Weekly Breakdown: Tracy Lands Offer, Rome Show, North Central Takes Hit
With the start of the high school season getting underway this week, we are going to switch our format on our Recruiting Roundup piece. During the season it isn’t as big in terms of commitments and offers so we are going to spend more time going in depth on a few topics with regards to recruiting but also the latest news from around the state.
Cardinal Ritter’s Miles Tracy Picks Up First Offer, Finally
The last week or so has only produced one offer and that was for Cardinal Ritter’s talented forward Miles Tracy. Really, this is a surprise that it took this long for him to get an offer. In a 2018 class that doesn’t have very many post options, he’s a really good one and should land a ton more before too long.
Because DIII programs can’t technically offer scholarships, they are allowed to offer “spots” on rosters but that can’t even really happen until the middle of December which puts us a few weeks out from that. When that does happen, Miles will be a big prospect for those level of schools because of his academics and talent level. More offers breed more offers and it could be a momentum thing with him. He now has one in the bag and the next one or two could be coming sooner or later.
The Romeo Langford Show
A ton of attention will be placed on Romeo Langford this year and rightfully so. He just got done putting up 48 points in his first game of the season and would need a lot more games like that to touch the All-Time Leading scorer status in his final season. Also, with the emergence of highlight videos and just his general stature nationally, his games being sellouts will bring back the days of old in Southern Indiana.
It will be hard to get a ticket to see him play but if you can, the environment should be top notch. It will be interesting these first couple of weeks to see of the New Albany team does as they were most undoubtedly a deeper team last year. As long as they keep winning, Romeo should be a big impact in every game. They have a tough couple weeks with games at Bloomington South, Evansville Harrison, at Floyd Central, and a neutral site against Fort Wayne North. That is brutal anyway you slice it.
Romeo needs a big pace of scoring to be able to have a shot and the next four games will determine a lot. Not only with how good New Albany will be but also how head coach Jim Shannon uses Romeo. Will he keep him in for blowouts or big losses? Will he defer to him even when teams sellout defensively to stop him? The next four games will be key to see how this will all go down.
North Central Loses Key Piece To Football, Injury
I think one of the more under-the-radar things that came out recently was that D.J. Johnson, the Uber-talented football talent for North Central, he will not be playing basketball this season. This is concerning because North Central is already a shell of what it had been the last couple of years and their depth of the program isn’t great. They are an older team but they just don’t have any depth and losing Johnson, who arguably could be their best basketball player, is massive.
They have some key pieces with Donald Lee and Tyriek Johnson but D.J. was such a good player and leader for them that I’m a little worried about how North Central will do this year. Was already worried before the news came out but thought with D.J. they could have enough shooters and toughness to have a shot in most games, even though they weren’t going to be favored. Now, it will be an even more interesting season. Hoping to see guys like Lee and Tyriek step up and really take control of this team and give them a shot this year.