Filed under: Indiana, Big Ten, Recruiting
Cody Zeller, a star power forward, and consensus top-20 recruit will play at Indiana this fall, the Hoosier state native announced Thursday. His decision came down to North Carolina (where his brother Tyler currently plays), current national runner-up Butler and Indiana. Zeller chose to head to Bloomington and will play for Tom Crean's Hoosiers. The decision was made via live streaming video on several news outlets from Zeller's high school gym.
Zeller is a 6-foot-11 power forward who can post up or shoot the ball from the outside. He averaged over 20 points and 10 rebounds last season in leading his team to a state championship in 3A (Indiana's second-biggest class).
The significance of the win for Crean is more symbolic than anything. Since taking over with basically an empty roster, Crean has gone 16-46 in two seasons for Indiana. Even worse is his 5-32 conference record. But with a strong sophomore class and talented freshman Victor Oladipo, you can see the beginnings of a rebirth. Adding a recruit like Zeller only strengthens the cause.
Sure, landing a top-20 recruit is huge, but when trying to rebuild from the program from the depths to which it had sunk, one player isn't going to make that big a difference on his own. Wins like this need to begin to snowball before the program as a whole can take bigger steps forward. Zeller is a five-star recruit, and the last one at Indiana was Eric Gordon. But Zeller more signifies some momentum for Crean and the Hoosiers.
Teaming the Zeller signing with the 2012 class -- where Crean has already landed top-10 center Peter Jurkin and top-10 power forward Hanner Perea -- in addition to the young players already on the roster, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for one of college basketball's historic programs. It's realistic to see the Hoosiers back in the NCAA tournament in 2012. Just saying that used to not be good enough at a school where five national title banners hang, but when building from dregs, babysteps must be taken.
Zeller's oldest brother, Luke, also played Division-1 basketball. He graduated from Notre Dame in 2009.
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