Column: Cody Zeller's a pretty big deal

WASHINGTON, Ind. — I don’t want to overreact, but Cody Zeller is the best thing that’s happened to IU basketball since Tom Crean arrived.

No, he won’t single-handedly be the IU basketball savior. That’s implausible.

But when he said, “Next year, I’m going to go to IU” on Thursday at the historic Washington High School Hatchet House Gym, the future of the IU basketball program suddenly got a lot brighter.

There’s been plenty — too much? — media hype about this decision from a high school senior. But it’s hard to argue the decision’s significance.

The catch word I keep hearing about this decision is “symbolic.” While Zeller is plenty talented — take his 20-point, 26-rebound performance from the Indiana state championship game earlier this year as proof — what he represents is far more
important.

He signifies the first dramatic shift in the Crean era of the IU basketball program.

“Long before I met him, long before we got to know the Zeller family, long before we spent a lot of time recruiting him, there was no question Cody Zeller was going to be a major priority to the program,” Crean said.

And the payoff shows.

Crean nabbed one of the nation’s top recruits against schools — Butler and North Carolina, specifically — that have plenty to offer.

Look, when North Carolina coach Roy Williams singles out a player to recruit, it’s because he not only wants him, but also because he’s sure he can get him. North Carolina is a program that has enough prestige to not throw itself at every top recruit.

In fact, he’s the one of first notable big men from Indiana in recent history to turn down the Tar Heels for IU. Eric Montross and Sean May led North Carolina to national championships in 1993 and 2005, respectively.

So Zeller picking IU might say that the Hoosiers are still — or will soon be — just as prestigious as a program such as the Tar Heels. The 6-foot-10-inch recruit was definitely sold on what Crean could offer and understood the magnitude of playing for the Hoosiers.

“I think representing the state of Indiana next year will be pretty special to me,” Zeller said.

The past two years, Crean has pursued top talent — Kyrie Irving, for example — without many results for IU to date. That’s not his fault. Other players such as Indiana Mr. Basketball Tyler Zeller (Cody’s brother and 2008 winner) and Deshaun Thomas (2010) fell at the wrong time for IU basketball.

That 2009 class of Maurice Creek, Christian Watford and Co. had built relationships with Crean while he was still at Marquette, so pursuing top talent specifically for IU had not yet been fruitful.

Even in the past decade, some of the biggest Indiana high school names — May, Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Josh McRoberts — passed on the Hoosiers. Zeller did not.

So symbolically, his commitment shows plenty.

But maybe more importantly, Zeller could be the kingpin — the creme de la creme — of a recruiting windfall.

It seems almost assured that Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell will commit to IU, maybe even this week. He’s the No. 2 point guard in the 2012 class, according to Rivals.com, and AAU teammates with Zeller.

2012 recruits Gary Harris (Hamilton Southeastern) and Jeremy Hollowell (Lawrence Central) could be next. Recruiting classes such as those would quickly put the Hoosiers back into the national college basketball picture.

And that’s somewhere IU hasn’t been in awhile. But the Hoosiers are on their way.