IU basketball recruiting beginning to click on all cylinders: ‘I wanted to be able to sit at the table with the best players’

When Mike Woodson took the job as the head coach of the IU basketball program two years ago — his message was clear. He wanted to get Indiana back into the national conversation by competing for Big Ten and National Championships.

The only way to do that was to bring in high-level talent. Not just local, but from around the country.

The message has always been that Indiana has the best talent in the country — but recently, that hasn’t been the case. The previous staff did a good job of recruiting the state but failed to land top talent from outside of Indiana — or even the midwest — on a regular basis. That resulted in IU basketball failing to make an NCAA Tournament for six years.

So, when Woodson stepped back on campus on day one, it was about getting the best talent in the country — no matter where — to come to Bloomington.

“When I took the job, I made it clear to my coaches that we deserved to sit at the table with the best players,” Woodson told reporters on Wednesday. “We kind of squabbled a little bit early on because they didn’t think we were in that position to be able to do that.

“Well, back in the day, it was always that way.”

Last year saw four scholarship players from Indiana. The year before was five.

Next season will be quite different. There will only be two players from the state of Indiana on scholarship.

A main reason for that is because of what Woodson stressed — and knowing what he wanted for his roster.

“I thought we were based on Indiana basketball and the history of it,” Woodson said. “So, I didn’t accept no for an answer and I told ’em (my staff) that I wanted to be able to sit at the table with the best players and compete with the Kentucky’s, the Kansas’, the Duke’s, teams like that.”

While Woodson just wanted a seat at the table, he’s done more than just sit there.

In the last two years, Woodson has landed four five-star prospects either from high school or through the transfer portal. It resulted in having two McDonald’s All-American’s on the roster this upcoming season for the first time since 2016.

In addition to the two five-star commitments in the past two months, the IU basketball program has also seen a one-and-done five-star prospect move his way into a projected lottery-pick in the upcoming NBA Draft in Jalen Hood-Schifino. That is notable to recruits — and Woodson knows it.

“It’s done a lot, you know,” Woodson said on Hood-Schifino’s development. ” … Not to say he was a one-and-done, but he put himself in that position and was able to do a lot of nice things for our ball club and you know, our program benefited from it.”

A large reason for the (recent) uptick in the national relevancy for IU basketball in the recruiting world is because of Woodson and his NBA pedigree — yes. But, it’s the entire staff that he’s put together that has built their reputations on relationships and honesty — something hard to come by in today’s recruiting world.

“I got a wonderful staff and, you know, we are beating the phones down and when guys come available, we are trying to get in front of their parents and whoever’s their representative and we are doing all the necessary things to get ’em to campus and close the deal,” Woodson said. “And this has been a great, great summer for us in terms of recruiting and, again, I give a lot of credit to my staff and them getting me in front of the people that we’re trying to recruit, the player and we’re starting to pay off. It’s starting to pay off for us.”

And in recruiting, in order to get a yes, you’re going to get a lot of no’s. But, that’s okay and what’s needed in order to reach the next level as a program.

“All they (recruits) can do is tell us no, but we gotta get there and we’ve been able to get there some, so it’s kind of nice.”

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