Jobe, Hulls, McGee, & Gladness

The Book on Jobe:
He big. He tall. He never seen basketball.

This has to be the most interesting signings so far. 7 feet tall, 255 pounds. Yet, in JuCo ball, he was only able to average 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 block. I guess the good news is that he only played 13 minutes per game.

Of course, his JuCo coach said that the JuCo game is up and down and Tijan will be better suited for D-1 ball. But that's what coaches say, they always stick up for their guys. Let's not kid ourselves, this is a big-time project.

But I still like the signing. IU desperately needed size and Jobe provides size even if he provides almost nothing else. Crean is big on player development, so maybe he can turn him into a contributing player. At the very least, you hope he can get some rebounds and block some shots. And with next year's team, who cares, just throw him out there for the entertainment value.

This will be interesting to watch. Generally speaking, you expect a JuCo player's numbers to go down when moving to D-1, but I actually think Jobe will contribute and put up some better numbers than 3 & 3. Like some of the emails today, at 7-0 tall, it's hard to be out there and not get rebounds or blocks or the occasional basket.

Another good thing about this signing is that it sounds like it is another high character guy, so that's been a constant theme for the Crean recruits and that's exactly what we need.

Another nice thing is that he is coming in as a junior. So, if he is an unsuccessful project, his scholarship will open up in 2 years and it balances out the classes a little bit.

Ok, this just came to me and I think it paints the perfect picture.....I think of Jobe in the same way that "The Chief" played basketball in the motion picture classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".




Jordan Hulls:
Hulls is a 6-0 point guard out of Bloomington South for the '09 class. I think this is a great signing. He looks like a Hoosier basketball player. He was also being recruited heavily by Purdue and had interest from Duke and Stanford as well. His offensive skills look very good -- dribbling, passing, and shooting. The question will be his quickness, strength, and whether he can hold his own on the defensive end.

Again, a very high character kid. I think I read he has a 4.0 grade point average. A few weeks ago, IU was in desperate need of a point guard. Now, suddenly that position looks pretty good with Verdell Jones in the '08 class and Hulls in the '09 class.

Click here to follow a link to some highlights of Hulls at Jam Fest.

Note: the last IU player out of Bloomington South was Chris Lawson. Yuck.

Brandon McGee:
I think this is another good move by Crean. The message is crystal clear -- there will be guidelines and rules to follow both on and off the court, if you choose not to follow those guidelines and rules, you will no longer play basketball and Indiana University. In this case, it even sounded like Crean was working with McGee's high school coach and family, but it still didn't work out.

I tell you what, if Jordan Crawford survives all of this, I will have a lot of respect for him. If he survives, it will prove that he was doing the right things.

At this point, IU has lost approximately 85-90% of last year's production in almost every statistical category.

William Gladness:
On a sad note, William Gladness died this past week at 34 years of age. He died from a bacterial infection that was made worse because his spleen was removed after he was shot in high school. Gladness was a JuCo transfer into IU and averaged 8.2 ppg and 5.3 rpg in his 2 seasons in the cream and crimson.

Rest in peace, William.