Recruiting 2015: Who are Indiana's Post Options?

What is supposed to be a light class for the Indiana Hoosiers still feels to be shrouded in some mystery as we hit the second recruiting period of July. Tom Crean and company as of right now only have 1 open scholarship to give for the 2015 season, but as always we shouldn't be surprised to see more open up due to injury or transfer. Heck, 2014's class was supposed to be a small supplemental class of 2-3 and it ended up being 6. So, you never really know.

Right now though, the Hoosiers appear to be very patient on taking on too many players. Instead, like in previous years where the net was thrown far and wide (like what's being done in 2016), the 2015 class is much more focused and concentrated. I would say if both Indiana and a recruit were being honest, there are only about 10 guys currently on the radar that appear to be sure fire targets that are also interested in Indiana.

Of course, Indiana's biggest need is a guy that can play in the post. Connecticut showed us this year that you don't need a dominant post player to win it all. After all they didn't score a single bucket in the post in their championship game. However, you do have to have a guy that can battle down low and defend the rim. Our biggest hope in that is Hanner Perea, but with his current lack in consistency he's going to need help. Even as a senior.

There are 4 guys in particular that Indiana has looked at closely throughout the last year or so. However, of those four there are probably only two that will actually have a shot of ending up in Bloomington. Crean and company have been recruiting Top 10 ranked Stephen Zimmerman out of Las Vegas, and there appeared to be some mutual interest there for awhile but things have died down. It will be damn near impossible to get Zimmerman off the west coast and maybe even out of Las Vegas. UNLV is firmly in the drivers seat and Arizona is riding shotgun.

Crean has also been recruiting Fort Wayne big man and recently reclassified Caleb Swanigan. Swanigan has been on Indiana's campus a couple times over the years, but his legal guardian is former Purdue player and current basketball agent Roosevelt Barnes. So the home front probably doesn't look too favorably at Indiana on a personal level. Of course, professionally Barnes will help Swanigan make the decision that is best for him. If that means Indiana then it will be Indiana. However, lots of birdies up in Fort Wayne are chirping that he's pretty well a lock for Tom Izzo's Spartans. He's got the size and skill to be another Zach Randolph and I think he knows it. I'll be shocked if he ends up anywhere but Michigan State at this point.

Two post/power forward types that Indiana has made very good in-roads in with are Juwan Morgan of Waynesville, MO and Raymond Spalding out of Louisville. Morgan is more of a stretch four that does his best work out on the perimeter. He's very athletic and has a lot of spring in his step. Rated 106th nationally, he's a guy that has recently been on the rise. He made that jump to a 4 star recruit in their June iteration of the Rivals rankings and he's likely to go higher in the next update as he's continued to play great. He's stated he's definitely taking an official visit to Indiana in the next month or so and he's already taken an unofficial. Morgan would likely play more in the mold of a Troy Williams than a traditional power forward however, so he likely wouldn't be the complete answer to post defense depth.

However, Raymond Spalding would be. The 6-9 prospect out of Louisville would probably be classified more as a center than a power forward if you have seen him play. Yes, his size is a bit lacking for a college 5, but he's got the ability to be a big time college player. Indiana has been on Spalding since late 2013, early 2014. In that time they've seen him go from a top 100-ish front court player to top 70 and likely we'll see him vault to near top 50 in the final rankings. The guy is good. He defends the rim, rebounds and scores. Many think that it will be impossible to get him away from Louisville, but Indiana has by far made him an obvious priority and Louisville has treated him as option 2b throughout this summer. If the Hoosiers can get both him and Morgan into Indiana uniforms there will be nothing to fret about for the future of the program. We may not see much half court sets with traditional post offenses, but we'll be fast and unique. Certainly capable of throwing a curve ball at any opponent.