This week in IU basketball and football recruiting – June 21, 2020

It was another interesting week in the world of IU Athletics recruiting.

From commitments and offers to other intriguing stories, each week we summarize the top news from the trail.

Here is the latest edition of This week in IU basketball and football recruiting.

DIRECT CONTACT WITH CLASS OF 2022 BEGINS

Indiana’s priorities in the class of 2022 began to emerge this week as direct contact with incoming juniors was permitted on June 15.

Of course IU has had an ongoing dialogue with many players in this age group for a while, but with coaches now permitted to reach out to the players directly, we begin to see where the staff will invest the most time.

We have updated our recruiting prospect page with the developments from this week, as several new players bubbled to the surface.

You can also learn more about some of the new names that IU has been connected to in our snapshot “Names to Know” features.  Stay tuned this week for more profiles.

TWO NEW IU BASKETBALL OFFERS

If this week highlighted new class of 2022 priorities, then offers to a pair of long, versatile incoming juniors with the ability to play multiple positions headlined the week.

Indianapolis based D’Ante Davis picked up an IU offer after a Zoom meeting with the staff.  The 6-foot-6 Warren Central High School product averaged 10.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.2 steals per game playing for Lawrence Central for the 2019-20 campaign.

Chicago based incoming junior A.J. Casey also earned an IU offer.  The five-star recruit averaged around 22 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three blocks per game for his 2019-20 campaign.

With the ability to both play and guard multiple positions and the length to be effective on the defensive end, Davis and Casey are both a reflection of the kind of players that head coach Archie Miller and his staff put a premium on.

AAU BASKETBALL RETURNS / GUNN SHINES / WESLEY TALKS RECRUITING

This weekend was highlighted by the return of AAU basketball for many of the top programs.

The state of Indiana’s top Nike program was back in action in Fort Wayne as the Indy Heat hosted play at the Sport One Fieldhouse.

CJ Gunn on the break with one handed slam pic.twitter.com/rKFUlipG6g

— Indy Heat – Gym Rats (@indyheatgymrats) June 21, 2020

In the class of 2022, Indy Heat guard C.J. Gunn put on a show with his explosiveness off the floor and ability to create space and get to the rim off the bounce.  Gunn picked up his first high major offer this week from Kansas State, with others sure to follow.

Playing on perhaps the best team (Lawrence North) in Indiana in 2019-20, Gunn averaged 7.1 points and 2.5 rebounds while shooting 35 percent from the 3-point line as a sophomore.  With Mr. Basketball finalist Tony Perkins now off to Iowa, look for Gunn to make a major jump in production as a junior and emerge as one of the top in-state recruits in the class of 2022.

In the 2021 class, IU’s main recruiting target on the Indy Heat U17 EYBL squad is South Bend’s Blake Wesley.  The top-100 prospect showed off his elite north/south speed and was very active in passing lanes on the defensive end on Saturday.  We caught up with Wesley after his games.

PATTERSON OPTS FOR VILLANOVA

The trio of Trey Patterson, Trey Kaufman and Mason Miller emerged as the class of 2021 power forwards that IU was the most likely to land in the incoming senior group.

Patterson came off the board on Thursday with his expected commitment to Villanova.

With overlapping skills, Indiana was never going to land all three, and likely not two of the three of Patterson, Kaufman and Miller.

While Patterson is an immense talent that IU would have loved to have picked up for the 2021-22 season, the outlooks remains the same.  Securing a commitment from either Kaufman or Miller should be deemed a major success.  Of the two, Kaufman continues to appear to be the most likely to play in Bloomington.

INDIANA FOOTBALL TO HAVE 5 OF 10 BEST RECRUITS EVER SINCE 2000 ON 2021 ROSTER

Slowly but surely the talent level on the Indiana football roster is edging up.

With the verbal commitment by four-star Indianapolis quarterback Donaven McCulley last week, IU is slated to have five of its 10 highest rated recruits during the rankings era on the 2021 roster.

Those five players are Sampson James, Beau Robbins, Cam Williams, Rashawn Williams, and McCulley.  With four of the five hailing from the state of Indiana, IU is also showing an improving ability to land some of the better in-state talent.

While the talent coming in the door should be encouraging, a careful examination of the other five IU recruits in the top ten provides a cautionary tale.

As an interesting side note, McCulley is Gunn’s teammate on the Lawrence North basketball team.

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