Indiana among long list of suitors for 2022 four-star Jalen Washington

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Gary West (IN) forward Jalen Washington is one of the most heavily recruited big men in the country and that showed on Monday when he had nearly 20 programs calling and texting him on the first day of the live contact period.

The four-star forward heard from his normal list of programs which included Indiana, Michigan State, DePaul, Purdue and Iowa. But he also compiled a new list of high-major programs which included Michigan, Duke, Syracuse, Louisville, Alabama, Maryland, UCLA and Ohio State among others, Gary West head coach Chris Buggs tells TheHoosier.com. Out of the new programs to reach out, he landed offers from Alabama and Maryland.

Now with a solid core of schools in the mix, Indiana still stands out due to the long standing relationship Washington has had with the Indiana staff, in particular coach Archie Miller.

"He [Washington] likes the fact that they recruited him at an early age. They recruited him the summer going into his sophomore year and it was his first big time offer," Buggs said. "That is always going to be there and be something to remember as being the first school to be in there.

"Coach Miller has made it a point to recruit him hard and he is definitely interested and built a solid relationship with Indiana," Buggs added. "Overall he is still pretty open to everyone else though."

While Washington is ranked as the No. 23 prospect in the Rivals150 class of 2022, he has spent more time off of the floor than on it in the past two seasons, so building those relationships is even more important. Suffering a season-ending shoulder injury as a freshman and then a torn ACL this past year, Washington is still developing and finding additional ways to get better.

"He has really excelled at the mental part of the game and is starting to understand the psychological part of basketball," Buggs said. "It's rare but when he comes back he is going to be a much better player and much smarter player."