New Albany's Romeo Langford chooses Indiana University. Clark Wade/IndyStar
It’s never too early to start on 2019 bracketology predictions, and so with that in mind, I’d like to pencil in the Indiana men for next year’s Final Four. I’ll see the Hoosiers in Minneapolis.
That’s what everyone is already doing, right? We love to think ahead in the sports world, and there’s nothing like an uber-talented teenager to get people’s brains working overtime.
Monday evening, with a few thousand people crowded into the New Albany High gymnasium in New Albany, Ind., and with 10,000 more watching via livestream, five-star guard Romeo Langford committed to play college basketball at Indiana for coach Archie Miller. Langford was the top unsigned player in the 2018 class, scoring 3,002 points in his high school career, fourth most of any player in the hoops-obsessed state. As a senior at New Albany, Langford averaged 35.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists and three steals per game.
Basketball is basically a religion in Indiana, hence Langford’s over-the-top commitment ceremony. First his high school coach Jim Shannon compared Langford to Oscar Robertson, while announcing that they’d retire his jersey. Then his family pastor got up to praise Langford's demeanor, at one point comparing him, from a character standpoint, to former president Abraham Lincoln (no word on who would win a one-on-one battle between the two towering figures). Then viewers were treated to an absurdly long video titled “Romeo Langford: A Once in a Generation Player.”
Basically, Indiana fans — many of whom packed into the gym Monday night to cheer his announcement — are going to expect Langford to be the second coming of LeBron James.
That is immense pressure to heap on the shoulders of an 18-year-old, even if he does stand 6-5 and 190 pounds.
It’s true that not that long ago, Indiana basketball belonged in the conversation with college hoops heavyweights like Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas. But the Hoosiers have faded rapidly the last couple decades, partly because they struggled to keep in-state talent. When Miller arrived in Bloomington a year ago, it was considered a significant rebuilding project.
Langford’s commit can help expedite that rebuild. Indiana now boasts the No. 9 recruiting class for 2018, according to 247sports.com. The Hoosiers will be a fringe Top 25 team with this influx of talent, and everyone will eagerly await Langford’s impact on Indiana, and college basketball as a whole.
It’s eerily similar to how everyone couldn’t wait to see what Michael Porter Jr. did at Missouri or what Markelle Fultz did at Washington. Like Langford, both were anointed saviors long before they arrived on campus. Everyone expected them to lead their respective teams to new heights. As it turned out, neither walked on water.
So for now, let’s hold off on assuming Langford will return Indiana to basketball glory. Give him some breathing room, at least. Yes, he has the one-and-done talent that we’ve become accustomed to watching for a single season, the type of play that can elevate a team, a university and a community. But he’s also still a kid who’s about to be put in a brand-new situation.
Very early March Madness predictions are very fun. And often, they turn out to be very wrong.
