I had a chance to watch an Indiana Futures game earlier this week, and there's an inordinate amount of elite backcourt talent in the 2028 and 2029 classes. There are as many as five players combined from those classes that could end up on top 100 lists, with a chance for most of them to be top 25/50 talents. What's interesting is that of those five, all of them are from the northern part of the state:
2028
Janaya Cooper (Fort Wayne Snider)
Delaney Noll (Fort Wayne Homestead)
2029
Laine Lyles (Culver Military)
Arianna Rowell (South Bend St. Joe)
Jillian Sanderson (Penn)
As far as I know, only Cooper has an ND offer at this time. Hoopgurlz updated their rankings today and Cooper is now ranked 14th in the nation for the 2028 class. Like Cooper, Noll is a national recruit and has offers from the ACC, Big 10, SEC, etc. She just received an offer yesterday from Harvard, so it appears her transcripts are also in order. I'm not sure if Noll will get offered, especially if ND gets a top point guard in the 2027 class. But she could potentially be a combo guard in college. She's from the same high school as Ayanna Patterson.
None of the three 2029 recruits (Lyles, Rowell, and Sanderson) are in Hoopgurlz top 25, but that doesn't mean much at this point. A year ago, Cooper wasn't rated either, and all three have the capability to be in those discussions next year. I would anticipate ND offering all three, maybe as soon as this summer, and I expect all of them to become national recruits within the year. Each play on elite AAU teams.
It's too soon to talk about strengths and weaknesses, because they have plenty of time to get bigger, stronger, faster, and more skilled. But in terms of projectable futures, each of them will play at the highest collegiate level, that much is clear to me. Time will tell if any of them end up at ND, but it's great to have this type of talent locally, in order to get to practices/games and build relationships.
Noll and Sanderson will likely end up as point guards, while Cooper, Lyles, and Rowell will probably be shooting guards. Cooper is a forward trapped in a guard's body, but her handle has improved quite a bit just in the past year. Lyles and Rowell have elite quickness and jumping ability, as Lyles is competing in the state finals this week in the high jump. Sanderson's dad is the men's basketball strength coach, and her brother will play on the men's basketball team this year.