What You Need to Know About IU Basketball Today
1. Darius Wabbington Completes Visit to IU
Five-star 2027 center Darius Wabbington is one of Indiana's highest priority targets for the 2027 class. He was on campus last weekend for a visit and things went very well. He subsequently cancelled a planned trip to Louisville and this now appears to be a battle between IU and Arizona. The Wildcats are the favorite but Eric Bossi of 247Sports wrote the following before Wabbington's visit to IU:
"it looks like it may be tough to get him to leave his home state of Arizona. However, if we had to pinpoint one program best positioned to get him away from home, we'd go with the Hoosiers so this weekend will be an important one."
Wabbington has a visit to Arizona scheduled in late September and a decision is expected shortly after that.
2. Hoosiers in the Running for International Big Man
Felix Kiehlneker is a 2027 center prospect from Germany that is a target for IU. The Hoosiers would like to add both Wabbington and Kielhneker and the two would not conflict with each other. Wabbington is really quite versatile and could play a stretch 4 or 5 role and Kiehlneker is considered more of a developmental project. There are reasons to be excited about him though. He's 7'1" and has real physical tools that have placed him on the long-term radar of NBA scouts. It looks like IU and USC are his main two options with UCLA another school recruiting him.
3. From Hoosier Huddle
- Wrap and Reaction from IU's 52-16 win over North Texas: Game Wrap And Reaction: No. 6 Indiana 52 North Texas 16 - Hoosier Huddle
- Volleyball Knocks off Southern Indiana: Indiana Volleyball Bounces Back Against Southern Indiana - Hoosier Huddle
- IU's Attack Gets Going as the Hoosiers Beat Denver 3-1: IU Controls Denver In 3-1 Win Behind First Career Goal From Adu-Gyamfi - Hoosier Huddle
- Curt Cignetti Spoke About the Good and Bad from Saturday's Win: Cignetti Sees ‘some Good’ But Demands Defensive Cleanup After Indiana’s Opener - Hoosier Huddle
What Do You Think?
Are you particularly interested in IU bringing in another international center that needs development? I can certainly see reasons to do it but how would you feel about a commitment from Kiehlneker?
I for one would absolutely love it if we begin a 7-footer factory of our own. If nothing else, to take the shine off of Purdue - lol
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@evanalvarez8 I think IF DeVries program can develop bigs, then its great to start getting more of the developmental Euro type kids. And we'll start to see more on that front, hopefully, this upcoming season. But last year, I'd say neither Bailey or Alexis were used or developed all that well. And the Euro big we had on the bench, never saw the floor, literally. In today's world, that usually guarantees a transfer. So, will the German backup big get any game time this year? Will Yiggy develop at all? Will Sherrell develop and get drafted? If the answers to all these questions are similar to last years... then no, I don't think there's a ton of need to recruit developmental bigs. Spend that money on guards that are good, and try to find plug and play bigs in the portal.
@iunorth Totally agree that money is better spent on guards, and my comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek as well haha. Ideally to your point, we get better at developing bigs to begin that cycle, but the priority is guard play. We've seen loud and clear that when a team doesn't have good guards, the ceiling is capped significantly. Hopefully this year we see a change in that respect and the guards we paid for show out in a big way.
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