Welcome to The Hoosier Insider, our weekly installment getting you caught up on Indiana basketball, football and recruiting. Let's get to it:
Basketball Beat & Recruiting / Jordan Wells
With so many names on Indiana’s recruiting board and content items floating around, sometimes it’s nice to just take a step back and try to gather some thoughts on what targets seem most realistic at certain stages for the Hoosiers.
While I wouldn’t say IU outright leads for any of these guys, and recruiting is always fluid – so don’t get too attached to these names – here are four targets I came up with that, as of today, I want to track a bit more closely than some of the others.
— Tremont Waters: We went over how the point guard dominoes could fall for Waters (link) a couple weeks back, and not a ton has changed since then – but here’s the latest.
Waters' top seven includes Duke, Georgetown, IU, Kentucky, Kansas, UConn and Yale in alphabetical order.
Five-star Quade Green could still choose Duke. Five-star Trae Young could choose Kentucky, but also Oklahoma among others, so IU fans should hope he picks the Cats.
Five-star Collin Sexton named a top ten that included Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, N.C. State, North Carolina and Villanova in alphabetical order. Circling back to Waters’ list, it’d be great if Sexton picked Kansas.
If all the above played out, that’d leave Waters with Georgetown, IU, UConn and Yale from his top seven.
— Jordan Tucker: A very well-regarded forward that has already visited IU once on an unofficial, and should return for an official trip in the future – multiple trips means business. He’ll come out with a top list of around six to eight schools sometime soon, but two of the early bets from that group will likely be Syracuse and IU.
It should be an interesting battle to watch as the Hoosiers try to pull Tucker out of New York away from Syracuse.
— Justin Smith: Still waiting since this update (link) for Smith to come out with his top list of schools, which should be any day now. Expect IU to make the cut and stay in the mix here.
— Luka Garza: Not much has changed since this story on July 2 (link).
Again, recruiting is very fluid, especially with the wide net IU casts. The Hoosiers could end up not getting a single one of the above prospects. And listing the above four names also doesn’t mean to assume IU isn’t getting any large number of their other targets.
But all four of those are in serious talks of visiting campus. So assuming the lot of them makes it to Bloomington at least once, you gotta like your odds to reel in at least one, right?
We’ll see how it plays out. Those are just some guys I'm keeping an eye on.
Basketball Beat and Recruiting / Stu Jackson
— Indiana spent quite a bit of time at the Fab 48 Thursday in Las Vegas. The coaching staff started by going three-deep in the morning for 2017 five-star forward Kris Wilkes and four-star guard Paul Scruggs. Head coach Tom Creanand assistant coaches Chuck Martin and Rob Judson were all on hand for the duo's Indy Hoosiers game vs. Team Beastmode. As if it wasn’t clear already, the IU coaching staff is making Wilkes and Scruggs priority targets in 2017.
— The IU staff also went two-deep Thursday morning for 2017 five-star centerNick Richards and four-star forward Jordan Tucker. Richards is the No. 21 senior in the Rivals150 for 2017, Tucker No. 49.
— 2017 five-star guard Trevon Duval told me he wants to cut down his list of schools to 10 in August. He said he’s been hearing from the Indiana coaching staff a lot.
— Another 2017 prospect - four-star center Luka Garza - told me Wednesday night that he is talking with the IU coaching staff about taking an official visit to the school. Garza has three official visits left.
— One big reason why 2017 four-star guard Tremont Waters put Indiana in his top 7 recently is because of the program’s ability to develop guards, he said. Waters specifically mentioned Yogi Ferrell in his postgame interview Thursday night as an example.
Football Beat and Recruiting / Sam Beishuizen
— Indiana picked up commitment number nine in the 2017 class withLaDamion Hunt this week. The three-star defensive back out of Georgia played safety his entire high school career up until this point but will be a cornerback in Bloomington. He and cornerbacks coach Brandon Shelby seem to have bonded at a satellite camp in West Georgia and it took off from there. Having played safety so much already, he’s going to need to use this senior season of his to really learn everything about being a corner. He’s got a reported 40-yard dash of around 4.5, so he’s got the speed to do it and he seems to love tackling people. We’ll see how that develops.
— With Hunt’s commitment, Indiana now has seven defensive players committed, including two defensive backs. Hunt joins Avon safety Bryant Fitzgerald as the two committed DBs so far. Fitzgerald is still visiting other schools but told me he is fully committed to Indiana. I get the feeling that he doesn’t want to regret not visiting other schools that offered him. Assuming he stays, Fitzgerald and Hunt are a seemingly good haul of defensive backs. I think they’ll still pursue another defensive back or two in this group. Another name to keep an eye on is three-star DB Ahman Ross, who visited just last week. Ross somehow went under the radar a little bit but said IU has made him a priority. I’m not sure if they told him that before or after Hunt’s recruitment really heated up. Getting Ross will mean taking him from the likes of Kentucky and Louisville, but it seems like he really enjoyed his time at Indiana.
— Speaking of position groups Indiana seems to be targeting, the Hoosiers continue to hound three-star receivers. I spoke with Florida’s Angelo Gonzalez this week, and he told me that IU is in good shape as he gets ready to cut his list down to five or so schools. He’s got offers from Clemson, Delaware State, Louisville, Marshall, N.C. State and West Virginia, among others. He wants to commit within a month or so of his senior season beginning. Indiana has scholarship offers out to about 20 uncommitted receivers who are almost exclusively ranked three-star or better. It’s hard to project how many they’ll want to take, but based on those numbers alone, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple commit.
— I also wrote about three-star running back Devin Darrington this week. The potential Ivy Leaguer has Indiana high on his list. It’ll be interesting to see if he picks a school more on his education (like going to Harvard) or football.
— A lot of people have been asking me about Indiana’s quarterback pursuit. Right now, Rivals doesn’t have any quarterbacks left uncommitted that Indiana has offered in 2017. I think they’ll put a lot of stock into the 2018 chase but won’t rule out adding someone later this fall. I think that’ll be a matter of “let’s wait and see” if a kid develops or jumps onto the radar in the near future.
— Our series of opponent previews continued this week and are coming to a close right before Big Ten Media Days next week. Our whole crew will be up there to hang out with all the Big Ten coaches and select players Monday and Tuesday. So that should be a good time. The conference media days are always some of my favorite days of the year. There will be a lot of questions about the quarterback situation and likely little answers, but that’s okay. We’ll get some interesting things out of it.
Basketball Beat & Recruiting / Jordan Wells
With so many names on Indiana’s recruiting board and content items floating around, sometimes it’s nice to just take a step back and try to gather some thoughts on what targets seem most realistic at certain stages for the Hoosiers.
While I wouldn’t say IU outright leads for any of these guys, and recruiting is always fluid – so don’t get too attached to these names – here are four targets I came up with that, as of today, I want to track a bit more closely than some of the others.
— Tremont Waters: We went over how the point guard dominoes could fall for Waters (link) a couple weeks back, and not a ton has changed since then – but here’s the latest.
Waters' top seven includes Duke, Georgetown, IU, Kentucky, Kansas, UConn and Yale in alphabetical order.
Five-star Quade Green could still choose Duke. Five-star Trae Young could choose Kentucky, but also Oklahoma among others, so IU fans should hope he picks the Cats.
Five-star Collin Sexton named a top ten that included Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, N.C. State, North Carolina and Villanova in alphabetical order. Circling back to Waters’ list, it’d be great if Sexton picked Kansas.
If all the above played out, that’d leave Waters with Georgetown, IU, UConn and Yale from his top seven.
— Jordan Tucker: A very well-regarded forward that has already visited IU once on an unofficial, and should return for an official trip in the future – multiple trips means business. He’ll come out with a top list of around six to eight schools sometime soon, but two of the early bets from that group will likely be Syracuse and IU.
It should be an interesting battle to watch as the Hoosiers try to pull Tucker out of New York away from Syracuse.
— Justin Smith: Still waiting since this update (link) for Smith to come out with his top list of schools, which should be any day now. Expect IU to make the cut and stay in the mix here.
— Luka Garza: Not much has changed since this story on July 2 (link).
Again, recruiting is very fluid, especially with the wide net IU casts. The Hoosiers could end up not getting a single one of the above prospects. And listing the above four names also doesn’t mean to assume IU isn’t getting any large number of their other targets.
But all four of those are in serious talks of visiting campus. So assuming the lot of them makes it to Bloomington at least once, you gotta like your odds to reel in at least one, right?
We’ll see how it plays out. Those are just some guys I'm keeping an eye on.
Basketball Beat and Recruiting / Stu Jackson
— Indiana spent quite a bit of time at the Fab 48 Thursday in Las Vegas. The coaching staff started by going three-deep in the morning for 2017 five-star forward Kris Wilkes and four-star guard Paul Scruggs. Head coach Tom Creanand assistant coaches Chuck Martin and Rob Judson were all on hand for the duo's Indy Hoosiers game vs. Team Beastmode. As if it wasn’t clear already, the IU coaching staff is making Wilkes and Scruggs priority targets in 2017.
— The IU staff also went two-deep Thursday morning for 2017 five-star centerNick Richards and four-star forward Jordan Tucker. Richards is the No. 21 senior in the Rivals150 for 2017, Tucker No. 49.
— 2017 five-star guard Trevon Duval told me he wants to cut down his list of schools to 10 in August. He said he’s been hearing from the Indiana coaching staff a lot.
— Another 2017 prospect - four-star center Luka Garza - told me Wednesday night that he is talking with the IU coaching staff about taking an official visit to the school. Garza has three official visits left.
— One big reason why 2017 four-star guard Tremont Waters put Indiana in his top 7 recently is because of the program’s ability to develop guards, he said. Waters specifically mentioned Yogi Ferrell in his postgame interview Thursday night as an example.
Football Beat and Recruiting / Sam Beishuizen
— Indiana picked up commitment number nine in the 2017 class withLaDamion Hunt this week. The three-star defensive back out of Georgia played safety his entire high school career up until this point but will be a cornerback in Bloomington. He and cornerbacks coach Brandon Shelby seem to have bonded at a satellite camp in West Georgia and it took off from there. Having played safety so much already, he’s going to need to use this senior season of his to really learn everything about being a corner. He’s got a reported 40-yard dash of around 4.5, so he’s got the speed to do it and he seems to love tackling people. We’ll see how that develops.
— With Hunt’s commitment, Indiana now has seven defensive players committed, including two defensive backs. Hunt joins Avon safety Bryant Fitzgerald as the two committed DBs so far. Fitzgerald is still visiting other schools but told me he is fully committed to Indiana. I get the feeling that he doesn’t want to regret not visiting other schools that offered him. Assuming he stays, Fitzgerald and Hunt are a seemingly good haul of defensive backs. I think they’ll still pursue another defensive back or two in this group. Another name to keep an eye on is three-star DB Ahman Ross, who visited just last week. Ross somehow went under the radar a little bit but said IU has made him a priority. I’m not sure if they told him that before or after Hunt’s recruitment really heated up. Getting Ross will mean taking him from the likes of Kentucky and Louisville, but it seems like he really enjoyed his time at Indiana.
— Speaking of position groups Indiana seems to be targeting, the Hoosiers continue to hound three-star receivers. I spoke with Florida’s Angelo Gonzalez this week, and he told me that IU is in good shape as he gets ready to cut his list down to five or so schools. He’s got offers from Clemson, Delaware State, Louisville, Marshall, N.C. State and West Virginia, among others. He wants to commit within a month or so of his senior season beginning. Indiana has scholarship offers out to about 20 uncommitted receivers who are almost exclusively ranked three-star or better. It’s hard to project how many they’ll want to take, but based on those numbers alone, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple commit.
— I also wrote about three-star running back Devin Darrington this week. The potential Ivy Leaguer has Indiana high on his list. It’ll be interesting to see if he picks a school more on his education (like going to Harvard) or football.
— A lot of people have been asking me about Indiana’s quarterback pursuit. Right now, Rivals doesn’t have any quarterbacks left uncommitted that Indiana has offered in 2017. I think they’ll put a lot of stock into the 2018 chase but won’t rule out adding someone later this fall. I think that’ll be a matter of “let’s wait and see” if a kid develops or jumps onto the radar in the near future.
— Our series of opponent previews continued this week and are coming to a close right before Big Ten Media Days next week. Our whole crew will be up there to hang out with all the Big Ten coaches and select players Monday and Tuesday. So that should be a good time. The conference media days are always some of my favorite days of the year. There will be a lot of questions about the quarterback situation and likely little answers, but that’s okay. We’ll get some interesting things out of it.
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