IU Talking Points: On Liam McNeeley's decision, Rod Carey's style, preseason hoops ballots
BLOOMINGTON – Indiana eyes will turn west this weekend, to Las Vegas, where five-star wing Liam McNeeley plans to announce his college commitment.
Barring an unforeseen turn, McNeeley will pick either IU or Kansas on Sunday. His decision is expected to be broadcast on an ESPN network.
Indiana’s pursuit of the sharpshooting wing from Texas — a player some analysts believe is even better than his top-20 ranking in 2024 — dates back two years. He’s been a priority for Mike Woodson and his staff in the current senior class, the Hoosiers putting in hard yards both on McNeeley’s visits to Bloomington and in myriad trips to Montverde Academy in Florida.
That diligence could pay off with yet another five-star commitment, this one potentially launching one of the nation’s best recruiting classes in this cycle. Five-star prospects Boogie Fland, a skilled guard from New York, and Derik Queen, a talented forward and McNeeley’s Montverde teammate, are also strongly considering the Hoosiers.
It appears Woodson’s first chance to get off the mark in ’24, though, will be McNeeley, who has visited Bloomington multiple times. Woodson responded in kind with a flurry of visits by staff to Montverde Academy this fall, including a recent swing in which he and his assistants flew to New York to visit Fland, then Florida to visit McNeeley and Queen, on the same day.
Woodson also made one last trip to visit McNeeley this week.
Will that all-out push land the Hoosiers another recruit with NBA potential to add to a collection that includes Jalen Hood-Schifino, Mackenzie Mgbako and possibly others?
McNeeley and his camp have stayed tight-lipped about their intentions, as one-time contenders like Michigan, Alabama, Oklahoma and in-state Texas have fallen away. Conventional wisdom says this, like Mgbako’s decision in the spring, has shaped into an Indiana-Kansas battle, and the Hoosiers might just enjoy an edge.
Beating Kansas coach Bill Self to the punch twice in one year might feel good for fans. Woodson will be worried about what McNeeley adds to his team.
“What stands out first is just his overall skill level and the toughness with which he plays,” said 247Sports national basketball director Eric Bossi. “He’s a very good perimeter jump shooter, so he can stretch the floor and make 3s. He’s a thinking man’s player who’s got an edge to him. And maybe most of all, the guy knows how to win and, after a couple years at Montverde, he knows how to play with other talented players.”
McNeeley has the capacity to be both accurate and prolific from behind the 3-point line. But to Bossi’s point about the 2024 prospect’s experience at Montverde, McNeeley is also a good and willing passer.
“That’s where I think the experience at Montverde is so huge for him,” Bossi said. “He’s playing there on a front line with Derik Queen and Asa Newell, who are also five-star players, also potential NBA players. He’s used to sharing the sugar.”
Woodson will hope McNeeley’s sharing it in Bloomington this time next year, and that the process begins with some good news for the Hoosiers on Sunday.
Mike Katic on Rod Carey
While most of IU’s offense spent the bye week getting to know Rod Carey, the Hoosiers’ new coordinator, there were a few rooms where introductions weren’t necessary.
Carey’s spent most of this season working as an offensive analyst with Indiana’s quarterbacks. But the position group that knows him best is the one he coached for roughly half of last season, when Carey took over as interim offensive line coach.
“He’s a guy that requires a lot of energy and effort during practice,” starting guard and captain Mike Katic said. “I think we’ve done a good job doing that so far, just finishing plays, finishing drives. We’ve started to finish drives with a touchdown, to celebrate, bring energy. That’s something new he’s brought. It’s been good so far. It’s a lot of the same things the o-line saw last year.”
An offensive lineman by trade, Carey also coached the position at various stops before becoming offensive coordinator and then head coach at Northern Illinois.
He spent much of last season bringing an offensive mind to defensive meetings before Tom Allen dismissed Darren Hiller and replaced him briefly with Carey. At that time, Carey said many of the same things he has now — there are no miracles or shortcuts in coaching, and a lot of the best work he can do as IU’s offensive coordinator will be along the finer margins at least until season’s end.
“His biggest job is to not, he says, reinvent the wheel,” Katic said. “He wants to find things we’ve succeeded at, and things we’ve not, and do his best using his experience and his coaching to fix those areas, or harp on those areas. That’s what I’ve seen so far.”
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Carey, Katic said, isn’t afraid to push his players physically. But he marries that to a style Katic describes as both positive and full of energy, giving as much as he asks.
And, according to one of the Hoosiers who knows him best, Carey isn’t afraid to lighten the mood — and the load — when he sees fit. That’s what happened last year, when Carey introduced his linemen to what he called a “star drill.”
“He understood how hard we worked, and every once in a while, he would let us (relax),” Katic said. “He called it the star drill, where we just laid on our backs for like five minutes.
“That wasn’t all the time. That was like, every once in a while, he rewarded us with the star drill.”
Like his coaches, Katic was guarded about specific adjustments Carey might bring to Indiana’s offense. Consistency in performance, Katic said, will be key.
“An offensive line guy coming into the OC spot, some may think a lot of run plays, but it’s not really like that,” Katic said. “It’s kind of just all the same. We’ve just got to do our job of executing it and just trusting him and doing everything we can to put ourselves in the best spots.”
Breaking down Big Ten basketball preseason ballots
In case you missed it, Indiana was pegged sixth in the Big Ten in an annual poll of reporters across the conference. Purdue was picked to become the league’s first repeat champion, other than Michigan State, since Thad Matta’s Ohio State won at least a share of three straight regular-season titles between 2010-12.
From IU’s perspective, there were a few relevant and interesting details in the ballot data that didn’t make our Monday story, so let's explore them here. Reminder — two members of each Big Ten beat contribute to this poll, for a total of 28 votes.
∎ Consensus on Indiana: There are always tiers to these things, sets of teams we feel confident we can put into a bucket somewhere between 1-14. For example, every voter had Michigan State and Purdue either first or second.
That’s not always the case. Ohio State, for example, got four votes to finish in the top four, and three (including mine) to finish 10th or worse.
Indiana enjoys some general agreement. Of the 28 voters, 11 slotted the Hoosiers into sixth, and nine into seventh. IU’s average position across all 28 ballots: sixth. And for good measure, the Hoosiers’ median position? Sixth or seventh.
Others in the conference look like wild cards, but the media has a measure of confidence in Indiana’s position. Why? Probably the same few reasons — recognition of talent, meaningful experience, past performance, yet also lost production, doubts over shooting and the need for a handful of key contributors to prove themselves.
∎ Ceiling and floor: Three voters picked IU fourth, and two slotted the Hoosiers fifth. Two had them eighth, and one ninth. Slightly more voters were bullish on the Hoosiers punching above the polling average than in the other direction.
∎ Accolades: Mackenzie Mgbako emerges as the favorite for Freshman of the Year, receiving 19 of 28 possible votes. No other newcomer got more than five.
Beyond that, representation was scarce. Kel’el Ware got two votes for Transfer of the Year, a category Penn State’s Ace Baldwin took with half of votes. Ware (one vote) and Mgbako (four votes) each appeared among others receiving in All-Big Ten discussions. Xavier Johnson, who made my second team, also received four votes.
For reference, Illinois’ Coleman Hawkins was the last player to make the second-team cut, with eight votes, so both Johnson and Mgbako were in the neighborhood but still comfortably behind several others for a second-team nod.
All of which jibes with a general outlook that the Hoosiers have reasons for optimism but also plenty to prove.
Trivia
What future hall-of-famer and Harlem Globetrotter nearly attended Indiana to play basketball, before eventually winding up at Creighton?
Odds & Ends
∎ Cam Camper appears in line to play at Michigan on Saturday, after returning to practice this week. Camper was listed as a starter but received no targets in the loss to Maryland, and if he was on the field at all, his appearance was brief.
∎ Ware sat out Indiana’s annual NBA pro day last week, dealing with a shoulder injury he’d sustained in a recent scrimmage. Ware returned to practice soon after, in a non-contact capacity.
∎ Woodson said Kaleb Banks (groin) and Anthony Walker (ankle) have both been limited by injuries. Banks remains limited, but Walker recently restarted noncontact practice activity.
∎ Asked about potential scheduling formats or concerns ahead of next year’s additions from the Pac-12, Woodson said he’d support whatever model the Big Ten adopts. The conference is still trying to determine a scheduling model once it balloons to 18 teams, balancing competitive and geographic concerns, travel chiefly among them. Woodson said he welcomes the competition USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will bring the league, and that he’s not worried about the impact of that format.
∎ Indiana’s homecoming football game against Rutgers will kick off at noon, Oct. 21.
∎ Justin Fuente, the former Memphis and Virginia Tech head coach who will take Rod Carey’s place as an analyst on Indiana’s staff, will work on offense. Carey had spent this season working on that side of the ball — mostly with quarterbacks — after working on defense for much of 2022 (not counting his stint as interim offensive line coach). A quarterback in college, Fuente’s background before becoming a head coach was largely offensive.
∎ Woodson will never be anything if not quotable. When asked by Tyler Tachman, recently of this parish, if he’d tried Malik Reneau’s signature burger at Bloomington brewpub Big Woods, Woodson responded, “He has his own burger? What the hell? He shouldn’t be eating burgers. Is it a veggie burger or something?” When Tyler replied that it was a normal burger, with bacon included, Woodson playfully added, “Oh, so you’re telling on him.”
Answer
Bob Gibson, the great Cardinals pitcher, starred in both sports at Omaha (Neb.) Technical High School. According to the most common telling, Gibson wanted to attend IU on a basketball scholarship, only to be told the school had already filled its quota for Black athletes, due to prejudiced admissions policies of the time.
Gibson instead stayed home, becoming an All-American at Creighton and spending a brief spell with the Globetrotters, before he signed with St. Louis and embarked upon his legendary baseball career.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball awaits Liam McNeeley commitment decision Sunday
