According to a couple posters here, Drew Adams will scare off recruits. 😆 Even though he is said to have a footprint in that Compton Magic league that Wabbington is from.
So I like to assume it's Kenny Johnson. Long known as a good recruiter.
All I care about is that Coach DeVries gets 'em. Then he can coach them up just fine. Needs some recruiters on staff and apparently has some. Sounds like DeVries works hard and has a staff that works hard.
And recruiting with a plan! Who ever heard of such a thing?
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@openwheel The next 2 to 3 years are starting to look like there's an effective, reliable, plan in place. Now, CDD just needs to coach the teams well enough to keep his job, so that plan can actually be executed.
Chase Branham, PAM, Jaden Mustaf, Darius Wabbington, and Yiggy... with guys like Karvala, an upperclassman Sisley, the good German center, and then whatever other portal guys he can get... That sure looks to be a contending level roster.
Sunny and high 70s today, so putting on my Crimson Colored Shades.
There is a realistic pathway today, as I see it, that Indiana competes well in the Big Ten this season, takes advantage of its schedule, loses Sherrell and brings back everyone, adds these two five star McDs All Americans, we see a few players outperform preseason expectations, AND going into next season IU is a preseason Top 3 team in the country and a title contender throughout 2028.
Wabby breakdown
https://twitter.com/CoachAdragna/status/2107851998225899908
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@middawg I could see a 2011-12 type team this year. And then a huge bump next year by returning nearly everyone, and adding the great 27 class, and a highly ranked portal player or two... and that leading to a top 5-10 preseason team... similar to the 12-13 team.
And doing it without the manic clappy man on the sidelines changing defenses mid possession, practicing 5 hours the day before games, and subbing out Jordan Hulls for nearly entire halves of play. Meaning I'm hoping CDD can maximize a great roster, instead of the opposite that CTC managed to do many of his IU seasons, including the 12-13 team.
Who have been our highest rated recruits ever? Wasn't Patterson top 5 in the country? Vonleh was around 10, right? Think Cody was 15-20. What about Jeffries and Henderson? Isiah? Don't know if they were doing national recruiting rankings then, but I seem to remember hearing he was viewed as one of the very top in his class. So, I think Wabbington is around one of the top 2-3 recruits ever.
Who have been our highest rated recruits ever? Wasn't Patterson top 5 in the country? Vonleh was around 10, right? Think Cody was 15-20. What about Jeffries and Henderson? Isiah? Don't know if they were doing national recruiting rankings then, but I seem to remember hearing he was viewed as one of the very top in his class. So, I think Wabbington is around one of the top 2-3 recruits ever.
EG was top 5.
Langford, Zeller, Jeffries, Vonlegh, Bracey Wright, DJ White, Fife, and Mgbako were probably all top 20 minimum. I'm sure there are others I'm missing.
When did the national rankings for recruits start?
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@openwheel The next 2 to 3 years are starting to look like there's an effective, reliable, plan in place. Now, CDD just needs to coach the teams well enough to keep his job, so that plan can actually be executed.
Chase Branham, PAM, Jaden Mustaf, Darius Wabbington, and Yiggy... with guys like Karvala, an upperclassman Sisley, the good German center, and then whatever other portal guys he can get... That sure looks to be a contending level roster.
As in contending for a national title?
Who have been our highest rated recruits ever? Wasn't Patterson top 5 in the country? Vonleh was around 10, right? Think Cody was 15-20. What about Jeffries and Henderson? Isiah? Don't know if they were doing national recruiting rankings then, but I seem to remember hearing he was viewed as one of the very top in his class. So, I think Wabbington is around one of the top 2-3 recruits ever.
EG was top 5.
Langford, Zeller, Jeffries, Vonlegh, Bracey Wright, DJ White, Fife, and Mgbako were probably all top 20 minimum. I'm sure there are others I'm missing.
When did the national rankings for recruits start?
I. Thomas; Grunwald; D, Brooks; Damon; Buckner; May; Benson; George M.
Who have been our highest rated recruits ever? Wasn't Patterson top 5 in the country? Vonleh was around 10, right? Think Cody was 15-20. What about Jeffries and Henderson? Isiah? Don't know if they were doing national recruiting rankings then, but I seem to remember hearing he was viewed as one of the very top in his class. So, I think Wabbington is around one of the top 2-3 recruits ever.
EG was top 5.
Langford, Zeller, Jeffries, Vonlegh, Bracey Wright, DJ White, Fife, and Mgbako were probably all top 20 minimum. I'm sure there are others I'm missing.
When did the national rankings for recruits start?
I. Thomas; Grunwald; D, Brooks; Damon; Buckner; May; Benson; George M.
Was there a national recruiting ranking? I don't remember there being one as kid who graduated HS in the 80s
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@arioznahoosier4554 Obviously there's no way to know that. But national title winners, of late, have almost universally been programs led by guys that have been in the program for a couple years, sprinkled in with NBA level younger guys. Michigan obviously broke from that mold being led by nearly all transfers. But even they had mostly older guys, a couple elite young guys, and multiple NBA guys. It looks like we're headed more in that direction with CDD signing basically all guys that will have the potential to play 2-3 years at IU, out of the portal. Instead of only signing 1 year mercenary type guys. And then now he landed an elite, 5 star, big...to go with an elite, borderline 5 star guard.
He has to prove he can coach players like this well. But yes, his roster building is moving towards Natty contending elements, instead of moving away from it.
Who have been our highest rated recruits ever? Wasn't Patterson top 5 in the country? Vonleh was around 10, right? Think Cody was 15-20. What about Jeffries and Henderson? Isiah? Don't know if they were doing national recruiting rankings then, but I seem to remember hearing he was viewed as one of the very top in his class. So, I think Wabbington is around one of the top 2-3 recruits ever.
EG was top 5.
Langford, Zeller, Jeffries, Vonlegh, Bracey Wright, DJ White, Fife, and Mgbako were probably all top 20 minimum. I'm sure there are others I'm missing.
When did the national rankings for recruits start?
I. Thomas; Grunwald; D, Brooks; Damon; Buckner; May; Benson; George M.
Was there a national recruiting ranking? I don't remember there being one as kid who graduated HS in the 80s
As best I can recall, there were rankings by individual national sportswriters, but probably not the equivalent of Rivals or 247. I remember Glen Grunwald was rated by one expert as one of the 5-10 best players in the country, which was pretty crazy in retrospect, even before his injury. Buckner was also considered to be in that class, as was Benson.
I'm 1 who holds a belief Devries is a good coach. His recruiting is part of the equation. Can't yet say B1G championship level or Final 4 nor NC. But I hold much more faith of the possibility with him than I saw the final 3 seasons of Woodson. Initially the Woodson hire because it came out of the blue I was pretty pleased with but as the 2nd season was playing out and the body language of Woodson became status quo concrete it became apparent he couldn't develop the program to get anywhere lofty. Pretty confident Devries and staff work as hard coaching as they do recruiting. Their ceiling is definitely higher.
It would be difficult to be any worse than Woodson. I was hopeful at first with Woodson but never had faith it would work. He was hired for the wrong reasons.
Wasn't too impressed with DeVries's resume and his first year was a disappointment but he is definitely better than Woodson (low bar).
I remembered the Calbert Cheaney, Chris Reynolds class, and how me and a friend watching one of the early season games and Coach Knight had all freshmen on the floor at one point and they absolutely tore it up. We were so pumped!
Looking for info on that class, found this link ranking IUs Top 10 all time classes. Seems like I remember rankings in those magazine preview issues you could buy. Have 1989 as our 2nd best ever, behind the great 1972 class :
Peegs-247-Indiana-Top-10-Recruiting-Classes
1989: Calbert Cheaney, Lawrence Funderburke, Pat Graham, Greg Graham, Chris Reynolds, Chris Lawson, Todd Leary
What a group this was. Easily the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. National recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons had all but Leary in his Top 50.