Indiana University Athletics
Coach Crean Talks About 2015 Recruiting Class
11/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2014
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BLOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head coach Tom Crean met with members of the media on Wednesday to talk about the members of the 2015 recruiting class that have signed National Letters of Intent to play basketball at Indiana starting in the Fall 2015.
The two players that have signed their NLI's are O.G. Anunoby (Jefferson City, Mo.) and Juwan Morgan (Waynesville, Mo.).
O.G. (Ogugua) Anunoby
6-7, 200 lbs
Guard/Forward
Jefferson City, Mo.
Jefferson City High School
Head Coach: Blair Thompson
AAU Team: Team Thad
AAU Coach: Norton Hurd
Anunoby is entering his senior season at Jefferson City (Mo.) High School and head coach Blair Thompson ... averaged 21.3 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game as a junior ... also shot 44 percent from behind the 3-point line during his junior season ... helped Jefferson City to a 15-12 record ... he was named Missouri Basketball Association Class 5 All-State and second team all-state by the Missouri sportswriters and broadcasters following his junior season ... suffered a wrist injury in February 2014, ending his high school season and cutting short his ability to play on the AAU circuit ... played on Team Thad in AAU basketball ... his full first name is Ogugua ... father's name is also Ogugua ... has a sister, Lfeoma, and a brother, Olisa.
Juwan Morgan
6-7, 205 lbs
Forward
Waynesville, Mo.
Waynesville High School
Head Coach: Chris Pilz
AAU Team: MoKan Elite
AAU Coach: Rodney Perry
Morgan is in his senior year at Waynesville (Mo.) High School and head coach Chris Pilz ... ranked No. 89 by 247Sports Composite, No. 98 nationally by Scout.com and No. 105 nationally by Rivals.com ...consistently ranked as one of the top 20 power forwards in his recruiting class ... averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds as a junior ... guided his team to a No. 1 ranking in the largest class in the state ... garnered all-state honors from the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association as a junior ... named first team all-state by the Missouri sporstwriters and broadcasters ... playing for MoKan Elite on the AAU circuit, he posted 11.2 points and 6.9 rebounds while shooting 73 percent from the floor in EYBL action ... also added 31 steals and 26 blocked shots in 21 EYBL games ... parents are Darren and Lynn.
Below is a transcript of what Coach Crean had to say about the two signees:
Head Coach Tom Crean
Opening Statement:
COACH CREAN: First thing, with our recruiting, now that we have the guys in, or have the letters in, we're excited about these two because they really epitomize the versatility, the multidimensionability, the two-way player mindset that you want to have, and they bring size. They bring size. They bring length. They bring a tenaciousness. And most importantly, they bring a high level of improvement mindset. A high level of improvement mindset ability that they're already showing that we think will even be more so here.
With Juwan, Juwan has done nothing but get better. He's one of those young men that's a year round winner, which is what we don't want to get away from. He wins in the summer. He wins in the winter. Well-coached in both areas. And one of the great tributes to his improvement was him being named the most improved player in the EYBL. For those of you that follow that with any eyes whatsoever, you know how tough of an environment that is. That gets measured from spring through the summer, and there's a lot of really good players that participate in that. So for him to get that on that circuit was a big deal.
And what I like about him is that he's going to do whatever you ask him to do to win the game on both ends of the floor. I think he's going to be very versatile in the way that he can defend different people. I think he's going to be able to get out and guard on the perimeter. He's a very good post defender, very good at defender ball screens, and I think he's got a -- I think he's got that leadership ability that you want defensively to help hold his teammates accountable, and he'll have to grow into that in college, but I think he's shown that already.
Offensively, he can not only score at the rim. He can not only run the court, but he can stretch the defense, and I think he'll become a consistent three-point shooter over time. But I also like that, as a bigger player, he can really drive the ball, and we were able to see that improvement level in him. And I think, as he gains strength and confidence in his ball handling, he's going to get better and better.
But he's an outstanding young man, great family. I mean, absolutely great family. And just when you're around him, you enjoy it. He's got a very infectious personality.
O.G. Anunoby, or O.G., as everybody refers to him, is a guy that, as the story goes, we went to Atlanta during an early tournament, and we were watching other players, and we were watching a couple other guys on his team, Team Thad, this summer, and I was just enthralled with his ability defensively, especially on the ball and the press, the ground that he covered.
And the crazy thing is the original program that we bought, he wasn't in it, and he wasn't listed. So we didn't know if we were watching a junior, a senior. I just knew that I was watching a guy that had tremendous length, covered a lot of ground, ran the court extremely hard, and played with a really great spirit.
We later found out, after the game obviously, who he was, followed him some more that weekend, and got on the phone with him. And when he was done, realized that he had connections to Bloomington. He had been to Bloomington. Got to know about his background, got to know about his family. Got to know about having a brother in the NFL, and just really, really started the process in a big way.
But I was -- we were into him before we even knew his name, and I think that's rare because you buy these books and there's so much information there, and all of a sudden, there's one where his name's not in it.
To us, when we started to watch film, then we started to see his versatility, and he was a very good three-point shooter as a junior. One of the open gyms that I went to when we were still recruiting him, he was ridiculous in the pick and pop. He probably made seven or eight threes just in the open gym that I was at, upsetting screens, stepping back, spotting up. So he's really one of those players that he's just going to get better and better and better.
I like the way he was coached in the summertime by the Team Thad people, and I don't know his coaches real well, but I like what I've seen on film, and we're looking forward to following him this year. He brings tremendous length. He's very unassuming in the sense that I don't think he has any idea how good he's going to be. I would say that about both of them. I would say both of them are going to really, really get better, which is exactly what we've tried to build this program on.
This class, to me, reminds me, with two in it right now, of the class that we had with Victor and Will early on. Nobody really knew a lot about them, but we felt really strong about both of them. Now they're going to have to come in this gym and spend 365 days a year in it, just like Will and Victor did, to gain that kind of ability here at Indiana. But that's the kind of upside we're talking about.
O.G. is going to be -- he can cover ground on the glass. He can cover ground defensively. I think he's -- I think, like both of them, they're going to have to get better at guarding quickness and speed at the collegiate game, which most do, but we try to spend time at that. Obviously, after the other night, we've got to spend even more time at that. But I think that they'll be able to become what we want them to be on both ends of the court with a ton of upside.
Again, O.G., tremendously well raised. Father is a teacher at a university. Love his family. And I mean, that's what we want. You want to recruit year round winners. You want to recruit people that have family values. And then you start to look at the athletic upside, the competitive upside, the intelligence upside, the character/work ethic upside, and if you can answer -- if you can answer yes to those, then you feel pretty good about it, and we feel really good about that.
But we've got to stay really, really true to making sure we're bringing in young people that fit what we're trying to do in all areas, on and off the court, and at the same time can come in here and help us win a lot of games and be leaders on and off the floor. They're both outstanding students. So we feel really good about that. We feel great about it.
And I love their size, and I think both of them could potentially even get bigger. I think O.G. is bigger since we even started recruiting him. Started recruiting him in the summer. But you cannot teach that length. Length is such a very important part of anything you're trying to do offensively or defensively, and every little bit matters. I mean, right now on our team, we're blocking out better, but we're not getting as many 50-50 balls. Well, length and tenacity have something to do with that. Those guys will certainly help in many, many areas.
Q. What's the wingspan of the signees?
COACH CREAN: O.G.'s wingspan is almost 7'2", and his height is 6'7". And Juwan has got a wing span of 6'11", and his height is 6'7-1/2".
Q. With Juwan, when you talk about him making an impact early, how much do you anticipate them impacting their positions?
COACH CREAN: Again, they're forwards. They're going to be able to do a lot of different things. I think a lot of it will come down to what kind of summers they have and the strength of that. That will be important. They're both pretty natural rebounders. They cover a lot of ground. So important for bigger players is that they have short space quickness. And I think O.G., when he continues to build his awareness of what he's capable of, I think you'll see even more there.
Juwan is pretty -- Juwan sees a lot of different things. He's done a pretty good job of help side defense, things of that nature. So all those things play into it. So I would anticipate both of them coming in here when that time comes and challenging to play. No question about it.
Q. Do you more of a mindset of looking for guys with defensive potential?
COACH CREAN: I think we always do. I think we always want to have the defensive potential. Last year certainly, there was such a need for the shooting, right? But at the same time, Rob Johnson -- and, again, we're not coming off a great game by any stretch with the freshmen, but James Blackmon has made tremendous strides defensively. Robert Johnson came in here being a very good defender. Max wants to be a good defender. They realize -- it just takes a bit, once they get in here, that if you want to be successful, you've got to play both ends of the floor at an extremely high level.
And the other thing that's huge -- we're going to talk about this when we're talking about our team -- is young players, especially ones that have scored a lot of points -- and this is where Victor and Will were different. They are not used to having to get their energy and get their aggressiveness from the defensive side of the court because scoring is so easy for them and shooting is so easy for them. When you get to this level, if you're going to keep making steps as a player at this level and want a chance to play above and beyond, the quicker you learn that your energy on the offensive end will come from your defensive abilities and your ability to get stops, be a team defender, make plays, get deflections, get steals, all those different things, that your energy just derives from that because it makes everybody else on your team so energetic.
When guys learn that -- and we're in the process of that. I think our film showed the other night that we weren't there as much, but there were certain times in that game, especially later in the first half, our break was incredible because our defensive energy was so strong. And, again, it's a work in progress right now, but younger players learn that.
So in answer to your question, I think they come with that, but, again, we're not looking -- we're not trying to recruit role players that just play one end of the court or situational players that just do one or two things on that end of the court. We're looking for guys that can be well rounded, complete players. And because of their size and length, we knew going into this class getting length was going to be really, really important for us. Does that make sense?
Q. Juwan won the most improved player. I think it was pretty clear from Sacramento on that there was improvement. Were there a couple things maybe that stuck out more as far as the way he defended? What things that you saw that really got better? Or what you saw in him?
COACH CREAN: They won big games. They won the games against the teams that might have had more name guys, higher ranked guys, more notoriety, big men. I think he rose to that occasion. So I can't give you one specific occasion because there were numerous occasions. I think that's the biggest thing.
Again, ratings are nice. Those things are cool, but they don't win you any games when you get out into the mix. I'm not sure what Eastern Washington guys were ranked, but those three of them were really, really good the other night. And the bottom line is it's like we say all the time, it doesn't matter where you're ranked because, in the last 13 years, only 27 percent of the consensus top 100 have played an NBA game.
So, again, they're fun. They're fun to talk about. They're fun to digest. I think it's a lot more about what the upside is and what they're capable of when they get there. Sometimes you hit. Sometimes you miss. Sometimes you hit and miss on guys that are highly ranked. But you try to do your best at looking at all the different traits where there's upside. And if there's upside, there's a chance for them to get a lot better in all those areas. I think that's the case with those two.
