It only took one official visit for Florissant (MO) guard B.J. Young to make a decision.
The five-star guard has given a verbal commitment to John Pelphrey and the Arkansas Razorbacks, according to Dave Telep of Scout.com.
Young told Inside the Hall last weekend that he hoped to visit Indiana and also hoped to host the coaching staff for an in-home visit.
The 6-3, 175-pound combo guard is rated the No. 17 prospect nationally by Scout and No. 18 by Rivals.
UPDATE: 12:17 p.m. Friday
Just got off the phone with James Blackmon Sr. who said Tom Crean and Indiana’s coaching staff made his son feel “welcomed” throughout their recruitment, making last night’s decision easy.
“He made us feel welcomed, answered a lot of questions,” Blackmon Sr. said. “(Blackmon Jr.) had a lot of questions.”
Indiana’s recruitment of Blackmon Jr. really took shape over the summer, when his father said the Hoosiers got plenty of chances to see James play. The player also visited Indiana’s Elite Camp over the summer.
By the time he came down to visit last night, Blackmon Sr. said the last step in the process was easy to take.
“It just felt like this was a good opportunity,” he said. “I think Coach Crean is headed in the right direction.”
Blackmon Sr., who was a McDonald’s All-American at Marion High School and a standout guard at Kentucky, is his son’s coach at Bishop Luers in Fort Wayne. The elder Blackmon won state titles at the school in 2008 and 2009 with DeShaun Thomas, now a freshman at Ohio State. So his son’s pedigree is inherited from his father in more ways than one.
November 2013 is the earliest Blackmon Jr. can sign a letter of intent, but he’s already drawn rave reviews. ESPN has him ranked among the top 10 players in the ’14 class, and their top shooting guard. He is the only committed player in ESPN’s 2014 top 40, and it should also be noted he’s the only in-state player on that list.
Like many other recruits that have come through Bloomington since April, the Blackmons were particularly impressed by Cook Hall. More than that, Blackmon Sr. said, he was impressed by the convenience of having Cook Hall and Assembly Hall so close to the northwest dormitories.
“It was just so convenient,” Blackmon Sr. said. “It was exciting to be able to walk through (Cook Hall).”
Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew. So go ahead, get your read on.
+ Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com writes that Eric Gordon might have earned himself a spot in Team USA’s starting lineup after scoring 21 points in a 92-57 win over Tunisia.
+ Gordon is a guest blogger for the Los Angeles Times from Istanbul and weighed-in with his thoughts following today’s win.
+ Clips Nation recapped Team USA’s win over Tunisia and noted that at the conclusion of pool play, Gordon is the team’s second-leading scorer at 10.9 ppg. Impressive when you consider that many believed Gordon was near the cut line for the final roster.
+ In totally unrelated news to Eric Gordon’s budding stardom, former IU guard and radio color commentator Todd Leary was arrested for allegedly stealing appliances from foreclosed homes in Hamilton County.
Apparently, ESPN’s Andy Katz jumped the gun on the report I referenced in the post below (Steve Alford to Mizzou, anyone?) that stated the following information on Big Ten divisions:
In men’s basketball, according to sources, the Big Ten is expected to play a 16-game conference schedule by taking a model similar to those used by the Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference. In those leagues, teams play each division opponent twice and then single games — three at home and three on the road — against teams in the opposing division.
The Big Ten announced football divisions on Wednesday evening and commissioner Jim Delaney had the following to say about men’s basketball:
“In basketball, they will start their own course,” Delany said. “The sport is structured completely differently.”
Our friend Dustin Dopirak of The Herald-Times also had this tidbit from the Big Ten’s teleconference:
Delany said the divisions do not apply to basketball, and that he does “not see any compelling reason,” to have divisions in basketball at all because the dynamic of the sport is so much different from football. He said if the league’s athletic directors decided they wanted divisions, he would be amenable to it, but that those would also be competitively balanced. The current divisions, which most notably, would provide a cakewalk for Michigan State with Iowa, Northwestern, Michigan, Nebraska and Minnesota as their division mates, would be “irrelevant,” as Delany put it.
So there we have it. No super, incredibly unbalanced basketball divisions as earlier reported. Dylan has a nice writeup over at UMHoops on why the Big Ten did the right thing by avoiding divisional misalignment for hoops. And with that, we can all go back to counting down the days to a Cody Zeller decision.
You knew it was coming, but now, the details have apparently been leaked. According to this report on ESPN.com, the Big Ten will announce two six-team divisions on Wednesday.
The details:
Multiple sources told ESPN.com that the two divisions in the Big Ten will look like:
- Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota.
- And Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois.
In men’s basketball, according to sources, the Big Ten is expected to play a 16-game conference schedule by taking a model similar to those used by the Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference. In those leagues, teams play each division opponent twice and then single games — three at home and three on the road — against teams in the opposing division.
These divisions have clearly been formed with football, football and more football in mind, but from a basketball perspective, the road back to the top of the conference just got tougher for IU.
Traditionally, four of the six best programs in the conference (sans IU) are grouped with the Hoosiers. And even though the 16-game schedule is not yet a done deal, it’s looking unlikely that a chance to beat up on Nebraska or Iowa twice per season will happen again.
Per this tweet from Kyle Neddenriep, Washington (IN) forward Cody Zeller has lined up dates for official visits to the three remaining schools on his list.
Butler, the defending national runner-up, will be the first school to host Zeller on October 9-11. North Carolina will receive their visit on the opening weekend of practice (October 15-17). And Indiana will get the opportunity for the last impression as the Hoosiers will host Zeller on October 29-31. Indiana football hosts Northwestern on October 30.
Since I’m often asked by readers for my opinion on the direction of Zeller’s recruitment, here are a couple of thoughts:
+ If you’re looking for clues on where Cody will end up based on comments from the family, you’re going to hit a dead end quickly. There are going to be rumors and “I heard this from so-and-so” in the comments and on the message boards up until the decision is made. And while it might be fun to read and discuss, I don’t buy any of it.
+ The visit to North Carolina on the opening weekend of practice makes sense if Cody’s parents, Lorri and Steve, will be making the trip to Chapel Hill to watch Tyler and the Tar Heels kick off their season.
+ I have an opinion, privately, about where I believe Zeller will end up. Some readers have asked me to comment via email or Twitter, but the upside to making a public prediction is zero. If I say I believe he’s going to IU, I’ll be called a homer and then an idiot (or worse) if he doesn’t end up picking the Hoosiers.
With that, I’ll leave you with a video compilation of Zeller and a Q &A from July at the adidas Invitational after the jump:
