James Blackmon Jr. De-Commits from Indiana: Everybody Panic

Well, this sucks. James Blackmon Jr. has reopened his recruitment. It isn't necessarily a complete disaster, and the title of this article is over the top and ridiculous. However, that's just how fans react a lot of times in these situations. The chances that Blackmon returns to Indiana isn't all that high if we look at history. I believe back at the Trey Lyles commit I tried to look back and found about 20-30% of de-commits find their way back to their original team.

Several recruiting gurus have had the chance to talk to the Sloppy Janitor at this point and they all maintain that Indiana is still a player in the recruitment. Jeff Rabjohns, Zach Osterman, Dave Telep and Justin Albers have all spoken to Blackmon and he insists that Indiana remains heavily in the picture. This is just a move to be 100% certain. Of course, we all were hoping that he was 100% for the last three years of his commitment. Either way, it's open and the game is back on.

Expect Tom Crean and Indiana to continue to pursue Blackmon quite heavily. This doesn't feel like a Trey Lyle situation where other "factors" appeared to be involved. Blackmon has stated on Twitter, "I never said I wouldn't end up at IU. I still love Indiana." So I guess we can hold out some hope. We have about three months until the early signing period, so we'll probably know a lot very quickly. Until then it's just a watching and waiting game while Tom Crean and Kenny Johnson put on the full court press to get him back. I honestly have no clue what to expect.