Indiana Basketball Recruiting: Key 2024 prospects to focus on as early signing period passes

The early signing period has come and gone and for the Indiana basketball program, it was another year of low stress.

Indiana signed its lone commit in the 2024 class with five-star wing Liam McNeeley. McNeeley became the fourth five-star prospect to commit to Indiana under Mike Woodson. He is the second-highest prospect to commit to Indiana since 2018.

While there was no other movement during the last week, Indiana is still involved with a few key prospects that could be making decisions soon.

Who’s left on the recruiting board at the moment? Here’s a look at each prospect and what the latest is in their recruitments.

Let’s dive in.

Derik Queen (5-star; Center, Montverde Academy)

Everyone knows the name at this point. Indiana basketball has been heavily involved with 2024 five-star center Derik Queen but will have to continue to wait it out for a decision. The expectation over the last few months was that he would be making a decision during the early signing period. But, last week it was reported that Queen would be holding off and bypassing the early period.

The top four schools in the running for the center are Indiana, Maryland, Kansas and Houston. While it’s unknown if he will remain with just those four moving forward, those are the main programs at the moment. Inside of those four are clearly two tiers with Indiana and Maryland as the top two — in no specific order, with Kansas and Houston on the second line.

The clear connection for the Indiana basketball program is Queen’s high school teammate Liam McNeeley. McNeeley is best friends with Queen.

“We have a great relationship,” McNeeley told HoosierIllustrated of his relationship with Queen. “We’re brothers.”

Related: How much will landing Liam McNeeley help Indiana basketball in final pursuit of 5-star Derik Queen?

The way Indiana uses its big men is also an intriguing message — between the development of Trayce Jackson-Davis to the terrific start for Malik Reneau and Kel’el Ware this season.

Queen has made significant strides over the last year in his game. He has nearly been one of the most dominant big men across all of high school hoops. As a junior at Montverde, Queen averaged 11.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 61 percent from the field.

Queen’s pull to Maryland is the ‘hometown hero’ pitch. Queen is from the Baltimore area. When head coach Kevin Willard got the job last year, he made it known he wanted to keep DMV kids in the area.

Another pull for Maryland is the Under Armour tie. Maryland is an Under Armour school and Queen played his AAU career for Team Thrill on the Under Armour Circuit.

Queen is ranked No. 17 overall in the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

Daquan Davis (4-star; Point Guard, Overtime Elite)

Davis, while a newer name to some, has been someone on and off the Indiana basketball radar for quite some time. The reason for the new involvement, however, is his decommitment from Providence last month.

He committed to the Friars this summer over Maryland, Notre Dame and Mississippi State.

Davis is an interesting prospect and one where there still needs to be some time before seeing exactly how involved Indiana will be. But, immediately after he opened his recruitment, Indiana basketball was a team connected to him.

More: Indiana basketball a ‘team to watch’ for 2024 four-star guard after re-opening his recruitment

Davis played for Team Thrill and was teammates with Derik Queen in a few events this summer. He also has played for Team Takeover on the Nike EYBL circuit — a program that IU assistant Kenya Hunter has strong ties with.

Davis averaged 16.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game last season at St. John’s (DC). He was named the MaxPreps high school Player of the Year in Washington DC.

He was also a standout at the NBPA Top 100 camp this summer. He averaged 15.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game across seven games.

Alabama and Texas A&M are some of the other programs mentioned to be involved with Davis.

Indiana has a strong need for the point guard position — whether it’s through the transfer portal or high school class. IU will lose Xavier Johnson after this season and have just one point guard on the roster in Gabe Cupps. The Hoosiers missed out on five-star point guard Boogie Fland last month when he committed to Kentucky over Indiana.

Davis is ranked No. 110 in the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

Joson Sanon (5-star; Wing, Vermont Academy)

2025 five-star prospect Joson Sanon of Vermont Academy (Vt) is a new name on the radar for the Indiana basketball program. He received an offer from IU last month and immediately things have progressed. HoosierIllustrated.com reported Sanon is expected to visit Indiana in March for an official visit.

The reason why Sanon is listed here is the high likelihood he will reclass to 2024 and commit in the spring — also hence the visit date. Sanon was originally in the 2024 class and that will likely be the class he graduates with in a few months.

Most programs recruiting him are moving forward with that assumption.

Sanon played part of his summer with BABC on the AAU circuit and will be with them again next summer. He also played on Expressions Elite briefly on the Nike EYBL Circuit and emerged as one of the better players in his class. He averaged 14.6 points per game while shooting 40.8 percent from the field and 37.1 percent (36-of-97) from three during the regular season. He also added 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He had four 20+ point games.

At Peach Jam, Sanon averaged 15.2 points and shot 37 percent (12-of-32) from three in six games.

The 6-foot-5 wing has offers from Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, LSU, Oklahoma State, Providence and numerous others.

Sanon had four official visits already set when he received his offer from Indiana, including Oklahoma State Oct. 27-29, Arizona from Nov. 18-20, LSU from Nov. 24-26 and Kansas from Dec. 21-23.

There is a high degree of mutual interest between the two parties, here. At this moment, Sanon is definitely a name to keep an eye on moving into the spring.

Sanon is ranked No. 10 overall in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and the No. 2 small forward in the class.

SEE ALSO: ‘He is a Hoosier’: 2024 5-star wing Liam McNeeley officially signs with Indiana basketball

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