7/19/2018 basketball Edit

NCAA.com: Romeo Langford 1 of 13 You'll Be Hearing About In March

Stu Jackson • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

Stu Jackson covers Indiana University basketball, football and recruiting for TheHoosier.com. He also hosts Heard on The Hoosier, the site's official podcast.

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With anticipation building for the upcoming college basketball season in Bloomington, one Indiana player is expected to make noise in March.

NCAA.com tabbed incoming freshman shooting guard and five-star signee Romeo Langford as one of 13 players you'll hear about next spring.

"Langford, one of the most highly touted players in this year's freshman class, will play a major role in the Hoosiers' push to play meaningful games in March once again," wrote NCAA.com's Andy Wittry. "Indiana ranked 92nd nationally in offensive efficiency last season, per KenPom.com, and the 6-5 Langford should provide an immediate boost to the team's play on that end of the floor."

Indeed, Langford's heralded arrival not only elevated its postseason outlook but also addressed critical offensive needs.

Considered the No. 6 player nationally and No. 2 shooting guard nationally in 2018 according to Rivals, Langford averaged 35.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 56 percent from the field and 36 percent from 3-point range. Comparatively, Indiana as a team shot 45.6 percent from the field and 32.2 percent from 3-point range, 129th and 315th respectively out of 351 Division I programs last season.

The Hoosiers went 16-15 in Archie Miller's first season as head coach, missing out on the NCAA tournament across consecutive seasons for just the third time in the last 45 years. However, buoyed Rivals' No. 7 incoming recruiting class nationally and No. 1 recruiting class in the Big Ten and the return of forward Juwan Morgan for his senior season, experts have already been projecting Indiana as a safe bet to make the Field of 68 next March. ESPN's Joe Lunardi had the Hoosiers as a No. 9 seed in the East region in his June 8 bracketology, while CBS Sports' Jerry Palm forecasted Indiana forecasts Indiana as a No. 7 seed in the West region in his June 5 projections.