Many college basketball programs around the country utilize high profile football games as a recruiting tool.
Indiana doesn’t always have that opportunity, but this weekend will be unique with No. 5 Ohio State coming to Bloomington to take on the 2-0 Hoosiers.
With Buckeye fans providing an assist, Memorial Stadium should be at or near capacity, and at least two high profile basketball recruits will be part of the crowd.
St. Louis based 2020 point guard Caleb Love has official visit to IU scheduled for this weekend.
Now joining him will be one of the top in-state targets in the 2021 class.
Jake Weingarten is reporting that Sellersburg, Ind. product Trey Kaufman will take one of his five allotted junior year official visits to Indiana.
Indiana will host 2021 four-star Trey Kaufman for an official visit this weekend, a source told @Stockrisers. Virginia, Purdue, and Louisville will watch him this week as well.
— Jake (@jakeweingarten) September 9, 2019
Kaufman has previously been to the IU campus, including performing with his Silver Creek high school team at the Hoosiers’ team camp back in June. Indiana offered Kaufman a scholarship at that time.
As a sophomore at Silver Creek, the 6-foot-8 Kaufman averaged 14.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 blocks per game according to his MaxPreps page. He was very efficient from the field, hitting 60% of his shots overall, and 40% of his attempts from three-point range.
Kaufman and his Silver Creek squad won the Class 3A state title in March, defeating IU class of 2020 commit Trey Galloway and his Culver Academies team in the championship game. Kaufman’s teammate Kooper Jacobi is another high level class of 2021 talent that averaged 13.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game last season.
With a versatile inside/out skill set, Kaufman projects as a stretch four or even possibly out on the wing in college.
The primary competition for Kaufman right now includes Purdue, Louisville and Xavier. Kaufman is currently ranked No. 49 nationally in the 2021 class, and No. 3 in-state behind Khristian Lander and Caleb Furst.
Speaking of Furst, Weingarten is also reporting that the 6-foot-9 Fort Wayne product intends to return to the IU campus soon as well.
Caleb Furst visit to #iubb forthcoming. https://t.co/kehgB8nAeZ
— Mike Schumann @ The Daily Hoosier (@daily_hoosier) September 9, 2019
Indiana offered the forward a scholarship in October. Furst has been to Bloomington on multiple occasions, including in February at IU’s game against Ohio State, and then at the team camp in June.
For his sophomore season, Furst averaged 19.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game playing for Blackhawk Christian.
Blackhawk won the 2019 Class 1A Indiana state championship, and Furst scored 16 points and added 10 rebounds and five blocks in the title game.
Furst played up a year with the U17 Indy Heat on the Nike EYBL Circuit this spring and summer.
Playing 20.6 minutes per contest, he averaged 11.5 points per game on 55% shooting from the field. Furst took all but six of his attempts from two point range, making 2-of-6 from long distance. He added 5.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.6 turnovers and .4 blocks per contest.
Furst runs the floor well and has better than expected ball handling skills. Over the next two seasons of high school he will look to continue to expand his game to include more perimeter aspects.
The primary competition for Furst right now appears to be Purdue, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Virginia.
He is ranked No. 31 nationally according to the 247Sports Composite.
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