Ohio junior will join Hoosiers in 2009

Bobby Capobianco has long wanted to play for Tom Crean.\n“I was probably going to play for him at Marquette,” the high school junior said Thursday.\nWhen IU hired Crean a little more than two weeks ago, Capobianco’s interest in the Hoosiers shot up, and on Wednesday night, the 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward spoke with Crean and verbally committed to play for the Hoosiers.\n“With him (at IU), it seemed like a perfect situation for me,” Capobianco said.\nCapobianco has lived in Loveland, Ohio, for just two years, but as a sophomore last year, the big man quickly emerged as one of the top prep players in the Cincinnati area.\nThis season, Capobianco averaged 20.9 points, 11.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game for the Loveland Tigers, according to the Fort Ancient Valley Conference Web site. The junior also hit 31.2 percent of his 3-point shots, and shot nearly 75 percent from the free-throw line.\n“I’m a big guy who can play inside and out,” Capobianco said.\nCapobianco, a three-star recruit, according to the Scout.com recruiting service, is the second player slated to join the Hoosiers in the 2009-10 season. Derek \nElston, Scout’s No. 57-ranked recruit, verbally committed to play for Kelvin Sampson and the Hoosiers in September, but Capobianco is Crean’s first pick-up at IU.\nCrean, hot on the recruiting trail for both next season and years to come, will welcome Capobianco in Bloomington next Tuesday night for a visit, the player said.\nCapobianco chose IU over West Virginia and St. Louis, but he said he also had interest from Boston College, Virginia, Bowling Green, Iowa and Miami (Ohio).\nJohn Decker of HoosierNation.com said Capobianco’s greatest strength is rebounding, while he can also run the floor well. Decker said with his size and speed, Capobianco has the ability to both defend centers, and play out on the wing.\n“I would think the way college basketball is today, he might be a little more of a four (power forward),” Decker said in a phone interview. \nTim Partin, Capobianco’s coach at Loveland, said some of his star player’s other strengths are his good hands, his passing abilities and his understanding of the game. When he first arrived at Loveland, Partin said, Capobianco was “just a big kid,” but he has become a much better athlete.\n“He’s put a lot of work into his game,” Partin said.\nCapobianco, who plays AAU basketball for the Bloomington-based Indiana Elite team, said he has played at Assembly Hall “at least 15 to 20 times.” Not once, however, has the forward played with the end zone bleachers out or with more than 17,000 fans on hand.\n“I know he’s really excited,” Partin said.