Indiana Basketball: Kaleb Banks named 'under-the-radar' Big Ten freshman
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The Indiana basketball 2022 recruiting class finished the recruiting cycle ranked No. 14 in the Rivals team rankings. It was a four-man class highlighted by two five-star prospects, one four-star and one three-star.
6-foot-8 forward Kaleb Banks arrived at Indiana from Fayette (Ga.) County High School as the Georgia class 4A Player of the Year. He averaged 23.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game as a senior.
He finished ranked No. 134 in the Rivals150 class of 2022 rankings and was the No. 32 power forward in the class.
This summer, Banks has flashed his potential in summer workouts and has turned heads of his teammates and thus, has started to gain recognition nationally.
On Monday, CBS Sports and College Basketball Today insider Jon Rothstein took a look at the Big Ten and named his All-Big Ten team, Player of the Year and looked at the new faces in the conference.
Rothstein listed Banks as one of his 10 'under-the-radar' freshmen.
Indiana has made it a priority to get bigger, longer and more athletic on the perimeter with its wings -- and Kaleb Banks fits that 'bigger wing' position. In workouts this summer, Banks was playing a significant amount of sets on the perimeter as Mike Woodson looks to utilize him as a '3' more than a '4'.
His ability as a shot maker has stood out since he arrived on campus. He made 40 3's -- shooting 38 percent and also shot 63 percent from the field as a senior. That has carried over.
Here are a few tidbits from what his teammates have said of Banks this summer.
"Kaleb, I think he's more like a big guard," IU freshman guard CJ Gunn said this summer. "He can get his shot off and create his shot whenever he wants to."
"Kaleb is a great player," IU senior forward Race Thompson said earlier this summer. "He is very talented, big, big wing that can defend, can really shoot the ball, score the ball at all three levels. I think that he'll be a really fun player to watch, and he's going to be really fun to play with because he can make shots and he can make plays for his teammates...But Kaleb, he's really impressed me a lot just how comfortable he is, how confident he is in himself being able to make plays, so I think he'll be a lot of fun to watch."
"Someone's not talking about? I like Kaleb Banks a lot," IU junior forward Jordan Geronimo said. "I feel like he has game. The rate he's working out and just getting better and what he has right now, his physical abilities, I feel like he's going to be a sleeper."
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