IU Basketball News and Notes

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Recruiting summary.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/first-look-indianas-class-of-2020-and-2021-prospects/

[AZ Hoosier]

10 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Recruiting summary.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/first-look-indianas-class-of-2020-and-2021-prospects/

It's incredibly refreshing to see a real coaching staff with a real shot at landing some of the top players in the next two classes. It's reassuring and encouraging to see the mutual interest from these kids, too. Love to see the actual recruiting process taking shape.

[Pagoda]

1 minute ago, AZ Hoosier said:

It's incredibly refreshing to see a real coaching staff with a real shot at landing some of the top players in the next two classes. It's reassuring and encouraging to see the mutual interest from these kids, too. Love to see the actual recruiting process taking shape.

Our head coach actually talking and building relationships with the recruits could make a big difference!

[Stuhoo]

1 hour ago, Pagoda said:

Our head coach actually talking and building relationships with the recruits could make a big difference!

It can. But what can and will make a far bigger difference?

The reputation of the staff for developing players and culture. That was a killer for Woodson. Word spreads, and players and their advisors are largely savvy and informed.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

17 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

It can. But what can and will make a far bigger difference?

The reputation of the staff for developing players and culture. That was a killer for Woodson. Word spreads, and players and their advisors are largely savvy and informed.

Yep, and that’s why this season is so huge.  Easy to have allure when your fresh and have top 15 money.   Need to land some big fish at some point and have success.  Other coaching starts began with recruiting promise as well.  Pressure packed year. 

[pumpfake]

3 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Recruiting summary.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/first-look-indianas-class-of-2020-and-2021-prospects/

Strange URL for the article (class of 2020 and 2021?)

Any realistic possibility of landing a highly ranked recruit from Kentuck?

I'll bet there's no one else named Junior County, unless it's his dad.

[Stuhoo]

2 minutes ago, pumpfake said:

Strange URL for the article (class of 2020 and 2021?)

Any realistic possibility of landing a highly ranked recruit from Kentuck?

I'll bet there's no one else named Junior County, unless it's his dad.

His dad is likely named “Senior County.”

;)

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

[steubenhoosier]

8 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

It can. But what can and will make a far bigger difference?

The reputation of the staff for developing players and culture. That was a killer for Woodson. Word spreads, and players and their advisors are largely savvy and informed.

Not sure if I agree with this…

TJD improved immensely under Woodson.

JHS became a first round selection 

Even Race got immeasurably better.

Lotsto criticize the Woodson regime over, but player development is down the list, imo

[Stuhoo]

14 hours ago, steubenhoosier said:

Not sure if I agree with this…

TJD improved immensely under Woodson.

JHS became a first round selection 

Even Race got immeasurably better.

Lotsto criticize the Woodson regime over, but player development is down the list, imo

Not always, but true! and most of all with KelEl Ware. May be why his recruiting exceeded his team performance.

[Pagoda]

Not sure on Woody’s player dev — a few examples out of the 25-30 rotation guys he coached here isn’t great.  And very talented guys like TJD/Kelel/JHS were going to get better on their own to some extent.  There are also plenty of examples of players not doing well here.

Regardless, I’m pretty sure CDD has a better player dev rep than Woody among HS/prep and AAU programs.  Hopefully it makes a difference.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

I think it was more system related than development, but our bigs mostly excelled and our guards didn’t except Hood Schifino, who honestly displayed all the flaws he is having in the league here at Indiana.  Inconsistent shooting, lack of explosiveness, etc.  

I do think the practices were not nearly demanding or grueling enough.  Players were mostly soft.  Many of them wanted to blame the SC coach for wearing them out instead of overcoming.  Excuse making mindset from top to bottom.  Some want to pass the buck. Some will just internalize and improve.  Improve me before blaming them mentality.  
 

Skill development is a bit hard to evaluate in our system besides shot making which was always inadequate.  

Edited July 27 by WayneFleekHoosier

[str8baller]

5 hours ago, Pagoda said:

And very talented guys like TJD/Kelel/JHS were going to get better on their own to some extent.

I think those three are hard to deny in terms of woody helping them. TJD got more Pat touches than most. Ware was an obvious improvement from Altmans staff. And oddly enough putting JHS in a million p’n’rs with TJD is about the perfect scenario for a guy with limited 3pt range, limited athleticism but a great midrange game.   
 

Everyone else…not so much. McNeely was likely smart for staying away

[Stuhoo]

17 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I think those three are hard to deny in terms of woody helping them. TJD got more Pat touches than most. Ware was an obvious improvement from Altmans staff. And oddly enough putting JHS in a million p’n’rs with TJD is about the perfect scenario for a guy with limited 3pt range, limited athleticism but a great midrange game.   
 

Everyone else…not so much. McNeely was likely smart for staying away

There’s a logical theme. Woody is an NBA lifer with NBA schemes. When you gave him an NBA level talent he put the player in a good situation. 

But Kaleb Banks-type development? Not so much.

[OGIUAndy]

8 hours ago, str8baller said:

I think those three are hard to deny in terms of woody helping them. TJD got more Pat touches than most. Ware was an obvious improvement from Altmans staff. And oddly enough putting JHS in a million p’n’rs with TJD is about the perfect scenario for a guy with limited 3pt range, limited athleticism but a great midrange game.   
 

Everyone else…not so much. McNeely was likely smart for staying away

I honestly don't think McNeely helped himself much if at all by going to UCONN. He made Third Team All-Big East and the Big East All-Freshman Team. He most likely would have had the same type of accolades if not better at IU and would have been the same NBA "prospect". 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

https://www.insidethehall.com/2025/07/28/where-things-stand-with-iu-basketballs-class-of-2026-recruiting-efforts/

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Just a heads up that I opened a thread for our newest addition and moved a number of posts about him from this thread to the new thread.  That is all.  You may now return to doing whatever it was you were doing before!  lol

[lillurk]

13 hours ago, OGIUAndy said:

I honestly don't think McNeely helped himself much if at all by going to UCONN. He made Third Team All-Big East and the Big East All-Freshman Team. He most likely would have had the same type of accolades if not better at IU and would have been the same NBA "prospect". 

Yeah I think there was an easy case that McNeeley made a decision that made sense, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out in a way that helped him. Now, injuries have something to say, and he might’ve done quite well in a jumbo JHS role at IU too, but in hindsight it didn’t work out as planned for him. Best of luck to him in the league.

[ebridges24]

21 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

There’s a logical theme. Woody is an NBA lifer with NBA schemes. When you gave him an NBA level talent he put the player in a good situation. 

But Kaleb Banks-type development? Not so much.

Man, that one hurts

[str8baller]

2 hours ago, lillurk said:

Yeah I think there was an easy case that McNeeley made a decision that made sense, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out in a way that helped him. Now, injuries have something to say, and he might’ve done quite well in a jumbo JHS role at IU too, but in hindsight it didn’t work out as planned for him. Best of luck to him in the league.

Didn’t realize he slipped all the way to 29. I think UConn was a strange choice just based on the perimeter talent they had. But he still performed well.  He needed to go to a team that had everything but a wing scorer kind of like Knecht did the year before. 
 

I can’t say that coming to last years IU team would have helped him in any way. For several reasons he couldn’t have had the role JHS did not the least of which is he would be running PnR’s with Ballo instead of TJD.