Report: Moses Abraham commits to Georgetown

According to a report published by Steve Yanda of The Washington Post, Moses Abraham, the 6-9 forward from Progressive Christian Academy, has committed to play for Georgetown.

Abraham, a 6-foot-9 forward in the Class of 2010, orally committed Thursday to play for Georgetown. Abraham arrived in the United States last November and had been recruited by Indiana, Maryland, Tennessee and UCLA, among others.

Abraham made a two-day official visit to Indiana earlier this week, after which Joe Boncore, Abraham’s adviser, had what he called “a long talk” with Georgetown Coach John Thompson III and former Georgetown Coach John Thompson II. Following that discussion, Abraham chose to commit to the Hoyas.

If this report is indeed accurate, and all signs indicate that it is, the focus now shifts to Will Yeguete and John Wilkins as potential front court additions for Indiana this spring. We’ll hopefully have more on this development later, but thus far we’ve been unsuccessful in contacting Boncore.

Related: Boncore tells ZagsBlog that Abraham’s uncle wants him to go to Georgetown, so he’s going to Georgetown.

That’s A Wrap: Tom Pritchard

Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our attempt to um, wrap up the 2009-10 season. Sit back. Relax. Grab some popcorn. Get your read on.

Final Stats (31 games): 4.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 60.9 % FG, 37.3% FT, 1.1 tpg.

When Tom Pritchard decided on September 17, 2007 that he would join the Indiana basketball program, he likely did so with the understanding that his playing time would be sparse early on.

The Hoosiers, after all, would be returning DeAndre Thomas, Eli Holman and adding Devin Ebanks to the front court.

The expectation, from the point of view of Kelvin Sampson and his staff, was that Pritchard would add depth as a freshman and perhaps challenge for a regular spot in the rotation down the line.

But sometimes, as is the case in all walks of life, things just don’t go as originally planned.

As a freshman, the 6-9 Pritchard was a pleasant surprise in a season of rebuilding. Thrust into a starting role more out of necessity than merit, the Ohio native put up respectable numbers in his rookie campaign: 9.7 ppg and 6.4 rpg in 29 minutes per contest.

With some hard work and improvement, Pritchard was likely on his way to a double figure scoring average and would be a solid contributor up front in Tom Crean’s second season, right?

Not so fast.

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The latest on Moses Abraham

We considered a TMZ-style coverage approach to the Moses Abraham official visit, with live updates from outside the shrubbery of Assembly Hall, Cook Hall, Dunn Meadow and Yogi’s.

(Not really, but based on the interest in the Abraham recruitment, it certainly would have boosted page views.)

Here’s what we know: Abraham is on day two of his official visit to Bloomington. Joe Boncore, Abraham’s guardian, told Evan Daniels of Scout.com that Abraham is down to IU and Georgetown and that a decision could come soon:

“It’s definitely down to Georgetown and Indiana. He should be making his mind up when he gets back. Hopefully not the second he gets off the plane, but we do need to get this over with. I think he’ll decide this weekend. I know we keep saying that, but we just wanted to give Indiana the chance at least show him the University and stuff like that.”

Beyond that, Terry Hutchens of The Indianapolis Star wrote in a blog post this morning that the visit is going well. (Our sources also tell us the visit is going well.)

By all accounts that I have heard, Abraham had a good first day. He spent a lot of time touring the campus, Assembly Hall and the new practice facility. Along with coach Tom Crean, assistant Tim Buckley and Maurice Creek, he walked along the West sideline of Memorial Stadium in the afternoon during Indiana’s first Spring Football practice. Later, he had dinner with Crean and in the evening was entertained by Creek and a few other IU basketball players.

So that, for those of you clamoring for an update, is the latest on the Moses Abraham visit. Nothing ground breaking to report, but it sounds like a decision could come soon. But then again, we’ve heard that before.

State of the Hall: March 24, 2010

Hello, ladies and gentleman of the ITH blogging republic. It’s been about five months since we last talked. Glad to see you are still here. And of course, thank you for visiting. This site wouldn’t exist without you.

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That’s A Wrap: Jeremiah Rivers

Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our attempt to um, wrap up the 2009-10 season. Sit back. Relax. Grab some popcorn. Get your read on.

Final Stats (31 games): 6.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.3 spg, .6 bpg, 40.4 % FG, 56.7% FT, 2.8 tpg.

There are expectations. And then there’s reality.

So it went for Jeremiah Rivers in his first on-court season at Indiana.

The expectations: He’s a coach’s kid. And as a coach’s kid, he’s supposed to be fundamentally sound, supposed to have a heightened feel for the game.

He’d transferred from Georgetown, and was part of their Final Four team. He may not have shown much offensive moxie, but that was of no matter: he could defend, possessed athleticism, and most important, he was the ballhandler the Hoosiers were lacking during their woeful 2008-09 campaign.

During the open scrimmage before that season, attendees praised Rivers as far and away the best talent on the court.

To quote the tired rallying cry of the Cubs, it was wait till next year on Rivers, when he was eligible to play.

Next year arrived this season. And it produced far different results than many expected. Instead of being the calming, mature presence IU needed, Rivers had the highest turnover percentage (a staggering 21.6 percent) out of himself, Verdell Jones (13.4 percent) and Jordan Hulls (14.8 percent), the primary ballhandlers.

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That’s A Wrap: Devan Dumes

Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our attempt to um, wrap up the 2009-10 season. Sit back. Relax. Grab some popcorn. Get your read on.

Final Stats (30 games): 17.8 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 2 rpg, 1.1 apg, 33.3% FG, 1.8 tpg.

It certainly wasn’t a banner year for Devan Dumes. Early-season injury woes lost him his starting spot, Maurice Creek’s emergence meant he stayed on the bench and for most of the season, Dumes was nothing more than an empty suit who liked to shoot the ball. After averaging 12.7 points per game last season, Dumes only broke double figures in 10 of 30 games this year. He did not start once.

Dumes was, fairly so, a disappointment to many fans, who had hoped that the unregulated emotion he let control his actions at times in his first season at Indiana would translate into fiery senior leadership this year, for a team that really could have used some. With the right mentality, it was supposed, Dumes could be the “edge” guy, the senior with enough personality and desire to force the same out of his teammates on a consistent basis.

Instead, Dumes was relegated to a) a lot of bench time and b) a lot of griping from fans who complained that he hadn’t matured and that he shot too much. (Which he did.)

The problem was, that disappointment did gloss over some serious high points. It’s easy to forget that Dumes had 11 points in Indiana’s home win over Michigan, including some lights-out shooting early that, at least in part, set the tone. In fact, in the Hoosiers’ four Big Ten wins, Dumes averaged better than 10 points per game.

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Brandon Mobley and Indiana?

Update, 10:55 am: I had some email correspondence with Donald Heath, who penned the article in The Savannah Morning News. According to Heath, the program at the Georgia All-Star game claimed that Mobley signed with Indiana. Heath asked Mobley about that and Mobley told him he was “probably going to sign with Indiana soon.” I’m not exactly sure where Mobley’s information is coming from, but again, Indiana is not recruiting him according to his AAU coach and our sources.

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Update, 6:45 pm: I spoke with Brandon Mobley a few moments ago and he told me that he’s planning to make a decision on April 14. According to Mobley, the schools still on his list include IU, Cincinnati and South Carolina. He did not confirm the report from The Savannah Morning News which stated he will likely sign with Indiana. I also asked him about the departure of assistant coach Roshown McLeod and Mobley said, “It really doesn’t have an effect on my decision.”

On the flip side, to our knowledge, Indiana has not been actively recruiting Mobley since last fall. And according to Mobley’s AAU coach, Felix Taylor, this is exactly the case.

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Thanks to “IUDan,” who tipped us off to the following snippet in a story about the Georgia North-South All-Star game, published today by The Savannah Morning News:

Where does the time go? Soon the kids will be flying the coop. Four have already signed NCAA Division I basketball letters on intent. Mobley, on Sunday, said he will most likely sign with Indiana soon.

Mobley, for those of you that had forgotten him, is Brandon Mobley, a 6-9 forward from Savannah. (Rivals profile here.) Given the full court press currently being applied to Moses Abraham, this development seems highly unlikely, but hey, stranger things have happened, right?