That read more like old timey Letters From The Civil War than basketball.
Mullins
- Thread starter edub72
- Start date
Indiana kids are like the cardiovascular system of the program. You need to keep some of those arteries open.
In this case, these are the kids Woodson has had a full cycle of recruiting for. He needs to sign some. Not every year, not every kid, but he won't survive if he can't land any with a 3 yr cycle.
Woodson has only signed one freshman from the state of Indiana in 3 seasons, and that was CJ Gunn, whom was recruited by Miller before Woodson.
Langdon Hatton and Luke Goode and Payton Sparks are/were Indiana kids who transferred.
Leal and Galloway are Indiana kids who were there before Woodson.
Cupps and Duncomb were nearby in terms of recruiting just outside the boundaries a bit. And then there have been walk ons in Woodson's tenure, like Nathan Childress.
But what is missing is a TJD, James Blackmon, Yogi Ferrell, Cody Zeller, Eric Gordon, Jared Jeffries.... on and on and on.
Seems a 6'5" guard from Broad Ripple HS in Indianapolis would understand the value of recruiting in state talent.
He is yet to seal the deal.
Langdon Hatton and Luke Goode and Payton Sparks are/were Indiana kids who transferred.
Leal and Galloway are Indiana kids who were there before Woodson.
Cupps and Duncomb were nearby in terms of recruiting just outside the boundaries a bit. And then there have been walk ons in Woodson's tenure, like Nathan Childress.
But what is missing is a TJD, James Blackmon, Yogi Ferrell, Cody Zeller, Eric Gordon, Jared Jeffries.... on and on and on.
Seems a 6'5" guard from Broad Ripple HS in Indianapolis would understand the value of recruiting in state talent.
He is yet to seal the deal.
Although your statement is 100% accurate I think it greatly exaggerates the situation. Last year Bidunga was pretty much the only Indiana kid that top schools went after. We lost him to Kansas so went 0-1. Prior to the 2024 class the staff was new enough that they were behind the 8 ball due to not having the requisite 3 years (in most cases) to beg and grovel to get the kids to commit.
The 2025 Indiana class has a lot of talent, and the staff has had the required 3 years to beg/grovel/ show the love to the 16 year olds, so it will be disappointing if Woody and the staff strike out with the Indiana kids this year.
“Beg/Grovel/Show the love” includes the ability to offer big NIL, which should help. We should get a few of these ‘25 guys.
I agree that helps which one of the reasons why I said it would be disappointing if he strikes out with the 2025 kids.
That being said…..the competition (UK, UNC, UCONN) can pay them just as much as we can.
I agree with your post — this is our first full recruiting effort with a big in-state class.
Except none of those guys were in those classes, nor was anyone of their caliber. Instead of just complaining he didn't sign anyone from the state during that time, name a name you wanted who was on that level. Hard to sign what ain't there.
What about the kid who went to MSU from Marion I believe……Arrington? Think he was highly coveted yr before Bidunga
we recruited him and Bidunga. I don't fault CMW for either of those guys, but winning will fix this, imo. There will always be guys who want to go elsewhere, but if we were back in F4s and winning the B10, I believe we'd have gotten at least 1 of those 2. Our program has lost it's luster to this generation of players and not getting it back will continue to make recruiting, in state or out, harder than it should be.
I always go on a rant when Bookers name is mentioned. I've never seen less heart in a player.
Bidunga. Then there are 2 obvious talents who have started for the Boilermakers for 2 years. Burton to ND. He averaged over 15ppg as a freshman. Possibly KJ Windham, who is now at NW. Also, Robinson from Indy just signed with Butler.
I'm not saying Woodson needs to sign them all the time, but in 3 years he isn't exactly setting a good precedent. Gunn was already being recruited when Mike came onboard.
So you think it's reasonable to expect Woodson, hired at the end of March 2021 to have recruited and received a commitment from Braden Smith who committed to Purdue a month later, and Loyer, who committed the prior November? Almost might've been more reasonable to see if Eric Gordon still had eligibility left. He recruited Bidunga and of your others; easy to say we should've recruited guys after they've proven themselves in college. Burton is the only one you mentioned who might've been realistic, and he was a 5'11" PG out of Mishawaka, not exactly an IU hotbed.
See how shallow your complaint gets pretty quickly?
He also did quite a lot of "re recruiting" every offseason, and some of those guys are Indiana guys. TJD, Galloway, Leal...TJD he was able to keep for 2 years...which was basically like signing a Top 5 rated 5 star kid each year. The other 2, he chose not to push out...in fact, I think probably recruited pretty hard to stay on for this next season. And as you mentioned, he tried pretty hard on Bidunga.
Burton wasn't on really any high majors radar until very late in the summer before his senior year. And as soon as Notre Dame offered, he was off the board. Basically every regional high major school "missed" on Burton. Notre Dame was just fortunate they were in his back yard.
And now in 25', he's recruiting 3 Indiana kids hard, and has been since he got here.
UConn Could Still Land Four-Star 2025 Shooting Guard: 'Down To Three Schools'
Could the UConn Huskies snatch away one of Indiana’s top high school players expected to sign with the Hoosiers? It’s still a distinct possibility. Class of 20
I used to think he was a lock, but unless he's just scared to death of leaving home, I don't know how you pass on Hurley. 500k and a fast track to the league. UK can offer more money and maybe we have, but 5 perimeter players from UConn have been drafted and made teams the last 2 years.
Because there’s a very real chance that he’s just another “guy” at UConn. They’re still heavily recruiting Maleek Thomas who is their primary target in this class. Aidan Mahaney still has another year of eligibility left after this year and they have three other Guard/Wing players who barely played last year as top 30-60 ranked freshman on top of another top 30 ranked CG they brought in with McNeeley.
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Fair critique.
But if he doesn't sign any in state guys this year, it becomes a concern, agreed?
I'd say it's a concern anytime an employee devotes so many resources to a target or goal and misses, but it would be hard to do worse than we did in the 2024 class and yet here we sit with what I believe will be CMW's best roster and a 5 star recruit only a few spots behind where McNeeley was, so he certainly recovered well and if he strikes out with those it would depend on who we ultimately get both as HS recruits and portal guys. I think you have to blend recruits and portal guys to develop chemistry and a culture year to year, but then you can get guys like Carlyle and Rice out of the portal who have 3 years left, so they sit in both pools. Different world and I'm still not sure how to assess it, but ultimately it's the product on the floor.
I think it's important to look at who the primary recruiters are in these areas. Woody has been a closer only with the exception Haralson. I think he occasionally sleeps on their couch.
Canceled his October visits. IU gets the last one. Time to close the deal.
Which visits did he cancel? He's at UNC this weekend and they, along with UCONN I'd have thought were the other leaders. Sleepers has reported that "insiders" for both UCONN and UK have said negative things regarding their chances. UCONN person I think said he believes he'll got to IU and UK person I think said he feels they are out of it or not among his leaders.
UNC then us. He scheduled 10 visits which is insane. UK overpaid for Jasper Johnson and we will do the same if needed it sounds like. It’s UConn or us. UNC has no shot imho. So Duke and Uk visits are canceled but they left the door open to reschedule which I think(like many) won’t happen.
As I mentioned UCONN insider told Sleepers he thinks it's IU, but obviously you can't count out Hurley if he's interested and it sounded as though Braylon really enjoyed that visit. What about UM, did he ever visit there? Supposedly has/had a good relationship with Dusty. I do think Mullins is more valuable to IU being an in-state recruit who we've pursued for so long. We should have a fair amount of NIL available to commit to he and Haralson with Ballo, Leal and Galloway leaving, and the possibility of Reanu, Carlyle, Rice or Mbako also exiting. I would guess HS recruits garner a little less NIL than proven college guys, excepting the very top of the recruit pool, and if we decide these are our top targets, I think we'll offer a very appealing NIL package. And, they should also have more marketability for outside NIL deals being from IN and playing at IU.
That guy isn’t a UConn insider. Every UConn fan doesn’t listen to that guy. The number for Johnson that’s floating around is 1.3 mill…..they had too do it for optics just like us. Not very many kids in Kentucky get those rankings. Of course this is all things being said not trying to pass this off as fact. This visit is very important.
IU is the only October visit that I've heard. Any others are Sept. So IU should have the last visit.
He's not visiting IU in October, I don't believe. He's supposed to be visiting this weekend for the Charlotte football game with Sisley and Riebe, who replaced Moreno on this visit.
Timing is about as good as you could hope for, should be a great crowd with the way Cig has the team playing.
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