog down at times. They didn't have enough guys that could win one-on-one battles at receiver. In this class they seem to have several guys that should be very difficult match-ups for defenses when they are in a one-on-one match-up.
The Hoosiers brought in another very good group of O-linemen. They have two tackle types and two interior types. Because of the depth and talent on the roster at OL none of these four should have to play this fall, but a couple have the ability to work their way up on the depth chart at guard or center.
The staff also had a void at running back with the early departure of Tevin Coleman to the NFL and they were able to fill that void nicely with UAB transfer Jordan Howard. The Alabama native does not have the big-play ability that Coleman does, but he is a work horse as he had the second most carries in the nation last year, and he is dependable as he only fumbled the ball twice in 2014. IU will continue to use a couple of different running backs, but look for Howard to be the main guy at that spot.
IU still has one spot left in the 2015 class if they want to use it. Ever since Coach Wilson came in the Hoosiers have been very successful at adding players late. It started with running back Stephen Houston and Matt Dooley, and then was followed up with defensive back Tim Bennett and defensive lineman Nate Hoff. The first three started a lot of games at IU, and Hoff had a good redshirt freshman season this past fall. Every recruiting season there are guys that do not sign on signing day because their academics are in question. If a guy like that is out there in April or May and it looks like he will make it academically that could be someone the staff takes a look at. Coach Wilson also mentioned the possibility of taking a grad transfer who could come in and play right away for one season. The best guess is they will look for a best available type of player, but if there is a good pass rusher out there or a good cornerback those guys might be even more attractive to the staff.
----
With 2015 recruiting basically done the staff will turn their focus to the 2016 class and to getting prospects from that class and from the 2017 class on campus for junior days. IU had a smaller junior day back in December when they had four or five prospects on campus. Those were:
LB Noah Burks from Carmel (IN) Carmel HS
Ath Chris Evans from Indianapolis (IN) Ben Davis HS
WR Stori Emerson from Indianapolis (IN) Ben Davis HS
TE Griffin Palmer from St. Louis (MO) DeSmet HS
Their first significant junior day as far as number of visitors is Sunday. Peegs.com has heard that IU could have around 17 or 18 prospects on campus. You can check out our post on the Premium FB that lists the names we have for the junior day this weekend.
The Indiana staff is very aggressive in recruiting, and while they may not offer as early as some schools, they still are very pro-active when it comes to getting offers out as early as possible to the prospects they really like. It is something that recruits have told Peegs.com they have noticed, and it is something they like and appreciate. As more prospects from the 2016 and 2017 classes make their way to Bloomington over the next few months look for more offers to be handed out by the IU staff.
This post was edited on 2/6 1:05 PM by MattWeaver
Last week the New York Post had this in-depth feature on Alkins.
Long Island Lutheran features several players we think are on the Hoosier radar in 6-foot-9, 230-pound junior Rojaye Campbell and 6-foot-1 junior guard Devonte Green. The latter is the younger brother of San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green.
Davon Dillard told our Jeff Rabjohns that the two Indiana coaches were also expected to be at Our Savior New American during that NYC area stop. Dillard is the 6-foot-5 wing we featured recently. Originally from the Gary, Indiana area, Dillard has Indiana among his five finalists.
Indiana also has serious interest in Dillard's teammate, 6-foot-7, 215-pound Kassoum Yakwe. He's a junior currently ranked No. 116 in that class. He's a power forward as he plays higher than his height due to his long reach and athleticism. Played alongside Thomas Bryant last summer on Team SCAN in the Nike EYBL series.
Speaking of Bryant -- last week we wrote here that Syracuse may not be as strong as many had believed. Well the news this week certainly won't help the Cuse cause. If you missed it, the school confessed that "past mistakes occurred" and self-imposed a ban on the school's postseason this year for men's basketball. That's led to a lot of criticism since the team is 15-7 and not in the current projections of this year's NCAA field.
The NCAA has not released its finding yet and could issue stiffer penalties on its own.
A number of things are being investigated including Fab Melo's academic record and a YMCA internship program.
Kentucky now looks like the biggest competitor for Indiana with Bryant. Missouri is the farthest school in his final four from home and struggling this season, sitting at 7-15 overall and 1-8 in the SEC under new coach Kim Anderson.
Having another Rochester area guy at Indiana in Emmitt Holt helps and Chuck Martin continues to make progress. A good finish to this season should help as well.
As mentioned here last week, 7-foot Johnny Hamilton is another late big man possibility. Hamilton is raw offensively but the Trinidad native is active and a very good shot blocker as this video shows:
YouTube highlight reel
This one may not heat up but if interested there are full games of his Jacksonville (TX) College on Youtube to watch
Another 2015 development to come about this week is not a new name. Indiana is expected to take another look at East Chicago Central point guard Hyron Edwards. He's only about 5-foot-10 but had early offers from Indiana, Illinois and Purdue only to watch that interest dissipate over time. Nobody in our network has even done a story on him since June but he's having a big senior season.
On January 29th Edwards scored 44 points in a 80-62 win over Gary West and topped that the following game in a 45-point night last Saturday in a 105-95 OT win at South Bend Adams.
He plays alongside another borderline high major player in junior Damion Jefferson but Jefferson was recently suspended and Edwards has subsequently taken on more of a scoring role for the 12-3 Class 4A team in Jefferson's absence.
Again this may be one to look at it if Yogi Ferrell leaves this spring for pro opportunities.
Along those lines --Gary Parrish of CBS Sports put out a mock draft last week for the 2015 NBA draft that included three Hoosiers (story link). He had James Blackmon Jr. going 35 to Philly, Yogi Ferrell going 44 to Miami and Troy Williams going 54 to the Lakers.
The top 30 are first rounders and the only guaranteed contracts.
Other mocks of note out there aren't assuming all three head to the league this spring:
Draft Express - have Yogi going No. 36 and have Williams and Blackmon in the 2016 draft. Williams going in the first round at No. 25 and Blackmon going No. 32.
ESPN - they haven't done a Mock in awhile but on their big board have Williams at No. 36, Blackmon at No. 46 and Ferrell is just No. 123.
Blackmon and Ferrell haven't helped themselves the last couple weeks. In conference play Blackmon's field goal rate is now just 38.3 percent and Ferrell is at 40.3 percent. Yogi, however, is sporting an assist to turnover ratio of over 3-to-1 in league play and that's a very high mark.
On a related note, many here get on Stanford Robinson for turnovers but he's only had four total in the Big Ten season and is the only Hoosier besides Ferrell to have more assists than turnovers.
As far as the injuries to Blackmon and Hanner Mosquera-Perea, I tried to tackle this question on the board this morning:
I think you'll see James play on Sunday but no official word from Indiana. Coach Crean seemed optimistic about it after the UW loss given the five days still to rest and remember it wasn't a severe sprain since he came back and played on it at the end of the Rutgers game.
Based on everything we've heard on Hanner it will be at least another week or two. Two weeks ago coach Crean said mid-February for him and haven't heard anything to indicate he may be back sooner than that. So maybe for the Feb 15 home game against Minnesota? Definitely could use him against Maurice Walker as he's a bit of nightmare match-up with IU's current lineup.
We could learn more on Hanner tomorrow since that's probably the next time media can ask coach Crean about him
------
If you haven't caught the news about Josh Speidel, the Columbus North player was critically injured in a bad auto accident earlier this week. He had traumatic head injury and at least as of yesterday was in a medically induced coma. Josh was a likely Indiana All-Star and despite some Big Ten interest had signed early with Vermont.
Anyone can help his family with medical expenses by going to this web page on GoFundMe.com. You can also tell people to find that by going to GoFundMe.com and have them type in his name or #JoshStrong Josh is a great kid who lives just down the street from our family and someone my kids have known well since elementary school, so any help would be appreciated.
-------
You may have seen my board post but want to welcome Ken Bikoff back here as a contributor. He's going to be with us on a part time basis, at least through the end of the basketball season. For you younger fans he was a regular here for a long time during our partnership with Inside Indiana and provided a lot of great features and video work. Most recently Ken has been working with Campus Insiders and is continuing in that endeavor.
Ken's primary focus will be giving us a jump start with our multimedia (podcasts, video shows, etc.) and social media, especially with getting our Facebook page going. Along those lines if you can 'Like' us there or help us promote it in other ways, that would be most appreciated.
----
Finally for those that have had some login issues and have noticed the schedule page and other things haven't been updating like normal, there is an explanation. Rivals over the last couple weeks has migrated to new servers and that has caused the normal hiccups with such a move. Much better infrastructure set-up that should help us bring out our new message boards in the coming weeks. It did already help us get through football signing day without crashing. Given the volume we get here that day, that was no small accomplishment. But it has led to some other minor annoyances and let some things get less prioritized.
I think things should get better soon now, especially since signing day is behind us, but wanted everyone to know most of the issues are more on Rivals end, not yours. And I know having to log back in all the time was a problem, even for me here.
Anyway, thanks for your patience and I think what's going on behind the scenes will pay off in the long run.
----------
Here is our weekly football report:
Indiana finished off a good 2015 class on Wednesday when they signed 22 prospects to go along with the two UAB transfers that are already on campus for a total of 24 newcomers to the program. The biggest thing the staff wanted in this class was length at the skill positions on both sides of the ball and they got with the group of DBs and the group of WRs they have added.
On defense the Hoosiers signed nine defensive prospects with three D-linemen, two linebackers and four defensive backs. The staff did a very good job of getting some long and athletic DBs for their defense. It would not be surprising to see two or even three of them on the field this fall in the two-deep.
On the offensive side they worked very hard on bringing in size and length at wideout and it looks like they hit a homerun with they guys they signed. Two years ago when the IU offense was one of the best in the Big Ten and in the country they had bigger receivers like Cody Latimer and Kofi Hughes that had the ability to make contested catches. Last year the Hoosiers did not have that and it caused the passing game to bog down at times. They didn't have enough guys that could win one-on-one battles at receiver. In this class they seem to have several guys that should be very difficult match-ups for defenses when they are in a one-on-one match-up.
The Hoosiers brought in another very good group of O-linemen. They have two tackle types and two interior types. Because of the depth and talent on the roster at OL none of these four should have to play this fall, but a couple have the ability to work their way up on the depth chart at guard or center.
The staff also had a void at running back with the early departure of Tevin Coleman to the NFL and they were able to fill that void nicely with UAB transfer Jordan Howard. The Alabama native does not have the big-play ability that Coleman does, but he is a work horse as he had the second most carries in the nation last year, and he is dependable as he only fumbled the ball twice in 2014. IU will continue to use a couple of different running backs, but look for Howard to be the main guy at that spot.
IU still has one spot left in the 2015 class if they want to use it. Ever since Coach Wilson came in the Hoosiers have been very successful at adding players late. It started with running back Stephen Houston and Matt Dooley, and then was followed up with defensive back Tim Bennett and defensive lineman Nate Hoff. The first three started a lot of games at IU, and Hoff had a good redshirt freshman season this past fall. Every recruiting season there are guys that do not sign on signing day because their academics are in question. If a guy like that is out there in April or May and it looks like he will make it academically that could be someone the staff takes a look at. Coach Wilson also mentioned the possibility of taking a grad transfer who could come in and play right away for one season. The best guess is they will look for a best available type of player, but if there is a good pass rusher out there or a good cornerback those guys might be even more attractive to the staff.
----
With 2015 recruiting basically done the staff will turn their focus to the 2016 class and to getting prospects from that class and from the 2017 class on campus for junior days. IU had a smaller junior day back in December when they had four or five prospects on campus. Those were:
LB Noah Burks from Carmel (IN) Carmel HS
Ath Chris Evans from Indianapolis (IN) Ben Davis HS
WR Stori Emerson from Indianapolis (IN) Ben Davis HS
TE Griffin Palmer from St. Louis (MO) DeSmet HS
Their first significant junior day as far as number of visitors is Sunday. Peegs.com has heard that IU could have around 17 or 18 prospects on campus. You can check out our post on the Premium FB that lists the names we have for the junior day this weekend.
The Indiana staff is very aggressive in recruiting, and while they may not offer as early as some schools, they still are very pro-active when it comes to getting offers out as early as possible to the prospects they really like. It is something that recruits have told Peegs.com they have noticed, and it is something they like and appreciate. As more prospects from the 2016 and 2017 classes make their way to Bloomington over the next few months look for more offers to be handed out by the IU staff.
This post was edited on 2/6 1:05 PM by MattWeaver
