How important is having state of Indiana players? Let’s take a look at Butler, which, in case you’ve spent the last few days on vacation on the Amazon River and missed it, is in the Final Four.
The Bulldogs have 15 players on their roster and 10 are from Indiana. They also have one player from Illinois, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia.
Their best player is 6-9 sophomore Gordon Hayward. He’s from Brownsburg and has generated speculation that he might enter the NBA draft after this season, although he’s too smart to say anything about that. Beating Michigan State in Saturday’s national semifinal –- plus juggling a rigorous academic load -- is enough to think about.
Arguably their second-best player is sophomore Matt Howard, who is from Connersville. He will not, by the way, enter the NBA draft after this season, but he just might flop to draw a charging file in the defensive spirit that once made Dane Fife an Indiana University legend.
Of Butler’s five out-of-state players, four are key contributors. They are Shelvin Mack from Kentucky, Ronald Nored from Alabama, Shawn Vanzant from Florida and Willie Veasley from Illinois.
In other words, most of the players are from Indiana and the bordering states of Illinois and Kentucky. Coach Brad Stevens went long-distance to get Nored and Vanzant. It’s a Midwest-centered recruiting philosophy that also has worked well for Purdue’s Matt Painter.
Indiana coach Tom Crean knows all about this. He is targeting the state and the surrounding area. The Classes of 2011 and 2012 seem especially loaded. It’s crucial to the rebuilding process for Crean to get as much high-end in-state talent as possible.
Crean has offered the top players in the state, so this article is pointless. Butler got very lucky with Hayward who had a huge growth spurt his last year in High School - helping him fly under the radar of large programs. Their second best player is Mack, and he is from Kentucky. Maybe they shouldn't have recruited him?
ReplyDeleteNone of the Butler guys should go early to the NBA...they are "team players" and not suited for the NBA style...at least in my opinion. And TC has been trying to get state kids, they have turned their backs, just like football, on IU.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting to read something like this. The in-state kids still remember how good IU was and know how special it is to be a Hoosier. Not sure out of state kids get it as much. For the pscyh of the program, let's go where we have a better chance of signing a recruit and we know what a great batch of kids there are coming up. A win win. Lets hope Coach Crean feels this way too.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your assessment. Crean needs to spend less time flying to Washington DC and focus on the local kids. Otherwise this will look like the Mike Davis era all over again.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. The difference between Syracuse/Kansas State and Butler is fundamentals and team ball - i.e., attributes found often in Indiana players. Add to this the desire to perform for your own state and you typically have hard fighting, victorious teams. The perversion that goes along with following every rumor and out of state kid that is 6'9" and can shoot the ball but doesn't know much about IU Basketball is a waste of time if the attributes above are not there. Just think, Davis or Sampson (can't remember) wouldn't even recruit Harangody. Would've been nice, huh?
ReplyDeleteGREAT IDEA AND WE THOUGHT THAT EVER SINCE COACH KNIGHT LEFT, HE DID JUST THIS FOR US I.U. FANS. GOOD ADVICE FOR THE INDIANA COACHES.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Sampson heavily recruit Howard only to lose out on him because Matt wanted to go to a smaller school? A lot of time being spent on in-state players and coaches, but it seems it's become "cool" to go elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteOn DC area commits IU is 2 of 3 (Creek, Oladipo in, Abraham out). The close rate on in state players is lower. If the Indiana kids don't want the new facilities and pack house of screaming fans, then the out of state players are more than happy to fill the void. Plenty of IU offers are in the hands of IHSAA kids. All they need to do is commit and IU will be a team built with local kids.
I think Crean has to continue to find that balance as he has. Bringing in a Creek and Watford, along with an Elston and Hulls. Indiana kids are great, but there have been plenty of titles won without them.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm sure CTC never thought of this. You guys should tell him more about how to recruit.CTC hates great players from Indiana, especially team players who stay four years, develop fundamentals and contribute to winning. Knight never,never recruited out of state. Like D. Thomas, Isiah Thomas, Joe Hillman, Keith Smart, Dean Garrett etc. etc. You recruit good players, both in state and out of state that want to play at your school and who fit the program. Painter etc. are losing a lot of these guys even when Indiana is down. Look at Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State...they've been getting there share of Hoosiers themselves.
ReplyDeleteEither Norad or Mack is originally from Indiana.
ReplyDeleteIndiana players generally know how to play the game and are way ahead of players from other states. Not always but most of the time. Indianapolis is turning out really good players. IU should concentrate on that area and the Gary area.
This program is still many many more years in the cellar. I don't know when or if they will ever recover. I think this will become clear within the next (2) seasons. In today's college basketball world it is all about recruiting. This program is not able to recruit and very good players rated in the #100- #150 is not going to allow the program to recover at an increasing rate. I do not have a positive picture for this program next season. The lack of size, the increasing rate of turnovers will continue with the same personnel on the floor, and the addition of a very good player who has not even played one Big Ten game , and a couple of very atheletic three star players rated in the #130 range will not be a noticable improvement. This program will have to some how, some way find themselves a number one recruiting class to crack the top 200 basketball teams in any given year. I thank you for your time, and I wish you the very best test mess.
ReplyDeletei agree with the first post-- this article is worthless. Crean obviously knows how talent-rich the state of Indiana is right now. That's why you hear stories/read articles all the time about him being in various gyms all over the state watching various recruits. The problem is that he's gotten into the recruiting process late on a lot of the kids-- and since neither Davis nor Sampson seemed to care about recruiting the state, Crean's been at a significant disadvantage. Why not fly out to DC to try to land a big man that can help the team next year when he's supposedly very close to committing? It's not like kids are fighting over themselves to commit to IU these days. Need a lot of help to bring the IU hoops program back to where we all want it-- and this includes finding recruits wherever he can find them! ...and this most definitely includes Indiana...
ReplyDeleteGet Zeller!
ReplyDeleteCrean is recuiting hard whether it be in state or out of state. Just because he recuits in Washington area doesn't mean he isn't recuiting here. He was just at the Conseco for the state championships He seems to work very hard in recuiting.
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