Indiana Basketball 2014 Recruiting Update and Rankings

As we are steaming towards the first day of practice tomorrow there are a few updates to mention about the future of Indiana basketball. After landing Robert Johnson last week the Hoosiers have narrowed their focus to finish of their class of 2-3 players. One of those players made his decision this morning and it did not fall the Hoosiers direction this time.

Indiana has been tracking LouRawls "Tum Tum" Nairns for going on two years now, but only recently started to heavily recruit him with the de-commitment of James Blackmon Jr.. Tum Tum decided this morning just a few minutes ago that he was electing to play at Michigan State with Tom Izzo over Indiana, Minnesota and Oklahoma. The Bahamas native took an official visit this past weekend and Indiana was considered to be in his top two with Michigan State before this morning. Unfortunately for Indiana, Izzo just had a lot more to offer at this point in the program.

Nairns is a short but explosive PG who can now go to Michigan State and start for four years as a replacement for senior Keith Appling. Indiana on the other hand was offering a few years in a back-up role to Yogi Ferrell before getting the full duties of a starting PG. It just made a lot more sense for Tum Tum to head to East Lansing.

Indiana now moves on to continue pursuing the few guys on their list left. Ahmad Hill, Devin Robinson and Robert Johnson will all be in town for the 2014 class. It will be a big weekend next week as Johnson tries to convince 5* Robinson and top 75 guard Hill to join him in Bloomington in 2014. Couple those two guys with James Blackmon Jr. and Goodluck Okonoboh and that about rounds out your list of hot targets left on IU's radar for that final one or two scholarships in 2014.

To add to the topic of lists, ESPN released their first update of their top 100 for the class of 2014 since the start of June. Robert Johnson makes his debut on the list at 44th overall. Up from being unranked going into the update. 247 Sports hasn't updated their composite rankings that take in account all the major recruiting sites, but expect Johnson to go from a composite #79 to somewhere around #50.

Other targets on the list headed up by Paul Biancardi are Blackmon at #19, Okonoboh at #21, Devin Robinson at #28, Ahmed Hill at #51 and the recent miss of Nairns at #72. Indiana is in good shape with all of those prospects, but Okonoboh and Robinson are the most likely additions. So don't freak out on the 2014 class. We went from no commits to potentially 3 top 50 in the span of a few weeks.

Going forward, the Indiana staff will shift their focus from the recruiting trail to the current product on the floor as practice starts up tomorrow. With the new early start date many schools are shifting around their respective versions of Hoosier Hysteria. IU's will continue to be the first week of October as fans come to town on October 4 to get their first look at the 2013 squad together in uniform.