Stars staying home: A resurfacing trend?
ROSEMONT, Ill. — A heralded in-state basketball recruit breaks a trend and stays home to help rebuild a once-proud Big Ten program.
Sound familiar? Cody Zeller and Adam Woodbury are joined at the hip.
Zeller, a 6-11 forward from Washington, Ind., signed with the Hoosiers last fall and is now a freshman.
“I don’t think there’s any question that it was huge,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said at the Big Ten’s annual media day Thursday. “You look at the day he signed and just the effect that it had nationally, just having him, put it in a little bit of perspective. Having him made it that much easier for other guys to want to be a part of it.”
Crean, who has gone 6-25, 10-21 and 12-20 in his first three seasons at Indiana, has used Zeller’s signing to build some momentum. He will sign a five-man class next month that is currently ranked No. 4 nationally by ESPN.
Woodbury, a 7-foot-1 center from Sioux City, spurned North Carolina and committed to Iowa in September, and he’ll sign a national letter of intent with the Hawkeyes next month. He’ll be part of a five-man recruiting class currently ranked 16th by ESPN.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, trying to rebuild a program that has suffered through four consecutive losing seasons for the first time in school history, can’t comment on Woodbury until he receives a signed letter of intent on Nov. 9. But some television analysts on hand at Thursday’s media day said it will send a message to recruits much like Indiana’s signing of Zeller did.
“One, it validates why they got a guy like Fran, because he can recruit,” said Jimmy Jackson, a former all-American at Ohio State who now works for the Big Ten Network. “When you can grab a guy like that, it says a lot about where his program is going. Because a few years ago, nothing against any of the other coaches, would he have gone there?Now he’ll be able to go out and get the players, the name brands, that will help reestablish the program that Iowans used to know”
Signing a player like Zeller or Woodbury is a plus for the talent they bring to the floor. It’s considered a victory in the perception department as well.
“Absolutely,” said Iowa native Shon Morris, who played at Northwestern and also works for the Big Ten Network. “The way the world has become, recruiting is now a cottage industry. Guys are three stars or four stars, and I have no idea what that means. But people follow that stuff. When a kid could have gone anywhere and he chooses to stay home, I think that helps the fan base and maybe helps recruit some other kids who may be on the fence to come and play with a kid like that.”
Morris said that meeting expectations can be harder for a big kid than, say, a guard, and the adjustment period may take more time. But the game has already been won in the perception department.
“I think it’s really important from a basketball standpoint, but even more important from a non-basketball standpoint,” Morris said. “In both places, Iowa and Indiana, that’s the state franchise. That’s the thing people really follow. And to have a local kid stay home is really important.”
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball
