Five-star 2012 basketball recruit Perea commits to IU

Hanner Perea did not want to wait any longer.

After a weekend visit to Bloomington, in which he saw the IU men’s basketball team scrimmage and the football team face Northwestern, the No. 10 overall men’s basketball player in the class of 2012 decided he wanted to commit to the Hoosiers.

“I’ve been thinking about going to IU for a few days now,” Perea said. “I told my family everything about IU and that I wanted to come here for college. They said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, go ahead and commit.”

Perea, a 6-foot-8 power forward at La Lumiere School in LaPorte, Ind., is the highest-ranked prospect to choose IU since Eric Gordon in 2006. The Colombia native selected the Hoosiers over Baylor. 

He becomes the third player in the class of 2012 to commit to IU. 

Perea joins Broad Ripple (Indianapolis) shooting guard Ron Patterson and United Faith Christian Academy (Charlotte, N.C.) center Peter Jurkin. 

And similar to other recent IU commitments, Perea said the deciding factor in his decision was IU coach Tom Crean.

“He’s a great coach, and I really like his coaching style,” Perea said. “I know he’s going to help me get better in any way he can. He’s going to make my dreams come true.”

In terms of juniors in high school, Perea is one of the most dominant in the nation. He has upper-level post skills and utilizes his 7-foot-4 wingspan to block shots.

Mike Pegram, publisher of IU’s Rivals.com website, said he has seen Perea play more than 40 times in person. He described Perea as arguably the best athlete in the class of 2012.

“He is probably the guy that has been called a ‘freak athlete’ as many times as I’ve ever seen from recruiting analysts,” Pegram said. “He has an amazing combination of unique reach and jumping ability. The national scouts are just awed by his athleticism.”

Perea said while he is known mostly as a post player, he has worked this offseason on improving his range.

“Right now I’ve been working on extending my game,” Perea said. “Most of my work is done around the basket — rebounds, blocked shots and dunks.  I want to get better with my shot and my dribble so hopefully when I come to IU, I am going to be much
better.”

Perea said IU’s recent struggles on the court did not play a part in his decision. He thought primarily about the future of the program and what players might be joining him in Bloomington.

He grew up with Jurkin and played alongside him for two years while at United Faith Christian Academy. Perea also has a good relationship with many of the players IU is currently pursuing, including AAU teammates Cody Zeller (No. 20 overall in 2011 class) and Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell (No. 17 overall in 2012 class).

Perea said Crean has done a great job recruiting the state of Indiana and believes this recruiting effort will help achieve major success in the coming years.

“He’s been trying hard to bring everyone together,” Perea said. “He’s building everything back up.”