I'd be happy to try and answer any questions if you read through the hot board and have them...hope it is informative.

I am a current roster kinda guy in these times.  To me, getting invested or paying much attention to recruiting is a wasted effort.  Guys will recommit and flip a lot more with money on the table until they iron out some rules.  

Can't wait for the season tho, I am officially getting the itch. 

@cavanagh

haha...I do understand your point and the 2026 class is considered particularly weak. There is some belief that the transfer portal won't be nearly as plentiful moving forward with revenue sharing providing funds. That could end up being a very inaccurate theory but a lot of programs feel like the importance of high school recruiting ticks up a couple of notches again.

@tjinman1987 kind of a numbers game anyways.  Can't always be scrambling to fill entire rosters every offseason, or to constantly be relying on spring decommits and/or portal guys to be elite levels of competitive.  I get Cav's point though, obviously.  I think being mentioned with a large chunk of top 50 kids is important, getting commitments from a handful of them every year is important.  You just have to be fishing for the right caliber of kids, to give yourself a chance to compete for FF's and Natty's.  So for me, that's what keeps me interested in HS recruiting.  We've made a number of top 50 level kids "final lists".  That's a good step.  Need to land some.  Even if all of them don't make it to Bloomington, a couple likely will.   Hopefully they're the right kids.

It sure appears as if DeVries was very disciplined in detailed with the types of kids he chose to spend IU's money on with his first roster.  If he can continue that, and land a mix of top 50-100 kids, high caliber portal guys, and then good foreign prospects, AND largely have them fit his program...  I still fully believe that IU could be a sleeping giant.

@tjinman1987 hey this is purely a me thing.  I’ve never got into recruiting a bunch.  If they sign I start to pay attention.   Like peegs business model I just don’t see working going forward.  People for sure care less and less about recruiting.   

info on the current team is what I love.  Again, that’s a me thing.  

@cavanagh That makes a lot of sense and I certainly understand where you are coming from. Of potential interest to you...IU is holding an open/invitation practice this afternoon. This is the first such media open practice held by IU since the Crean regime. Good move by IU and the best part...Hoosier Huddle will be there! Nick will be covering the practice for us and we hope to have some availability with Darian DeVries and a few players (but that's just a hope at this time).  

updates?

@d-b-cooper Still waiting on Cole Cloer to add to his visit schedule and it's unclear if IU will get one. Anthony Thompson will make his official visit to IU on the same day/weekend as the Indiana State home football game...IU is a serious contender (along with Michigan and Kentucky, in my opinion) for him. Arafan Diane has IU in his long group of finalists. IU should end up getting a visit from the number one 2026 center.

@tjinman1987 Did the tall top 5 level foreign kid end up making it to IU for his late July visits?  Can't remember his name, but he was visiting the bluest of blue bloods, end of July, I believe.  If I'm not getting him mixed up, he was teammates of the Sarr kid that is at Duke this year.  Might make them hard to beat?

@iunorth You are referring to Sayon Keita. Yes, he visited IU along with five other schools in a whirlwind trip that ended on August 2. As I wrote prior to his visit, it would be really surprising if the Hoosiers end up being the choice.

It's interesting...IU very clearly wants a big man in the 2026 class and they very clearly wanted a top-end point guard. The big men options look like Keita, Ethan Taylor, Arafan Diane and Davion Adkins and then the point guard options appear to be Kinney, Smith Jr. and Rippey. Each of the point guards look like uphill battles and the big men recruitments have yet to crystalize. From the outside looking in (meaning, from where I sit), I can certainly envision IU getting one of Anthony Thompson Jr. or Latrell Allmond plus Prince Alexander-Moody and then adding an international prospect or two to make a class of four for 2026. Then, grab a point guard from the portal and continuing to go really hard after Jason Gardner Jr. and Chase Branham for 2027. 

A lot of this is going to come into a more clear picture by the time August is over as official visit schedules are finalized.

@tjinman1987 Getting either Thompson or Allmond, along with Moody, would be huge.  Fine line nowadays.  Tough to win big if you're playing more than a couple freshman.  But I still think top 50 high school kids should be a big priority for CDD.  We should be able to keep the ones that aren't early entry NBA guys.  So a 2nd or 3rd year guy, top 50 out of high school, that's been in CDD's program for a year or two... would be better for his program than any transfer he can get.  It'll take him a few years, but 4-5 high level freshmen per class should become the norm, in my opinion...obviously depending on who leaves the program each year.

Disappointing that IU won’t land any of the PG prospects. I hoped that making their final cut meant IU had a legitimate chance.

@tjinman1987 Sleepers seem to feel like OSU might be the team to beat for Thompson. Hard for me to believe we don't have an "in" for an Anthony Thompson going to IU, but that was so many moons ago, I bet a lot don't remember it. What a great back!

AT plays on IN Elite with PU's PG recruit Luke Ertel and called him the best PG in the nation, so I was suprised they were left off the OV list. I felt like Sleepers thought it was OSU, then UK and UM, but Greg is a UM guy so I think that's inflating his view. Hope we have a shot. 

@kkott It may end up being Ohio State but here's why I don't think it will be...if there was much trust in Diebler, the Buckeyes could have run away with his recruitment but last season (I think) really showed some flaws and deficiencies of him and his staff and I think opened Thompson's eyes to exploring other options.