As we head into the last couple days of the July evaluation period the prevailing thought is not the usual news on who was watched, who played well and such, but on the possibility that Indiana in the near term may be addressing its guard needs.
'Near term' being the operating words there as Ibi Watson seems set on a decision over the next week or two, Curtis Jones, who has been widely thought to be leaning to IU, is officially visiting in a month, and talk continues to very positive for the Hoosiers with Bruce Brown. See: Brown recruiting chatter
Time changes things especially when you're talking about three decisions, but certainly looks today like Indiana could end up with all three and be able to focus mostly on frontcourt targets and Rawle Alkins.
Some thoughts on the trio, especially since we've watched two of them here in the last 24 hours:
Watson didn't have a great opening game in Louisville but bounced back yesterday to play well, especially in a morning win over another EYBL team, the Playground Elite, a squad featuring another IU target, 2017 2G Jordan Poole. Watson stroked about four jumpers in the second half that helped ice the game for his All Ohio Red team.
Watson is not ranked but he's got great range with his shot, he's got nice height for his role (6-foot-5), is athletic enough to get up and dunk over people and seems to have a feel for the game. He gets criticized some for not playing hard enough like many young players but he's got a smoothness to his game that make him look like he's playing more casual than he really is out there.
Michigan is the main threat and they'll talk to him on Monday but the guess here is the Wolverines aren't ready to offer. He's been to their team camp, John Beilein watched him many times and I think they would have pulled the trigger by now if they wanted him really badly. We'll see on Monday and U-M assistant Bacari Alexander did watch his first couple games in Louisville this week.
With Curtis Jones there was a lot of buzz over how much he liked his unofficial to IU and how well he thinks he fits into the system at IU. Georgetown was the school that was consistently watching him in Louisville that is really involved. Florida some too, and can't see him anywhere right now besides those three programs. Just think with a late August return trip (an official) planned to Indiana before all others, that things look very good here for the Hoosiers. And don't think an Ibi Watson commit would change things in any way.
And if Watson and Jones both choose Indiana still don't see that influencing interest in or from Bruce Brown. Texas is one to watch here, along with SMU, and Texas may be pushing more with Kam McGusty choosing Oklahoma. But there is a lot of chatter that Indiana is in best position here. This one may not happen as early as Watson and Jones.
After that Indiana sits really well with Lamer Stevens, De'Ron Davis and Thon Maker. Miles Bridges is visiting in late August and maybe you add him to that "great outlook group" after that trip. Rawle Alkins remains a wild card for various reasons, not least of which is his plan to wait on his commitment to next spring, possibly late spring.
This morning Stevens came out with a shortened list that included Temple, Pitt, Marquette, Villanova, Indiana, Penn State, Maryland, and SMU. He's from the Philly area. If you missed it his summer teammate Tony Carr came out with shortened list himself that did not include Indiana. That was not a surprise as it had long been suspected Carr was likely to stay near home. Same Philly sources that told us that say Stevens to Indiana is very much a possibility.
Bridges has had a huge July and was especially terrific yesterday in Las Vegas:
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Arizona's Sean Miller seemed to make De'Ron Davis more of a priority the last couple weeks, especially out in Las Vegas this week, than this past spring. So watch the Wildcats along with Texas in the battle for Davis. He's played so well that Zona and Texas are going to push pretty hard, so should be interesting. Much less talk that he might stay near home and choose Colorado.
If there's a Thomas Bryant type recruiting story-line to come out of the summer for IU it could be with 6-foot-9, 220-pound Jarrett Allen from Austin, Texas. Indiana has watched him often this month, especially this week and like Bryant he's a five-star big man. Not making any predictions here but this one bears watching.
Another Texas power forward from that class got some IU attention this month -- 6-foot-7 Clevon Brown from San Antonio. He is not ranked but has several Big 12 offers and this past week picked up an offer from Illinois.
Speaking of Illinois, Hoosier native and UI frosh-to-be Jalen Coleman-Lands, a four star signee, is out for an undetermined time with a stress fracture in his lower left leg. He will not be able to play with the team in next month's team tour to Europe.
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Matt Weaver with his IU football update below:
Recruiting is starting to pick up for the Indiana football team as more prospects have either visited or will be visiting in the coming days. One interesting visitor for the Hoosiers that is currently on campus is Quinn Tiggs. What makes the junior college defensive back an interesting visitor is the fact that he is being recruited as a member of the 2015 class. He played last year at Itawamba C.C. in Mississippi and was planning on going back there for the 2015 season until IU reached out to him last month and started recruiting him to join their program starting this fall. Peegs.com spoke with Tiggs recently about this upcoming visit to IU and you can check out that story here. Ever since Signing Day back in February head coach Kevin Wilson said the staff would continue to look for another prospect to fill the last spot in the 2015 recruiting class and it looks like Tiggs will be that guy. Everything we are hearing says if IU feels Tiggs is a good fit while visiting with him this weekend they will offer and it will be very surprising if he doesn’t commit. The Tupelo, Mississippi native will be at IU until tomorrow.
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In the 2016 class the IU program hosted a couple of in-state prospects earlier this week that they would love to get commitments from in Coy Cronk and Jovan Swann. Cronk is an offensive lineman from Central Catholic H.S. in Lafayette, and Swann is a defensive tackle from Center Grove H.S. in Greenwood. Both told Peegs.com that they had a great time on their visits to IU. We did a story on Cronk after his visit and you can check that out here.
We exchanged messages with Swann and he had this to say about the visit: “It went very well. I had a great time seeing my brother at his home of IU.” Swann’s brother is IU defensive back Mario Swann. He is a walk-on that transferred to Indiana from Eastern Michigan.
Rivals.com Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt also recently spoke to Swann about his recruiting and in the story he mentioned IU as one of his top five schools. Here is that story from Helmholdt.
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Peegs.com also spoke with defensive back Monquavion Brinson from Mays H.S. in Atlanta, Georgia. The three-star recruit recently released his top on his Twitter page and the Hoosiers made the cut. The Hoosiers already have one very good CB commit in A’shon Riggins from Ohio, but they would love to land at least one more and Brinson is high on their board. You can read the story we did on him here.
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Another 2016 target that IU is high on is junior college defensive back Jayme Thompson. The Ohio native started out his college career at Ohio State before leaving the Buckeyes’ program and transferring to Iowa Western C.C. He will be visiting Southern Miss tomorrow and Sunday before making his way to Bloomington early next week for an official visit at IU. The Hoosiers are in good shape with Thompson who is listed as a safety but has the ability to also play some at corner.
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Georgia defensive Chris Henderson has already made one visit to IU when he came up last month, and he told Peegs.com this week that he plans on making another trip to Bloomington next week. The standout from Lovejoy H.S. in Hampton, Georgia has IU as one of his top schools and he plans on deciding before the start of his senior season.
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Three-star defensive back K.J. Sails recently released his top schools via his Twitter account and IU was one of the programs that made the cut. The other schools are Iowa, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, USF, UCF and Georgia Southern.
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As we mentioned above cornerback is a top priority in the 2016 class and another prospect that IU is in good shape with is Jordan Eastling from Southwest Dekalb H.S. in Decatur, Georgia. Eastling camped at IU last month and performed well. He didn’t get an offer and still doesn’t have one but he could be one of the first guys to pick up an offer if the Hoosiers miss on the guys that are at the very top of their recruiting board. Here is the recent story we did on Eastling.
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Indiana QB Nate Sudfeld had the opportunity to do something pretty cool this summer when he got to go down to Louisiana to participate in the Manning Passing Academy. The academy was started by former NFL QB Archie Manning and his two sons and current NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. Getting invited to this is a big deal and it is great that Sudfeld got the opportunity, but is what even better is that he impressed while he was down there in the drills and contests they put the quarterbacks through. Sudfeld ended up finishing second in the skills competition. You can read the story that the IUHoosiers.com site did on Sudfeld after the camp here.
Sudfeld also got to spend time with another outstanding NFL QB when Andrew Luck from the Colts came down to Bloomington for his Change the Play Camp. Sudfeld talks about what it was like to pick the brain of Luck in this story from the IUHoosiers.com site.
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With the season just around the corner the IU Athletic Department has started to put out some commercials for the football program and there is a new one with former IU great George Taliaferro. The IUHoosiers.com site did a nice story on that commercial and you can read about it here.
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NFL training camps are also just around the corner and former Hoosier Bobby Richardson will be trying to make the New Orleans Saints roster after being signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2015 NFL Draft. There is a nice story on him from BigEasyBeliever.com about Richardson and how he likes to be the underdog and prove people wrong. You can check out that story here.
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Next Thursday is the first day of the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago and that evening there will be an IU event for fans at Joe’s Bar in Chicago. Scheduled to be there are Coach Wilson, former IU great Anthony Thompson and AD Fred Glass. Don Fischer will emcee the event. Here is some info on the event from IUHoosiers.com.
'Near term' being the operating words there as Ibi Watson seems set on a decision over the next week or two, Curtis Jones, who has been widely thought to be leaning to IU, is officially visiting in a month, and talk continues to very positive for the Hoosiers with Bruce Brown. See: Brown recruiting chatter
Time changes things especially when you're talking about three decisions, but certainly looks today like Indiana could end up with all three and be able to focus mostly on frontcourt targets and Rawle Alkins.
Some thoughts on the trio, especially since we've watched two of them here in the last 24 hours:
Watson didn't have a great opening game in Louisville but bounced back yesterday to play well, especially in a morning win over another EYBL team, the Playground Elite, a squad featuring another IU target, 2017 2G Jordan Poole. Watson stroked about four jumpers in the second half that helped ice the game for his All Ohio Red team.
Watson is not ranked but he's got great range with his shot, he's got nice height for his role (6-foot-5), is athletic enough to get up and dunk over people and seems to have a feel for the game. He gets criticized some for not playing hard enough like many young players but he's got a smoothness to his game that make him look like he's playing more casual than he really is out there.
Michigan is the main threat and they'll talk to him on Monday but the guess here is the Wolverines aren't ready to offer. He's been to their team camp, John Beilein watched him many times and I think they would have pulled the trigger by now if they wanted him really badly. We'll see on Monday and U-M assistant Bacari Alexander did watch his first couple games in Louisville this week.
With Curtis Jones there was a lot of buzz over how much he liked his unofficial to IU and how well he thinks he fits into the system at IU. Georgetown was the school that was consistently watching him in Louisville that is really involved. Florida some too, and can't see him anywhere right now besides those three programs. Just think with a late August return trip (an official) planned to Indiana before all others, that things look very good here for the Hoosiers. And don't think an Ibi Watson commit would change things in any way.
And if Watson and Jones both choose Indiana still don't see that influencing interest in or from Bruce Brown. Texas is one to watch here, along with SMU, and Texas may be pushing more with Kam McGusty choosing Oklahoma. But there is a lot of chatter that Indiana is in best position here. This one may not happen as early as Watson and Jones.
After that Indiana sits really well with Lamer Stevens, De'Ron Davis and Thon Maker. Miles Bridges is visiting in late August and maybe you add him to that "great outlook group" after that trip. Rawle Alkins remains a wild card for various reasons, not least of which is his plan to wait on his commitment to next spring, possibly late spring.
This morning Stevens came out with a shortened list that included Temple, Pitt, Marquette, Villanova, Indiana, Penn State, Maryland, and SMU. He's from the Philly area. If you missed it his summer teammate Tony Carr came out with shortened list himself that did not include Indiana. That was not a surprise as it had long been suspected Carr was likely to stay near home. Same Philly sources that told us that say Stevens to Indiana is very much a possibility.
Bridges has had a huge July and was especially terrific yesterday in Las Vegas:
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Arizona's Sean Miller seemed to make De'Ron Davis more of a priority the last couple weeks, especially out in Las Vegas this week, than this past spring. So watch the Wildcats along with Texas in the battle for Davis. He's played so well that Zona and Texas are going to push pretty hard, so should be interesting. Much less talk that he might stay near home and choose Colorado.
If there's a Thomas Bryant type recruiting story-line to come out of the summer for IU it could be with 6-foot-9, 220-pound Jarrett Allen from Austin, Texas. Indiana has watched him often this month, especially this week and like Bryant he's a five-star big man. Not making any predictions here but this one bears watching.
Another Texas power forward from that class got some IU attention this month -- 6-foot-7 Clevon Brown from San Antonio. He is not ranked but has several Big 12 offers and this past week picked up an offer from Illinois.
Speaking of Illinois, Hoosier native and UI frosh-to-be Jalen Coleman-Lands, a four star signee, is out for an undetermined time with a stress fracture in his lower left leg. He will not be able to play with the team in next month's team tour to Europe.
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Matt Weaver with his IU football update below:
Recruiting is starting to pick up for the Indiana football team as more prospects have either visited or will be visiting in the coming days. One interesting visitor for the Hoosiers that is currently on campus is Quinn Tiggs. What makes the junior college defensive back an interesting visitor is the fact that he is being recruited as a member of the 2015 class. He played last year at Itawamba C.C. in Mississippi and was planning on going back there for the 2015 season until IU reached out to him last month and started recruiting him to join their program starting this fall. Peegs.com spoke with Tiggs recently about this upcoming visit to IU and you can check out that story here. Ever since Signing Day back in February head coach Kevin Wilson said the staff would continue to look for another prospect to fill the last spot in the 2015 recruiting class and it looks like Tiggs will be that guy. Everything we are hearing says if IU feels Tiggs is a good fit while visiting with him this weekend they will offer and it will be very surprising if he doesn’t commit. The Tupelo, Mississippi native will be at IU until tomorrow.
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In the 2016 class the IU program hosted a couple of in-state prospects earlier this week that they would love to get commitments from in Coy Cronk and Jovan Swann. Cronk is an offensive lineman from Central Catholic H.S. in Lafayette, and Swann is a defensive tackle from Center Grove H.S. in Greenwood. Both told Peegs.com that they had a great time on their visits to IU. We did a story on Cronk after his visit and you can check that out here.
We exchanged messages with Swann and he had this to say about the visit: “It went very well. I had a great time seeing my brother at his home of IU.” Swann’s brother is IU defensive back Mario Swann. He is a walk-on that transferred to Indiana from Eastern Michigan.
Rivals.com Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt also recently spoke to Swann about his recruiting and in the story he mentioned IU as one of his top five schools. Here is that story from Helmholdt.
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Peegs.com also spoke with defensive back Monquavion Brinson from Mays H.S. in Atlanta, Georgia. The three-star recruit recently released his top on his Twitter page and the Hoosiers made the cut. The Hoosiers already have one very good CB commit in A’shon Riggins from Ohio, but they would love to land at least one more and Brinson is high on their board. You can read the story we did on him here.
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Another 2016 target that IU is high on is junior college defensive back Jayme Thompson. The Ohio native started out his college career at Ohio State before leaving the Buckeyes’ program and transferring to Iowa Western C.C. He will be visiting Southern Miss tomorrow and Sunday before making his way to Bloomington early next week for an official visit at IU. The Hoosiers are in good shape with Thompson who is listed as a safety but has the ability to also play some at corner.
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Georgia defensive Chris Henderson has already made one visit to IU when he came up last month, and he told Peegs.com this week that he plans on making another trip to Bloomington next week. The standout from Lovejoy H.S. in Hampton, Georgia has IU as one of his top schools and he plans on deciding before the start of his senior season.
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Three-star defensive back K.J. Sails recently released his top schools via his Twitter account and IU was one of the programs that made the cut. The other schools are Iowa, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, USF, UCF and Georgia Southern.
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As we mentioned above cornerback is a top priority in the 2016 class and another prospect that IU is in good shape with is Jordan Eastling from Southwest Dekalb H.S. in Decatur, Georgia. Eastling camped at IU last month and performed well. He didn’t get an offer and still doesn’t have one but he could be one of the first guys to pick up an offer if the Hoosiers miss on the guys that are at the very top of their recruiting board. Here is the recent story we did on Eastling.
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Indiana QB Nate Sudfeld had the opportunity to do something pretty cool this summer when he got to go down to Louisiana to participate in the Manning Passing Academy. The academy was started by former NFL QB Archie Manning and his two sons and current NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. Getting invited to this is a big deal and it is great that Sudfeld got the opportunity, but is what even better is that he impressed while he was down there in the drills and contests they put the quarterbacks through. Sudfeld ended up finishing second in the skills competition. You can read the story that the IUHoosiers.com site did on Sudfeld after the camp here.
Sudfeld also got to spend time with another outstanding NFL QB when Andrew Luck from the Colts came down to Bloomington for his Change the Play Camp. Sudfeld talks about what it was like to pick the brain of Luck in this story from the IUHoosiers.com site.
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With the season just around the corner the IU Athletic Department has started to put out some commercials for the football program and there is a new one with former IU great George Taliaferro. The IUHoosiers.com site did a nice story on that commercial and you can read about it here.
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NFL training camps are also just around the corner and former Hoosier Bobby Richardson will be trying to make the New Orleans Saints roster after being signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2015 NFL Draft. There is a nice story on him from BigEasyBeliever.com about Richardson and how he likes to be the underdog and prove people wrong. You can check out that story here.
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Next Thursday is the first day of the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago and that evening there will be an IU event for fans at Joe’s Bar in Chicago. Scheduled to be there are Coach Wilson, former IU great Anthony Thompson and AD Fred Glass. Don Fischer will emcee the event. Here is some info on the event from IUHoosiers.com.
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