Bumper crop

Well. I guess that answers that question.

Remember when some folks were wondering if an NBA lifer like Mike Woodson could do something he'd never had to do, which is convince 18-year-olds to come play basketball for him?

That seems so child-like and silly now, like 5-year-olds asking if unicorns are real. I mean, now that Woodson has gone major yard with his first full recruiting class ...

This week he scored another major get when top-30 forward Malik Reneau committed to Indiana, joining top-25 high school teammate Jalen Hood-Schifino. That gives Woodson two 5-star recruits and vaults Indiana's recruiting class to No. 5 nationally, and also to No. 1 in the Big Ten.

Significantly, Reneau said it wasn't his high school bud who sold him on the Hoosiers. It was Woodson and his staff and the school and Indiana's players.

Which suggests Woodson is as good at this as the Blob suspected he would be, and maybe for the reason it suspected it. Can't say for sure if Woodson's NBA bonafides gave him a leg up on recruiting kids with legit NBA dreams. but it seems too much a coincidence that suddenly 5-stars want to come to B-town. 

Of course, it's likely more than just that. As an IU basketball legend, Woodson can sell IU buckets just by walking in a room. Today's 18-year-olds surely don't remember when Indiana buckets meant something -- those ancient banners in Assembly Hall are just really old laundry to them -- but Woodson is a tangible link to those days.

I played here when the program was great. You can play here when it's great again. You can MAKE it great again.

That sort of thing.

Now, of course, it's up to Woodson to knit the raw material into something fashionable. And what happens if Trayce Jackson-Davis tests the NBA draft waters and decides to come back, as he probably should if he's at all getting competent advice?

Then Mike Woodson will have another problem.

Namely, expectations will be through the roof. Because the Indiana fan base has never had a firm grasp on reality in such matters.

Oh, the torture that awaits Woodson. How wonderful it must feel.