Cupps gets his college decision out of the way early with commitment to Indiana

“Congrats nephew,” James wrote. “Proud of you.”

Cupps, a 6-foot junior guard at Centerville High School, picked Indiana over Ohio State and Stanford. He narrowed his choices to those three schools in October. He committed to Indiana four months after receiving a scholarship offer from first-year coach Mike Woodson and his staff.

“Wow,” Cupps wrote on Twitter. “I’m so grateful to all the people who have been a part of this journey. Thank you to everyone who has gotten me to where I am. Thank you to coach Woodson and his staff for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to be a part of Indiana basketball. From Hustle, the Blue Chips, Indy Heat, the Leftovers, Midwest, to the Elks, hard work has never let me down. Excited to be a part of Hoosier Nation. Let’s go Hoosiers!”

Gabe’s dad Brook Cupps, the head coach at Centerville, saw his son make his decision about 26 years after he made his own college choice.

“My decision came down to Wittenberg and Capital,” Brook said, “and his decision’s coming down to Ohio State, Indiana and Stanford. It’s a little different. He’s done a ton of work to put himself in those situations, and he’s been blessed by having some really great opportunities to allow himself to continue to improve and get better. So I’m excited for him. I think it’s been really neat. I’m looking forward to him having that opportunity.”

Brook, a Graham High School graduate, was a member of Damon Goodwin’s first recruiting class. The Dayton Flyers basketball great has coached the Crusaders since the 1994-95 season. Matt Croci, who’s now the head coach at Wittenberg, was on Goodwin’s staff then and helped recruit Brook to Capital. Brook remains the program’s all-time assists leader with 405 and along with fellow Graham grad Chris McGuire, the longtime head coach at Springfield Shawnee, helped lead Capital to the NCAA tournament as a senior in 1999.

Gabe Cupps averaged 15.2 points per game last season as a sophomore and helped lead the Elks to the Division I state championship. He’s the second recruit to join Indiana’s 2023 class. Jakai Newton, a 6-foot-4 guard from Covington, Ga., committed in June.

Cupps told Joe Tipton, of On3Sports.com, he picked Indiana because of the challenge of bringing the program back to the top.

“IU basketball means so much to the state of Indiana,” Cupps said. “I think that’s awesome because basketball means that much to me. I’ve been a basketball addict ever since I can remember. I already respect and trust the whole staff at IU and have heard nothing but good things about them. A chance to re-establish IU at the top of college basketball is something that I couldn’t pass up.

Indiana is off to a 2-0 start in Woodson’s first season.

“I think he’s going to do a really good job,” Brook said. “I talked to a lot of people in the NBA and around that know him personally, and everybody has great things to say about him. His connection to the NBA is great and will help him get some recruits to Indiana. There’s no questioning his basketball knowledge. That’s off the charts just with the time he spent in the NBA and his success there. Learning to coach the college game is different. I think they’ve done a good job surrounding him with assistant coaches that will help them make that transition. He’s a sharp guy. He’ll work hard at it. I do think one of the biggest things is his motive is pure. He’s not taking Indiana job to try to get another job or anything like that. He’s taking the Indiana job for one reason, and that’s kind of his purpose. That clarifies a lot of things for him.”

With the decision out of the way, Gabe can concentrate on his final two seasons of high school basketball.

“I think from from the position he was in, that’s beneficial,” Brook said. “Everybody’s different. The way things played out for Gabe, he had great opportunities and great schools recruiting him. It wasn’t like he was holding out for Duke or Kentucky or something like that. He kind of got to a point where the schools that were recruiting him he was happy with, and he could play at lot of those schools. He just felt like he wanted to go through the process early and get to know the coaches. When he felt like he knew what he wanted to do, he was just going to go ahead and commit. He got to that point a week or so ago, and just wanted to kind of get it done.”