IU gains 2011 basketball commitment

You don’t have to remind IU fans of some of the local talent that has gotten away in recent years. But don’t expect that to remain the status quo with Crean running the IU program. In fact, the second-year IU coach just reeled in his second in-state commitment for 2011 when Cicero native Austin Etherington gave his pledge to the Hoosiers on Monday.

Etherington, a four-star recruit and the No. 57 player in his class according to Scout.com, confirmed his commitment on Monday afternoon.

“I decided a couple a days ago that I was going to go to IU,” the 6-foot-6 Hamilton Heights junior said in a phone interview. “I talked to my family and they felt like it was the right place for me too. Today I called coach Crean and told him that I was coming to IU and he was really excited.”

With his commitment, Etherington became the second Indiana prospect to choose IU for 2011, following the lead of Arizona native Matt Carlino, whose family moved to Bloomington earlier this summer.

The 17-year-old said he knew choosing IU would allow his family to watch him play, something he said was very important to them.

“They said they would support me wherever I went, but I know that they really wanted me to be close so they could watch whenever they wanted to,” he said.

While Etherington said he has been to only “a couple of IU games,” the fans made a big impression on him last season, even though the Hoosiers won but a single Big Ten game.

“I can’t imagine how crazy it would be once they finally start getting a lot better,” he said.

Of course, IU is expected to be much better when Etherington is set to join the team in 2011, something that Crean has been telling recruits.

“Yeah, that’s what, always, Coach Crean kept preaching to me,” Etherington said, “saying that with the guys they have coming in, we’ll be the real deal (and) that we’ll hopefully have a chance at a national championship.”

At the It Takes 5ive AAU event in Cincinnati in early July, Etherington told the IDS he held scholarships offers from IU, Xavier, Butler and Oklahoma State.  

Since then, Etherington said both Notre Dame and Florida told him they would offer if he visited the respective campuses. But he didn’t need to visit either school, as he realized IU was the right fit for him.

While Etherington knew that waiting on IU too long could hurt his chances of a position still being available, he said it was “not why I went ahead and committed early.”

Though highly rated by Scout.com, Etherington only somewhat recently burst onto the recruiting scene, as microfracture surgery on his knee kept him off the court for well over a year.

“I had it two years ago, but I had to sit out a year and so I only played half the season in high school this year,” he said.

Etherington’s father, Brett, who played at Butler from 1987 to 1991, said they were told by the surgeon that he “shouldn’t have any more problems with it.”

“It was similar to what Greg Oden had gone through,” Brett Etherington said. “He just needed to have it repaired and they repaired it and he has not had problems with it. No pain, no swelling since he was released. I don’t see any reason it would be an issue for him.”  

The younger Etherington said his father is 6-foot-7, so he hopes he might grow a bit more. Should he get any taller, it might validate what he has been told about his potential to be like  6-foot-10 NBA forward and Crean’s former sharpshooter at Marquette, Steve Novak.

When asked about shooting 3-pointers, perhaps the biggest strength of his game, Etherington confirmed his love for the trey.

“Oh yeah, that’s my favorite thing to do,” he said.

In Cincinnati, it was clear that Etherington not only loved to shoot, but was athletic, saw the court well and could finish around the basket. Etherington then called himself “a two guard who can shoot,” but he knows he might play the small forward position in college.

“I think that I’ll be playing a little bit of both,” he said on Monday. “I do need to work on my ball handling a bit more to play the two as much as I can, but I know that I will get better at that and so I will be able to play both.”

He also mentioned defense as something he hopes to improve upon in the next two years, and he is already showing progress.

“He’s worked very hard on defense,” Brett Etherington said. “He proved that when we were out in Vegas. He guarded a lot of quick, smaller twos that he did just fine on. I was pleased with the way he performed out there.”

Though Etherington just committed on Monday, it didn’t take long for the 6-foot-6 guard/forward to try to talk AAU teammate Jeremiah Davis into choosing IU.

Davis, a 6-foot-4 guard and four-star recruit from Muncie, has received an offer from the Hoosiers and was frequently watched by IU coaches throughout the AAU season.  

“I actually talked to him today quite a bit about him coming and playing too, and just telling him how much fun we could have at college and being teammates would be awesome,” Etherington said.

But even without Davis, Etherington is happy to be a Hoosier.

“He’s really excited,” his father said.