As we posted earlier this week, all the signs seem to point to Troy Williams staying in the NBA draft right now. The final straw may have been getting that precious NBA Combine invite this past weekend as only 63 players ended up making the final list that we posted today on the Hoosier Newsstand.
Williams has been working out in Houston with the John Lucas run outfit there and it really appears to be his focus.
Of course Indiana's recent addition of a Williams like athlete for the small forward position (Freddie McSwain) was an obvious statement on this decision.
The Combine begins in Chicago on Wednesday. Yogi Ferrell is an alternate and as things stand now won't be participating. There were at least 13 alternates initially including Fred VanVleet and Zach Auguste and three Kentucky players (Alex Poythress, Marcus Lee, Isaiah Briscoe). When the list came out this weekend, two guys moved off the alternate list and into the Combine - Marcus Lee and Jarron Blossomgame (Clemson). That came about as three guys including LSU's Ben Simmons decided to pass on the Combine.
Coaches weren't there but Malik Williams' big day on Saturday seems to have helped lead to several new offers. The Fort Wayne Snider big man had back-to-back 29-point games in the Run 'n Slam in his hometown and this week pulled in new scholarship offers from Louisville, Pittsburgh and Maryland. The Pitt offer wasn't surprising as new coach Kevin Stallings had recruited Williams when he was at Vanderbilt.
Still expect Williams to stay near home. Coming into May the two schools we felt may have a slight lead were Michigan State and Iowa but Williams seems to be looking to slow down his recruitment, backing off a recent plan to announce for a school on August 26, his birthday. Instead he plans to bring out a finalist or shortened list at that time.
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Recruiting a class goes longer than you expect every year and Indiana was mentioned recently with another 2016 player, 6-foot-9 power forward Taurean Thompson. The No. 84 overall player in the Rivals150 is out of Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. We were going to add a lot more here on Thompson but yesterday several reports came out that he has cut his choices to Syracuse, Michigan State and Seton Hall.
The top guy on our next 2018 hot board may be point guard Darius Garland and he recently noted new interest from Kansas, Texas, Ohio State and Connecticut.
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Andrew Platek, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from near Albany, New York and Northfield Mount Hermon prep school in Massachusetts, is in Bloomington today on an unofficial visit. He's not yet ranked but should be soon as evidenced by offers from North Carolina, Miami-Florida, Penn State, Stanford and a few other high major programs.
Platek is a lights out shooter, with 20 made 3-pointers in the Nike EYBL circuit, just one shy of the most made over the two weekends of play thus far. His 3-point rate though is a torrid 54.1 percent. In three of his last five games including his match-up with IU commit Al Durham Jr., Platek has hit at least four 3-pointers.
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Two new guys from the 2017 class have received Indiana offers as the Hoosier staff eyes a move to get heavily involved. One is a five-star -- 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward Jarred Vanderbilt. He's out of the Houston area where he plays at Victory Prep.
He gets a lot of Stacey Augmon comparisons since he's a lefty and might be pretty similar to IU's Troy Williams in that he's a very bouncy forward. Vanderbilt, however, has much more of a pro body and is a tad taller. Like the two guys we just mentioned as comparisons, his question mark is his outside shot. He's just at 23.1 percent from behind the 3-point line in the Nike EYBL circuit.
Vanderbilt has a lot of heavy hitters on him as you would expect but for a 5-star he's not the light the world on fire this spring and really could be a guy you could move in on late as Indiana did with Troy Williams and other players after their junior campaigns.
Another high profile guy now on the 2017 radar is Brandon Randolph out of Yonkers, New York. He's currently ranked No. 73 in the class and a 6-foot-5 shooter who also recently landed offers from Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina and Maryland.
Like Platek he's a New York guy who has been shooting the lights out in the Nike EYBL circuit. He plays for the PSA Cardinals, the NYC area program that Thomas Bryant is an alumnus of when it was called Team SCAN. Randolph is tied for the overall lead in made 3-pointers in EYBL with 21. Like Platek he's shooting them at an efficient rate -- in his case exactly at 50 percent.
A couple 2017 point guards to make note of:
Daejon Davis, a top 40 ranked former Washington commit. He's mentioned that he's heard from Indiana but the Huskies may still be the team to beat with Oregon and Oregon State having the best shot to steall away the Seattle area player who has been terrific for Seattle Rotary in the first two EYBL stops. Davis is a bouncy 6-foot-3 guy who players longer than his height and maybe more of a combo guard at next level.
It feels funny calling a 5-foot-7 guy a combo guard but Chris Lykes is more of a score first guard right now. Ranked No. 97 overall, he's the best sub 5-foot-10 guy we've seen in a couple years.
Lykes is among the leaders in EYBL with his 18.4 ppg scoring average for the Team Takeover program that several former Hoosiers including Victor Oladipo were a part of in their prep days. In fact Oladipo was with that team in Westfield last month. Lykes is from the powerful Gonzaga program in Washington D.C.
As our story from earlier this week indicated, Lykes has multiple Big East and ACC offers and said this week he believes Stanford and Indiana could be next to pull the trigger.
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Since the end of spring football about three weeks ago the Indiana staff has been very busy out on the recruiting trail. The coaches have made visits to several different parts of the country, and they have extended quite a few offers. Peegs.com has put together a list of the new offers we were able to confirm below:
2017 Texas WR Bronson Boyd
2017 Florida RB Trace Christian
2017 Florida DE K’Jakyre Daley
2017 Texas DB Timarcus Davis
2017 Texas WR Trestan Ebner
2017 Ohio OL Joel Honigford
2017 Michigan DE Deron Irving-Bey
2017 Florida WR M.J. Jarrell
2017 Texas LB Riko Jeffers
2017 California QB Tyler Lytle
2017 Texas LB Dimitri Moore
2017 Texas WR LaMarcus Morton
2017 Texas DB Kenneth Murray
2017 Georgia athlete Chinedu Ogbonna
2017 New Jersey athlete Marvin Pierre
2017 Texas WR Reggie Roberson
2017 Georgia LB TD Roof
2017 New Jersey DE Mike Tverdov
2017 New Jersey OL Carter Warren
2017 Maryland LB Keisean Wilson
2018 Florida DB Isaiah Bolden
2018 Kentucky DB Jarius Brents
2018 Ohio OL Jackson Carman
2018 Florida TE Judge Culpepper
2018 Texas WR Lavontae Decius
2018 Texas WR Tavontae Decius
2018 New Jersey LB Javar Garrett
2018 New Jersey DE/TE Dorian Hardy
2018 Florida athlete Ken Montgomery
2018 Texas TE Mustapha Muhammad
2018 Kentucky DE Tahj Rice
2018 Florida athlete Greg Rousseau
2018 Ohio OL Blaine Scott
2018 New Jersey QB Artur Sitkowski
2019 Florida DB Keontra Smith
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The program did get some bad news recently with the decommitment of four-star prospect Lynn Bowden. The Ohio athlete had been the top ranked recruit in the 2017 Indiana class, and he is the second decommit for the program this spring after Arkansas WR Josh Johnson flipped to Iowa State.
Bowden was recruited to play RB and with him no longer on board the staff has started to turn their attention to some new prospects. One name that has popped up is Devin Darrington from Maryland. Indiana assistant coach Deland McCullough will be stopping by Darrington’s school today to watch him work-out. He does not currently have an IU offer but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that change after today’s visit by Coach McCullough.
Another name at RB that the Hoosiers seem to be very interested in is Tayon Fleet-Davis. He is also from Maryland and he told Peegs.com that he has been talking to IU on a regular basis and that he has a lot of interest in the Hoosiers.
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Last weekend was the NFL Draft and seven former Hoosiers found homes in professional football over the course of the weekend. Three players – OL Jason Spriggs, RB Jordan Howard, QB Nate Sudfeld – were drafted by the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins respectively. Four more Hoosiers – TE Michael Cooper, DL Darius Latham, OL Jake Reed and DE/OLB Zack Shaw – were signed as priority free agents after the draft was concluded. Here are a few stories on the IU players that talks about where they will be playing in the NFL:
Spriggs drafted by the Packers
Bears draft Howard in the 5th round
Sudfeld taken in 6th round by Redskins
Seven Hoosiers find NFL homes
Williams has been working out in Houston with the John Lucas run outfit there and it really appears to be his focus.
Of course Indiana's recent addition of a Williams like athlete for the small forward position (Freddie McSwain) was an obvious statement on this decision.
The Combine begins in Chicago on Wednesday. Yogi Ferrell is an alternate and as things stand now won't be participating. There were at least 13 alternates initially including Fred VanVleet and Zach Auguste and three Kentucky players (Alex Poythress, Marcus Lee, Isaiah Briscoe). When the list came out this weekend, two guys moved off the alternate list and into the Combine - Marcus Lee and Jarron Blossomgame (Clemson). That came about as three guys including LSU's Ben Simmons decided to pass on the Combine.
Coaches weren't there but Malik Williams' big day on Saturday seems to have helped lead to several new offers. The Fort Wayne Snider big man had back-to-back 29-point games in the Run 'n Slam in his hometown and this week pulled in new scholarship offers from Louisville, Pittsburgh and Maryland. The Pitt offer wasn't surprising as new coach Kevin Stallings had recruited Williams when he was at Vanderbilt.
Still expect Williams to stay near home. Coming into May the two schools we felt may have a slight lead were Michigan State and Iowa but Williams seems to be looking to slow down his recruitment, backing off a recent plan to announce for a school on August 26, his birthday. Instead he plans to bring out a finalist or shortened list at that time.
-------
Recruiting a class goes longer than you expect every year and Indiana was mentioned recently with another 2016 player, 6-foot-9 power forward Taurean Thompson. The No. 84 overall player in the Rivals150 is out of Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. We were going to add a lot more here on Thompson but yesterday several reports came out that he has cut his choices to Syracuse, Michigan State and Seton Hall.
The top guy on our next 2018 hot board may be point guard Darius Garland and he recently noted new interest from Kansas, Texas, Ohio State and Connecticut.
-----
Andrew Platek, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from near Albany, New York and Northfield Mount Hermon prep school in Massachusetts, is in Bloomington today on an unofficial visit. He's not yet ranked but should be soon as evidenced by offers from North Carolina, Miami-Florida, Penn State, Stanford and a few other high major programs.
Platek is a lights out shooter, with 20 made 3-pointers in the Nike EYBL circuit, just one shy of the most made over the two weekends of play thus far. His 3-point rate though is a torrid 54.1 percent. In three of his last five games including his match-up with IU commit Al Durham Jr., Platek has hit at least four 3-pointers.
-------
Two new guys from the 2017 class have received Indiana offers as the Hoosier staff eyes a move to get heavily involved. One is a five-star -- 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward Jarred Vanderbilt. He's out of the Houston area where he plays at Victory Prep.
He gets a lot of Stacey Augmon comparisons since he's a lefty and might be pretty similar to IU's Troy Williams in that he's a very bouncy forward. Vanderbilt, however, has much more of a pro body and is a tad taller. Like the two guys we just mentioned as comparisons, his question mark is his outside shot. He's just at 23.1 percent from behind the 3-point line in the Nike EYBL circuit.
Vanderbilt has a lot of heavy hitters on him as you would expect but for a 5-star he's not the light the world on fire this spring and really could be a guy you could move in on late as Indiana did with Troy Williams and other players after their junior campaigns.
Another high profile guy now on the 2017 radar is Brandon Randolph out of Yonkers, New York. He's currently ranked No. 73 in the class and a 6-foot-5 shooter who also recently landed offers from Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina and Maryland.
Like Platek he's a New York guy who has been shooting the lights out in the Nike EYBL circuit. He plays for the PSA Cardinals, the NYC area program that Thomas Bryant is an alumnus of when it was called Team SCAN. Randolph is tied for the overall lead in made 3-pointers in EYBL with 21. Like Platek he's shooting them at an efficient rate -- in his case exactly at 50 percent.
A couple 2017 point guards to make note of:
Daejon Davis, a top 40 ranked former Washington commit. He's mentioned that he's heard from Indiana but the Huskies may still be the team to beat with Oregon and Oregon State having the best shot to steall away the Seattle area player who has been terrific for Seattle Rotary in the first two EYBL stops. Davis is a bouncy 6-foot-3 guy who players longer than his height and maybe more of a combo guard at next level.
It feels funny calling a 5-foot-7 guy a combo guard but Chris Lykes is more of a score first guard right now. Ranked No. 97 overall, he's the best sub 5-foot-10 guy we've seen in a couple years.
Lykes is among the leaders in EYBL with his 18.4 ppg scoring average for the Team Takeover program that several former Hoosiers including Victor Oladipo were a part of in their prep days. In fact Oladipo was with that team in Westfield last month. Lykes is from the powerful Gonzaga program in Washington D.C.
As our story from earlier this week indicated, Lykes has multiple Big East and ACC offers and said this week he believes Stanford and Indiana could be next to pull the trigger.
----------
Since the end of spring football about three weeks ago the Indiana staff has been very busy out on the recruiting trail. The coaches have made visits to several different parts of the country, and they have extended quite a few offers. Peegs.com has put together a list of the new offers we were able to confirm below:
2017 Texas WR Bronson Boyd
2017 Florida RB Trace Christian
2017 Florida DE K’Jakyre Daley
2017 Texas DB Timarcus Davis
2017 Texas WR Trestan Ebner
2017 Ohio OL Joel Honigford
2017 Michigan DE Deron Irving-Bey
2017 Florida WR M.J. Jarrell
2017 Texas LB Riko Jeffers
2017 California QB Tyler Lytle
2017 Texas LB Dimitri Moore
2017 Texas WR LaMarcus Morton
2017 Texas DB Kenneth Murray
2017 Georgia athlete Chinedu Ogbonna
2017 New Jersey athlete Marvin Pierre
2017 Texas WR Reggie Roberson
2017 Georgia LB TD Roof
2017 New Jersey DE Mike Tverdov
2017 New Jersey OL Carter Warren
2017 Maryland LB Keisean Wilson
2018 Florida DB Isaiah Bolden
2018 Kentucky DB Jarius Brents
2018 Ohio OL Jackson Carman
2018 Florida TE Judge Culpepper
2018 Texas WR Lavontae Decius
2018 Texas WR Tavontae Decius
2018 New Jersey LB Javar Garrett
2018 New Jersey DE/TE Dorian Hardy
2018 Florida athlete Ken Montgomery
2018 Texas TE Mustapha Muhammad
2018 Kentucky DE Tahj Rice
2018 Florida athlete Greg Rousseau
2018 Ohio OL Blaine Scott
2018 New Jersey QB Artur Sitkowski
2019 Florida DB Keontra Smith
-----
The program did get some bad news recently with the decommitment of four-star prospect Lynn Bowden. The Ohio athlete had been the top ranked recruit in the 2017 Indiana class, and he is the second decommit for the program this spring after Arkansas WR Josh Johnson flipped to Iowa State.
Bowden was recruited to play RB and with him no longer on board the staff has started to turn their attention to some new prospects. One name that has popped up is Devin Darrington from Maryland. Indiana assistant coach Deland McCullough will be stopping by Darrington’s school today to watch him work-out. He does not currently have an IU offer but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that change after today’s visit by Coach McCullough.
Another name at RB that the Hoosiers seem to be very interested in is Tayon Fleet-Davis. He is also from Maryland and he told Peegs.com that he has been talking to IU on a regular basis and that he has a lot of interest in the Hoosiers.
-----
Last weekend was the NFL Draft and seven former Hoosiers found homes in professional football over the course of the weekend. Three players – OL Jason Spriggs, RB Jordan Howard, QB Nate Sudfeld – were drafted by the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins respectively. Four more Hoosiers – TE Michael Cooper, DL Darius Latham, OL Jake Reed and DE/OLB Zack Shaw – were signed as priority free agents after the draft was concluded. Here are a few stories on the IU players that talks about where they will be playing in the NFL:
Spriggs drafted by the Packers
Bears draft Howard in the 5th round
Sudfeld taken in 6th round by Redskins
Seven Hoosiers find NFL homes
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