Kaleb Banks had never made a visit to the Midwest before, much less Indiana before he arrived at IU for his official visit on Thursday and Friday. The 6-foot-8 wing from Fayetteville, Ga., had a sense that he was getting to see the home of a historical basketball powerhouse, but it was more impressive than he was imagining. “The buildings are really nice,” Banks said by phone Saturday. “I didn’t know it was going to be that nice. I liked Cook Hall. That was a real nice building. The Hall of Fame (display in Cook Hall) was real nice. The…
Author: Dustin Dopirak
Three Indiana divers earned Olympic berths Friday night at the Olympic Diving Trials at the IUPUI Natatorium. NCAA champion Andrew Capobianco and 2016 Olympian Mike Hixon earned a berth together with a dominant first-place performance in the 3 Meter Synchronized Springboard with 1,289.37 points. Also, Indiana All-American Jessica Parratto and Arizona’s Delaney Schnell combined for a first-place finish 10 Meter Synchronized Platform with 930 points. The 2020 Olympic Diving Trials will continue on Saturday evening with finals in both the women’s 3M Springboard and the men’s 10M Platform. Action is scheduled to begin at 4:50 p.m.
Weston Kramer didn’t have much of a prospect profile at Marmion Academy in Aurora, Ill. He was a two-star recruit according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. There were 117 higher-rated prospects in the state of Illinois alone. He was the no. 231 rated defensive tackle nationally, and rated 3,857 in the Class of 2017. This was despite the fact that he was a wrecking ball at Marmion, recording 40 tackles for loss and 134 total tackles during his final two seasons. He broke up 13 passes and forced six fumbles in that period and was an all-state pick as a…
Camron Buckley didn’t leave Texas A&M because he had anything against the place. He liked the school, he liked the program, and said he enjoyed his time there. He left because he thought he could do more for his future prospects elsewhere. “Leaving was just a business decision,” Buckley said. “I still love College Station, still love A&M, still love all the coaching staff there. It was just a business decision for me personally.” And in case it wasn’t clear what he meant by “business decision,” Buckley drove the point home with his attire in a Zoom press conference on…
Deland McCullough II honestly wasn’t thinking about coming home when his father returned to Indiana to be the Hoosiers’ running backs coach again. It happened in February, days after the Kansas City Chiefs lost the Super Bowl to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with McCullough on staff as the Chiefs’ running backs coach. Deland II was still at Miami (Ohio) and planned on sticking out spring practice. “When he got the job at Indiana, it didn’t even cross my mind,” he said on a Zoom press conference Thursday. But by the end of April, he made the decision that he could…
Mike Woodson’s first Indiana basketball team has arrived on campus. Obvious caveats are required here. There are still five months between now and November, which is plenty of time for a player to decide he wants to go elsewhere, and there are plenty of players in the portal who could still be brought on to replace them. Indiana has made personnel decisions later in the year than this. But Indiana has 13 players for its 13 scholarships for the 2021-22 season and they are fully enrolled. As of now, only one of those players knows exactly what his role will…
Indiana named long-time NBA assistant coach and former Columbia coach Armond Hill as its director of basketball administration Wednesday. Hill worked with head coach Mike Woodson on the staff of the Los Angeles Clippers while Woodson was there from 2014-18. Hill worked at Columbia from 1995-2003. He spent one year working for Terry Stotts with the Atlanta Hawks in 2003-04, then joined Doc Rivers’ staff with the Boston Celtics the following year. He stayed on staff with Rivers throughout his tenure with the Celtics, which ended in 2013 and included an NBA title in 2008. He followed Rivers to the…
The first differences Jaren Handy noticed between Bloomington and the Deep South, were the scenery and the wildlife. The former Auburn defensive end/outside linebacker arrived in Bloomington last week and saw a lot that he wasn’t used to. “It’s different from Auburn and stuff,” Handy said. “Me being from Mississippi, seeing trees and mountains and stuff and seeing deers in the yard and rabbits running around, you don’t see that every day. It’s kinda different, but I like it though. I definitely like it.” Handy is in Indiana because he likes the opportunity he has. The 6-foot-5, 252-pounder doesn’t know…
When Stephen Carr was overwhelming defenses at Summit High School in Fontana, Calif., he was pursued by every school that thought it had even a glimmer at a chance at landing him. A five-star recruit who rushed for 2,123 yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior, Carr not only got scholarship offers from nine of the schools in the Pac-12, but also Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Tennessee. He was named an All-American by PrepStar and MaxPreps, not to mention All-California by USA Today. But as a kid from southern California, he only wanted to…
Former Indiana coach Tracy Smith, who led the Hoosiers to the College World Series in 2013, was fired as head coach at Arizona State on Monday after the Sun Devils were eliminated in the NCAA Tournament. The Sun Devils finished 33-22 this season, but lost 10-3 to Texas on Saturday and 9-7 to Fairfield on Sunday to be eliminated from the Austin, Texas Regional. In Smith’s seven seasons at the helm since being hired after the 2014 season, he posted a 201-155 record and reached the NCAA Tournament four times but never made it it to a Super Regional or…