We gathered with H-T Sports Editor Chris Korman to discuss all things Indiana basketball earlier this evening. A transcript of the chat for those of you that couldn’t attend is embedded below:
ITH Super Happy Fun Time Player Profile: Jordan Hulls
by Alex Bozich in Commentary | September 30th, 2009
Hoosier Hysteria is on the horizon and it’s time for Inside the Hall’s player-by-player breakdown of the 2009-2010 Indiana Hoosiers. Today: Jordan Hulls.
Indiana’s point guard play a season ago was, for the most part, a disaster. A quick scan of Ken Pomeroy’s rankings shows the Hoosiers ranked 342 out of 344 DI teams in turnover percentage.
Turnover percentage, for those of you unfamiliar with it in Pomeroy terms, is simply the number of turnovers a team commits divided by its number of possessions. Indiana’s number was 26.4%. Only Arkansas Pine Bluff and the NJ Institute of Technology were worse. Yikes.
And while he will likely begin the season as the backup to junior transfer Jeremiah Rivers, the arrival of Jordan Hulls to the backcourt should help bring relief to IU’s turnover problem. At first glance, nothing about Hulls screams Big Ten caliber point guard. Perhaps that’s why he was regarded as a mid-major prospect before emerging onto the national scene in the spring of 2008.
Emmanuel Negedu listed as stable following collapse
by Alex Bozich in Media | September 29th, 2009
Emmanuel Negedu, a one-time recruiting target of Indiana, is listed as stable after collapsing during a workout at the University of Tennessee.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Negedu collapsed shortly after 4PM on Monday at the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex:
Negedu did not have a pulse when he was revived with a defibrillator at the scene by UT athletic training staff members.
He had regained consciousness and was alert when EMTs arrived to transport him to UT Medical Center by ambulance, according to a source in the Vols’ athletic community.
Negedu played in 33 games for Tennessee last season and averaged 1.9 ppg. He originally signed with Arizona, but was released from his Letter of Intent and chose the Volunteers over IU, Georgia Tech and Memphis. Negedu moved to the United States from Kaduna, Nigeria with Mark Adams’ A-Hope program. Inside the Hall would like to wish Negedu a speedy recovery.
Open Thread: Who’s your five?
by Alex Bozich in Commentary | September 29th, 2009
When all else fails, the open thread is the way to go, boys and girls. Many of you are clamoring for us to begin previewing the upcoming season and we’ll get to that soon enough. (Patience!) In the meantime, we’ve prepared the following homework assignment for you to complete in the comments. Don’t forget to show your work.
+ Who’s your five: Which five Hoosiers will be on the floor when the season tips off against the mighty Bisons of Howard? And perhaps more importantly, what does the starting five look like by the time the Big Ten season rolls around on December 31?
+ It’s not about who starts, it’s about who finishes: With the game on the line, who will be on the floor?
+ Odd man out: By our count, minutes will be at a premium this season. Which players will be regulars in the rotation and who will be the odd man (or men) out?
Happy Tuesday.
Josh Selby trims list to six, Hoosiers in the mix
by Alex Bozich in Recruiting | September 27th, 2009
Despite entering the race for Josh Selby less than two weeks ago, Indiana made the list of six schools still in the running for the Lake Clifton (MD) guard. Evan Daniels of Scout.com broke the news on Sunday evening:
“Tonight we sat down as a family and discussed all the schools that were recruiting Josh,” Meashon Witherspoon, Selby’s mother, told Daniels. “We evaluated every school in depth and composed a list of schools we wanted to further explore.”
Also in the running for Selby: Baylor, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami and Syracuse. He’s not expected to sign until the spring and has yet to set up any official visits. Selby is rated the No. 10 player in the 2010 class by Scout.com and No. 4 by Rivals.com.
Tom Crean delivers high praise for incoming class
by Alex Bozich in Media | September 24th, 2009
Given the situation inherited, the argument can be made that the 2009 recruiting haul made by Tom Crean and his staff was as impressive as any class in the country.
Before ever coaching a game at Indiana, Crean held on to a verbal commitment by Derek Elston given to the previous coaching staff and received commitments from five other players. Three of those players, Maurice Creek, Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford, were ranked among the top 50 prospects nationally by Scout.com.
When it was all said and done, IU signed a consensus top ten class last November in the aftermath of major violations less than a year before.
So it should be no surprise that Crean would sing the praises of the young men that he believes will, collectively, be the cornerstone of the rebuilding process in Bloomington. And last night, Crean did just that in these comments released by IU Media Relations:
Jordan Hulls
“That kid never accepted that he wasn’t a college player, or that he might be a Division II player, and that he might be a low-major player, and that he might be a mid-major player. I don’t think he ever accepted that. Something’s telling me that kid always had his sights set pretty high.”
Derek Elston
“The other guy that hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention nationally is Derek Elston. That guy is one of those people, if he hadn’t been injured out on that AAU circuit, there would have been a lot more things written about him. He’s good, he’s tough. And he wants to be really good.”
