Indiana's Night of the Living Red: Final Stand for Cody Zeller

This coming Halloween, the future of Indiana Basketball hangs in the balance.

Treat Cody Zeller to the best weekend of his life and convince him that his future is in Bloomington, and fans will reappear by the dozens and come back from the dead to Assembly Hall.

But if Cody Zeller is spooked by the administration or the Athletic Department, and decides not to come to play at Indiana, then the future of Indiana Basketball will be bleaker than a Halloween without pumpkin pie (who doesn't love pumpkin pie).

Never before has one player's decision meant so much to Indiana. In the past, the team had enough success that they could always recruit the top players and not worry if they missed one or two.

But after all the hoopla from the Kelvin Sampson scandal, Indiana has had to dig its way out of a hole and fight tooth and nail for every last recruit.

If they can get the 6'11'' Washington, Indiana native Zeller to commit, many insiders believe that it will be the inertia that causes the positive dominoes to fall.

The class of 2012 in Indiana is one of the best in the country. According to Rivals.com one of the most respected basketball recruiting websites, there are six players from in-state in the top 60 and four players in the top 25, including Hanner Perea (originally from Colombia but now lives in Bloomington/LaPorte.), Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell, Gary Harris and D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera.

All of them have yet to commit to a school, but many believe that if Indiana can land Zeller, these top talents will follow him to Bloomington quickly.

Such is the magnitude of this decision. Hoosiers will be holding their collective breathes, after the Zellers official visit to Indiana on the weekend of October 29-31. And once Zeller makes his decision, he is expected to sign during the early signing period.

The Hoosier Nation continues to wait. Is the future is filled with treats and adulation, or frights and frustration?