(2027) C Felix Kiehlneker TO INDIANA

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/highlights-of-class-of-2027-german-7-footer-felix-kiehlneker/

[Demo]

https://247sports.com/college/indiana/article/indiana-iu-basketball-recruiting-commitment-rising-international-center-felix-kiehlneker-prospect-from-germany-289985738/

And there it is.

[Stuhoo]

Competition for him was USC. Florida, UCLA, Clemson and UConn. That's really good.

 

[Artie86]

22 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Competition for him was USC. Florida, UCLA, Clemson and UConn. That's really good.

 

....What, no Purdue mention in that group?!?

7' 1" probably wasn't tall enough! lol

[Demo]

30 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Competition for him was USC. Florida, UCLA, Clemson and UConn. That's really good.

 

Think it’s officially fair to say that DDV learned his lesson last year and the whole undersized thing isn’t ever gonna happen again.

[Home Jersey]

I don't mean this in a snarky way, but is he likely to actually get minutes here?

DDV's first two Euro bigs seemed like strictly practice players. Felix is committing much earlier in the cycle though. Would be nice if he can play.

Wonder if any possibility of him joining the team in the event Sam is not eligible. Also, do we think this impacts Wabbington at all?

[Uspshoosier]

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

7 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

I don't mean this in a snarky way, but is he likely to actually get minutes here?

DDV's first two Euro bigs seemed like strictly practice players. Felix is committing much earlier in the cycle though. Would be nice if he can play.

Wonder if any possibility of him joining the team in the event Sam is not eligible.

From what I read elsewhere, he is not ready to step in as a freshman.  His skill set is reported as good but he needs time to develop that skill set to be a major contributor.  Certainly a practice player as a freshman by all accounts.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

https://247sports.com/college/indiana/article/indiana-iu-basketball-recruiting-commitment-rising-international-center-felix-kiehlneker-prospect-from-germany-289985738/

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/iu-basketball-picks-up-commitment-from-7-foot-german-felix-kiehlneker/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUWS4xwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR64QYXU7GnRLF8S4ugVR4lZtShhW7C7-_pTvuSvWWbs3k47tl9S_l9LPPK6rw_aem__m2ksUDlLEzmpuR3CCHr1w

https://www.insidethehall.com/2026/09/15/iu-basketball-lands-commitment-from-class-of-2027-center-felix-kiehlneker/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUWS4hwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR46T6UxefYNp5ywnWqtovlY_9aylSXf_bHm6xjNcoaXonp2ixqB0ZKcV469PQ_aem_X1uDtLPtRKTtvHcPAduaGA

[Demo]

18 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

I don't mean this in a snarky way, but is he likely to actually get minutes here?

DDV's first two Euro bigs seemed like strictly practice players. Felix is committing much earlier in the cycle though. Would be nice if he can play.

Wonder if any possibility of him joining the team in the event Sam is not eligible. Also, do we think this impacts Wabbington at all?

Probably gonna start digging into him some tonight. But he was good enough to start for the German FIBA U19 team and that’s not nothin’.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Seems like an early take for a guy like this but maybe they are on to something early.  Makes me wonder if the Wabbington recruitment isn’t as optimistic as we’d like to think.  
 

[Uspshoosier]

28 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Makes me wonder if the Wabbington recruitment isn’t as optimistic as we’d like to think.  

Probably was the only chance to have a shot at the Wabbington recruitment.  He doesn’t want to play the 5 and by taking him they can tell him he doesn’t need to play the 5.   Same thing Zona is going by having a high level 5 in for a visit before his.    Not sure why anyone would be optimistic about an Arizona kid picking IU over Arizona in the first place but that’s just my opinion

[WayneFleekHoosier]

22 minutes ago, Uspshoosier said:

Probably was the only chance to have a shot at the Wabbington recruitment.  He doesn’t want to play the 5 and by taking him they can tell him he doesn’t need to play the 5.   Same thing Zona is going by having a high level 5 in for a visit before his.    Not sure why anyone would be optimistic about an Arizona kid picking IU over Arizona in the first place but that’s just my opinion

Yeah, I didn’t phrase that well.

I guess it’s the thought that we have Sokolov and both bigs that could potentially return if they desired.  This move, to me, says quite a bit about where we project the roster to be in regards to those 3.  As far as the Wabbington recruitment, who knows. The staff obviously has a good pulse on it now after his visit. He is a big that would like to play the 4 from what I hear. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Andershock:  https://247sports.com/college/indiana/longformarticle/scouting-and-projection-new-iu-commitment-2027-german-center-felix-kiehlneker-289991346/

[Hoosierfanyuh]

2 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Seems like an early take for a guy like this but maybe they are on to something early.  Makes me wonder if the Wabbington recruitment isn’t as optimistic as we’d like to think.  
 

We’re recruiting wabbington as a PF, Rabby said this specific recruitment does not alter anything with any of the other bigs we’re going for.

[str8baller]

8 hours ago, Demo said:

Think it’s officially fair to say that DDV learned his lesson last year and the whole undersized thing isn’t ever gonna happen again.

I can honestly say I am at least a bit skeptical. 
 

DD has been a 4 out/perimeter coach his whole career. In his first B1G season with an expensive but hastily constructed roster they have a late season collapse that has them finish a game or two from the tournament. And the B1G was probably as tough as it’s been in 20 years. So he’s going to abandon his style that got him here because…why again?  Had they won one more game, likely we are not even having this conversation. 
 

Last year was a stumble out of the gate, for sure. But was it so catastrophic that you completely change your entire philosophy? 

[RaceToTheTop]

18 hours ago, str8baller said:

DD has been a 4 out/perimeter coach his whole career. In his first B1G season with an expensive but hastily constructed roster they have a late season collapse that has them finish a game or two from the tournament. And the B1G was probably as tough as it’s been in 20 years. So he’s going to abandon his style that got him here because…why again?  Had they won one more game, likely we are not even having this conversation. 
 

 

I would counter that and say that the expectation shouldn't be just to eke our win into the last spots of the tourney.  If last year's team had won one more game, it was still a subpar team.

[str8baller]

3 hours ago, RaceToTheTop said:

I would counter that and say that the expectation shouldn't be just to eke our win into the last spots of the tourney.  If last year's team had won one more game, it was still a subpar team.

People would’ve been content, though. They were with Woodys first year. It was mostly a subpar team because the scouting on the starting PG and C spots was terrible, and one of supposed best players was pretty average.  
 

You could easily fix our problems last year with better scouting. Switching to a two big lineup seems odd to me. Heck, last year we were openly wondering why he didn’t play Alexis and Bailey together. He even mentioned it in a presser, but he never did it until very late in the year for a few minutes.  
 

I’m sure he’ll make it work if he’s as good at Xs and Os as everyone says.