Hoosier Hysteria is on the horizon and it’s time for Inside the Hall’s player-by-player breakdown of the 2009-2010 Indiana Hoosiers. Today: Derek Elston.

Derek Elston, the first player to commit to Indiana’s 2009 class, made the call to become a Hoosier in September of 2007. After his decision, he watched Indiana go from a top ten team during the 2007-2008 to a program decimated by Kelvin Sampson’s excessive phone calls. Once Tom Crean was hired, it only took a couple of conversations between the coach and the player to decide that Elston’s commitment was still a perfect fit.

At 6-8 and 225 pounds, the Tipton (IN) forward has the body to play inside and the versatility to step out and play the three. He averaged 19.8 ppg and 10.8 rpg his senior season and finished third in the voting for Mr. Basketball. His ability to rebound and defend will put him in position to play major minutes from day one. It’s not out of question that he could lead IU in rebounding this season.

What remains to be seen is how much Elston has improved his mid-range game over the summer. Mechanically, his stroke is very sound and if he can consistently knock down shots from the perimeter, he becomes a much tougher player to guard. He’s also a solid ball handler and when he doesn’t finish in the paint, he consistently gets to the line and knocks down free throws.

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Given the situation inherited, the argument can be made that the 2009 recruiting haul made by Tom Crean and his staff was as impressive as any class in the country.

Before ever coaching a game at Indiana, Crean held on to a verbal commitment by Derek Elston given to the previous coaching staff and received commitments from five other players. Three of those players, Maurice Creek, Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford, were ranked among the top 50 prospects nationally by Scout.com.

When it was all said and done, IU signed a consensus top ten class last November in the aftermath of major violations less than a year before.

So it should be no surprise that Crean would sing the praises of the young men that he believes will, collectively, be the cornerstone of the rebuilding process in Bloomington. And last night, Crean did just that in these comments released by IU Media Relations:

Jordan Hulls

“That kid never accepted that he wasn’t a college player, or that he might be a Division II player, and that he might be a low-major player, and that he might be a mid-major player. I don’t think he ever accepted that. Something’s telling me that kid always had his sights set pretty high.”

Derek Elston

“The other guy that hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention nationally is Derek Elston. That guy is one of those people, if he hadn’t been injured out on that AAU circuit, there would have been a lot more things written about him. He’s good, he’s tough. And he wants to be really good.”

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The following are notes submitted to Inside the Hall from someone that attended IU’s Elite Camp this past Saturday in Bloomington. It’s important to note that this information is not from anyone affiliated with the university. These notes have been slightly tweaked by yours truly.

+ By far the player most impressive on Saturday was Jordan Hulls. He is amazing at the pick-and-roll.  A former IU player that had never seen him play called him a stud. It will be really difficult to keep him off the court, so you could see a lot of Jeremiah Rivers and Hulls together because of their ball handling skills.

+ Maurice Creek is lights out.  He should average 12+ ppg as a freshman.  He can score from any place on the floor and is a solid rebounder.

+ Derek Elston is a beast.  He seems bigger than Tom Pritchard and has much more range.  He is also more athletic than I anticipated.  He could play 25-30 minutes a game.

+ Christian Watford (pictured) is very good.  He plays better in transition and is more of a three but will have to play the four on this team.

+ Seems like it’s going to be tough for Matt Roth, Bobby Capobianco and Bawa Muniru to get minutes.  Rivers, Creek, Hulls, Devan Dumes and Verdell Jones will eat up the minutes at guard.  Pritchard, Elston and Watford should play the four and five with the others playing when foul trouble arises.

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If you haven’t noticed, it’s a slow news time around these parts. The summer AAU evaluation periods wraps up at the end of this week, football is about to start and the countdown to Hoosier Hysteria is about to begin.

In the spirit of keeping the discussion fresh, it’s time for … wait for it … an open thread. Today’s topic: Which incoming freshman will make the biggest impact?

There are a lot of factors to consider here. Primarily, it’s going to be your call on how to define impact. If you’re going to define it by stats, you’re probably going with Christian Watford or Maurice Creek. If you’re going to define it by bringing a winning attitude to the program, you’re going with Jordan Hulls. If you’re going with toughness and grit, you’re going Derek Elston or Bobby Capobianco. Or if you’re going with the potential to morph into Hasheem Thabeet, you’re going Bawa Muniru.

Show your work, boys and girls. And remember, Jeremiah Rivers is not a freshman.

After a 78-65 win Saturday evening in Conseco Fieldhouse, the Indiana All-Stars headed south to Louisville looking to complete a sweep of the Kentucky All-Stars at Knights Hall on the campus of Bellarmine University.

And they did just that.

Led again by Errick Peck, who will attend Cornell University, Indiana defeated Kentucky 64-49 . The Hoosier state continues to dominate the interstate series and now leads 82-42 all-time.

Peck finished with a game-high 14 points and Purdue signee D.J. Byrd added 10.

Indiana out-rebounded Kentucky 51-46 and limited Kentucky Mr. Basketball Jon Hood to just eight points in 26 minutes. Hood scored 20 points in Saturday’s game in Indianapolis.

Mr. Basketball Jordan Hulls was just 1 of 9 from the field and finished with four points. But like he normally does, Hulls played a solid floor game and dished out five assists, grabbed five rebounds and had two steals. His future teammate at Indiana, Derek Elston, had four points and eight rebounds.

Audio: Indiana all-star coach David Wood, Hulls, Peck and Stephan Van Treese addressed the media following the sweep of Kentucky. You can listen to the audio from the press conference in the embedded audio player below.

Fans of Indiana high school basketball came to New Albany on Thursday night planning to see the best from Indiana’s 2009 and 2010 classes face off.

And if the results from Tuesday’s exhibition at Benton Central and Thursday’s showdown are any indication, the debate on which class is stronger is settled. It’s the class of 2009, which rolled to a 109-94 victory. Mr. Basketball Jordan Hulls had 17 points and Derek Elston added eight points and seven rebounds.

What fans were not expecting was the absence of Lawrence North forward Dominique Ferguson, who was not listed in the game’s program just days after committing six turnovers in Tuesday’s exhibition. The official explanation: Ferguson hyper-extended his knee.

But the chatter around the gym suggested otherwise. If you are a member of a team and you’re unable to play, you show up and support your teammates, right? Ferguson didn’t do that.

Some suggested he decided not to show up on his own accord and not because of an injury. There was even buzz that Ferguson is on his way out at Lawrence North and headed to Oak Hill Academy. Call me crazy, but normally an injury doesn’t get you removed from the program, does it? (To be clear, a reader tells us Ferguson wasn’t in the program distributed at Tuesday’s game, either.)

Whatever the story is, it’s obvious that something doesn’t smell right. Which leads me to this point: On the surface, this isn’t the type of kid you build a program around. Indiana needs hard working kids who can bring stability. And at this time, talent aside, Dominique Ferguson doesn’t seem to fit that description.

Indiana all-stars and IU signees Jordan Hulls and Derek Elston appeared on the Dan Dakich show on 1070 The Fan Tuesday afternoon. You can listen to the audio at the links below:

• Derek Elston audio
• Jordan Hulls audio