Kyrie Irving eliminates Indiana.

While there have been mixed reports emerging today, it now appears that New Jersey guard Kyrie Irving, long the top target of Tom Crean and his staff, has eliminated IU from his short list.  Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog reports that Irving's uncle made this disclosure.  For most of the summer, it has appeared that IU led for Irving, but things have changed quickly.  This does seem to explain IU's sudden involvement with Josh Selby, a five star recruit from Baltimore, as mentioned in this morning's headlines post.

Tom Crean is an excellent recruiter, but this illustrates the trouble with trying to recruit after a 6-25 season.  It's tough for a player like Irving, who may well jump to the NBA after a single year, to know whether IU has a chance to contend in 2010-11.  The most important step toward top-notch recruiting would be a much better 2009-10 season.