 Coming quickly on the heels of signing G Devan Dumes for the 2008 season and F/C Bobby Capobianco for the 2009 season, Indiana has signed the top player in Alabama in 6-4 guard Nick Williams.
Indiana University men's basketball coach Tom Crean
has announced that Nick Williams, a 6-5, 205-lb. combo guard from
LeFlore High School in Mobile, Alabama has signed a Big Ten Tender of
Athletic Financial Aid to attend IU and play basketball for the
Hoosiers beginning next fall. He was named Alabama High School Player
of the Year earlier this spring.
"Nick really addresses a need for us and gives us a big, strong
presence in the backcourt," said Crean. "He is a winner who is tough
and physical and he boasts a work ethic that has helped him improve his
game in a variety of ways each year. He has done a wonderful job at
making the transition as a perimeter player after beginning his career
as an inside performer. He comes from an outstanding high school
program and has been well coached throughout his career."
Williams chose Indiana over Arkansas, Kansas State, Wake
Forest, Georgia Tech and Alabama. He had originally signed a national
letter of intent with Marquette earlier this fall, but was let out of
his commitment when Coach Crean took over the IU program.
This seems to be another quality signing by Coach Crean as he brings in another player who is not only a quality basketball player but a quality person. Williams is a hard worker on and off the court and should help bring pride to the IU uniform. Supposedly Arkansas came in second and their coach, John Pelphry, had been recruiting Williams for quite some time so the fact that Crean came in at the last second and signed Williams should be noted.
On the floor....we'll see what happens with Williams after he has some time to workout with Crean. Right now he has a pretty good jump shot and plays good defense but struggles to find his own shot off the dribble. If IU goes with the drive and kick-type offense he should be able to fit in if he makes open shots. If he's relied upon to do the bulk of scoring on his own for IU initially, we could be in trouble. All of this could change over time as Crean has been known to get the most talent out of his players.
For those of you into national rankings, Williams is the 34th rated SG in the 2008 class by Rivals.com.
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It's Indiana.
Let me ask you this Jackie....how is Skiles going to coach both IU and the Milwaukee Bucks?
Crean taking players right out of Mike Davis' back yard! Ha!
I'll tell you this, as a Bulls fan, I'd rather be a Bucks fan right now than a Bulls fan.
Can you really say that Crean plucked him away from Pelphrey and Arkansas? I mean, he had originally signed to go to Marquette, and then backed out when Crean came to Bloomington, and then re-signed with Crean. Doesn't sound like Pelphrey (or anyone else) was that close in consideration.
Just my $0.02.
Well, I was going through his recruiting timeline and just about two weeks ago he was very solid on Arkansas after a visit to the school and about 50/50 with IU at the time. Pelphrey used to be the UAB coach, before Davis, and had been recruiting Williams since HS so he actually might have had more time put in on Williams than Crean.
If you are a kid and you have a chance to go to Arkansas, which is a nice school, or IU, with the new coach and tradition, what do you pick? I pick IU.
Was Pelphrey the coach at UAB before Mike Anderson? I know Anderson immediately preceded Davis at UAB before he took the Mizzou job. Pelphrey was at South Alabama prior to the Razorback gig.
You are right it was South Alabama not UAB. I get all those Alabama schools mixed up for some reason.