Indiana freshman guard Maurice Creek met briefly with the media before Friday night’s Hoosier Hysteria. Listen to Creek’s comments in the embedded audio player below:
Update: Creek also talked after Hoosier Hysteria and here are his comments:
Tom Crean met with the media Thursday and we’ve sifted through his comments and posted some highlights below. A full transcript is available here and you can listen to the audio from the H-T/Hoosier Scoop here.
On Jeremiah Rivers:
“As a coach you want the leadership vacuum to be filled right now. You want it to be set. But it is not like that. He hasn’t played in a year. I don’t know that he always understands when I say this, but he has won at every level. There is no question about that. He won in high school and he won in college. He has won three BIG EAST Championships and has been to a Final Four. However, outside of high school, which is a little different, I’m not sure he has absolutely been responsible for winning. He is going to have a huge responsibility in how we play to win. Not just coming in like at Georgetown. Now, he was on the court a lot at winning time at Georgetown because of his defensive abilities, but he also wasn’t the lead guard. He also wasn’t one of the 28 or 30 minutes a game guys. He very well could play into that for us.”
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: Maurice Creek.
To get a good idea of the impact Tom Crean expects Maurice Creek to have on the IU program, you only need to go back in the archives to August 31, 2009.
That’s the date when the NCAA clearinghouse passed along word that Creek, who used the summer to finish up core classes needed to qualify, would be eligible for the upcoming season.
Upon hearing of the green light from the NCAA for Creek to begin working out with the team, Crean tweeted that grown men were hugging each other all over Assembly Hall. (To be fair, I hugged Ryan and Eamonn upon hearing the news.) But yeah, Creek is a special enough talent to produce man hugs out of the IU coaching staff. Powerful stuff.
Creek brings a trait to Bloomington that last year’s team sorely lacked: a polished offensive game capable of consistently putting points on the board. A soft spoken kid from Oxon Hill (MD), the 6-5 Creek switched schools a couple of times before landing at Hargrave Military Academy for his senior season. He averaged 18.4 ppg for a team that finished 27-2.
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.”
As you know, 2010 DeMatha wing Victor Oladipo was in Bloomington over the weekend for an official visit. He was spotted at the football game and now a video has surfaced on YouTube of Oladipo throwing down some dunks with Maurice Creek.
Not bad, my friends. Not bad.
{HT: Basketblog}
It’s not often that Tom Crean tweets in all caps, but the news he just passed along via Twitter needed that distinction:
The Restoration job here just took a very large step. MAURICE CREEK HAS BEEN CLEARED BY THE NCAA CLEARINGHOUSE AND CAN START WITH US TODAY
You can only imagine the sight of all the grown men hugging each other around Assembly Hall. Jenna and Ann had to think we were crazy
We never doubted he would do it but its nice to have that closure. All of you were the first to know. Enjoy the day. We will
And enjoy the day we will. Not a bad way to start the week.
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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