IU Recruiting

This week was a big week for Indiana University Basketball. There is a tremendous amount of high school talent coming out of the state especially with the 2012 class.

IU received two commitments this week from Ron Patterson - a two guard who is consensus top 75 and top 50 in some circles - and seven footer Peter Jurkin - someone is in some top 100s and should move up.

These two recruits set up IU will to possibly land some equally big or bigger talents for that class in Hanner Perea - another center, Yogi Ferrell - a rapidly rising PG who is likely to be top 50 or better - and Jeremy Hollowell - a top 50 small forward who is friends with Patterson. There is other big time talent in this class, and the 2013 class is similarly loaded.

The above players should also help with landing Cody Zeller - a top 25 class of 2011 talent who is down to IU, UNC and Butler.

I know there are few IU fans here, but I thought I'd share as it's been a long road since the Kelvin Samson debacle (and now the recent emergence of Purdue and Butler as legit programs to compete for in-state talent), but Tom Crean is a couple recruits away from setting up IU to be a perennial top 10 type contender in a couple of years - so there is light at the end of the tunnel finally.

No reason Indiana can't be relevant again...Crean is a solid coach.

NCAA will be better if IU is relevant again.

They won't be as bad as they have been, but I don't believe they will ever get to be a top 5 program as they were before. They will be was Tom Crean is. "Solid" His recruiting is pretty good, not amazing, but good enough to be a top 25 (or 20, 15, maybe 10)Let's see how he does.

What if his improvements are not pleasing enough for the fans/administration? Will they want more than what he is building? I wonder if there would be any chance he would be fired if he does not progress into a top contender fast enough. Maybe they bring in the hottest coach on the market, someone from the state of Indiana, Brad Stevens...

Another big step forward last night as a top five player from the class of 2014, Blackmon Jr, from Fort Wayne, IN committed. Not a big fan of recruiting kids so young, but I guess that's how the game is played. Blackmon Sr went to Kentucky after Knight did not recruit him (later admitted to being a mistake), but was an Indiana HS legend.

It's a multi-year process to get the bball program back to where it needs to be. Thankfully, there is a tremendous amount of talent coming out of the state over the next few years - especially given how Butler and Purdue are emerging. Landing this in-state talent should begin to make programs like OSU and MSU look elsewhere for their talent.

Anyway, a major future building block committed last night and hopefully this will cause more of the in-state talent to look our way.

And another step forward for IU - yesterday 6'9" Trey Lyles of Class of 2014 committed to IU. On the ESPN list for that class, Lyles is number one overall with Blackmon 7. Lots to happen between now and when these kids put on the IU uniform .... obviously, but major recruiting building blocks are falling into place for a return to college basketball's elite.

The biggest priority now is Cody Zeller of class of 2011 who is down to IU, UNC (where his brother goes) and Butler. Several top 2012 Indiana HS ballplayers appear ready to commit to IU if Zeller does.

IU just hosted a major recruiting weekend in its third annual Halloween weekend kicked off Friday night with "Night of the Living Red". IU hosted only a few in-state recruits but all are five star guys I've mentioned earlier - Zeller, Ferrell and Perea.

Perea is class of 2012 and is tenth in that class per Rivals and a tad lower to other recruiting services, but generally a consensus top 25 talent. He's 6'8" and sports a sick vertical leap to 12'2". He committed to IU today and is the highest ranked recruit to commit to IU since Eric Gordon. Perea is the recruit who is mentioned in some of Baylor's recruiting troubles when a Baylor assistant who has worked many years with Scott Drew threatened Perea's coach that Perea would be deported if he did not commit to Baylor.

Zeller is set to choose between UNC and IU (Butler seems to have faded from the picture - likely in the next two weeks). Zeller is top 25 in the class of 2011 and most web-sites have sources that believe IU leads (and will win) that recruiting battle.

There are still two more top 40 recruits in the Indiana HS class of 2012 (besides Ferrell and Perea) - Gary Harris appears to be down to IU and MSU (Harris is also a pretty legit football recruit) and Jeremy Hollowell.

Tom Crean is a recruiting animal. Most of the players in this thread won't be at IU for several years, but today another very important chip fell into place for a return to the national elite.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=5750525

IU just hosted a major recruiting weekend in its third annual Halloween weekend kicked off Friday night with "Night of the Living Red". IU hosted only a few in-state recruits but all are five star guys I've mentioned earlier - Zeller, Ferrell and Perea.

Perea is class of 2012 and is tenth in that class per Rivals and a tad lower to other recruiting services, but generally a consensus top 25 talent. He's 6'8" and sports a sick vertical leap to 12'2". He committed to IU today and is the highest ranked recruit to commit to IU since Eric Gordon. Perea is the recruit who is mentioned in some of Baylor's recruiting troubles when a Baylor assistant who has worked many years with Scott Drew threatened Perea's coach that Perea would be deported if he did not commit to Baylor.

Zeller is set to choose between UNC and IU (Butler seems to have faded from the picture - likely in the next two weeks). Zeller is top 25 in the class of 2011 and most web-sites have sources that believe IU leads (and will win) that recruiting battle.

There are still two more top 40 recruits in the Indiana HS class of 2012 (besides Ferrell and Perea) - Gary Harris appears to be down to IU and MSU (Harris is also a pretty legit football recruit) and Jeremy Hollowell.

Tom Crean is a recruiting animal. Most of the players in this thread won't be at IU for several years, but today another very important chip fell into place for a return to the national elite.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=5750525

Damn!

His brother seemed resigned to it in a recent interview as well. He didn't actually say it, but he didn't seem excited about the potential of them playing together. Good get for Crean if so.

Damn!

His brother seemed resigned to it in a recent interview as well. He didn't actually say it, but he didn't seem excited about the potential of them playing together. Good get for Crean if so.

Well, for the sake of IU, they better hope the younger Zeller isn't made out of glass like his older bro.

Well, for the sake of IU, they better hope the younger Zeller isn't made out of glass like his older bro.

He makes Todd Heap look healthy.

I guess getting Zeller is more of a neccassity for IU since they lost out on Plumlee?

I guess getting Zeller is more of a neccassity for IU since they lost out on Plumlee?

The Mike Davis/Kelvin Sampson era looks like some unbelievably lost years for IU. Davis did not properly leverage in-state contacts and let folks get away and the end of Sampson's era with the self-imposed sanctions really set things back.

That has allowed several programs to come in and feast on Indiana talent as kids did not want to go to IU (because of the coaches/situation) nor to a program that would not be a winner (top 25 or better and lock to be in the tournament). Besides the Plumlees, among more noted talent, Ohio State has fed off of the likes of Oden and Conley among others, UNC on Sean May, top 2010 kids have gone to Louisville, Mich State and others. Further, most of the recruits develop relationships with coaches as 8th, 9th and 10th graders so Crean was behind in recruiting in-state talent until this year.

Zeller would be a huge get for IU because of his prospect status and also because he is widely respected among the rest of the in-state prospects. Ferrell has been following Zeller and Perea closely and could follow with a commit. This is best case as then schollies become a bit scarce and it puts pressure on the best kids in the class of 2013 to commit now or lose their spot (a well-played Thad Matta tactic).

The past few years have been quite dark, but the light is starting to shine quite bright at the end of the tunnel - two more years.

Zeller to Indiana..

Good get for you guys "Hoosiers".

Saw it posted on an IU web-site I frequent about 10 minutes before the presser that Cody had chosen IU. Rumors late this morning were concerned about Butler, but IU seemed like the natural destination.

It's a huge get not only because of Cody's talent and IU's current weakness in the middle, but as mentioned above CZ is very popular among the in-state recruits and should pull additional talent IU's way.

Cody even mentioned Yogi Ferrell in his presser. Yogi is a top 25-40 point guard in the class of 2012. Both guys may be able to get another in-state top 40 player Gary Harris who has IU and Mich State as his leaders. The 2012 Indiana HS class is flat loaded.

Also, at this point scholarships get a bit scarce and there could be pressure for some 2013 guys to pull the trigger.

This year's team might struggle to get to .500, but significantly brighter days are ahead.

Saw it posted on an IU web-site I frequent about 10 minutes before the presser that Cody had chosen IU. Rumors late this morning were concerned about Butler, but IU seemed like the natural destination.

It's a huge get not only because of Cody's talent and IU's current weakness in the middle, but as mentioned above CZ is very popular among the in-state recruits and should pull additional talent IU's way.

Cody even mentioned Yogi Ferrell in his presser. Yogi is a top 25-40 point guard in the class of 2012. Both guys may be able to get another in-state top 40 player Gary Harris who has IU and Mich State as his leaders. The 2012 Indiana HS class is flat loaded.

Also, at this point scholarships get a bit scarce and there could be pressure for some 2013 guys to pull the trigger.

This year's team might struggle to get to .500, but significantly brighter days are ahead.

Congrats...I hope this eases the blows of Tyler Zeller,Eric Montross & Sean May.

As for the Heels, we have a very good class coming in next year as well, but would have LOVED to add Zeller.