Stepfather became part of recruit’s success

Michael Morgan has always been there for his stepson Maurice Creek.

They bonded through basketball early on, whether it was Morgan doing drills with Creek out on “the hill,” watching him play at the elementary school or pitting him against older kids at the local rec center.

“If it weren’t for him working me out, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Creek said in a phone interview last week.

Creek eventually blossomed into a can’t-miss prospect, currently a top 60 recruit according to recruiting Web sites Rivals.com and Scout.com.

Two years ago, the four-star recruit averaged about 29 points per game at Oxon Hill High School in Maryland. Then he took his game to South Kent Prep School in Connecticut, where he averaged 21.5 points, four rebounds and five assists as a junior.
 
The 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard has similar numbers this year, but the school has again changed – this time at prep school power Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. Next year, the 19-year-old will continue his basketball career at IU, where he said he ultimately hopes to become one of the program’s greatest.

Despite all of Creek’s basketball accomplishments, what makes Morgan most proud is how his stepson adapted to him “being a disciplinarian and being on top of him from day one.”

“Maurice had a tough upbringing as far as with him and his real father,” Morgan said.
“With his real father basically stepping out of his life, that was rough on him, and it affected him for a while ... Every child wants to be with their parent. That didn’t happen, and for him it was crushing.”

Though it wasn’t easy on Creek, he doesn’t dwell much on the past.

“When they told me the truth, yeah, I cried a couple of nights, but that’s how life is sometimes,” he said.

Fortunately for Creek, Morgan stepped into his life at a young age. He acted as a father figure to him from the beginning, even years before he married Creek’s mother, Pammy Morgan.

But along with his stepfather, something else changed Creek’s life for the better: basketball.

“If I didn’t have ball right now, I don’t know where I’d be,” Creek said. “I’d probably be on the streets somewhere messing with these other kids, acting up and stuff like that. I’m glad I have this sport in my life because without this sport and without my stepfather pushing me, I’d probably be another knucklehead out on the street doing stupid stuff.”

Instead of the streets, Creek is at Hargrave, where he is looking to finish out a great season and academic year with the necessary test scores to qualify to compete for the Hoosiers. From there, Creek is expected to be one of the major players in IU’s rebuilding process.

Though IU coach Tom Crean has called Creek a “prolific shooter,” he’s not a one-dimensional player.

“He’s developing a pull-up game, and as his ball-handling catches up with his ability to shoot the basketball, he will be an outstanding guard,” Crean said in a statement following Creek’s official signing in November.

Creek said he is enjoying playing at Hargrave, though his scoring numbers are down since his days at Oxon Hill when he was the team’s leading scorer. Now he plays with fellow four-star recruits Chris Braswell, Freddie Riley and Deshawn Painter, among others.

“I had to change coming to Hargrave because I wanted to win games,” Creek said. “When I was the leading scorer, we won games, but we also didn’t win games. Now we’re winning games. We’ve lost only one game this year.”

Though Creek is away at school in Virginia, he and his stepfather stay in touch.

“I talk to Maurice every day, a few times a day sometimes,” Morgan said. “I just try to keep him motivated as far as schoolwork. The basketball is going to take care of itself.”

But Creek said he isn’t having trouble staying motivated in the classroom.

“Academically, it’s just great,” he said. “I’ve got a 3.6 right now, as we speak.”

Unfortunately, grades and schoolwork haven’t always come that easily for him. With his biological father going in and out of his life and then disappearing altogether, Creek struggled in the classroom, Morgan said.

While Creek has yet to receive a qualifying standardized test score – which paired with his cumulative GPA will determine his eligibility for next year – he said he “will be in an Indiana uniform.”

“I’m getting closer and closer by the day, and it’s not going to be long before I get my score,” he said. “Like I said, having problems when you’re younger ... I was doing OK in school, but I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing, like how I’m doing now.”

If everything goes as expected, Creek will join the team and enroll in classes this summer. He knows there are high expectations for him, but he is looking forward to a great freshman year on and off the court.

“I just want to come in there and what I do best and just go in there and get my grades, maintain those grades and, you know, have a great year and be a vocal leader,” he said.

Though Creek makes it sound easy, growing up without his biological father, of course, was not. Lucky for him, Morgan always treated him as his own son.

“Obviously my father wasn’t responsible enough to take care of me, so I’ve got my stepfather to take care of me,” Creek said. “And look where I’m at now.”