Indiana Basketball: The importance of securing Trey Kaufman

Silver Creek High School’s Trey Kaufman remains arguably Indiana Basketball’s top recruiting priority.

There has been a great deal of recruiting news in the past week, but make no mistake about it — Trey Kaufman is still at the top of the list for Archie Miller and his staff.

If you follow Indiana basketball at all you’ve almost surely heard Kaufman’s name before, but you may not understand what the big deal is. After all, he hovers around 70-90 on most national recruiting rankings. A top-20 recruit like Romeo Langford or Khristian Lander has understandable buzz, but why does it feel like Kaufman has just as much hype surrounding him?

Kaufman is highly underrated by nearly every recruiting service. The June 29th update of the 247 Sports Composite pins Kaufman as #59 in the class of 2021 (although 247’s own rankings have him at #40), nine spots higher than his previous ranking.  Rivals has the Silver Creek talent at #82 and ESPN has him at #72.

There is no precedent for these low rankings.  Kaufman was given the award for Gatorade Player of the Year in Indiana for 2019. The last person to win that award as a junior? Greg Oden in 2005. How that isn’t deserving of a higher ranking is a mystery to me. On top of the accolades, Kaufman has all the skills, athleticism, and potential you could ask for from a recruit.

Let’s take a deeper dive into why Kaufman be such an asset for the Hoosiers.