Auburn transfer commits to Hoosiers

INDIANAPOLIS -- Marco Killingsworth needed a change. IU needed a rebounder.\nTuesday, Killingsworth and the Hoosiers both got what they wanted. Killingsworth, Auburn's leading scorer last season, announced he would transfer to IU next year.\n"I look at it as a fresh start," Killingsworth said in a telephone interview. "I wanted to get a fresh new start. Now I am."\nAt 6-foot-7-inches and 235 pounds, Killingsworth gives the Hoosiers a much needed, strong inside presence. He averaged 13.7 points and 6.9 rebounds last season and became the 10th player in school history to top 1,000 career points. He averaged 13.3 points and 6.4 rebounds as a sophomore and shot a team-high 53 percent from the field as a freshman.\nBut his trek to IU has been long and winding.\nA native of Alabama, Killingsworth played three seasons for Tigers coach Cliff Ellis. When Ellis was fired after a 14-14 season, he declared early for the NBA draft. After competing in several NBA camps this spring, Killingsworth withdrew from the draft last week and announced he would transfer.\n"We appreciate what he has done in his three years at Auburn University, and we wish him well," new Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said in a written statement last week.\nKillingsworth is the second Auburn player to transfer since Lebo was hired April 9, but Killingsworth said the decision to change schools was not related to Lebo.\nInstead, he simply wanted a change.\n"When our coach got fired my head was like, well, I don't know what," he said. "I took my name out of the draft because I thought it was the best thing for me."\nKillingsworth visited IU Sunday and Monday and said he made his decision Tuesday.\nNCAA rules do not allow IU coach Mike Davis to comment on transfers until the school receives a commitment letter.\nKillingsworth must sit out next season and will have one year of eligibility remaining when he returns to the court in 2005-06. The NBA draft guide said Killingsworth uses his body well to create space and is a quick jumper who gets easy baskets because of his rebounding skills\nWhile Killingsworth cannot play next season, he will practice, and the Hoosiers expect him to use his skills and experience to help mentor a young crop of inside players that include sophomore Pat Ewing Jr. and D.J. White, an incoming freshman who also is an Alabama native.\nWhat Killingsworth liked most, though, was the tradition of Hoosier basketball and the fact he could relate to Davis, also an Alabama native.\n"I feel like it's a top five school," he said. "Coach Davis knows what it's like growing up down here. We're so much alike."\nKillingsworth could join a lineup that would include the likes of guards Marshall Strickland and Bracey Wright, Ewing and White -- a starting five that Killingsworth believes could be one of the nation's best starting units.\n"I'm just going to work hard every day so that when I do play, I make a real serious impact," he said.