(Photo credit: Jamie Owens of J. Scott Sports)
With the first of two live evaluation periods in the books, Inside the Hall takes a look at five Indiana basketball recruiting story lines from the opening ten days of July recruiting:
– Tom Crean earns frequent flier miles: Even with nine verbal commitments lined up for the Hoosiers’ next three recruiting classes and the current No. 1 class nationally in 2012, Crean blazed a trail across the country in the first ten-day period. Confirmed stops included the adidas Invitational in Indianapolis, the NY2LA Sports Next Level Invitational in Mequon (WI), the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, the Kentucky Hoopfest in Louisville, the Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta (SC), the adidas College Coaches Classic in Indianapolis, the NY2LA Sports Summer Jam in Mequon (WI), the Best Buy Summer Classic in Minneapolis and the Best of the Midwest in Indianapolis. Crean is often described as relentless on the recruiting trail and that was certainly the case as Indiana’s head coach worked from sun up until sun down scouting IU’s current commitments and top targets.
– Elite goes deep at adidas Invitational, Best Buy Classic: The Indiana Elite team that features Hanner Perea, Jeremy Hollowell and Yogi Ferrell was questioned by some for failing to win a tournament in the spring, but the trio of Indiana commits led Team Indiana into the semifinals of the loaded adidas event at North Central. After dropping their opening super pool contest to Shabazz Muhammad and Dream Vision, Elite bounced back to knock off the Andre Drummond-led Connecticut Basketball Club and the Atlanta Celtics. In tournament play, the hot hand of Hollowell (more on him in a bit) led Elite to three straight wins before falling 60-58 in the event’s semifinals on Saturday to New Heights. In Minneapolis at the Best Buy Classic, Elite advanced to the championship game and finished 5-1. For a group that’s playing together for the first time and possesses limited depth, Team Indiana’s play in the first evaluation period was impressive.
Indiana’s recruiting work in the class of 2015 was confirmed on Friday when the Hoosiers extended a scholarship offer to Jalen Coleman, a 6-foot-2, 155-pound guard that will attend Indianapolis Cathedral next fall.
