From Start To Finish: Romeo Langford's Recruitment

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It was a long, winding road for Romeo Langford to end up at IU.

For context, TheHoosier.com has a look at all the twists and turns in the recruitment with a timeline from start to finish.

The Indianapolis Star already had a pulse on Langford as he wrapped up his freshman campaign. He averaged 17.6 points and 5.8 rebounds to help New Albany to a 23-3 overall record.

"If you follow high school basketball and aren't yet familiar with the name Romeo Langford, you will be soon," The Star's Kyle Neddenriep wrote.

Langford and New Albany fell 64-59 to Evansville Reitz in the Seymour Regional final.

IU and former head coach Tom Crean extended Langford an offer back in September 2015, as the guard began his sophomore year of high school.

That scholarship joined other early offers from Purdue and UCLA.

Leading his squad into semistate play, Langford awe'd with 46 points in an 82-64 win over Southport and four-star point guard Paul Scruggs, who was a class ahead of Langford.

Then, Langford finished with 28 points in a 62-59 win over McCutcheon - ironically defeating now fellow IU commit Rob Phinisee - to capture the state title. Crean, Kentucky head coach John Calipari, Purdue head coach Matt Painter and then-Butler head coach Chris Holtmann were all in-attendance.

“We wanted to hold him [Langford] under his average,” McCutcheon coach Rick Peckinpaugh told the Indianapolis Star. “I guess we did. But still in the second half, I thought he took over. We had a hard time stopping him.”

At the time, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Langford and IU would never work with Tom Crean at the helm.

Following an 18-16 season, IU and Crean parted ways, and in March, the Hoosiers hired Archie Miller away from Dayton.

"I am honored to be the head coach at Indiana University," Miller said in a statement. "IU is one of the greatest basketball programs and academic institutions in the country and I cannot wait to get started.

"With peerless fan support, outstanding facilities and tradition, a beautiful campus, and located in one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country, IU is a dream destination for me and my family. I cannot wait to connect with former players, current players, and future players and all of Hoosier Nation.

"I want to thank all of the great people and players at the University of Dayton who have supported me along the way. I look forward to outlining my vision for IU basketball and offering my sincerest appreciation for the great people at Dayton on Monday."

At his introductory press conference, Miller pointed out how important recruiting the state would be.

"We're going to have a great way about us, and the term that we'll use is called inside-out," Miller said. "We have to start inside this state of Indiana, and we have to start moving outside very slowly, because the footprint is there.

"The inside-out approach means that we have to dedicate ourselves to the high school coaches in this state, the high school talent in this state, the grass-roots programs in this state, and they must feel like they're being dominated by Indiana University.

"You're not going to get every player; you understand that. But if we want them, we should have a great chance of getting them because of the commitment level that we're putting forth 24 hours a day at home."

Clever Archie Miller.

During the annual event at Huber's Winery - a gathering for IU fans in Southern Indiana, with speeches and more from Hoosier coaches - Miller dropped this line to the fans.

"One thing I can say, we can't talk about recruiting - but I do know where New Albany, Indiana is."

Langford retweeted the reference on his personal Twitter account.

Coaches are not allowed to make specific recruiting references, but can mention generics with recruiting, and some of the more savvy ones often take advantage of that to indirectly mention recruits.

For example, Kentucky head coach John Calipari took an opportunity to publicly reference Langford in 2016.

“I was in Indiana, and a mother said, ‘I’ve got to watch you coach in practice,’" he said on UK's ESPNU televised practice last October. "I said, ‘Why?’.

"She said, ‘Because Trey Lyles averaged 7 points and 4 rebounds and is a lottery pick and is going to be an All-Star.' And then she said, ‘By the way, Devin Booker didn’t even start! How is this–what?!’ Because they’re great kids, they want to get better. They came here to get better. They came here to compete against other really good players. …This stuff here, it ain’t for everybody.”

On Aug. 28, Langford cut his list to just seven schools - IU, Kansas, Louisville, Kentucky, UCLA, Vanderbilt and UNC.

At this stage, he hadn't finalized any official visits.

During the July evaluation period, Miller made sure to attend Langford's first game to open up the summer in Dallas on the adidas circuit.

IU kept a constant presence at his games throughout the month, as well as a number of coaches from other schools were spotted, including Kentucky head coach John Calipari.

It was quite a scene in Assembly Hall for Hoosier Hysteria.

Prior to the start of the event, Langford and his guests were escorted across the floor by IU assistant Tom Ostrom to get to their seats.

Of course, the crowd responded with huge cheers for Langford.

"I really do," Tim Langford told TheHoosier.com, when asked if he thought the weekend helped IU. "To be honest, when we first started this recruiting thing, I said 'Romeo, we'll make official visits to the distance ones - that makes sense, where they can take care of the family going up and back.'

"But Romeo, when he came back from the USA [training camp] trip, he said he wanted to make IU official, because he really wanted to get to know a bit more - we had known more about Coach Crean and that staff - and so I said 'Well son, if you want to make that an official, let's do it.'

"And by doing that, this past weekend, it was just a plus. It was a plus. Especially with how the fans treated him. I can't say that for him, but just my personal feelings, it was a plus."

After using his official visits on IU, Vanderbilt and Kansas, Langford officially cut his list to just those three schools in November.

He revealed the news with a tweet wearing all three jerseys.

Several players from IU's then-current team showed up to watch Langford play in a matchup at Bloomington South.

The five-star guard finished with 24 points in a 70-58 win.

Langford surprised media and fans when he snuck into Bloomington for an unofficial to IU's home tilt against Northwestern.

This marked yet another chance for Langford to see the coaches in-person.

Langford advanced to the regional finals to meet 2019 Center Grove five-star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis at Seymour.

In the morning game against Bloomington South, Miller and Ostrom were spotted in the crowd, alongside IU signee Rob Phinisee.

That night, the crew was joined by IU assistant Bruiser Flint for the finale.

Langford finished with 39 points to lead New Albany to a 69-56 win.

After a long, winding process, Langford finally decided on a date for the decision.

Following appearances at the McDonald's All-American and Jordan Brand Classic events, Langford set the decision date for April 30 at New Albany High.

Langford discussed his final three for Rivals.com national analyst Eric Bossi during McDonald's All-American week.

On Indiana: "My unofficial there was real good. I went up there for a game to see how the coaching staff works and how they treat their players on and off the court; on the bench."

On not being able to make it to Kansas for a game: "No it doesn't hurt them. I took my time and watched them on TV. Like today they went to the Final Four. Out of all the teams I probably watched them the most, just because of the distance, it was hard for me to get out there. So I had to take time to watch them. It really doesn't hurt them; I got some good things out of watching them on TV."

On his unofficial to Vanderbilt: "It was real good. It was my first time up there for a game. Same thing as Indiana, I just wanted to see how the coaches coach their players on the bench and off the court, see how they let them play. Also see how the atmosphere was in that gym because I had never been to a game. But the visit was well."

In front of a massive crowd at New Albany High, Langford announced his decision to commit to Indiana.

The ceremony, held at 7 p.m. ET, resulted in a celebration of IU fans not only locally, but around the state and nationally.

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