I spoke with Adam Zagoria on the phone this morning about the Devin Ebanks situation. Although he revealed all he knows in his blog post Monday, he gave his insight on the situation, both with Ebanks and IU recruitment in general.
After speaking with Ebanks' prep coach and AAU coach on Monday, Zagoria said he gets the feeling that Ebanks is "just sort of uncertain and ambivalent" about the situation at IU, not knowing who the Hoosiers' future coach will be. When Ebanks visits Indianapolis this weekend for the Big Ten Tournament, the five-star recruit is expected to ask for permission to open up his options.
"He's going to ask (IU athletic department officials), it sounds like, to be let out of his letter (of intent), so he can look at other schools," Zagoria said.
Those schools are likely Texas and Rutgers, both among Ebanks' finalists last go-around with recruitment, as well as Memphis, a team new to the recruiting picture.
"I think (St. Thomas More coach Jere Quinn) definitely indicated that Ebanks wants to look around and explore his options," Zagoria said. "He wouldn't be asking to go visit these other schools if he wasn't considering them...he wants to see what these other programs have to say."
Zagoria said he is unsure how many schools Ebanks can visit in the next couple weeks, but he likely will be watching Texas, Memphis and IU when they take the court in the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers, meanwhile, did not even qualify for the Big East Tournament, yet it is closer to Ebanks' home. If he were to choose the Scarlet Knights, Ebanks would join a recruiting class led by Mike Rosario, a McDonald's All-American from the legendary Saint Anthony High School in New Jersey.
As a writer based out of New Jersey, Zagoria said he is not an expert on IU basketball, but "as an observer," he said that it does not help a school's recruiting when a coach is removed for repeated recruiting violations.
"On the surface, it's obviously not good," Zagoria said. "That being said, Indiana is Indiana. I'm sure they'll persevere in the long-run; the question is how it will hurt them in the short term."
