Future Hoosier forward shows versatility

Christian Watford looks like a basketball player. He’s 6-foot-8, weighs 215 pounds and some say he resembles a young Tracy McGrady.

But looks alone didn’t net him a scholarship to play at IU, nor did they help the high school senior average 26 points, 15 rebounds and five assists per game this year for Shades Valley High School, located in a suburb of Birmingham, Ala.

“He’s put some work in,” his father, Ernest Watford, said in a phone interview last month. “He and I have put some long, long hours in. He’s put hours in by himself.”

While IU’s highly touted 2009 recruiting class is more than one man, there is reason to be excited about Watford donning the cream and crimson next year. Just ask IU coach Tom Crean.

“He is a matchup nightmare because if you go small on him, he can take you down low, and if you go big, he can take you to the rim,” Crean said in a statement following Watford’s official signing in November. “He can be an excellent rebounder, and what I feel, along with other members of this class, is that he will be able to hold his own defensively for many years to come inside our program. We are really excited to have a player of Christian’s caliber coming into Indiana.”

The elder Watford, who played at Southern Junior College in Birmingham from 1982 to 1984, recalled a time when he took his son to the gym and watched him play from above the court. Seeing how his son handled himself and the way he went hard at “game speed” let him know the teenager could be something special one day.

“That made me think, ‘He’s got a shot at playing Division I basketball if he continues to get better,’” Ernest Watford said.

But Christian Watford’s father wasn’t the only one noticing his potential at a young age. Christian Watford was only in seventh or eighth grade when he began receiving mail from several college coaches.

“Mississippi State, Alabama, Florida – you know, a couple SEC schools around here,” Christian Watford said.

Though Watford was already receiving college letters and playing varsity basketball as a 13-year-old eighth-grader, things didn’t come as easily as one might guess, he said.

“I’ve been to three high schools,” the Shades Valley senior said. “My family has done a lot of moving around just for me to be able to play basketball. A couple times at schools, I wasn’t able to play for whatever reason. It motivated me to do bigger things.”

Today, Watford still strives to do big things. In fact, his ultimate goal is to make the NBA. 

“They’ve got to get a lot out of me (at IU), and they’ve got to push me to the next level,” he said. “But I feel like I’m willing to work for whatever it is for me to get to the next level. I feel like I’m going to do that.”

For the time being, Watford is concentrating on what immediately lies ahead. Although Shades Valley was eliminated from Alabama’s Class 6A state playoffs on Feb. 20, the 17-year-old recently began working with a strength-and-conditioning coach five days a week.

Between now and when he arrives at IU on June 17, Watford said he will continue to work on his basketball skills while focusing most of his energy on staying in shape.

Though he plans to add 10 pounds to his frame, which he referred to as “nothing major,” his personal goals at IU are nothing minor.

“Just winning Big Ten championships, go to the (NCAA) Tournament, do well in the tournament, compete for a national championship,” he said. “And I want to be Big Ten Freshman of the Year and next year just keep building from that.”

Should Watford collect the Big Ten’s top freshman honor, he would become the fourth Hoosier to do so this decade, following the likes of Jared Jeffries (2001), D.J. White (2005) and Eric Gordon (2008).

Watford is thought to be the Big Ten’s most versatile incoming freshman, yet his versatility isn’t limited to his on-court feats. He has excelled in the classroom, earning a 3.5 cumulative GPA to date, and is a member of the National Honor Society, he said.

Watford also plans to shine on and off the court at IU. He says he wants to be remembered as a team player who “worked hard day in and day out, produced day in and day out, just gave it all to the University – athletically and academically.”

As one of Crean’s top recruits, Watford realizes his potential role in bringing IU back to national prominence.

“I want to leave a good legacy,” the four-star recruit said.