Season finally here for Capobianco, Elston

Nov. 12, 2008, was a special day all around – for IU coach Tom Crean, for the five freshmen who signed their national letters of intent and IU basketball as a whole.
 
Forward Bobby Capobianco, the first recruit to commit to play for Crean at IU, had his paper work by 7 a.m. Forward Derek Elston, originally committed to play for Kelvin Sampson, soon followed and officially became a Hoosier after more than two long years of being an oral commit to IU.

Forward Christian Watford and guards Maurice Creek and Jordan Hulls also signed their letters that day, while center Bawa Muniru finalized his the following afternoon. 

One year to the day that Muniru officially became the final member of Crean’s 2009 recruiting class, all six will finally make their Hoosier debut Friday.

For Elston – a Sampson holdover – and Capobianco, who has displayed endless passion for IU basketball since the day he verbally committed in April 2008, Friday is extra special to them.

The wait is over for the 6-foot-9-inch forwards, and their IU playing careers will officially begin.

“It’s been a journey,” said Capobianco, who averaged 2.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in 11 minutes in two exhibition games. “It’s been a lot of hard work, just growing every single day, getting used to the demands of playing at such a high D-I school – especially at a school with so much tradition and trying to bring that back.

“Every day has been a lot of work, but we’re really excited for the point to be here when the games are starting for real, and we can show off the work that we’ve put in.”

Elston, who averaged 9 points and 7.5 rebounds in the preseason, admitted that the wait since his original September 2007 verbal commitment was difficult.

He said he doesn’t spend much time reflecting on the past but is instead looking ahead for things to come and is eager to get out and play. 

In reflecting on his short time as a member of the IU basketball team, however, he said it has been “all I ever really wanted it to be.”

“I knew it was going to be hard and I knew it was going to take a lot out of me,” Elston said. “But there’s nothing better than putting on either the practice jerseys or the actual uniforms and candy stripes and going out there ... It’s the best feeling in the world to me.”

Despite all that college basketball has given Elston and Capobianco so far, both admitted that being a student-athlete – that is a student and then an athlete – has been a challenge. Yet both are handling it well.

“Sometimes it does get hard,” Elston said. “I remember after the Grace game (Nov. 4) Wednesday, the next day I had two exams at 8 o’clock in the morning, so that was kind of hard. I was actually in the library until three in the morning. Times like that you just want to throw the books aside and get some rest, but you can’t because it’s books first and then basketball.”

Friday, however, is about basketball as the team begins the regular season.  
Although Elston said the realization that he is actually playing Division I basketball – that first “moment” – came when the team took the court for the Grace exhibition game, Capobianco said it will likely really hit him Friday.

“It’ll probably be (Friday) night with a packed house, with the wins and losses going for real,” he said.

It’s been a long time coming for these freshmen, both of whom anxiously waited out their time as prospective IU basketball players. At last they get to play.  
They realize that all their hard work as recruits, and now Hoosiers, is more than about just them and about the team.

“It’s a game for the whole state of Indiana,” Elston said.
Game on.
 
Prediction:  Unlike Maurice Creek’s journey to IU from the Washington, D.C., area, this won’t be a pleasant trip for the Howard Bison.

They are young, athletic and quick, and they have some talent, including preseason second team all-MEAC selection center Paul Kirkpatrick and guard Kyle Riley – one of two Indianapolis Pike High School graduates on the squad. But they will simply be overmatched by the Hoosiers.
Indiana 83, Howard 59