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(02/21/09 11:22pm)
The gymnasium at Bloomington High School South was filled this afternoon for a contest between No. 4 Detroit Country Day and No. 5 South. For most of the crowd, they got what they paid for: a 73-67 win by the hometown Panthers.
(02/21/09 1:24am)
Shades Valley High School (Ala.) fell tonight, 53-50, ending Christian Watford's bid for a state title in his senior season. He missed a potential game-tying three pointer with six seconds left on the clock. The IU signee scored 17 points.
(02/20/09 3:11pm)
"Passion for the past ... excitement for the future" is the motto on this year's team posters and in the intro video at Assembly Hall played before each home game. So if you are struggling with the present, here is another glimpse of the future, an article in today's IDS on Jordan Hulls.
(02/20/09 6:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There was a time when most basketball-loving kids in Bloomington wanted to “be like Mike” – Michael Jordan, that is. Now it is another Jordan many in town are looking up to: Bloomington High School South point guard Jordan Hulls.“He’s a very, very good kid, never gets in trouble, never is out partying on the weekends, never is out messing around doing bad things,” said Spencer Turner, a sophomore teammate and friend. “He leads by example, and everybody at school wants to be like him. He’s a very important role model for kids.”Hulls’ high school coach, J.R. Holmes, said similar things, calling him “a solid Christian kid that works hard, plays hard and does the right things.” He also referred to him as a “gym rat.”Though Hulls said that school is important – he has about a 3.91 cumulative GPA – and though Turner said he often sees Hulls working with younger kids, the 18-year-old senior will always be known as a basketball player.Hulls grew up in Bloomington and like his father, J.C., is a stand-out player for the Panthers. After an impressive showing at an Amateur Athletic Union event in Pittsburgh last spring, many major programs quickly showed interest.Schools such as Duke and Stanford were checking him out, and both IU and Purdue offered him scholarships within a 24-hour period in early May.On May 20, Hulls announced he was going to play for IU. He signed his national letter of intent in November, becoming the first South player to do so since Chris Lawson in 1989.Today, the 6-foot, 170-pound guard is a regular behind the bench or north basket at IU home games. Though he admits it is frustrating seeing his future teammates struggle despite their hard work, it’s only because he is used to winning.Hulls has played on successful Indiana Elite AAU teams as he also helped South reach the Indiana Class 4A semi-state game during his freshman and sophomore years. Heading into Friday’s game at Perry Meridian, South is 17-0 and ranked first in the state and No. 15 nationally, according to USA Today. Nine of the team’s wins have come by 30 or more points, and not one has come by fewer than 15.For the senior guard, who shares point guard duties with sophomore Darwin “Dee” Davis, it is state title or bust.“I hate to lose,” he said. “That’s all I can really think about. I won’t settle for anything less than winning state.”While his scoring numbers are down from last year, he is still filling up the stat sheet.“His game speaks for itself,” Turner said. “He goes out and plays, keeps his mouth shut and does a heck of a job passing, scoring, dribbling, rebounding – plays defense well. He does it all, and without him we wouldn’t be nearly as high as what we are (ranked) right now.”Early last week, Hulls said he was averaging about 15 points, four or five rebounds, four or five assists and two or three steals a game. That was before he exploded for 30 points, seven rebounds, three steals and three assists against Warren Central last Saturday.But the numbers don’t matter to him or to his teammates.“When we play good together, we don’t really care who gets all the credit as long as we win,” Hulls said. “When we’re playing hard, we’re hard to beat.”But so is another upcoming foe for South. Should the Panthers win Friday, they will improve to 18-0, setting the stage for their toughest challenge to date.On Saturday, No. 4 Detroit Country Day will make the trip from Michigan to Southern Indiana, where two of the nation’s top five teams will square off in front of a sold-out crowd.The visiting Yellowjackets are 18-0 and will bring a wealth of future Division I talent, including highly touted junior Ray McCallum Jr., the son of former IU assistant coach Ray McCallum, Sr.Hulls said he is looking forward to proving that he can play against top talent.“I really can’t wait for that game, and I like the challenge,” he said. “It’s always a good thing to play against better competition to really see how good you can be.”Personal stats aside, Hulls, as always, just wants to win. Though he knows he can’t take down Detroit Country Day without his teammates, they also know they can’t do it without him.“I know he’s going to make his presence felt, whether it’s getting on the floor for a loose ball or hitting a shot or taking someone off the dribble or making a nice pass to somebody,” Turner said. “It’s not going to take one guy; it’s going to take all of us. That’s what he does, he gets all five players involved in the game, and he does a great job of it. His presence will be felt.” Bragging rights on the line for two top-5 teamsFriday’s game between Bloomington High School South and Perry Meridian is a classic trap game for the Panthers, with Detroit Country Day on deck. South (17-0), ranked No. 5 nationally according to USA Today, will take on the No. 4 Yellowjackets (18-0) at 4:30 p.m Saturday at South.“We’re all excited. We’re all pumped up for that game,” South sophomore Spencer Turner said. “It should be awesome.”South starts seniors Jordan Hulls and Chaz Cooper, junior Erik Fromm and sophomores Turner and Dee Davis.The Yellowjackets, meanwhile, have a star-studded lineup that includes at least five future Division I athletes. The backcourt consists of point guard Ray McCallum Jr. the No. 10 junior according to ESPN.com, as well as future Michigan State wide receiver Bennie Fowler.Yellowjacket small forward Jordan Dumars, son of NBA legend Joe Dumars, will play basketball at the University of South Florida next year, while 6-foot-7 forward Donnovan Kirk will be down Interstate-75 at the University of Miami (Fla.). DaShonte Riley, a 6-foot-10 center, is still open after decommitting from Georgetown in November.Hulls said there are very few public schools ranked nationally, so he hopes he and his teammates can prove how good they are. “It’s just a time for us to show how good we can be and it’s going to be a good challenge for us,” he said. “And playing against Ray will be fun because we play on the same AAU team and, obviously, he went to North last year. That will be exciting to play against him because we’re good buddies.”
(02/18/09 11:34pm)
At 6:00 p.m. on ESPNU, the McDonald's All-American Game rosters were revealed. Despite hopes that Christian Watford, Maurice Creek, Derek Elston or Jordan Hulls might be selected, there will be no future Hoosiers for IU fans to watch on April 1.
(02/11/09 8:55pm)
As I mentioned last night on the live game blog, Bobby Capobianco became Loveland High School's all-time scoring leader in a 50-45 loss to Wilmington High School. He surspassed the 1,403-point total of former Northern Kentucky University (DII) standout Kevin Schappell.
(02/09/09 9:10pm)
All six members of the Class of 2009 are McDonald's All-America nominees. Here is the full list of the hundreds of boys and girls high school standouts nominated.
(01/31/09 2:02pm)
Last night, three of IU's Class of 2009 recruits were in action, and all three had good offensive numbers.
(01/27/09 5:47am)
Check out the feature story on Maurice Creek running in today's paper about how Creek found success on the basketball court with help from his stepfather, despite the absence of his biological father.
(01/27/09 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Michael Morgan has always been there for his stepson Maurice Creek. They bonded through basketball early on, whether it was Morgan doing drills with Creek out on “the hill,” watching him play at the elementary school or pitting him against older kids at the local rec center. “If it weren’t for him working me out, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Creek said in a phone interview last week. Creek eventually blossomed into a can’t-miss prospect, currently a top 60 recruit according to recruiting Web sites Rivals.com and Scout.com.Two years ago, the four-star recruit averaged about 29 points per game at Oxon Hill High School in Maryland. Then he took his game to South Kent Prep School in Connecticut, where he averaged 21.5 points, four rebounds and five assists as a junior. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard has similar numbers this year, but the school has again changed – this time at prep school power Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. Next year, the 19-year-old will continue his basketball career at IU, where he said he ultimately hopes to become one of the program’s greatest.Despite all of Creek’s basketball accomplishments, what makes Morgan most proud is how his stepson adapted to him “being a disciplinarian and being on top of him from day one.” “Maurice had a tough upbringing as far as with him and his real father,” Morgan said. “With his real father basically stepping out of his life, that was rough on him, and it affected him for a while ... Every child wants to be with their parent. That didn’t happen, and for him it was crushing.”Though it wasn’t easy on Creek, he doesn’t dwell much on the past.“When they told me the truth, yeah, I cried a couple of nights, but that’s how life is sometimes,” he said.Fortunately for Creek, Morgan stepped into his life at a young age. He acted as a father figure to him from the beginning, even years before he married Creek’s mother, Pammy Morgan.But along with his stepfather, something else changed Creek’s life for the better: basketball. “If I didn’t have ball right now, I don’t know where I’d be,” Creek said. “I’d probably be on the streets somewhere messing with these other kids, acting up and stuff like that. I’m glad I have this sport in my life because without this sport and without my stepfather pushing me, I’d probably be another knucklehead out on the street doing stupid stuff.”Instead of the streets, Creek is at Hargrave, where he is looking to finish out a great season and academic year with the necessary test scores to qualify to compete for the Hoosiers. From there, Creek is expected to be one of the major players in IU’s rebuilding process. Though IU coach Tom Crean has called Creek a “prolific shooter,” he’s not a one-dimensional player.“He’s developing a pull-up game, and as his ball-handling catches up with his ability to shoot the basketball, he will be an outstanding guard,” Crean said in a statement following Creek’s official signing in November. Creek said he is enjoying playing at Hargrave, though his scoring numbers are down since his days at Oxon Hill when he was the team’s leading scorer. Now he plays with fellow four-star recruits Chris Braswell, Freddie Riley and Deshawn Painter, among others.“I had to change coming to Hargrave because I wanted to win games,” Creek said. “When I was the leading scorer, we won games, but we also didn’t win games. Now we’re winning games. We’ve lost only one game this year.”Though Creek is away at school in Virginia, he and his stepfather stay in touch.“I talk to Maurice every day, a few times a day sometimes,” Morgan said. “I just try to keep him motivated as far as schoolwork. The basketball is going to take care of itself.”But Creek said he isn’t having trouble staying motivated in the classroom.“Academically, it’s just great,” he said. “I’ve got a 3.6 right now, as we speak.”Unfortunately, grades and schoolwork haven’t always come that easily for him. With his biological father going in and out of his life and then disappearing altogether, Creek struggled in the classroom, Morgan said. While Creek has yet to receive a qualifying standardized test score – which paired with his cumulative GPA will determine his eligibility for next year – he said he “will be in an Indiana uniform.” “I’m getting closer and closer by the day, and it’s not going to be long before I get my score,” he said. “Like I said, having problems when you’re younger ... I was doing OK in school, but I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing, like how I’m doing now.”If everything goes as expected, Creek will join the team and enroll in classes this summer. He knows there are high expectations for him, but he is looking forward to a great freshman year on and off the court.“I just want to come in there and what I do best and just go in there and get my grades, maintain those grades and, you know, have a great year and be a vocal leader,” he said. Though Creek makes it sound easy, growing up without his biological father, of course, was not. Lucky for him, Morgan always treated him as his own son. “Obviously my father wasn’t responsible enough to take care of me, so I’ve got my stepfather to take care of me,” Creek said. “And look where I’m at now.”
(01/26/09 1:43am)
Though the Hoosiers didn't quite "Ground the Gophers" as hoped, IU coach Tom Crean did manage to round up several in-state recruits for visits today.
(01/12/09 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>LOVELAND, Ohio – Bobby Capobianco is used to being on the move. He was born in Orlando, Fla., but has since lived in six other states. In August 2005, his family moved to Loveland, just outside of Cincinnati. Prior to Ohio, Capobianco called Greensboro, N.C., his home.“I lived there for six years, which is the longest I have ever lived anywhere,” he said. Capobianco has been a welcome addition to Loveland, and he will likely end his four-year varsity basketball career as Loveland High School’s all-time leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker. He’s already two-thirds of the way there, just 131 points short of that feat with 11 regular season games to go.But he isn’t getting too comfortable in Ohio either. Ten days after graduating from high school, the IU recruit will begin summer classes at IU and officially join the basketball team.The senior said he “literally got into (his) house three days before school started freshman year,” so he isn’t bothered by yet another abrupt move. “I’d leave after this interview if I could,” he said in a sit-down during winter break. “I’m ready.”Though he calls his former North Carolina home “Basketball Heaven,” there has never been any doubt these last several months how much he is looking forward to putting on an IU jersey. “One of the things that really stands out about Bobby is how much he loves Indiana, and we are excited to have him,” IU coach Tom Crean said in a statement following Capobianco’s official signing in November.But IU was never a likely destination for the three-star forward, who says he is 6-foot-9 in shoes and between 235 and 240 pounds, even though he has been playing in the Bloomington-based Indiana Elite AAU program. “I had always been around IU, and I thought it was a great place,” Capobianco said.But former IU coach Kelvin Sampson never called. Capobianco was, however, actively recruited by Crean and assistant coach Tim Buckley while the two were still at Marquette.But Capobianco dreamed of attending a large school and playing in front of his parents, something Marquette couldn’t offer.After Sampson left IU, Capobianco and his father joked about Crean taking the head coaching vacancy, despite the coach’s name being virtually non-existent in talks about the next IU coach.“My dad was like, ‘There is no way,’ but then all of a sudden he got the job, and about a week later I got a call,” Capobianco said. “At that point I was set. I knew I wanted to play for him.”On April 16, Capobianco gave his verbal commitment to Crean. On Nov. 13, he faxed in his letter of intent, officially making him a Hoosier.“The day I signed that letter and faxed it back, that just kind of showed that all of that was worth it,” Capobianco said. “But at the same time it was kind of like, I have that much more to do.”Capobianco’s father, Bob Capobianco, said everything that happened in early April “just all fit together perfectly.” “I would say that I can’t think of a place that would be as good a fit,” he said. “I think his game certainly fits the Big Ten – it’s physical, hard-nosed. I think that’s one aspect of his game that fits it to a tee.” The future Hoosier says he will do whatever is asked of him next year, whether that is to score or simply play defense and rebound. He’s also not afraid to hit the baseline. “I’m looking forward to the day in and the day out, going back to my dorm room and passing out because I’m that tired,” he said. “I’m looking forward to running until I can’t anymore. I think that will be awesome.”Though his name won’t be on the IU roster for several months, Capobianco indicated that down the road he’d like his legacy as an IU basketball player to be defined by his toughness. “If people are going to remember something, I want them to remember that I was a guy who never got outworked – that I was out there, whether someone was more athletic than me, more talented than me, whatever it might be, that I’m going to outwork them and I’m going to beat them just because (of my) will,” he said. “That’s something I’d like to be remembered as – a guy who just gave it his all, all the time, no matter the situation.”Even when his playing days are through, Capobianco still plans to be out on the hardwood. “I know that I want to go back into coaching,” he said. “I’ve always thought that my mental aspect of basketball has been my best feature ever since I started playing.”Though he is unsure what he will study at IU, he already has some teachers who can help reach his dream job. “I think whether it’s Indiana, whether it’s Tom Crean, he will certainly have great coaching and great mentoring to help him if he chooses to follow that career path and become a college coach after he finishes out,” Bob Capobianco said.If there is one thing his college coaches won’t have to teach him, it’s how to deal with moving all over the country. He’s got that down.
(01/12/09 4:29am)
It's quotes like that, above, that make it enjoyable to interview IU recruit Bobby Capobianco. I have spoken with him several times, and great quotes continue to roll off his tongue. I saw him play twice over winter break, but also sat down with him for a 30-minute in-person interview. Here is the article that ran in today's issue of the IDS.
(01/10/09 12:24pm)
This comes from IDS photographer James Brosher who made the trip to see IU recruit Derek Elston (above) in action yesterday:
(01/05/09 2:00am)
Stephan Van Treese (2009) and Justin Martin (2010) are off to Louisville, and five-star recruit Dominique Ferguson is headed to Kentucky in 2010. The Cardinals topped the Wildcats 74-71 earlier today, but they won more than just the game.
(01/04/09 5:11pm)
IDS photographer James Brosher saw sophomore point guard and IU recruit Jeremiah Davis in action yesterday. Brosher, who shot the above photograph, put together this write-up about the game:
(01/03/09 1:03am)
Former IU guard Armon Bassett has enrolled at Ohio University, as announced by Ohio coach John Groce. It has been an interesting last several months for the Terre Haute native, who went from IU star to ex-Hoosier to UAB transfer to former UAB player in the last several months.
(01/01/09 4:41pm)
Eric Gordon is just one of the many recent basketball stars to come out of the state of Indiana. Now, the current Los Angeles Clippers guard is trying to pave the way for more Hoosier State natives hoping to follow in his footsteps.
(12/31/08 5:19am)
Tuesday night I checked out Bobby Capbobianco (as did IU assistant Tim Buckley, see above) as the No. 7 Loveland Tigers traveled a few minutes up the road to take on the No. 4 Mason Comets in a battle between two former conference rivals from Greater Cincinnati.
(12/20/08 4:24pm)
Bobby Capobianco, Loveland (OH) - Loveland won its third straight game on Friday, defeating Anderson 62-47 behind 25 points from Capobianco. The Tigers fell to 0-2 in Capobianco's debut on Dec. 9, but the IU recruit has led Loveland to a 3-2 record, scoring 17, 18 and 25 points, respectively, in the Tigers' last three contests.