The second of the three evaluation periods are underway. This is traditionally not as newsy as coaches often watch the same prospects again. Things are spread out a bit and there are some tough decisions for them to make.
In just the first day and a half coach Tom Crean has already hit Chicago (Nike Global Games), greater Atlanta (Under Armour Finals) and New York City (adidas All-American Camp).
Keep waiting for a hot new target to emerge as the second July period has brought us three former Hoosiers that last three recruiting seasons. During that period is when Indiana was first mentioned in 2012 with Troy Williams, in 2013 with Robert Johnson and last year with Thomas Bryant.
News expected this weekend from hot combo guard Kameron McGusty from Texas. The 2016 prospect is ranked No. 36 in the class and looked better than expected in last week's UAA All-American Camp in Charlotte. McGusty is saying he'll cut his list to just three or four schools. He said in Charlotte he planned to go down to five schools in early August, so this is a slight alteration.
McGusty had a lot of good things to say about Indiana last month in Virginia at the NBPA Top 100 Camp but odds may be against the Hoosiers making the cut from what little we know about this one. Most of the scuttlebutt is that Texas, Oklahoma, Louisville and maybe Florida make the cut this weekend.
Jeff Rabjohns is in Suwanee, Georgia this week at the Under Armour Finals and spoke yesterday to Thon Maker and his guardian Ed Smith. Jeff posted this update yesterday afternoon:
2016 five-star 7-footer Thon Maker told Peegs.com today that he has decided he wants to take his official visits in the fall or possibly during the college basketball preseason.
Maker said he hasn't decided specific dates or how many visits, but he wants to take officials in that timetable.
"I want to have them all scheduled at once," Maker told Peegs.com. "You can't just take one and then disappear."
Indiana, Arizona State and Kentucky are three schools seriously involved.
Maker said he hasn't decided if he'll make his decision in the fall or the spring, but fall official visits would bring a November decision into play as an option, if he so desires at that point in time.
Maker and his brother, 2017 6-foot-10 forward Matur Maker, made an unofficial visit to Indiana for IU's final regular-season home game last season.
IU coach Tom Crean and assistant Tim Buckley were courtside to watch Thon Maker here in Atlanta today at the Under Armour finals.
Crean also watched Maker at the Under Armour All-American camp in Charlotte, N.C., in the first July evaluation period.
Maker again showed how much more dominant he can be in the post with the noticeable upper body strength gains.
Maker said July is all about competing - "I love when people come at me," he said - and getting better and he'll worry about talking more with colleges after AAU ends.
UPDATE: Thon Maker's guardian tells Peegs.com than an official visit Arizona State is definite and officials to Indiana and Kentucky are very likely.
His guardian said Thon will be on campus at both Indiana and Kentucky at some point either in the fall or during the season.
His guardian said the only reason it isn't definitely official visits to Indiana and Kentucky is that Orangeville Prep will be playing in events in the Midwest, and Thon could get extended visits to both campuses without the visits being officials.
Also, two new schools, Florida State and Oklahoma State, have reached out since Maker announced at the NBPA Top 100 camp that he would be in the 2016 class, his guardian said.
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Newly offered Ohio wing Ibi Watson was not in Milwaukee as expected yesterday due to a death in the family. He is expected to arrive today and we should get an update from him there.
Did get the chance to speak at length with his mother this week after the Indiana offer. She made it clear he's very high on Indiana and Michigan. Wolverine coach John Beilein watched him closely both last Saturday and Sunday in Suwanee, but the Wolverines did not offer, Watson recently attended a UM camp and goes to the same Ohio high school that Michigan guard Caris LeVert attended,
While a host of mid-majors added offers last week, Indiana was his first Power Five level offer and he's talking about pulling the trigger right after July. There seems to be a good chance he could be the first member of an Indiana class that should grow to five or more signees. A Michigan offer might change that, who knows. Longer they wait the better Indiana will look to him.
Here's some scouting thoughts I posted on the board earlier this week after watching Watson played Saturday.
Ibi looks like he's not shorter than his listed 6-foot-4. Saturday night he played on the adjacent court to Al Durham, another 6'4 guard that IU offered recently, and he clearly looked taller to my eyes (UPDATE: Mother insists Ibi is now 6-foot-5).
Anyway, Watson can shoot it from deep and that has to be the main reason he's drawn interest from Indiana and other high major programs. There simply aren't many long range shooters in this class and he's a good one with height and decent athleticism.
As mentioned here he does have a little bit of a low release jumper that may remind you some of the way Noah Vonleh shoots it from deep in the way it is a bit more of a one hand push or greater use of his dominant right hand. His shot has a very high arc and relies a lot on feel. James Blackmon's shot is about a lot of feel IMO. Maybe this doesn't make that much sense but would say Nick Zeisloft is less of a "feel" guy and that is one reason he can come in cold off the bench and often hit a shot right away.
One game in Minneapolis Watson missed about everything in the first half and then over halftime break he went out with an assistant and worked on his shot and then came out drilled at least four long range shots. That really stood out to me because most kids just relax on the bench during the break, especially when they're playing multiple times a day.
Watson is fairly efficient or in other words doesn't offset his scoring with negative plays. Doesn't force a lot of shots, doesn't turn it over much. Plays pretty smart. As to why he's not ranked I think some of it is because he's not a high flyer, or a guy that will create a lot of space off his own dribble. The unusual high arc on his shot may also scare some but honestly, if it goes in at a high rate, does it really matter? And it's not a Lloyd Free type arc (okay, just dated myself).
Very nice kid who gives you the impression he won't be any trouble off the court.
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Indiana hosted Watson in June and with the trip to Michigan already taken, it seems the family is behind the near term decision.
Curtis Jones is also a 2016 shooter that visited Indiana in June, so could all of this push him into an earlier than expected call for the Hoosiers? Hard to say. Florida has picked up interest in him and talk that Maryland may have renewed interest. Terps are where insiders felt he was leaning earlier this year but Mark Turgeon has been in on a lot of top guards and backed off on this one, but not totally. Georgetown also a player here. He's really a Richmond, Virginia area guy so Terps and Hoyas have a bit of a close to home edge over IU and UF.
To try to simplify the recruiting landscape, I tried to sum up the 2016 efforts right now, placing guys in a few groups. Just remember recruiting is fluid and this is just one person's outlook on it all:
Shooting guard to come first? - see Ibi Watson and Curtis Jones.
Clearly top 3-5 schools schools but taking time - Thon Maker, De'Ron Davis, Lamar Stevens, Bruce Brown,
Wild cards: Rawle Alkins, Kassoum Yakwe. Lot of Kentucky buzz with him the past week but he enjoys the spotlight about as much as any player we've covered and hard to therefore get a read on him, especially since he may be waiting till late spring of 2016 to make a decision. We do think he really likes Indiana and the early effort put forth could pay dividends next year.
Yakwe still has a reclass decision to make and IU is a possibility since the Hoosiers have an open grant for this season. Yakwe doesn't really speak about his recruitment much. Kind of leaves it his AAU guys and that makes him a bit of a wild card call as well.
There's probably another group of guys where IU is among the top five or so but the chatter is the players are leaning elsewhere. Those guys included Miles Bridges (MSU, UK?), DeRiante Jenkins (Clemson?), Tony Carr (Maryland?), McGusty, Eric Hester (Florida?). Jenkins could be the most likely to move into that Maker, Davis, Stevens group as the summer moves along or we learn more. He's shown an awful lot of IU interest in our recent interviews.
Eron Gordon could be in that last group but still see that as a longer shot with Butler and maybe LSU as the best bets today.
Nick Rakocevic has struggled some this offseason. Changed AAU teams to Indiana Elite and had rough opening session. He's very talented but right now just not getting much done on the court and has fallen out of the rankings because of it. All it would take would be a couple good games in front of the right coaches to change things but he's a hard guy to classify right now.
As far as 2017, Indiana still looks like it may be the team to beat with Paul Scruggs and Malik Williams. Excellent shape too with Matur Maker but he's going to wait to see what his brother does. Indiana trying hard with Kris Wilkes but he right now he has a strong interest in majoring in engineering. At the same time that's an awfully tough major for an athlete.
A couple other interesting in-state bigger size forwards from that class are Jaren Jackson of Park Tudor and Jack Nunge of Castle. Jackson is a hard read because of his Georgetown family connection. But he's playing better and seems like a guy that you could put in at either forward spot.
Nunge has also stood out this month, once again showing unique shooting ability for his size and was apparently watched yesterday by Indiana and other Big Ten programs. He played well too, scoring 25 points in leading Pocket City back from a huge deficit to a one point victory at the NY2LA event in Milwaukee.
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Here's our weekly football update from Matt Weaver:
The dead period for football recruiting ended earlier this week and the IU staff has already welcomed a couple visitors to campus this week. The big name is Michigan linebacker David Reese (http://sports.yahoo.com/indiana/football/recruiting/player-David-Reese-154277). The three-star recruit and current Wolverine commit was on campus yesterday for an unofficial visit. Rivals.com Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt exchanged messages with Reese’s father and the elder Reese told Helmholdt that the visit to IU went very well. He also said that “Coach (William) Inge is a great man” and the Kelley School “was top-notch”. Reese is scheduled to be at Louisville today for a visit and it certainly looks like is commitment to Michigan is anything but solid.
The other visitor this week was in-state punter Drew Conrad. This is most likely a situation where IU is recruiting Conrad as an invited walk-on for next fall.
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Peegs.com has been in touch with a few Indiana targets recently to see where things stand with their recruiting. The first prospect we spoke to was 2018 in-state offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor. The Indianapolis Cathedral H.S. standout started every game but one last year as a freshman for a Cathedral team that won the 5A State Championship. He has offers from IU, Michigan, Kentucky and South Florida to go along with heavy interest from Ohio State, Notre Dame and Tennessee. Despite the tough competition for Ekiyor the Hoosiers are right at the top of his list. He told Peegs.com that he grew up a big IU fan and he loves the Kelley School of Business. You can read more about what Ekiyor said here (https://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782274&PT=4&PR=2) in the story we did on him.
Another Indiana target that Peegs.com spoke to this week is tight end Zach Cousar. The Oxford, Mississippi native has been hearing quite a bit from the IU staff but does not have an offer at this time. He has been offered by Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, Ohio, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane and Central Arkansas. Besides Indiana he is also receiving interest from Ole Miss, Memphis, Florida Atlantic and Florida International. With the Hoosiers losing two tight ends after the 2015 season adding at least one seems to be pretty important and Cousar is someone the staff seems to be pretty high on. Illinois native Albert Okwuegbunam (http://sports.yahoo.com/indiana/football/recruiting/player-Albert-Okwuegbunam-169414) appears to be the top TE target for IU at this time, but the competition for him is very tough and if IU misses on him that could move Cousar to the top spot. Here (https://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782416&PT=4&PR=2) is the story that we did on Cousar and his interest in IU.
Peegs.com also spoke to three-star defensive lineman Michael Perry for an update on his recruiting. The Memphis, Tennessee native was at IU last month for a visit and afterwards he told us that IU was in his top three along with Ole Miss and Missouri. A few weeks later not much has changed for Perry and his feelings for Indiana. IU is still in his top three but the other two schools are Appalachian State and Ole Miss and IU is the clear leader for him. You can check out the story we did on Perry here (https://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782703&PT=4&PR=2).
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In-state lineman Coy Cronk (http://sports.yahoo.com/indiana/football/recruiting/player-Coy-Cronk-182168) told Peegs.com this week that IU is still very strong with him and he plans on getting back down to Bloomington for a visit before the end of the month. He told us that he would probably visit next week. While recruiting is always fluid, it would not be surprising to see Cronk pull the trigger and commit to the Hoosiers when he does make that visit.
In just the first day and a half coach Tom Crean has already hit Chicago (Nike Global Games), greater Atlanta (Under Armour Finals) and New York City (adidas All-American Camp).
Keep waiting for a hot new target to emerge as the second July period has brought us three former Hoosiers that last three recruiting seasons. During that period is when Indiana was first mentioned in 2012 with Troy Williams, in 2013 with Robert Johnson and last year with Thomas Bryant.
News expected this weekend from hot combo guard Kameron McGusty from Texas. The 2016 prospect is ranked No. 36 in the class and looked better than expected in last week's UAA All-American Camp in Charlotte. McGusty is saying he'll cut his list to just three or four schools. He said in Charlotte he planned to go down to five schools in early August, so this is a slight alteration.
McGusty had a lot of good things to say about Indiana last month in Virginia at the NBPA Top 100 Camp but odds may be against the Hoosiers making the cut from what little we know about this one. Most of the scuttlebutt is that Texas, Oklahoma, Louisville and maybe Florida make the cut this weekend.
Jeff Rabjohns is in Suwanee, Georgia this week at the Under Armour Finals and spoke yesterday to Thon Maker and his guardian Ed Smith. Jeff posted this update yesterday afternoon:
2016 five-star 7-footer Thon Maker told Peegs.com today that he has decided he wants to take his official visits in the fall or possibly during the college basketball preseason.
Maker said he hasn't decided specific dates or how many visits, but he wants to take officials in that timetable.
"I want to have them all scheduled at once," Maker told Peegs.com. "You can't just take one and then disappear."
Indiana, Arizona State and Kentucky are three schools seriously involved.
Maker said he hasn't decided if he'll make his decision in the fall or the spring, but fall official visits would bring a November decision into play as an option, if he so desires at that point in time.
Maker and his brother, 2017 6-foot-10 forward Matur Maker, made an unofficial visit to Indiana for IU's final regular-season home game last season.
IU coach Tom Crean and assistant Tim Buckley were courtside to watch Thon Maker here in Atlanta today at the Under Armour finals.
Crean also watched Maker at the Under Armour All-American camp in Charlotte, N.C., in the first July evaluation period.
Maker again showed how much more dominant he can be in the post with the noticeable upper body strength gains.
Maker said July is all about competing - "I love when people come at me," he said - and getting better and he'll worry about talking more with colleges after AAU ends.
UPDATE: Thon Maker's guardian tells Peegs.com than an official visit Arizona State is definite and officials to Indiana and Kentucky are very likely.
His guardian said Thon will be on campus at both Indiana and Kentucky at some point either in the fall or during the season.
His guardian said the only reason it isn't definitely official visits to Indiana and Kentucky is that Orangeville Prep will be playing in events in the Midwest, and Thon could get extended visits to both campuses without the visits being officials.
Also, two new schools, Florida State and Oklahoma State, have reached out since Maker announced at the NBPA Top 100 camp that he would be in the 2016 class, his guardian said.
--------------
Newly offered Ohio wing Ibi Watson was not in Milwaukee as expected yesterday due to a death in the family. He is expected to arrive today and we should get an update from him there.
Did get the chance to speak at length with his mother this week after the Indiana offer. She made it clear he's very high on Indiana and Michigan. Wolverine coach John Beilein watched him closely both last Saturday and Sunday in Suwanee, but the Wolverines did not offer, Watson recently attended a UM camp and goes to the same Ohio high school that Michigan guard Caris LeVert attended,
While a host of mid-majors added offers last week, Indiana was his first Power Five level offer and he's talking about pulling the trigger right after July. There seems to be a good chance he could be the first member of an Indiana class that should grow to five or more signees. A Michigan offer might change that, who knows. Longer they wait the better Indiana will look to him.
Here's some scouting thoughts I posted on the board earlier this week after watching Watson played Saturday.
Ibi looks like he's not shorter than his listed 6-foot-4. Saturday night he played on the adjacent court to Al Durham, another 6'4 guard that IU offered recently, and he clearly looked taller to my eyes (UPDATE: Mother insists Ibi is now 6-foot-5).
Anyway, Watson can shoot it from deep and that has to be the main reason he's drawn interest from Indiana and other high major programs. There simply aren't many long range shooters in this class and he's a good one with height and decent athleticism.
As mentioned here he does have a little bit of a low release jumper that may remind you some of the way Noah Vonleh shoots it from deep in the way it is a bit more of a one hand push or greater use of his dominant right hand. His shot has a very high arc and relies a lot on feel. James Blackmon's shot is about a lot of feel IMO. Maybe this doesn't make that much sense but would say Nick Zeisloft is less of a "feel" guy and that is one reason he can come in cold off the bench and often hit a shot right away.
One game in Minneapolis Watson missed about everything in the first half and then over halftime break he went out with an assistant and worked on his shot and then came out drilled at least four long range shots. That really stood out to me because most kids just relax on the bench during the break, especially when they're playing multiple times a day.
Watson is fairly efficient or in other words doesn't offset his scoring with negative plays. Doesn't force a lot of shots, doesn't turn it over much. Plays pretty smart. As to why he's not ranked I think some of it is because he's not a high flyer, or a guy that will create a lot of space off his own dribble. The unusual high arc on his shot may also scare some but honestly, if it goes in at a high rate, does it really matter? And it's not a Lloyd Free type arc (okay, just dated myself).
Very nice kid who gives you the impression he won't be any trouble off the court.
----------
Indiana hosted Watson in June and with the trip to Michigan already taken, it seems the family is behind the near term decision.
Curtis Jones is also a 2016 shooter that visited Indiana in June, so could all of this push him into an earlier than expected call for the Hoosiers? Hard to say. Florida has picked up interest in him and talk that Maryland may have renewed interest. Terps are where insiders felt he was leaning earlier this year but Mark Turgeon has been in on a lot of top guards and backed off on this one, but not totally. Georgetown also a player here. He's really a Richmond, Virginia area guy so Terps and Hoyas have a bit of a close to home edge over IU and UF.
To try to simplify the recruiting landscape, I tried to sum up the 2016 efforts right now, placing guys in a few groups. Just remember recruiting is fluid and this is just one person's outlook on it all:
Shooting guard to come first? - see Ibi Watson and Curtis Jones.
Clearly top 3-5 schools schools but taking time - Thon Maker, De'Ron Davis, Lamar Stevens, Bruce Brown,
Wild cards: Rawle Alkins, Kassoum Yakwe. Lot of Kentucky buzz with him the past week but he enjoys the spotlight about as much as any player we've covered and hard to therefore get a read on him, especially since he may be waiting till late spring of 2016 to make a decision. We do think he really likes Indiana and the early effort put forth could pay dividends next year.
Yakwe still has a reclass decision to make and IU is a possibility since the Hoosiers have an open grant for this season. Yakwe doesn't really speak about his recruitment much. Kind of leaves it his AAU guys and that makes him a bit of a wild card call as well.
There's probably another group of guys where IU is among the top five or so but the chatter is the players are leaning elsewhere. Those guys included Miles Bridges (MSU, UK?), DeRiante Jenkins (Clemson?), Tony Carr (Maryland?), McGusty, Eric Hester (Florida?). Jenkins could be the most likely to move into that Maker, Davis, Stevens group as the summer moves along or we learn more. He's shown an awful lot of IU interest in our recent interviews.
Eron Gordon could be in that last group but still see that as a longer shot with Butler and maybe LSU as the best bets today.
Nick Rakocevic has struggled some this offseason. Changed AAU teams to Indiana Elite and had rough opening session. He's very talented but right now just not getting much done on the court and has fallen out of the rankings because of it. All it would take would be a couple good games in front of the right coaches to change things but he's a hard guy to classify right now.
As far as 2017, Indiana still looks like it may be the team to beat with Paul Scruggs and Malik Williams. Excellent shape too with Matur Maker but he's going to wait to see what his brother does. Indiana trying hard with Kris Wilkes but he right now he has a strong interest in majoring in engineering. At the same time that's an awfully tough major for an athlete.
A couple other interesting in-state bigger size forwards from that class are Jaren Jackson of Park Tudor and Jack Nunge of Castle. Jackson is a hard read because of his Georgetown family connection. But he's playing better and seems like a guy that you could put in at either forward spot.
Nunge has also stood out this month, once again showing unique shooting ability for his size and was apparently watched yesterday by Indiana and other Big Ten programs. He played well too, scoring 25 points in leading Pocket City back from a huge deficit to a one point victory at the NY2LA event in Milwaukee.
------------
Here's our weekly football update from Matt Weaver:
The dead period for football recruiting ended earlier this week and the IU staff has already welcomed a couple visitors to campus this week. The big name is Michigan linebacker David Reese (http://sports.yahoo.com/indiana/football/recruiting/player-David-Reese-154277). The three-star recruit and current Wolverine commit was on campus yesterday for an unofficial visit. Rivals.com Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt exchanged messages with Reese’s father and the elder Reese told Helmholdt that the visit to IU went very well. He also said that “Coach (William) Inge is a great man” and the Kelley School “was top-notch”. Reese is scheduled to be at Louisville today for a visit and it certainly looks like is commitment to Michigan is anything but solid.
The other visitor this week was in-state punter Drew Conrad. This is most likely a situation where IU is recruiting Conrad as an invited walk-on for next fall.
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Peegs.com has been in touch with a few Indiana targets recently to see where things stand with their recruiting. The first prospect we spoke to was 2018 in-state offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor. The Indianapolis Cathedral H.S. standout started every game but one last year as a freshman for a Cathedral team that won the 5A State Championship. He has offers from IU, Michigan, Kentucky and South Florida to go along with heavy interest from Ohio State, Notre Dame and Tennessee. Despite the tough competition for Ekiyor the Hoosiers are right at the top of his list. He told Peegs.com that he grew up a big IU fan and he loves the Kelley School of Business. You can read more about what Ekiyor said here (https://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782274&PT=4&PR=2) in the story we did on him.
Another Indiana target that Peegs.com spoke to this week is tight end Zach Cousar. The Oxford, Mississippi native has been hearing quite a bit from the IU staff but does not have an offer at this time. He has been offered by Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, Ohio, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane and Central Arkansas. Besides Indiana he is also receiving interest from Ole Miss, Memphis, Florida Atlantic and Florida International. With the Hoosiers losing two tight ends after the 2015 season adding at least one seems to be pretty important and Cousar is someone the staff seems to be pretty high on. Illinois native Albert Okwuegbunam (http://sports.yahoo.com/indiana/football/recruiting/player-Albert-Okwuegbunam-169414) appears to be the top TE target for IU at this time, but the competition for him is very tough and if IU misses on him that could move Cousar to the top spot. Here (https://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782416&PT=4&PR=2) is the story that we did on Cousar and his interest in IU.
Peegs.com also spoke to three-star defensive lineman Michael Perry for an update on his recruiting. The Memphis, Tennessee native was at IU last month for a visit and afterwards he told us that IU was in his top three along with Ole Miss and Missouri. A few weeks later not much has changed for Perry and his feelings for Indiana. IU is still in his top three but the other two schools are Appalachian State and Ole Miss and IU is the clear leader for him. You can check out the story we did on Perry here (https://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782703&PT=4&PR=2).
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In-state lineman Coy Cronk (http://sports.yahoo.com/indiana/football/recruiting/player-Coy-Cronk-182168) told Peegs.com this week that IU is still very strong with him and he plans on getting back down to Bloomington for a visit before the end of the month. He told us that he would probably visit next week. While recruiting is always fluid, it would not be surprising to see Cronk pull the trigger and commit to the Hoosiers when he does make that visit.
