With the start of college basketball season on the horizon, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next month. Today, we continue our look at the Big Ten with the Ohio State Buckeyes. They were so close. On March 30 in the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament, No. 2 seed Ohio State had come back on No. 9 seed Wichita State in the West Regional final. Down 13 points at halftime, the pre-game favorites had cut the deficit to three with 2:49 to go in the game. 27 seconds later, Wichita State's Tekele Cotton would drain a 3-pointer to make the score 65-59. The Buckeyes would never get that close again, that day. Ohio State's sure-fire trip to the Final Four last season ended in heartbreak at Staples Center, but coming into 2013-2014, there's plenty of reason for optimism that a return trip deep into the NCAA tournament could happen. Yes, the Buckeyes lost their leading scorer and rebounder, Deshaun Thomas, to the professional ranks. But with the pieces head coach Thad Matta has returning and the young talent he has brought in, it's already been enough for his crew to earn multiple top 15 preseason rankings.
After announcing a list of five schools earlier in the week, class of 2014 Lincoln (N.Y.) guard Isaiah Whitehead ended the recruiting process in a press conference on Thursday afternoon at his high school. The five-star guard announced that he'll play for Seton Hall next season. Whitehead, the No. 17 player in the 247Composite, also considered Indiana, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and St. John's. The 6-foot-4 guard took an unofficial visit to Bloomington in late August.
On Friday afternoon, Florida State, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia will learn where class of 2014 guard Robert Johnson will play in college. Johnson, a senior at Benedictine College Preparatory in Richmond, Virginia, will announce his intentions at 3:30 p.m. ET in the school library. Here's our primer for the announcement with everything you need to know: The Essentials Guard, 6-3, 190-pounds, Benedictine College Prep (VA), Boo Williams 247Composite: 4-star (79); ESPN: 4-star (NR); Rivals: 4-star (42); Scout: 4-star (54) Schools: Florida State, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia Official visits: Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State The Primary Contenders Johnson has four finalists and he's taken official visits to each school in the last month. Publicly, he's spoken positively about each experience, but most believe Indiana and North Carolina are the primary contenders with Virginia as a potential wildcard.
With the start of college basketball season on the horizon, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next month. Today, we continue our look at the Big Ten with the Iowa Hawkeyes. For the first time in the Fran McCaffery era in Iowa City, there are expectations for the Iowa Hawkeyes. After landing on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble a season ago and then making a run to the finals of the NIT, the Hawkeyes have the pieces in place to field a very good team in 2013-2014. Nine of Iowa's top 10 scorers are back including junior Aaron White and senior Roy Marble, one of the better tandems in the Big Ten. White is a bit unheralded nationally, but is one of the best frontcourt players in the Big Ten. Last season, he attempted 258 free throws and had a free throw rate (FTA/FGA) of 86.3, the highest mark of any Big Ten player. He was also one of just four Big Ten players to average at least 12.8 points and 6.2 rebounds, joining Zeller, Victor Oladipo and Deshaun Thomas.
Two class of 2014 prospects who had announced intentions to take official visits to Bloomington this fall - Ahmed Hill and Stephen Hurt - will not see Indiana's campus. Hurt (pictured), who was visited by Indiana at Northwest Florida College on Tuesday night, decided on Wednesday night that he would not visit Indiana after concerns about fitting into Indiana's up tempo style of play, according to a source. The 6-foot-10, 280-pound big man is expected to choose between Kansas State, Miami (FL) and Wichita State. He's already taken official visits to all three schools.
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Benedictine senior sees recruiting profile boom Six months ago, Robert Johnson’s best scholarship offers came mostly from mid-major basketball programs. Virginia Commonwealth, perhaps, was the most prestigious school courting him. Over the summer, though, the Benedictine senior’s profile ...
With the start of college basketball season on the horizon, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next month. Today, we continue our look at the Big Ten with the Purdue Boilermakers. It can only get better for Purdue, right? After ending last season with a 16-18 record and a second-round loss to Santa Clara in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), the Boilermakers bring a mix of youth and experience to the table in 2013-2014. And with four of its five leading scorers from last season back in West Lafayette, Matt Painter is hoping that can translate into more wins. Purdue's backcourt duo of Ronnie and Terone Johnson returns this season, and the Boilermakers hope that means the offense can click from day one. It also helps that Ronnie Johnson led the team in assists last season (26.8 percent assist rate) and Terone Johnson led the team in points per game (13.5), which indicates the talent is already there for potential success.
Class of 2014 guard Isaiah Whitehead is ready to announce his college decision. The Lincoln High School (N.Y.) standout will make his destination known on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in a press conference at his school. Whitehead shared his plans for a Thursday announcement on his Twitter account and Inside the Hall's Jordan Littman confirmed those plans with his high school coach, Tiny Morton. He'll choose from five schools: Indiana, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and St. John's.
Five publications - Athlon Sports, Blue Ribbon, Lindy's Sports, Sporting News and USA Today Sports - are out with preseason college basketball preview magazines this month or early next month. Each has a projected top 25, as well as a projected finish for the Big Ten. Indiana is No. 20 nationally in Lindy's Sports, No. 23 in USA Today Sports, No. 25 in The Sporting News and unranked by Athlon Sports and Blue Ribbon. But more interesting is the vary opinion on how the middle of the pack in the Big Ten could potentially shake out. While more than one publication can agree on the top three and bottom four, the middle five teams have produced a wide range of predictions.
With the start of college basketball season on the horizon, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next month. Today, we continue our look at the Big Ten with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Despite reaching the 20-win plateau five times and the NCAA tournament three times over six seasons, Minnesota relieved Tubby Smith of his duties on March 25 and immediately began a search for a new head coach. Nine days later, after whiffing on its top choices, Norwood Teague hired 30-year old Richard Pitino, who had just completed his first season as a head coach at Florida International. Whether or not Pitino works out in Minneapolis, his hiring was a bit of a reality check for a program that had the belief that it could nab an elite young coach like Shaka Smart. As Pitino gets settled into his first major head coaching job, the reality of the task that lies ahead is beginning to sink in. Three elite talents from Minnesota in the class of 2014 — Tyus Jones, Rashad Vaughn and Reid Travis — are likely to leave the state. And the graduation of Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney Williams left the Golden Gophers relatively bare in the frontcourt for the upcoming season.
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With the start of college basketball season on the horizon, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next month. Today, we continue our look at the Big Ten with the Northwestern Wildcats. Change is afoot in Evanston. Bill Carmody's 12-year run of Princeton offense and gimmick zone defense is gone. In comes 39-year-old Chris Collins fresh off a 13-year run as a Duke assistant. It's a switch that arrives during an emerging time for Northwestern athletics. Pat Fitzgerald has a bonafide Top 25 football program going. An ambitious $250 million athletics facility on the shores of Lake Michigan has been approved. Though this multi-purpose facility is more football-focused, it's been said the basketball team will eventually get their own upgrades down the line.
With the start of college basketball season on the horizon, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next month. Today, we continue our look at the Big Ten with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. In its first two seasons in the Big Ten, Nebraska has found itself at the bottom of the conference standings with a combined 8-13 record at home. The Cornhuskers have a change in scenery in Lincoln, now. Literally. Nebraska will debut its new 15,147-seat Pinnacle Bank Arena this season, which has head coach Tim Miles excited for the future of Cornhusker basketball. In his first season at the helm in 2012-13, Miles led his team to a 15-18 record (5-13 Big Ten) and was able to pull off a late-season upset over Minnesota and a Big Ten tournament win over Purdue. Heading into this season, though, Nebraska lost two of its three leading scorers — 6-foot-5 Dylan Talley and 6-foot-10 Brandon Ubel — to graduation. Leading the team will be senior Ray Gallegos, who made the jump from averaging 2.8 points per game in 2011-12 to 12.5 points in 2012-13. The guard from Salt Lake City was the Cornhuskers' second-leading scorer last season and played the most out of anyone on the team: a total of 1,237 minutes, an average of 37.5 minutes per game. It's not a stretch, by any means, to expect Gallegos to be on the court for much of Nebraska's season, especially during their Big Ten portion of the schedule.
Several class of 2014 prospects being recruited by Indiana will be making official visits this weekend and our latest recruiting notebook takes a look at those campus trips as well as other notes from the first week of the fall recruiting period: · Goodluck Okonoboh, one of IU's top targets in the 2014 class, will make his first official visit this weekend and Bloomington is the destination. The Hoosiers have long been considered one of the favorites to land Okonoboh and getting him on campus is the next logical step in making that happen. It's been well documented, but the relationship between Okonoboh and current IU freshman Noah Vonleh is a very good one and this weekend provides Okonoboh the opportunity for his first up close look at the Indiana campus. · Lourawls Nairn hosted Tom Crean for an in-home visit earlier in the weekend, but the major development for Nairn this week was the addition of Michigan State to his list of three finalists. Nairn had been considering a final three of Indiana, Minnesota and Oklahoma, but the Spartans are making a late push with Tyler Ulis seemingly headed to Kentucky. Nairn will be in East Lansing this weekend and then Indiana will host him for an official visit next weekend.
Indiana completed its 2013-2014 schedule on Thursday evening when it announced a pair of exhibition games that will be played at Assembly Hall. Here are the complete details, per a release from media relations: Indiana University men's basketball coach Tom Crean has announced that the Hoosiers will host the University of Southern Indiana at 7 p.m., Saturday, October 26, and Hillsdale (Michigan) College at 7 p.m., Monday, November 4 in exhibition games.
Penn State may have taken a step back last season from a wins and losses perspective, but the rebuilding effort being led by Pat Chambers continues to move along at a program with little historical success on the hardwood. If there is such a thing as a competitive two-win Big Ten team, Penn State fit the bill a season ago. The Nittany Lions struggled to find their footing after losing Tim Frazier to a torn Achilles' tendon, but finished the conference slate with a home win over eventual national runner-up Michigan and a win at Northwestern. Penn State also played Wisconsin to a narrow 66-63 loss to close the regular season at the Bryce Jordan Center. With Frazier back in the rotation to go along with D.J. Newbill, Penn State boasts one of the league's best backcourts. Frazier was a first team All-Big Ten selection back in 2011-2012 and while he's never been particularly efficient, he posted a ridiculous assist rate of 45.2 (second nationally) while also averaging 18.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game in his last full season.