Indiana

Indiana football raids Ohio for latest wave of verbal commitments

Published

1 year ago

July 10, 2024

Indiana football raids Ohio for latest wave of verbal commitments

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football landed three verbal commitments for its 2025 signing class from the state of Ohio over a 36-hour span

It started with Winton Woods defensive back Seaonta Stewart picking the Hoosiers on Monday afternoon.

Princeton linebacker Paul Nelson and Findlay offensive lineman Baylor Wilkin followed suit on Tuesday. They announced their commitments within minutes of each other to give IU 21 verbal commitments in the class.

Stewart, who also took official visits to West Virginia and Purdue, was the highest ranked player of the bunch. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound defender is the fourth member of the class ranked among the top 750 players in the country (No. 686) per 247 Sports composite rankings.

According to 247 Sports, the three-star recruit had 19 scholarship offers including ones from Oklahoma, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan State, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

It continues a trend of IU’s staff focusing on bulking up the team’s secondary. While Stewart has positional flexibility — he’s listed on recruiting services as an athlete — he’s the fifth defensive back in the class.

More: Ranking Indiana football’s 2024 schedule from easiest opponents to toughest: Part 1

Nelson had verbally committed to Cincinnati in June, but that decision came before he took an official visit to Bloomington. The defender attended Princeton High School that’s located less than 20 miles from the Bearcats’ campus in downtown Cincinnati.

The three-star defender had 16 scholarship offers including ones from Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Michigan State. He was the No. 1,140 nationally ranked recruit and No. 113 linebacker in the 2025 class.

Wilkin was a three-star interior offensive lineman with a list of scholarship offers that got a lot longer in June. The Hoosiers offered him along with Cincinnati, Miami (OH), Western Kentucky and Navy over a span of 10 days.

More: Ranking Indiana football’s 2024 schedule from easiest opponents to toughest: Part 2

All three players fall within the region new Indiana coach Curt Cignetti laid out when he took the job. The Hoosiers has as many verbal commitments from Ohio (four) as in-state prospects.

“I think most teams across the country, the plan is about the same,” Cignetti said, back in December. “You’ve got to do a great job in your state and the border states, 4 1/2, 5-hour radius.”

Indiana has 12 commitments within a five-hour drive from Bloomington that includes two recruits from Tennessee, two from Illinois and one from Missouri, but the new staff has promised to venture out as far as necessary to land the right mix of talent.

“Wherever they are, we’ll find them,” Cignetti said. “If we think they’re a good fit and a good match, then we’ll get them on campus.”

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.

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Indiana

Freshmen from Indiana show potential in UConn-Butler game: ‘Heck of a player’

Published

8 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Freshmen from Indiana show potential in UConn-Butler game: ‘Heck of a player’

Former UConn forward, NBC Sports broadcaster Donny Marshall knows a thing or two about talented UConn guards.

The former Husky played for legendary coach Jim Calhoun and was teammates with the fifth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, 10-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen. Watching UConn play against Butler on Tuesday night, Marshall said he sees a lot of Allen in reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins.

Mullins made the second start of his career against the Bulldogs. The former Greenfield-Central star missed UConn’s first six games of the regular season with an injury, but the 6-foot-6 guard is quickly coming into his own and showing why he’s a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Against Butler, Mullins showed off his sweet jump shot, going 2 for 5 from 3-point range. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.

“He’s a scorer,” Butler coach Thad Matta said of Mullins. “He’s got a scorer’s mentality. He gets his shot off quick. They move him around and create some angles for him. Obviously, he’s a heck of a player.”

Mullins did most of his damage in the first half, scoring eight of his 12 points before halftime. The former five-star recruit was the highest-ranked player in UConn’s 2025 class. Butler’s top-ranked recruit, Azavier “Stink” Robinson isn’t the NBA prospect Mullins is, but he held his own after a shaky start to the game.

Robinson has been thrust into the starting lineup with starter Jalen Jackson out for the season with an ankle injury. Robinson looked out of sorts at times in the first half, going scoreless with two assists and a turnover. In the second half, Matta moved him off the ball, giving him catch-and-shoot looks, and opportunities to drive to the basket without worrying about running the offense.

The former Lawrence North star responded with one of the better halves of his career, scoring 10 points on 3 for 6 shooting, including 2 for 5 from 3 to go along with two rebounds, one assist, one steal and one turnover.

Facing a veteran team like UConn, nothing comes easy. UConn’s guards harass ball handlers and getting into an offensive set is not easy. This time last year, Robinson was still in high school and, on most nights, the most athletic player on the court. Playing a UConn team where the goal is a national championship, Robinson was forced to grow, and he did not back down from the challenge in the second half.

“He’s coming along,” Matta said of Robinson. “That’s the first Big East road game of his career against maybe the best team in the country. It tells you how tough he is. He’s resilient. He keeps going.”

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Indiana

Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

Published

20 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

Curt Cignetti has been named The Associated Press coach of the year in college football for the second consecutive season. He is the first coach to win the award back-to-back since it was first presented in 1998. Cignetti has led Indiana to unprecedented success, with a 24-2 record over two seasons. The Hoosiers are 13-0 this year, Big Ten champions for the first time since 1967, and the top seed in the College Football Playoff. Cignetti received 47 first-place votes. Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea received two each, and Virginia’s Tony Elliott got one.

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Central Indiana schools announce closures, delays planned for Tuesday

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Central Indiana schools announce closures, delays planned for Tuesday

INDIANAPOLIS — Some schools in central Indiana are planning to close or delay the start of their classes on Tuesday.

The closures and delays come in the wake of a difficult weekend of severe winter weather in the Hoosier State. On Saturday, a wintry system dumped more than six inches of snow in some portions of the state.

Points north of Indianapolis like Lafayette received between three and four inches of snow. Towns south of the Circle City like Seymour saw similar snowfall totals. As for Indianapolis itself, more than five inches of snow were recorded in some portions of the city.

After Saturday’s snow, frigid temperatures took hold in the area. A Cold Weather Advisory was issued for much of the state as wind chill values dipped well below zero.

The cold and snow triggered a bevy of school closings and delays for Monday. Schools began to announce delays and closures for Tuesday late Monday night as snow removal crews across the state continued to try to keep roadways clear.

Though some schools plan to close or delay the start of classes on Tuesday, temperature improvements are forecasted. High temperatures are anticipated to exceed the 32-degree freezing threshold and hit 36 degrees. The warming trend is expected to continue on both Wednesday and Thursday, with high temperatures forecasted to reach 40 and 50 degrees, respectively.

Precipitation is forecasted for Thursday, though temperatures are expected to remain warm enough for Indiana to get rain instead of snow.

FOX59/CBS4 is tracking the closures and delays schools plan to implement on Tuesday. Check out the latest available list of closings below:

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