Does Indiana Have a Shot to Land CJ Gunn or Isaac McKneely?

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In the next week, Indiana will have two recruits in the class of 2022 make their decisions on where they're playing college basketball.

First up is Isaac McKneely, who will be committing on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 2 p.m. ET.

McKneely is a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who attends Poca High School in West Virginia.

His top eight schools consist of Indiana, Kentucky, Purdue, Illinois, West Virginia, Louisville, Virginia and North Carolina.

Everything seems to be pointing to McKneely staying home and choosing either Virginia or West Virginia. It should be noted that McKneely included North Carolina and Kentucky as finalists despite not having an offer from either.

Rob Cassidy, a basketball recruiting national analyst, wrote, "When four-star combo guard Isaac McKneely announces his commitment on Jan 30, Virginia and West Virginia seem to be the most likely landing spots. In the end, however, it appears as though the combination of academic prestige and basketball tradition offered by the Cavaliers may be too much for legendary coach Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers to topple in this case."

It doesn't seem likely that Indiana will land McKneely.

The second Indiana target that is committing next week is CJ Gunn, who will be officially committing on Feb. 7.

Gunn has been on Indiana's radar since last summer. Archie Miller and Tom Ostrom are the two who have been heavily involved in Gunn's recruitment.

Gunn plays for Lawrence North on the northeast side of Indianapolis. So far this season, Gunn is averaging 14.5 points per game as the Wildcats are ranked as the No. 1 team in the state.

The four-star recruit is currently ranked No. 101 nationally by the 247Sports Composite and is the No. 11 shooting guard.

The other high majors heavily involved in Gunn’s recruitment are Kansas State, Xavier, Cincinnati and Missouri.

Like for McKneely, Cassidy broke down Gunn's recruitment as well. He wrote, "I like the in-state Hoosiers here. A number of high-major programs have been linked to Gunn, but it seems as though the communication between the well-rounded prospect and most programs cooled as Indiana began to look like his likely landing spot."

Cassidy continued, "that’s not to say this is a lock, however, as there’s no such thing as a lock in recruiting. Cincinnati, Kansas State, Missouri and Xavier were all involved with Gunn to some extent not long ago, so who knows if the immediate future holds a late push. Still, I like Archie Miller and staff to keep the in-state star home."

This is no surprise either, as Miller has done a solid job in recruiting the state of Indiana since arriving in Bloomington.

The Indiana players Miller has brought to Bloomington so far have been Romeo Langford, Rob Phinisee, Damezi Anderson, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Armaan Franklin, Joey Brunk (transfer), Anthony Leal, Trey Galloway and Khristian Lander.

However, Miller currently has no players from the state in the Hoosiers' class of 2021. In the 2021 class, Indiana missed out on players like Blake Wesley (Notre Dame), Caleb Furst (Purdue) and Trey Kaufman (Purdue).

Logan Duncomb from Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio is the lone commit in the class of 2021 so far.

As for the class of 2022, Indiana has zero commitments so far, but that could likely change in the next week with Gunn being more likely to commit to the Hoosiers than McKneely.

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