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The Indiana Hoosiers likely thought they had landed one of the most celebrated high school recruits in basketball when Montverde Academy stalwart Liam McNeeley committed to the school. But that's a thing of the past now, and the college basketball world is not letting Indiana hear the end of it.
McNeeley has reportedly requested the school to be released from his NLI(National Letter of intent) agreement to reopen his recruitment, to the shock of college hoops fans.
Liam McNeeley, a 6-foot-7 forward out of Plano, TX, is a consensus five-star recruit who also played AAU ball with the Florida Rebels this year. He's the no. 14 prospect in the nation this year (via On3), the sixth-best small forward, and the third-best player in the state of Florida.
On3's Joe Tipton shared the news on X, and fans had a field day. Chris Beasmore of ABC 36 News even went as far as tweeting this in reply, referring to the Hoosiers' recent recruitment struggles:
A few other replies to Beasmore's tweets look to be Indiana fans themselves, who acknowledge that the Hoosiers' struggles have been going on for a long time:
Going back to the original tweet, Beasmore also posted about how Indiana has notably missed out on a few other highly recruited high school prospects in the past:
He most notably mentioned other highly recruited youngsters like Boogie Fland (four-star) and Derik Queen (five-star), who was also on the Hoosiers' radar in the past. However, Fland has already signed with Kentucky, and Queen went for his hometown Maryland late in February (via ESPN).
With Liam McNeeley now looking for a new program to boost, a lot of fans actually agreed that he'd be better off elsewhere than taking his talents to Bloomington.
Here are a few users giving their two cents on McNeeley's potential destination:
Liam McNeeley's high school stats
Liam McNeeley's numbers while playing at Montverde might not look too impressive, but many believe his upside is what's getting college hoops scouts excited.
Named a high school All-American, McNeeley started his career at Montverde averaging 13.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per contest in the NIBC (National Interscholastic Basketball Conference). Aside from that, though, there seems to be no other accessible stats for the rest of his stint anywhere.
Here's a highlight compilation of him instead, showing off his offensive skill in a 30-point performance at the MAIT (Montverde Academy Invitational Tournament) championship game:
