July is typically a month when rising high school seniors begin to narrow their recruitments, and we’re beginning to see that with some of IU basketball’s main targets.
If we had to name five 2025 prospects Indiana is clearly a top contender for we’d go with, in no particular order, Braylon Mullins, Jalen Haralson, Trent Sisley, Malachi Moreno and Bryson Tiller. All but Tiller have included Indiana in their top or final schools recently, and it seems clear IU is one of Tiller’s main schools as well. And all of them have taken or will take an official visit to Bloomington.
Beyond those five, things get a bit murky with IU’s 2025 targets.
And now in at least three cases the trend currently seems less than favorable.
We’ll start with the one that’s clear.
Class of 2025 4-star wing Davis Fogle announced a top three on Wednesday — Gonzaga, Kansas and Creighton. And he’s likely down to just one — Gonzaga. He took a visit there last month, and he has received predictions from national outlets to end up at Gonzaga, including by On3’s Joe Tipton.
Indiana offered Fogle late in the cycle just a few weeks ago and it appeared they might get a visit, but instead it looks like he’ll end up in Spokane.
5-star guard Meleek Thomas is a top-10 prospect in the rising senior class who has said for months he plans to get back to Indiana for a senior year official visit.
Thomas named a top-12 list last fall but hasn’t narrowed further. But Rivals national reporter Rob Cassidy did that this week, naming the four schools he thinks have the best shot to land the Pittsburgh native.
“Thomas is still considering a healthy handful of programs, but his options do not stand on level footing at this late stage in the process,” said Cassidy, who indicated Thomas will decide in the early fall.
Cassidy suggests UConn, Arkansas, Auburn and Pitt are most likely Thomas’ top-four, in that order. He recently took a visit to UConn.
Another national top-20 guard in the 2025 class, Michigan-based Trey McKenney announced this week five visits running from September through December: USC, Michigan State, Oregon, Notre Dame, and Creighton. He also says through Tipton he’s working on scheduling trips to Ohio State, Miami, and UCLA.
So where does that leave Indiana with McKenney? He told us in May IU is still one of his top schools. He’s already been to Bloomington multiple times, so this could just be a case of McKenney having a longer timeline that will run into 2025.
But if you’re an IU fan, you’d like to see McKenney schedule another trip to Indiana before you can have any comfort the Hoosiers are still a strong contender.
Speaking of needing to see a visit scheduled before you get your hopes up, the same probably holds true for Indiana’s other top prospects on the 2025 board, specifically Nate Ament, Mikel Brown, Kiyan Anthony and Darius Adams. They’ve all said positive things about IU in recent months, but the Hoosiers need to get them on campus for officials to be viewed as top contenders.
We’ll get a chance next week to see who Mike Woodson and his staff prioritize during the next live period. Stay tuned for developments with all of them.
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