AKHoosier

Yeah he's a 3/4 star guy, he seems like a good player and all but is far from the headliner we could use in this class. I'd love to be wrong, but I have zero faith in getting Preston. He'll end up at USC and we'll never hear from him again.

Highly likely our recruiting class will look like this: ***Justin Smith ***David Beatty ***Clifton Moore ****Justin Smith That's three 3 stars and a 4 star coming off a B1G championship and beating UK to get to the Sweet 16, and going into the season as a borderline top-10 team. If you told me that would be our 2017 class, I certainly would not have called that a success. That said, it's pointless to judge a recruiting class before they ever step foot on campus. We'll know in a few years if it's a good class or not.

How is UCLA and Steve Alford the best for being a one-and-done?

Then it's safe to say he's comfortable with the idea of not getting drafted, not improving his game, not going to the NCAA tournament, living in a less than spectacular city and subpar college town, and losing to IU twice a year by 30+ points. If that's your idea of fun, then hey, more power to ya.

I wonder if this counts as the in-home visit.

Hopefully that's a good sign, but it probably means pretty much nothing.

Swanigan hates playing the 5 though, it's why he went to Purdue so he didn't have to slug it out with bigs in the B1G. Haas is ok but when he gets winded or in foul trouble, they'll definitely take a step back when he goes out. The luxury of having two massive 7 footers isn't there to fall back on anymore.

Absolutely, and with the emergence of CuJo and Green, it makes the loss of Waters less significant. Need a point guard in 2018 though (hello Garland), but Wilkes and Preston are the two who fill more needs than anywhere else.

Just shows how fluid this stuff really is, but I wonder what in the world changed in just a week. All of the insiders on IU boards were pointing to IU for Waters and to look for a decision in 1-2 weeks, now it's pretty much the opposite. Same thing happened when Wilkes suddenly shows up for an unofficial on Saturday and we're pretty much teased all day long that "a commitment is likely this weekend!" and more info of that nature. Who knows, we still could get both, but I wouldn't be shocked if we get neither.

Not true at all, UK was/is pushing hard for him and would absolutely take his commitment. Calipari wants 2 PGs in this class and have made it clear Waters is more than welcome to be one of them.

I'll bet we get news of an impending announcement this week. Just a hunch.

I'm so excited to watch OG this year. I don't think he missed a shot the entire practice.

Wow. Not even 6 ft and has no problem throwing it down. Really want this guy, he seems like a good kid and a natural leader, the kind of player who you'd love to have in your program for 3-4 years.

Because of the other recruits out there who want to see us pick up an elite point guard first, or just because of how good Waters is? Or both?

Sweet!

Dammit. Poster on the other site who is very reputable says the winds are shifting to SoCal. God it would be such a huge blow to not land a single one of the in-state kids this year, one season removed from winning another B1G championship.

All I hope is that he visits for Hoosier Hysteria and we follow that up with an in-home visit. Hopefully that would be enough to clinch it for IU.

This recruitment is starting to get a Bruce Brown feel to it, if anyone recalls that last year. IU the perceived favorite because no one thought his other finalists of Miami and UMass had a shot, then lo and behold Jerry Meyer says he's Miami's to lose when conventional wisdom was that he was headed to Indiana. Nervous, man.

So I guess the two of them make quite a coach. Haha.

UCLA's situation may benefit him slightly more since they have more bigs than we do, allowing him to play the 3. Although I'm not sure if T.J. Leaf will play the 3 or the 4 for them, I think I remember reading that he sees himself as more of a 3 than a stretch 4 or power forward.

Could be nothing, but a UCLA poster on TOS said they're hearing "very good things" in regards to Wilkes on their end. I have absolutely no idea how credible he is though.

I agree, except relationships are very important in recruiting kids too. Maybe he has a good relationship with Groce and Co. at ILL which could account for something. Even if he did, Crean has been recruiting him since 8th grade IIRC. No way Illinois or UCLA have an advantage in the "relationship with coaches" category.

Awfully optimistic here but I'd like to see our resident insiders chime in with thoughts as well to confirm my optimism!

I wonder if we still have any in-home visits left with Wilkes, or if we'll use them, or if we'd need to use them.

UK beat Michigan in the Elite 8 a few years ago in Indy, right before they beat Wisconsin in the Final 4. I think they also beat Penn State recently too. I don't remember them losing to UM though. Also didn't they lose to MSU a few years ago to open the season? I'm pretty sure they did.