Kyle Neddenriep

kyle.neddenriep@indystar.com

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – On a windy, chilly spring afternoon, the yellow school buses are leaving in quick succession from New Albany High School. Athletes from the track and baseball teams file outside for practice.

Inside basketball coach Jim Shannon’s office sits Romeo Langford. For the next half-hour he’ll answer questions about his junior season at New Albany, the possibility of breaking the state’s all-time scoring record and his high-profile recruitment.

Langford is polite, making eye contact as he answers questions. But what comes next, after the interview, tells more about this 17-year-old’s place in the basketball stratosphere than anything he says.

Walking down the mostly-empty and darkened hallway outside the New Albany gym is a familiar face. He was on national television less than 72 hours earlier, winning his third national championship. This is the first day college coaches are allowed back on the road for the recruiting period.

He extends his right hand to a reporter.

“Hello,” he says. “Roy Williams, North Carolina basketball coach.”

* * *

Langford’s recruitment is as good a place to start as any. Friends at school used to ask him where he was going. “Come on, Romeo,” they’d say. “You know where you’re going.”

That was early in high school, when Langford’s star first started to rise. Shannon would tell anyone and everyone how good this kid was. How good he was going to be. Then the offers started to roll in. From Duke. North Carolina. Indiana. Purdue. UCLA. Kansas. Louisville. Kentucky.

“After they watched him play,” Shannon says, “I didn’t have to sell him anymore. They figured out for themselves that he’s a jewel. I didn’t have to say anything else.”

The truth is, Langford doesn’t know where he’s going to college. Friends at school don’t ask much anymore. But when a coach such as Williams, less than three days removed from a national title, makes a beeline for New Albany with top assistant Steve Robinson, it’s clear this is going to be a big-time recruiting battle.

“I’m handling (recruiting) the same way I’ve always handled it,” Langford says. “This year, since it’s going into my senior year, I’m going to look into it a little bit more. Sometime down the road I’ll start narrowing down schools.”

Five schools, Langford says later. That list will come sometime after the summer grassroots season. He’ll be playing on the Adidas Gauntlet with Twenty Two Vision, a team primarily made up of players from northern Kentucky.

The 6-5 Langford is ranked as the No. 3 prospect nationally in the 2018 class on the 247sports composite rankings. There is no reason to rush a decision. Programs, even the blueblood programs, will wait as long as possible if it means getting a commitment from a player of Langford’s stature.

For now, the recruiting of Langford goes through his father, Tim Langford. Shannon also has a hand in coordinating visits and aligning schedules for when college coaches come to New Albany.

“We’re not going to let recruiting get out of hand,” said Tim Langford, who also has two daughters, Tisha and Tiffany, with his wife, Sabrina. “Coaches aren’t texting or calling him directly yet. They’ll come through me until he narrows it down and then we’ll start letting them text or call him directly.”

Langford doesn’t take many visits. During the high school season, he made a pair of visits across the Ohio River for Louisville’s games against Duke and Kentucky.

This week, he had his first phone conversation with new Indiana coach Archie Miller. Langford, who had been recruited by former IU coach Tom Crean, said he’s open to getting to know Miller and the new Indiana staff.

“(Miller) introduced himself and we had a quick conversation,” Langford said. “He said I’m their main focus. He said they are going to be following me around the whole summer with the whole coaching staff. He said they want to get me up there to meet the new coaching staff.”

For Indiana fans, a commitment from Langford would seem like a dream scenario even if he’s off to the NBA after one season. It’s hard to win recruiting battles when the competition includes Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and North Carolina.

“Indiana was already in the mix,” Tim Langford said. “They just made a coaching change. That happens. They are still in the mix.”

It’ll be a battle.

* * *

By the time Langford is done at New Albany, he’ll be a prep basketball legend. He already has a state championship, won as a sophomore. He already has more than 2,000 career points, putting him in shouting distance of making a run at Damon Bailey’s all-time state scoring record of 3,134 points.

“People will be talking about him 20 years from now like they talk about the ‘Big O’ Oscar Robertson, Glenn Robinson, Steve Alford, Damon Bailey, Larry Bird,” Shannon says. “He’s going to be in that conversation.”

But …

But what? Why is there a "but"? That prep school question. It must be asked. Shannon isn’t worried. It says a lot about Shannon’s relationship with the Langford family that the meeting with Williams and Robinson on Thursday took place in Shannon’s office.

“I’m not worried about it all,” Shannon says when asked about the potential of Langford going to a prep school for his senior year. “I don’t fret over things I can’t control and I have no control over that. I know the Langfords are very happy here. I’m here for Romeo. I’m still here for him if he’s not here. I’ll be here for him when he’s an adult. I think that’s the way it should be.”

The prep schools are calling. They are blowing up Tim Langford’s phone, in fact. He’s not completely closing that door. Not yet. He hears them. He’s not always listening. But he hears them.

“Even when Romeo was in the ninth grade, prep schools were always the gossip,” Tim Langford says. “As he got more notice, prep schools started reaching out. That’s part of it. He’s in the top five. As a family, we want to do what’s best for him. So we have our ears open. We’re not going to close that door completely.”

A few seconds later, though, Tim Langford returns to the prep school topic. Romeo says it hasn’t really crossed his mind. But the conversation hasn’t really come up at all between Tim Langford and his son.

“I don’t feel like there’s a need to talk to him about it yet,” the elder Langford said. “It’s not a subject we have in the home. I’m listening. But it’s just like the colleges. We’re at New Albany and we’re looking forward to Romeo’s senior year. I want to be honest, though. I listen to what they have to say. But Romeo’s goal is to come back and win another state title. That’s the main goal.”

Romeo nods. That is the main goal. Winning Mr. Basketball and breaking the all-time scoring record that Bailey set in 1990 at Bedford North Lawrence would be cool, too. But winning a second state title? That would top everything. He’d still be a legend at New Albany, even if he went to prep school for his senior year. But he’d also be giving up a chance at some of those other things.

“Those things do matter,” Romeo said.

New Albany loves its basketball. The fans love Romeo, lining up for autographs after every game. He signs every single one. He takes every picture. That means something, too.

“(The prep schools) come at you and promise you the world,” Tim Langford said. “We know what we are getting here. That’s what we do know.”

Call IndyStar reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

Could he do it?

New Albany junior Romeo Langford averaged 28.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists last season, leading the Bulldogs to a 25-4 record and regional championship game. With 2,079 points going into his senior season, Langford could challenge Damon Bailey’s all-time scoring record of 3,134 points set in 1990 at Bedford North Lawrence. Langford needs 1,056 points to break the record, a number that has been eclipsed only twice in a single season: Carmel’s Dave Shepherd scored 1,079 in 1969-70 and New Castle’s Steve Alford scored 1,078 in 1982-83. Only DeShaun Thomas (2,254) and Bailey (2,162) had more points than Langford after their junior season.