NEW ALBANY, Ind. — In IU Coach Archie Miller’s introductory press conference, he talked about inside-out recruiting, where he would focus his recruiting efforts first and foremost in the state of Indiana.
The first steps of that plan came together Monday night as Miller landed the commitment of guard Romeo Langford, who was named 2018 Indiana Mr. Basketball on Sunday night.
Langford represents the first big recruiting get of Miller’s tenure at IU. Currently the fifth-ranked prospect in the nation by ESPN, Langford was the top uncommitted recruit in the class of 2018.
For Langford, the choice was simple.
“I just felt like Indiana was the best fit,” Langford said.
He met with his family this past Saturday and discussed his decision. His family said they were behind him 100 percent.
The decision took time as Langford dragged the date of his announcement to nearly the last possible moment. His recruitment had lingered over the state of Indiana for years, but, for his family members, they didn’t feel any extra weight on their shoulders.
“There never was pressure with us,” Romeo's father, Tim Langford, said. “There was always excitement. Patiently making sure he would make the right decision.”
Langford was impressed by what Miller brought to the table in his first season in Bloomington, even though the Hoosiers failed to qualify for the postseason.
“His work spoke for itself, just the work he had last year, how he got them ready, how he developed them for big games,” he said. “It just spoke for itself.”
Langford visited IU on Jan. 14 for the Northwestern game and said he liked what he saw from the coaching staff.
“I liked how it wasn’t just him (Archie) on the bench that was helping the players out and talking to them,” Langford said. “It was all the coaches. He also let his players play through mistakes.”
He was also impressed by the work IU assistant coach Ed Schilling has done in developing players during his coaching career.
During the last two months, Miller reached out a lot to and stayed in contact with the family, even more than before, Tim said. Tim said he liked the role his son could play in Miller’s offense moving forward.
“His spread offense, that’s one thing that Romeo liked,” Tim said. “A spread offense would give him a chance to move a little bit more better on the offensive end.”
Becoming the centerpiece of a 2018 recruiting class for Miller, Langford joins four four-star recruits – Jerome Hunter, Robert Phinisee, Damezi Anderson and Jake Forrester – as incoming freshmen. Langford said he believes in the potential of the Hoosiers heading into next season.
“I just felt like we got the right pieces,” Langford said. “They were missing some key things last year from them to be as good as they wanted to be. I feel like I can do all those things for them. With the people they got coming back and coming in, I feel like it’s a national championship team.”
