After being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, it appeared D.J. White was destined for the NBA Lottery. The only question was when.
But after being plagued by injuries the past two seasons, White's draft stock took a plunge. To the point where ESPN's Chad Ford has White ranked No. 77 in his Top 100 NBA Draft prospects for 2008. To add insult to injury, White is ranked right behind Serbia's Bovan Marjanovic. No offense to Bovan, but...seriously? (As a bonus, Eric Gordon is ranked No. 4)
All of this could change though, if White keeps up the way he was playing this past week at the Pan-Am tryouts. White has made the final roster of 12, and some scouts have been praising him as the best player on the team.
Yahoo.com's Adrian Wojnarowski quoted an anonymous NBA scout yesterday on White:
"For the first time in a long time, he looks healthy with a bounce to him. I don't think what we had seen in the past couple years was the real him. He's running well, in shape, and hopefully the foot trouble is behind him. Up to this point, he's been a good college player, but if he stays healthy he'll be one of the best bigs in the country. I wish he would play above the rim and rebound above the rim, but hey, a lot of guys in our league don't do that."
* The Hoosiers were one of several teams to lose out on 2008 recruit Michael Dunigan, with his commitment to Oregon. The Chicago native said Oregon was "the only school that followed my rules. I didn't want to be bugged every minute by every coach. They were the only school I felt that didn't pressure me." I can't tell, but it sounds like Dunigan just broke up with Kelvin Sampson.
* With Ronny Thompson resigning from Ball State, several coaches with IU connections have come up as possible candidates. The most prominent of the names being IU assistant coach Ray McCallum. McCallum has strong ties to the program, being a graduate and a former head coach from 1993-2000. During his tenure in Muncie, McCallum brought the Cardinals to the NCAA Tournament twice and recorded an overall record of 126-76. McCallum also holds the key to 5-10 Bloomington North sophomore Ray McCallum Jr. In May, Little McCallum said he hopes to play wherever his dad is coaching.
