IU Lands Another Top Recruit

[tornado]

Yet another kid who verballed very, very early, has pulled a Cully Payne.

Malik Story, who verballed to USC before his 10th grade season, has reneged and is now going to Indiana because he sees a lot of immediate playing time.
Guess what...he is yet another shooting guard and being Class of 2008 will almost certainly take even more of that glutted position's valuable court time, leaving even less for Matt Roth.
Tom Crean has apparently promised to use Story like he did with Dwayne Wade at marquette....
"Crean showed him some of the ways he used Dwyane Wade during his All-America career at Marquette.
???I guess he wants to use me like that because of my size,??? said Story. ???It??™s an honor to think like that because it??™s Dwyane Wade.???

http://indiana.scout.com/2/763931.html

[mportsch]

This is a nice addition for Indiana, and he definitely sounds like he'll take away playing time from Matt Roth. Here's how I see the rotation working out now:

PG Verdell Jones Fr. (3-stars)
SG Devon Dumes Jr. (3-star JUCO)
SF Nick Williams Fr. (3-stars)
PF Kyle Taber Sr. (former walk-on)
C Tom Pritchard Fr. (3-stars)

SG Malik Story Fr. (3-stars)
SG Matt Roth Fr. (3-stars)
C Tijan Jobe Jr. (unrated JUCO)
PG Brett Finkelmeier So. (walk-on)
PG Daniel Moore Fr. (recruited walk-on)
SF Broderick Lewis Fr. (recruited walk-on)
SG Kory Barnett Fr. (recruited walk-on)

I could see their backcourt actually getting to be decent as the season goes on. Jones and Williams are both top 150 guys on Rivals, Story isn't far behind, and Dumes sounds like a solid JUCO player (17 ppg, 4 apg). We all know Roth is a lights-out shooter, as long as he can get some open looks. The IU backcourt shouldn't be that bad, although it has zero experience.

They're obviously hurting in the frontcourt. Taber isn't a bad guy to have for some occasional hustle off the bench, but I haven't seen anything in his game that makes me think he can compete with other starting PFs in the Big Ten. Pritchard is pretty much an unknown to me, but he does have good size for a freshman (6'8'' 240). Tijan Jobe also has good size at 7'0'' 265, but his JUCO numbers don't bode well (3 ppg, 3 rpg). Considering that these are the only three guys of any size, I expect IU to play with four guards for extended stretches.

This class actually makes a decent foundation for being respectable in 2-3 years, but it bears mentioning that IU may - amazingly - be just about full in terms of scholarships for the next few years. They'll have 8 scholarship players this year (counting Taber), and have 4 verbals in the class of 2009. Since Taber will be graduating, they've got 11 scholarships filled for 2009-10, and then 9 scholarships filled for 2010-11 (Jobe and Dumes will be gone). You figure IU might lose a scholarship or two as part of their NCAA punishment, so Crean really only has 2-3 more scholarships to give overall for the classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011. IU is getting close to locking themselves into having almost exclusively 3-star players until 2012.

[real fan]

Way too many freshman in this class to keep all of them happy; at least 2 will transfer out because of the lack of playing time after this season.

[Braves4Life]

I could see their backcourt actually getting to be decent as the season goes on. Jones and Williams are both top 150 guys on Rivals, Story isn't far behind, and Dumes sounds like a solid JUCO player (17 ppg, 4 apg). We all know Roth is a lights-out shooter, as long as he can get some open looks. The IU backcourt shouldn't be that bad, although it has zero experience..................

...................Considering that these are the only three guys of any size, I expect IU to play with four guards for extended stretches.

..........IU is getting close to locking themselves into having almost exclusively 3-star players until 2012.

I can see this team looking a lot like BU with a quick, good-shooting 4-guard offense. Unfortunately, they will be so inexperienced that they will get "smoked" early in the season. Then, just as they're learning to play together the Big-10 season will start and they will get pounded inside.

This team may be respectable in 2-3 years because Crean can win with 3-star players. Heck, I know BradleyFans would be happy if we were loaded with 3-star players (which we now almost are ).

[tornado]

Purdue answers with the commitment in the Class of 2010, of a 6-9 F/C who averaged 21 pt, 13 rebs as a soph in HS and who Crean was after
Travis Carroll

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/content.asp?cid=819999

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3717258

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080621/NEWS0901/80621007

[Out of Bounce]

Purdue answers with the commitment in the Class of 2010, of a 6-9 F/C who averaged 21 pt, 13 rebs as a soph in HS and who Crean was after
Travis Carroll

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/content.asp?cid=819999

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=3717258

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dl...S0901/80621007

Where was BW and Illinois?

[mportsch]

Where was BW and Illinois?

I haven't even heard this kid mentioned as someone Illinois was interested in. Illinois doesn't currently have an open scholarship for 2010, unless Rich Semrau ends up not using his redshirt senior year. The names I've heard mentioned most for Illinois in 2010 include Lenzelle Smith, Anthony Johnson, Meyers Leonard, and Paul Bunch.

[mportsch]

You know, I forgot about Jeremiah Rivers transferring from Georgetown to IU. So, they'll actually have 9 scholarships filled this year, and have 4 verbals in the class of 2009, so they've got 12 scholarships filled for 2009-10. Then, they have 10 scholarships filled for 2010-11.

So, assuming IU loses one scholarship as NCAA penalty, Crean has 2 more scholarships to give overall for the classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011. Not much opportunity to add blue-chip type players (4 or 5 star guys). I do think IU will be respectable when the class of 2008 reaches their junior or senior year, but I don't think this class can compete for a Big Ten title without some serious recruits added in 2009-2011.

[Da Coach]

Another blogger takes shots at Bruce Weber--
http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs...ommitment.html

[tornado]

IU has four new shooting guards coming in this fall:
Matt Roth, Devan Dumes, Nick Williams, and Malik Story, three of whom are freshmen with Williams & Story getting considerably higher ranking than the other two.

Then coming in next season in 2009, Jordans Hulls & Maurice Creek.
They will be loaded with SG's for some time to come.

[mportsch]

Da Coach, I think you pasted the wrong link there.

[Da Coach]

Sorry about that- here is the correct link to a blog/column by Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal--

Crean Snags Another commitment; Basketball world awaits comment from Weber

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bozich/blog.html

And an earlier one titled--
Bruce Weber sez Indiana Basketball will 'Suck"

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bozich/2008/06/bruce-weber-sez-indiana-basketball-will.html

[tornado]

RICK BOZICH'S BLOG IS RIDICULOUS....HE IS TRYING TO CLAIM THAT CREAN HAS DONE A BETTER JOB OF RECRUITING THAN WEBER...

read this comment he makes...

"If you're counting, Crean has added four three-star recruits to Indiana in
less than three months on the job. Weber's incoming class has one three-star player"

But Bozich failes to mention, that Crean had a whole lot more open scholarships to work with (Crean had at least 10 open scholarships, while Weber only had two because of the loss only of Pruitt and Randle)

PLUS Bozich must not be counting like most people do....
Here are the players Weber has landed this year...
Stan Simpson...3-STAR
Alex Legion....4-STAR

And Crean really doesn't have a single 4 or 5 star among his entire stable of 2008 players, and doesn't have a 5 star anywhere in the future....

then if you want to look a year or so in the future, Weber also has...
2009:
Tyler Griffey..... FOUR STAR
DJ Richardson.....FOUR STAR
Brandon Paul..... FOUR STAR
Joseph Bertrand.....THREE STAR

2010:
Crandall Head....FIVE STARS
Jereme Richardson.....FIVE STARS

So I am not sure how all those players will pan out....but to tout Crean's recruiting of a bunch of 2-3 star players to what Weber is doing in the future, is just plain stupi*d and reckless.
Bozich forfeits any credibility he has when he goes after Weber on recruiting which right now, and for the next 3 years, this is Weber's strongest suit and given how ridiculously little some of Creans guys (like Tijan Jobe and Devon Dumes) were recruited I think the guy is insane.

[Braves4Life]

RICK BOZICH'S BLOG IS RIDICULOUS....HE IS TRYING TO CLAIM THAT CREAN HAS DONE A BETTER JOB OF RECRUITING THAN WEBER...

read this comment he makes...

"If you're counting, Crean has added four three-star recruits to Indiana in
less than three months on the job. Weber's incoming class has one three-star player"

Maybe he's banking on Crean being a sleaze like Sampson and stealing more Illini recruits

[tornado]

IU fans don't know good recruiting from bad recruiting....they ran Mike Davis out of town because they thought he was a bad recruiter....

But he had the overall #1 recruiting class the year before, and that class ended up helping Kelvin Sampson at least look good for a while, with DJ White (5-STAR), AJ Ratliff (4-STAR) and a few others.
BUT...look what Mike White is doing now....
at UAB he is landing 4 and 5 star recruits...way, way better than what Crean is landing!

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=8&cfg=bb&toinid=445&yr=2009

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/121420893473951.xml&coll=2

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7738

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=49840&comview=1