#iubb Offseason Notes

8/28/2018 4:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Hoosiers will open the regular season on Tuesday, November 6 at home against Chicago State. This is the earliest starting date for the men's basketball team since IU opened up with Seton Hall in Indianapolis at the NABC Classic on November 7, 1998.

With the season opening up on the first Tuesday of November and the Big Ten Tournament ending March 17, the season is potentially 20 days longer than the 2017-18 campaign.

After playing six games with one day of preparation, including four in the Big Ten, IU will have only one game with one day of practice between games this season. IU hosts UT Arlington on November 20 after playing at Arkansas on November 18. IU was 3-3 in those six contests a year ago.

Senior All-Big Ten forward Juwan Morgan averaged 16.5 points last season and needs 170 points to become the 52nd player in school history to join the 1,000-point club. This would continue the streak of at least one player from every recruiting class since 2008 eclipsing the mark.

2008: Verdell Jones III
2009: Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford
2010: Victor Oladipo, Will Sheehey
2011: Cody Zeller
2012: Yogi Ferrell
2013: Troy Williams
2014: James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson

Morgan has started 50 career games, the most of any current Hoosier. His 56.4 percent field goal percentage is ranked 4^th all-time in school history.

Senior guard Zach McRoberts has started 23 career games at IU, including 17 last season. He shot a team-best 39.4 percent from 3-point range. Including his first year at Vermont, he is a career 37.1 percent shooter from long distance. He is in graduate school in the Kelley School of Business studying Business Analytics.

Junior center De'Ron Davis will look to come back from a torn achilles heel which caused him to miss the last 16 games of the season. He was averaging 9.6 points and 4.3 rebounds at the time of his injury and was shooting a Big Ten best 61.5 percent from the field when he got hurt. He has started 19 career games, including all 15 he played in last season.

Junior guard Devonte Green also has started 15 career games. He averaged 7.6 points and 2.5 assists last season. In his two seasons with the Hoosiers, he has made 37.3 percent of his 3-point field goal attempts. The Hoosiers were 5-1 in games last year when he shot 50 percent or better from the field.

Sophomore forward Justin Smith started nine games and led the IU freshman class averaging 6.5 points. He shot 55.0 percent from the field. In the last six games of the season, he shot 61.2 percent from the field making 30 of his last 49 field goal attempts. He averaged 12.2 points in those games.

Sophomore guard Aljami Durham started nine games and averaged 4.8 points. He averaged 18.8 minutes of playing time. He made all 10 of his free throws against Rutgers in the Big Ten Tournament had had 39 assists on the season.

Sophomore Clifton Moore contributed six blocked shots in 43 minutes of action last season.

Redshirt juniors Johnny Jager and Quentin Taylor return to the team as non-scholarship players. Redshirt sophomore Vijay Blackmon is another walk-on who is eligible to play after sitting out last season.

The Hoosiers will look for key contributions from a recruiting class which was ranked as high as seventh in the country, one graduate transfer and one redshirt freshman.

Redshirt freshman forward Race Thompson skipped his senior year of high school and spent last season as a redshirt for the Hoosiers. He was the 71st ranked recruit in the country at Armstrong High School in Plymouth, Minnesota, after averaging 19.6 points and 8.9 rebounds during his junior season. He benefits from having a full year in Coach Archie Miller's system and has added 10 pounds of muscle to his frame.

Graduate transfer Evan Fitzner joins the squad after playing three seasons at St. Mary's in California. The big man has a career shooting percentage of 41.4 percent from 3-point range and averaged 42 triples per season. He averaged 6.4 points and 3.7 rebounds and is taking graduate courses in the school of public health.

The five incoming freshmen scored a combined 9,941 points during their high school careers.

Freshman guard Romeo Langford was a McDonald's All-American and is the 27^th Mr. Basketball in Indiana to suit up for the Hoosiers. He scored 3,002 points in his career at New Albany High School, including 35.5 points per game as a senior. He was rated the fifth best recruit in the country by 247 and ESPN. He will be looking to be the first freshman to start on opening night for IU since Thomas Bryant in 2015.

Recent IU McDonald's All-Americans
2007: Eric Gordon
2011: Cody Zeller
2012: Yogi Ferrell
2013: Noah Vonleh
2014: James Blackmon, Jr.
2015: Thomas Bryant
2018: Romeo Langford

Freshman Jerome Hunter comes to IU from Pickerington North (Ohio) High School and was rated as high as 46th among members of the Class of 2018. First-team All-State selection he scored 1,314 points in his career and averaged 20.2 points and 10.2 rebounds. He was the Ohio Central District Co-Player of the Year.

Freshman forward Damezi Anderson was the 92nd ranked player in the country. The South Bend native set a St. Joseph County and South Bend record by scoring 2,210 points. He was an All-State pick after averaging 19.1 points as a senior. He is the first South Bend scholarship recruit since IU Hall of Famer Tom Abernethy came to Bloomington in the fall of 1972.

Freshman guard Rob Phinisee played at McCutcheon in Lafayette and was the 99^th ranked recruit in the country. He scored 2,023 points in his career for the Mavericks and earned multiple All-State accolades. As a senior, he averaged 29.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 3.7 steals. He is the first Lafayette native to earn a scholarship from IU since 1948. Played for the same AAU program (Indiana Elite) that produced Jordan Hulls, Cody Zeller and Yogi Ferrell.

Freshman forward Jake Forrester hails from Westtown High School in Pennsylvania and was the 127^th ranked recruit in the Class of 2018. He scored 1,392 career points and helped his team to a state title as a junior. Will get a chance to play against his former prep teammate Cam Reddish when the Hoosiers visit Duke for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. He played for the same AAU program (PSA Cardinals) as former Hoosier and current Washington Wizard Thomas Bryant.