Coveted recruit
Emmanuel Negedu has completed his recruiting visits and is expected to make his decision either tomorrow or Wednesday of this week. The 6'6", 225 lb power forward, who burst back onto the recruiting scene after being granted his release from his letter of intent at Arizona, will choose between Indiana, Georgia Tech, Memphis, and Tennessee.
At this point is looks like Indiana is behind in the race for the top-40 talent. Negedu described the IU visit as "just OK" in
an interview with Justin Young of Rivals.com (subscriber-only). Bloomington's strong points are that Negedu would fit well into Crean's system and earn immediate playing time in a central role on the rebuilding team, and he would have the comfort of a familiar environment and several former AAU teammates in
Kory Barnett,
Daniel Moore, and
Matt Roth.
The downside, however, is obvious. Negedu has made it no secret that he wants to win now, even at the possible expense of playing time. Indiana could very feasibly be starting two walk-ons next year (
Kyle Taber and
Broderick Lewis), a testament to the shallowness of IU's talent pool after the departures of all but one scholarship player. While Negedu would help the recovery immensely, it would still almost surely be 2009, if not 2010, before enough talent would be available for the Hoosiers to even be remotely in the running for a berth in the NCAA tournament.
In addition, outcome of this weekend's NCAA Infractions Committee is also looming. If the ball doesn't bounce IU's way, Coach
Tom Crean and the basketball program could find themselves crippled with heavy recruiting sanctions and on a lengthy probation period while former Coach
Kelvin Sampson will probably be hit with a show-cause action that means nothing to his current position in the NBA (it only affects coaches in the college game).
Negedu definitely isn't going to wait until the NCAA decision is made public to choose his school, and the huge unknown factor can't make IU attractive at all when National Championship runner-up Memphis, former one-seed Tennessee, and on-the-rise Georgia Tech are lining up for his skills. IU is nowhere near the winning levels of these schools in the short-term.
IU's only hope is Coach Crean, who has been going above and beyond to bring recruits on board in a currently desperate situation, all in an effort to field an effective team for next year. He's had great success with the (for lack of a better word) second-tier players solely based on his sheer talent and work ethic as a coach, but landing a top-flight recruit like Negedu is probably going to be too tall of a task with the circumstances that are surrounding IU's program right now.
Still, IU fans can take heart in the fact that IU was even on Negedu's short list in the first place. With one more year under his belt and any sanctions established and known (and hopefully the worst ones out of the way), Crean will surely have more big-time recruits looking hard at a program that had hit rock-bottom but is poised for a rise back to the top.
Of course, it will be hard to move on before the NCAA Infractions Committee makes its decision. If the committee hits the target six-week mark, the decision will be made on
July 26. The involved parties will be notified a couple of days before the general public is given the information. While this is an expected target, the deliberations could easily take into August.
Stay tuned for more developments on these stories.
More Indiana Basketball
Related links:
http://iuplanet.com/forum/indiana-ba...-visit-iu.html
http://iuplanet.com/forum/indiana-ba...n-memphis.html
ESPN - Sampson slips out as Indiana's NCAA hearings wrap up - Men's College Basketball
ZAGSBLOG: Negedu to Decide This Week
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