The July college basketball recruiting live periods have come and gone. For member of the class of 2019, their AAU careers have come to an end. It’s time to get serious.
Lists will be trimmed, visits will be scheduled, and decisions will be made. With busy travel schedules and basketball tournaments now largely behind them, high-major recruiting targets are finally able to sit back and contemplate their futures with their families with much less distraction.
Some Indiana fans are anxious. They look at the IU class of 2019 recruiting boards and see no commitments. Meanwhile schools like Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio State and Villanova already have multiple players verbally committed and sit atop the 2019 class team rankings.
What they may not realize is that schools like Duke, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Florida and many others also have no commits in the class right now. We’ll look back at this point a year from now and realize it was silly to fret over a particular point in time like this.
A byproduct of following recruiting so closely is losing sight of the bigger picture — classes don’t come together on a set schedule. There are so many variables at play with every individual — and somehow it all manifests into a unique decision timeline for each one of them.
But here we sit today with no commits. There are more questions than answers right now. Some are worrying, but the reality remains that all but one of IU’s top targets in the class remain on the board.
With that, we synthesize the latest news and take a look at where things stand with some of IU’s top targets for the class of 2019.
- Trayce Jackson-Davis – The best news might be who wasn’t watching him in July. We had previously shared with you details on new interest from North Carolina, but Roy Williams was nowhere to be found this month. Jackson-Davis seems intent on taking his full allotment of visits and deciding at the earliest in October. The Greenwood, Indiana native is locked in for an official visit during Hoosier Hysteria. We still sense a strong IU lean here.
- Keion Brooks, Jr. – With Brooks battling knee issues, it has been a relatively quiet month. The competition is still quite stiff, but as we reported, some recruiting analysts at least are giving IU a slight edge. There’s still a long way to go. Brooks is also going to attend Hoosier Hysteria, and we’d be stunned if IU isn’t in the final grouping.
- Armaan Franklin – There hasn’t been a lot of IU-centric Franklin news in recent weeks. Indiana is still strongly in the running here, seemingly on equal footing with the likes of Purdue, Xavier and a couple others.
- Brandon Newman – The story with Newman is similar to Franklin. We don’t sense an IU lean, but the Hoosiers are firmly in contention. His recently announced move to Montverde prep school should be a non-issue.
- Anthony Harris – Things are looking up with the recruitment of Harris. Multiple outlets reported last week that he would like to take a visit to Bloomington, perhaps also during Hoosier Hysteria. If IU can get him on campus then it will be reasonable to think that they will be a finalist.
- Trendon Watford – The group think has gravitated towards Memphis. If pressed, that’s what we’d predict, but we don’t believe it is as clear as some like to think. Watford recently stated that he was open to new schools contacting him despite his release of a top eight list. As it stands, we see IU in the top three, but perhaps in third right now with ground to make up. That being said, he told the Indy Star today($) that he “definitely” wants to take an official visit to IU. That can never be a bad thing.
- Zeke Nnaji – This is another recruitment that we’d characterize as trending in the right direction. Again, multiple outlets reported last week that Nnaji would like to get to Bloomington. And again, if he does, consider IU in a strong position.
- Jahmius Ramsey – Probably the toughest 2019 target to read. He has said that he intends to push his decision off to the spring. What options that will leave him is anyone’s guess at this point. He has said that Indiana is in regular contact and a place he’d like to visit, so if an opening remains in the spring he could end up working out.
- James Bouknight – Still early days on this recent IU offer. Indiana is one of his more attractive offers to this point, so it’s at least possible that they sneak in for a late steal on this under-the-radar rising star.
- Kira Lewis – The big question right now is whether he will reclassify to 2018. If he does, IU has no openings. If he doesn’t, like some of the others, we’d need to see him take a visit to IU to believe that he is taking the Hoosiers serious.
- Matthew Hurt – When you are competing against Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas to name a few, it is difficult to feel overly optimistic. With that being said, his comments over the weekend at least give you a glimmer of hope. The IU coaching staff has clearly been doing good work here. You can’t count Indiana out. He plans to cut down to 8 or 9 schools soon and then start taking visits in September.
- Isaiah Stewart – IU seems like a long shot here. For now, Indiana is in the final ten. If they make the next cut then it could be fun to speculate.
