Acclaim Continues For Indiana’s Basketball Recruiting Targets

Are you one of those people who love basketball recruiting? Do you scour the Internet, newspapers and everything else you can get your hands on to find out about America’s best talent and how many of those guys are interested in Indiana?

Then take a look at what Rivals.com and Scout.com have in store for you.

The two rival national Internet recruiting services have just come out with their latest national rankings. Rivals has updated its top 150 list for 2011. Scout has released its top 75 for the Class of 2012.

Indiana is targeting eight members of Rivals’ 2011 list and seven on Scout’s 2012 list.

That’s the good news. The bad news is IU doesn’t have any commitments from any of these guys.

Hold on, you say. What about Austin Etherington of Hamilton Heights, who has committed to the Hoosiers and who has been rated for a while?

Well, he’s been out with a back injury. Apparently out of sight is out of mind. Figure once the 6-6 guard gets back in action, he’ll return to the ratings. If he’s healthy, he’ll have plenty of opportunities this month to show what he can do. Elite players will be in tournaments all across the country, including Indianapolis, Las Vegas and Orlando.

In the meantime, here’s where IU’s recruiting targets are rated.

For the Class of 2011 Branden Dawson is at No. 25, B.J. Young is at No. 33, Cody Zeller is at No. 35, Aaron Thomas is at No. 95, Marshall Plumlee is at No. 99, Naadir Tharpe is at No. 109, Jeremiah Davis is at No. 118 and Mitch McGary is at no. 119.

In the Class of 2012 Gary Harris is at No. 10, Hanner Perea is at No. 11, A.J. Hammons is at No. 30, Yogi Ferrell is at No. 34, D’Vantes Smith-Rivera is at No. 35, Jeremy Hollowell is at No. 37 and Ron Patterson is at No. 57.

For the record, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2011 is 6-6 forward Mike Gilchrist of New Jersey. He’s committed to Kentucky. The highest rated player in the state of Indiana is Marquis Teague of Indianapolis Pike. He’s at No. 5. He, too, is committed to Kentucky.

In the Class of 2012 the No. 1 player is 6-11 power forward Andre Drummond. He remains uncommitted. His list includes Connecticut, Duke, Georgetown, North Carolina, Syracuse, Texas and West Virginia. The highest rated in-state player is Harris of Hamilton Southeastern. He’s looking at Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Iowa, Washington and Xavier.