11/17 Big Ten Morning Power Bar: Darius Garland Decides To Stay Home

Every week, BTPowerhouse’s Big Ten Morning Power Bar will detail what’s going on across the league on the recruiting trail.

It was a tough week for expected signings around the Big Ten as the signing period concluded on Wednesday. Let’s take a look at how it went down and introduce a new big man target for the Illini.

-Darius Garland Commits To The Vanderbilt Commodores.

The Hoosiers heard the bad news this past Monday.

Garland, one of the top point guards in the country, decided to stay in the Nashville, TN area and committed to the Commodores. According to this ESPN article, Garland chose Vanderbilt over schools like UCLA and Indiana because it was the "best fit for me and my family. I can have the best of both worlds in academics and basketball at Vanderbilt.”

While disappointing, Indiana still has a top 20 recruiting class for 2018 (Rivals). They also sit in great position for in-state player Romeo Langford, a consensus top ten player in the country. He figures to commit somewhere during the spring.

-The Recruitment Of Tyger Campbell Continues On.

The Purdue Boilermakers feel like they need to add a point guard to their 2018 recruiting class. So when top 100 player Tyger Campbell decommitted from DePaul, Purdue jumped at the opportunity to recruit the 6-foot point guard.

Purdue hosted him in late October and DePaul earned a visit last weekend. It appeared to be between those two schools as the deadline to the signing period approached.

Campbell decided to sign with neither and wait until the spring. Purdue and DePaul figure to still be involved, but both have exhausted visit allotments and will look to other players to sign as well. Campbell appears to be wanting more suitors to enter the fray this winter and spring, but time is running out.

Check back in with BTPowerhouse with updates on Campbell’s recruitment and Purdue’s point guard situation for the 2018 class.

-Former Wisconsin Commit, Tyler Herro, Commits to Kentucky.

Former top 2018 Badger recruit, Tyler Herro, inked with the Kentucky Wildcats this week.

The consensus top 40 player originally committed to Wisconsin in September 2016, but unexpectedly decommitted this past October to “become the best on all levels.” After the decommitment, Herro took coach visits from Kentucky, Kansas, Butler and Villanova. An offer from Kentucky on October 31st pretty much sealed it.

It obviously is disappointing for Wisconsin to lose such a talented player so late in the 2018 recruiting process. Coach Greg Gard and his Wisconsin staff will most likely look to the graduate transfer market for shooting guard help.

-Illinois Extends Offer To Three-Star 2018 Center.

The offers continued this week for programs looking for 2018 help. An interesting offer with Big Ten interest came from the Illini when they offered three-star center Florent Thamba.

Check out some highlights of Thamba courtesy of MMS Hoops.

The video shows very clearly Thamba’s ability to move, block shots, set screens and receive passes for dunks and layups. Thamba’s ability to get up and down the floor has to be enticing to Brad Underwood and the offensive tempo he is trying to install in Champaign.

For Thamba’s services Illinois will need to beat out a host of other suitors. Thamba has been offered by Baylor, Memphis, Pittsburgh, TCU, VCU, Virginia Tech and Wichita State amongst others.