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Twitter Tuesday: Louisville, Indiana, more

RANKINGS: 2018 Rivals150 | 2019 Rivals150 | 2020 Rivals150 | 2018 Team | 2018 Position

In this week’s Twitter Tuesday mailbag, Rivals.com's Corey Evans dives into your questions about Louisville’s backcourt needs, what Archie Miller might have up his sleeve this fall and when a commitment might take place for two of the Midwest's best.

MORE: Rivals Roundtable on next big commit, more | Deep Three for August

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Rocket Watts
Rocket Watts (Rivals.com)

I don’t think that Rocket Watts is the end all, be all for Louisville this fall. A top-50 guard and one of the more explosive scorers in his class nationally, Watts has begun to hit the visit trail in recent weeks as he just returned from Florida State. The Seminoles are a major darkhorse, though Louisville does have a good shot, as does Michigan State, Marquette and Missouri.

Let’s say that Louisville misses on Watts. Where else might the Cardinals look to fill their backcourt need?

While Josh Nickelberry is a scorer at heart, he has become a better playmaker in recent months. His enrollment next fall should help as the Cards are hoping that they can lure David Johnson back into the fold. A pledge to the prior staff led by Rick Pitino, Johnson is more of a wing but is also a very valuable playmaker out top.

Besides those two, Tyrell Jones and Jahmius Ramsey are heavily coveted prospects. Jones will visit the program next month as Louisville, Ole Miss and Auburn seem to be the three in the best spot. Ramsey has scheduled five official visits as the Cards might have as good of a chance as anyone, though he has remained consistent about signing late.

Ultimately, Watts would be a tremendous haul but if he does decide to commit elsewhere, Louisville will likely end up with one of its other top options.

Please! Archie Miller has done a phenomenal job of hitting the ground running at Indiana by retaining three commitments from the prior staff and hauling in the commitment of Race Thompson. To follow it up, Miller put together a nationally-ranked 2018 class, a group highlighted by the pledge of top-five guard Romeo Langford.

Now, if the Hoosiers do swing and miss on both Keion Brooks and Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana’s top targets in the 2019 class, alarms could go off. The same could be said if they fail to land Brandon Newman or Armaan Franklin. Indiana is also a strong contender for Jahmius Ramsey, James Bouknight, Zeke Nnaji, Trendon Watford and Isaiah Stewart.

Rest easy, Indiana fans, Miller will get the ship righted this fall. Mark it down, the Hoosiers will land at least Jackson-Davis or Brooks, either Newman or Franklin, and toss in another along the lines of Bouknight, Ramsey or even the wildcard that is Stewart.

Armaan Franklin
Armaan Franklin (Jordan Wells/TheHoosier.com)

Two of the top prospects out of the Midwest, attention has not been hard to come by for Armaan Franklin and Malik Hall.

Franklin, a member of the Rivals150, is on commitment watch. He is down to a final three of Purdue, Indiana and Xavier. It is a bit of a toss-up at this point but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Franklin come off the board in the coming days with the Boilermakers as the slight favorite as things head down the final stretch.

Hall, a top-50 forward in the 2019 class, recently cut his list to a group of five consisting of Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Purdue and Michigan State. In this week's Starting Five column, Eric Bossi outlined his visit tour where he has scheduled four of his five official visits as he will see all of his finalists outside of Texas before November hits.

I expect Hall to see all of his finalists before coming to a decision. The thought leaving July was that Purdue was the team to beat. That can still be the case but the remaining four each have a puncher’s chance in the recruitment of the talented forward.

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