Indiana Basketball: Impact of Hoosiers landing 5-star forward Mackenzie Mgbako

How the other three programs handle not landing Mackenzie Mgbako

While it wasn’t the longest recruitment in the world, the three programs that weren’t able to land the five-star forward did suffer a bit of a setback. However, all three are still in good shape.

Kansas Jayhawks

The Big 12 program was hoping to use the momentum from the Hunter Dickinson victory to land another frontcourt star. And after losing both Zuby Ejiofor and Ernest Udeh, the Jayhawks have just the Michigan transfer and KJ Adams inside. And assuming that wing Kevin McCullar doesn’t come back, they’ll have to either look for another forward or just start Towson transfer Nicolas Timberlake at the 3-spot, along with Texas transfer Arterio Morris and Dajuan Harris in the backcourt.

Louisville Cardinals

Assistant Coach Nolan Smith was part of the coaching staff that landed Mgbako at Duke so the hope was that they could pull him over to Louisville. That didn’t work out but the team was able to land Tre White, a 6’7 wing transfer from USC that can start for the program right away. And they still have a pair of top-30 incoming commits in 6’8 guard/wing Trentyn Flowers and big man Dennis Evans.

St. John’s Red Storm

Coach Rick Pitino has been looking for that big splash this offseason and actually found it on the same day, landing 23 ppg scoring transfer guard, Jordan Dingle, from Penn. But the Red Storm was a team that could’ve allowed Mgbako to play at the four-spot, a position of need for them. But after landing Oregon State transfer Glenn Taylor at the wing spot, they’ll be okay going forward.