WindyCitySource

  I remembered Incarnate Word... didn't realize they were D1. Looks like they only have been for a couple years. 

  Whoops forgot about Cincy

You've got to think these guys know what they are getting into when they come to Indiana. For Priller, his other options were D-II schools. So if he were to leave for one of those, he wouldn't have to sit out. Not a bad deal to get to wear the candy-stripes for a year and try to make an impact. Really nothing to lose.   I really don't know anything about April. I know there's been talk that he wasn't a hard-worker in practice and that was keeping him off the floor this past year (there were some situations where I thought he would get minutes but didn't). His recruiting info from last offseason is scarce. I could see him going D-II also and not having to sit out. Again, not a bad deal. 

Also... looks like there will be 8 games per year, so not everyone in the B1G will play every year.    It would be pretty cool if Indiana drew a game at DePaul at some point with this event. Would love another opportunity to see the Hoosiers up here in Chicago.

They'd never do Indiana/Butler but I, too, am surprised that Indiana didn't get Xavier, Cincy or Marquette. Creighton is not terrible, but by comparison it's a pretty weak match-up.   Still an upgrade over East West State Tech, though. 

Marcus Smart did it at Oklahoma State   I don't like this at all, though. 

  I wonder if they went to Texas or somewhere less crowded if they would have had much higher draft outlooks.    At the same time, I feel like Cal and WWW will get in the ears of some NBA guys (or at least NBA media types) and the Harrisons will move their way up the draft boards.    EDIT: fixed typos

Jake Layman returning to Maryland - B1G favorites just got stronger. 

Troy and Boo are just working that #HypeMachine. 

  I mean it happens somewhere literally every year. Not every year at every program.    And I was going to bring up Etherington, too. He was definitely influential in building the relationship with Cody, though Crean gets most of the credit for that. Jurkin was huge in getting HMP.    Look at Jalen Brunson - his Dad got hired at Temple (temporarily, before some indiscretions got that offer revoked) and you better believe that one of the top PG's in the country was going to pass up on all his better offers and go to Temple instead. 

  This happens every year at every program around the country. Whether it be recruiting a guys friend, hiring a guy's old high school or AAU coach, hiring a guy's DAD. Literally every year. It's part of recruiting and it never will cease to be. 

One Harrison is a projected 2nd rounder and the other is projected undrafted (last I check on DX). I wonder how much that will change between now and the draft?

http://www.insidethehall.com/2015/04/07/iu-releases-new-details-on-assembly-hall-renovations/

  A lot of those guys (all of them?) were being recruited to a team with Luke Fischer on the roster. Sales pitch changes a bit when you lose your supposed big man of the future. 

  It's a lot easier to overrecruit wings because they are way more of them. I don't know how much Crean could have known about Luke leaving early, or when/why he said that he wasn't surprised by it. But even if he did go out and try to get a big man right away, the assumption that an adequate replacement could be easily found and successfully recruited is a bit far-fetched. When you have to scramble for a big man to throw onto the roster, you end up with Jeremiah April.    I agree that you have to recruit around your roster, but like I said, it's not easy to just find a Luke Fischer or Thomas Bryant on a whim. 

I'm all for grabbing guys from the Midwest, but when you need a quality big man as badly as IU does you have to use all your connections no matter the geography. Swanigan would be nice, but him not choosing IU doesn't mean Crean's relationship has soured with Indiana coaches. And CS is the only big man in the state worth going after for 2015.    EDIT: Not really seeing any big men in the Midwest that IU could have gone after. They got the top two big men in Missouri already, and Illinois/Indiana/Michigan/Ohio are pretty sparse. Swanigan, Deyonta Davis (MSU) and Carlton Bragg (KU) stand out, but that's really it. 

  The sudden departure of Fischer was brutal. That dude would have at least been at IU for 3 years and had all of the opportunities in the world to play and develop as a Hoosier. Losing him left a huge hole in the future front-court that was only worsened when Vonleh jumped (too early?) to the NBA. You can't just go out and find a new Luke Fischer right away. Not a lot of guys with that size come out of high school ready to play.   In regards to The Movement, it's obvious that the reality did not live up the hype. We got an All-B1G PG out of it, but I think Yogi was the guy everyone was most sure about anyways. Hollowell was a disappointment. Buss didn't show up. Peter couldn't stay healthy and Hanner's development has been slow (and hampered by injuries). However, the obvious missing piece to the roster this season was a serviceable big man. Peter Jurkin was never going to be that guy, and I don't think reasonable fans expected him to be. We had Cody Zeller as the do-it-all big man in Crean's system. Then, we were supposed to have Luke Fischer and Hanner Perea the following year to handle the front-court.    So I agree completely... the Movement was 70% bust. But Fischer's and Vonleh's early departures had more of an impact on the team's inadequacies this past season.    It took Crean an extra year but he finally found someone even better in Thomas Bryant. And with the way Hanner has developed in the last year, provided he can stay healthy, he should be a solid player as a 4 in his senior season. 

  You don't seem to have put much thought into this topic.

  If you believe his high school coach, Max was recruited by a lot of bigger programs around the time he committed to Indiana. The move East for prep school and teaming up with Goodluck really took his recruitment to another level. 

From an interview Alex did w/ Hoetzel's W&MA coach Chris Sparks about 11 months ago. This provides pretty much all the information we need to kill this discussion.    ITH: His recruitment kind of came out of nowhere last fall. A year ago at this time, I wouldn’t have known who he was and then all of the sudden, Indiana offers him and he commits to Indiana. Once he got to you, how did things progress?   CS: Initially, it was Utah, San Diego and a bunch of schools out west, Washington State, that were recruiting him. I think what happened was the team, and the fortunate thing we have is, as many good players as we have on the team, coach (Tom) Crean was recruiting Goodluck (Okonoboh) and he saw this kid and said, ‘wow, this kid can really shoot it.’ And he was able to get a decent evaluation off of that because of the kids he was competing against in practice. And then he came back again and saw him again and his recruiting started to pick up at that point with some different people coming in whether it was UConn. Florida was another school, coach (Billy) Donovan had been up. I give coach Crean and coach (Kenny) Johnson a lot of credit because he kind of saw him first because he kind of identified him and saw that this kid could really be something eventually and play at that level. I think he’s going to do really well there and like I said, by the midpoint of our year, people started to think, this kid is going to be a good player at Indiana. ITH: The first time Crean watched him, Max said you got him out of his dorm and he did some shooting?   CS: He’d worked out for a hour or a hour and 15 minutes and coach Crean got stuck with his flight. I ended up pulling him out of that and then he worked out for another hour for coach. My opinion, being around coach Crean, he recruited Goodluck and he did a really great job with Goodluck and then the experience with Max, I think he’s done a terrific job in his evaluations. Just look some of the kids he’s had through the program whether it’s been Victor (Oladipo) or other kids. He’s had some high profile kids, but he’s also had kids that not a lot of people know about and aren’t the ranked guys. He kind of sees what they’re going to be to play in his program.

How are people going to react when April and/or Priller transfer? They were on the end of the bench with Hoetzel all year. 

Crean offered Will Sheehey a scholarship before ever seeing him play at Sagemont, and was alerted to him because of his more highly-touted AAU teammate Fab Melo (also a teammate at Sagemont). Will was offered in October before the season started.    And the idea that scouting Goodluck during AAU games sufficient is silly. AAU games are garbage. You learn way more about a player watching them practice and talking to coaches then you do from some ridiculous AAU games. 

  HE SCOUTED MAX. Why can't you understand that?  

  You would prefer a player to transfer and give no reason at all? That's the shadiest way a player could possibly handle it.    Max wanted to play at Indiana. He didn't get many minutes his freshman year, understandably. But that doesn't mean he never would have. He just wanted out. Maybe it was homesickness? Maybe he things he's better off at a school with less pressure? Or a mid-major type school? Or maybe he's a quitter? Who knows?

  Assuming that this is even true....   Hoetzel's not the first and won't be the last guy to be offered and accept before a coach sees them play in-person. But the idea that Crean blindly offered him a scholarship is laughable. Obviously there was tape, scouting reports, just speaking with him and his coaches. Plus, they saw him practice while they were recruiting Goodluck. That's the whole reason they found him in the first place.   And same goes for Crean... he's not the first and won't be the last coach to offer a scholarship to a player before seeing them play a game in-person. Scouting is a lot more than just watching games in person.