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Of all the ways to measure Crean’s shortcomings in recruiting Indiana, the most striking is this: He didn’t land even one of the state’s last six Mr. Basketballs. While he started strong with Cody Zeller, by the end, Crean had whiffed on Zak Irving, Trey Lyles, Caleb Swanigan, Kyle Guy, Kris Wilkes, and, yes, Gary Harris.
To understand why Crean and the state couldn’t get along, IM spoke to three recruiting experts (and granted them anonymity). “Fans make judgments about recruiting when they almost never have enough information to do so,” says one analyst who covers the East Coast. “It’s always more complicated than it seems.” Still, some broad themes emerge.
Crean’s struggles had very little to do with Indiana’s high school coaches, mostly because those coaches no longer possess the power they did in Bob Knight’s day. An analyst who focuses on the Midwest points to the example of Park Tudor’s Trevon Bluiett, who was pursued by IU and others. A few hours before Bluiett announced his commitment to Xavier, his high school coach called the analyst and asked, “You know where he’s going?” The coach was still clueless that close to decision time.

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Article is a great primer for how much recruiting has changed in the past 20 years. Worth a read, even if it is Archie and IU centric.