Courtesy of IU Media Relations:

Bloomington – Indiana University men’s basketball coach Tom Crean has announced that Tijan Jobe (Tee-zhan Joab), a 7-0, 255-lb. center from Olney (Ill.)?Central College has signed a national letter of intent to attend IU and play basketball for the Hoosiers beginning next fall.

“We are excited to be able to sign a player with the defensive ability and rebounding presence that Tijan has,” said Crean.  “We feel he has a lot of room for growth in the sense of improving on both the defensive and offensive end and we love the fact that he plays extremely hard.  His height and wingspan (7-5 1/2) is something that our team was in great need of.”

Originally from Banjul, Gambia, Jobe averaged 4.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and a block for Coach Mike Burris at Olney.  He attended Butler County (Kan.) Community College as a freshman and attended Laurinburg (N.C.) Prep School.

He came to the United States four years ago through the African Hoop Opportunities Providing an Education Foundation (A-HOPE), a Bloomington based organization. The foundation is designed to provide talented basketball players from a host of African countries the opportunity to come to the United States to use their skills as a means to get a U.S. education.

He chose Indiana over UAB, Auburn and Nebraska.

He is the sixth player to accept a scholarship to play for the Hoosiers joining forward Tom Pritchard (Lakewood, Ohio/St. Edwards), guard Verdell Jones III?(Champaign, Ill./Central) guard Matt Roth (Washington, Illinois), guard Devan Dumes (Vincennes/Indianapolis/Decatur Central) and guard Nick Williams (Mobile, Alabama/LeFlore).

Physically, Jobe will provide a much needed presence in the paint. Developmentally, he sounds raw, but obviously Crean and staff saw some tools they could work with. A-Hope, which is led by founder and president Mark Adams of Bloomington, also assisted in bringing Alfred Aboya (UCLA), Beas Hamga (UNLV) and Emmanuel Negedu (considering IU) to the states.