Welcome to The Hoosier Insider, our weekly insider roundup of the latest IU basketball and football news, notes & recruiting. Let's get to it:
Jordan Wells / Basketball Beat & Recruiting News
A few notes this week.
Stu Jackson / Basketball Beat & Recruiting News
Since the last team insider, Indiana lost at Northwestern and defeated Penn State in triple overtime. There's been plenty of talk about IU's chances of missing the NCAA tournament, but those still appear to be relatively slow even with the results over the last seven days.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects Indiana as a No. 9 seed in the Midwest region as of Feb. 2, while CBS Sports' Jerry Palm projects the Hoosiers as a No. 10 seed in the South region as of today (Feb. 3). Prior to the Penn State game, The Assembly Call's Andy Bottoms slotted IU as a No. 10 seed in the West region as of Jan. 31. Crashingthedance.com views Indiana as a No. 11 seed and in the field. Lastly, SB Nation projects the Hoosiers as a No. 8 seed as of Jan. 31, while NBC Sports' Dave Ommen projects the Hoosiers as a No. 10 seed as of Feb. 2.
Given the most recent projections ahead of the Wisconsin game, Indiana is looking at a No. 10 seed in this year's NCAA tournament. However, six of the Hoosiers' final eight games are against KenPom Top 50 teams, with three of the final eight games at home and five away.
KenPom currently projects the Hoosiers to finish 18-13 and 8-10 in the Big Ten. If leading scorer James Blackmon Jr. is able to return at some point in that stretch, I think it could change.
Will the Kansas and North Carolina wins be enough to keep the Hoosiers in the field of 68? I think so. But early home losses to Nebraska and Wisconsin have put IU in a challenging position, one where it can't afford to continue committing turnovers or having defensive lapses over the final eight games.
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Sam Beishuizen / Football Beat & Recruiting News
Well, everybody, we made it.
Tom Allen wrapped up his 2017 signing day class on Wednesday, bringing in 23 members to Hoosier football. There really weren't any surprises the day of minus Bobby Roundtree opting to go to Illinois. For a long time it appeared the two-star defensive end out of Largo, Florida, was going to be a Hoosier.
Oh well.
Allen seemed to really like his signing class, saying that he didn't care what the Hoosiers were ranked by recruiting services (we had them ranked No. 65 in the country) and that he addressed the needs his team faced.
The truth of the matter is that IU signed a class full of guys that fans will refer to as "sleepers." Sometimes those guys turn into fairly good players. Other times they just never actually wake up to begin with.
While Indiana shouldn't be overly concerned with ratings, they certainly matter. There's a reason Michigan and Ohio State typically bring in top-rated classes and continue to win. There's a correlation there. That's not to say IU can't win, but a stronger signing class in the future will help.
Considering all the turmoil Indiana went through with the coaching changes, the Hoosiers are at a nice spot. If you want to relive signing day, we went ahead and did a time-stamped breakdown of the day's events.
Speaking of coaching changes, Greg Frey left for Michigan and should be replaced within about a week, Allen said. The real surprise hit Thursday afternoon when Pitt announced it signed Shawn Watson to be its offensive coordinator, stealing him from his previous job as IU's quarterbacks coach.
That leaves only Deland McCullough from Kevin Wilson's former offensive staff. There's no reason to believe he's going anywhere any time soon. So that's good news.
Scheduling note: Spring practice will begin on March 4, which is a month plus one day away. The spring game will take place on April 13, which is about a week earlier than it was a year ago. No format has been announced for that.
There really isn't any breaks for coaches on the recruiting trail. Junior days should be starting up fairly quickly, and Allen said on signing day that he was already talking to one of the 2018 prospects he's chasing after. It never stops.
IU has one commitment in its 2018 class already in Jordan Jusevitch, a hard-hitting safety that IU likes at husky. He's from Lowell, Indiana. Indiana isn't close to adding any other guys in this class quite yet, but that could all change with things heating up over the next couple of months.
Jordan Wells / Basketball Beat & Recruiting News
A few notes this week.
- Jordan Tucker - As noted in the chat last night, Tucker has not returned contact attempts about a date for his decision. He has previously said he would announce in late January or early February, possibly on ESPNU when his team plays Pebblebrook at 5:30 p.m. ET tonight. But we haven’t heard anything back from him, so the guess is nothing has been finalized. Why no date yet? Purely speculation, he has said before that he was waiting to see how rosters were going to shake out, and with IU’s injury issues that may have complicated that process. But again, that’s just a guess. We will keep trying to reach him. The 6-7, 200-pound four-star senior forward from Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler is ranked as the No. 54 player nationally.
- Rob Phinisee - Crean watched the in-state junior go for 21 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists in a win last night over Jefferson. We moved him to the top of our recruiting board in our last hot board update. Nashville (Tenn.) Brentwood Academy five-star Darius Garland is better, but with all the noise around him and Duke, Phinisee is plenty good enough that Indiana might be better off putting its eggs in that basket. Look for an update on his recruitment later today. The 5-11, 155-pound junior three-star guard from Lafayette (Ind.) McCutcheon is ranked as the No. 134 player nationally.
- Mark Smith - 2017 guard picked up an offer from the Hoosiers this week after Crean evaluated him at a practice. That is at least the second evaluation Crean has gotten of him, so, they did their homework before offering. Smith initially committed to Missouri to play baseball, but has since pulled out of that and added recent offers from Kansas State and Illinois for hoops. We will see how things progress with him. The 6-4, 200-pound guard from Edwardsville (Ill.) High is ranked as a three-star prospect.
Stu Jackson / Basketball Beat & Recruiting News
Since the last team insider, Indiana lost at Northwestern and defeated Penn State in triple overtime. There's been plenty of talk about IU's chances of missing the NCAA tournament, but those still appear to be relatively slow even with the results over the last seven days.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects Indiana as a No. 9 seed in the Midwest region as of Feb. 2, while CBS Sports' Jerry Palm projects the Hoosiers as a No. 10 seed in the South region as of today (Feb. 3). Prior to the Penn State game, The Assembly Call's Andy Bottoms slotted IU as a No. 10 seed in the West region as of Jan. 31. Crashingthedance.com views Indiana as a No. 11 seed and in the field. Lastly, SB Nation projects the Hoosiers as a No. 8 seed as of Jan. 31, while NBC Sports' Dave Ommen projects the Hoosiers as a No. 10 seed as of Feb. 2.
Given the most recent projections ahead of the Wisconsin game, Indiana is looking at a No. 10 seed in this year's NCAA tournament. However, six of the Hoosiers' final eight games are against KenPom Top 50 teams, with three of the final eight games at home and five away.
KenPom currently projects the Hoosiers to finish 18-13 and 8-10 in the Big Ten. If leading scorer James Blackmon Jr. is able to return at some point in that stretch, I think it could change.
Will the Kansas and North Carolina wins be enough to keep the Hoosiers in the field of 68? I think so. But early home losses to Nebraska and Wisconsin have put IU in a challenging position, one where it can't afford to continue committing turnovers or having defensive lapses over the final eight games.
---------------------------
Sam Beishuizen / Football Beat & Recruiting News
Well, everybody, we made it.
Tom Allen wrapped up his 2017 signing day class on Wednesday, bringing in 23 members to Hoosier football. There really weren't any surprises the day of minus Bobby Roundtree opting to go to Illinois. For a long time it appeared the two-star defensive end out of Largo, Florida, was going to be a Hoosier.
Oh well.
Allen seemed to really like his signing class, saying that he didn't care what the Hoosiers were ranked by recruiting services (we had them ranked No. 65 in the country) and that he addressed the needs his team faced.
The truth of the matter is that IU signed a class full of guys that fans will refer to as "sleepers." Sometimes those guys turn into fairly good players. Other times they just never actually wake up to begin with.
While Indiana shouldn't be overly concerned with ratings, they certainly matter. There's a reason Michigan and Ohio State typically bring in top-rated classes and continue to win. There's a correlation there. That's not to say IU can't win, but a stronger signing class in the future will help.
Considering all the turmoil Indiana went through with the coaching changes, the Hoosiers are at a nice spot. If you want to relive signing day, we went ahead and did a time-stamped breakdown of the day's events.
Speaking of coaching changes, Greg Frey left for Michigan and should be replaced within about a week, Allen said. The real surprise hit Thursday afternoon when Pitt announced it signed Shawn Watson to be its offensive coordinator, stealing him from his previous job as IU's quarterbacks coach.
That leaves only Deland McCullough from Kevin Wilson's former offensive staff. There's no reason to believe he's going anywhere any time soon. So that's good news.
Scheduling note: Spring practice will begin on March 4, which is a month plus one day away. The spring game will take place on April 13, which is about a week earlier than it was a year ago. No format has been announced for that.
There really isn't any breaks for coaches on the recruiting trail. Junior days should be starting up fairly quickly, and Allen said on signing day that he was already talking to one of the 2018 prospects he's chasing after. It never stops.
IU has one commitment in its 2018 class already in Jordan Jusevitch, a hard-hitting safety that IU likes at husky. He's from Lowell, Indiana. Indiana isn't close to adding any other guys in this class quite yet, but that could all change with things heating up over the next couple of months.
