Hanner Perea’s first real “Welcome to Bloomington” party was more than likely not how he imagined it would go over.
While he did get a loud ovation when the starting lineups were introduced, an extremely undersized Bloomington South team made sure he wasn’t heard from too often Saturday night.
For those who don’t follow IU basketball recruiting very closely, Hanner Perea is one of the top recruits for the Hoosiers’ class of 2012 (ranked No. 10 by Rivals, No. 16 on Scout.com and No. 30 by ESPN.com). The 6-foot-8 power forward attends school in La Porte, IN at the La Lumiere School, and he is clearly one of the premier young athletes that will break onto the college basketball scene in the next few years.
While many people showed up at Bloomington South’s gym Saturday to watch Hanner and see what they would be able to look forward to having on campus in a year and a half, he had a relatively quiet game and was outshined by Xavier commit and South point guard Dee Davis, who was able to drive the lane at will and was determined to attack both Perea and La Lumiere 7-footer, Obij Aget.
While Perea’s game was quiet, there are still some good takeaways for what IU will have coming in the fall of 2012. After watching him play in person as opposed to some of his incredible highlights on YouTube, Perea’s athletic ability is truly unbelievable.
He runs the floor well, and can simply jump out of the building. With his jumping ability he was able to get some amazing rebounds, and block some shots that made you find yourself asking where he just came from.
It would seem he had been on the complete other side of the court, and flew just to swat someone’s shot out of play or emphatically grab a board. The only facet of his game I found somewhat subpar was his motor. It seemed as though he just was in and out in terms of interest in the game.
He played almost the entire game, but would go through spurts where his effort on the boards or on defense was not nearly what it obviously could have been. That said, he is only 16 years old, but you would expect a full effort from a kid playing in front of his future supporters.
Yes, Hanner only finished with four points, but it wasn’t entirely his fault that he had a quiet game.
First of all you have to credit Bloomington South’s defense for staying very disciplined throughout the game and really handling their size disadvantage well. Second, I found myself throughout the game questioning how La Lumiere was not simply pounding it inside.
They had the two biggest and most athletic big men in the game by a pretty good margin, and just wouldn’t even look down to Perea or the 7-footer, Aget. Their guards were not great shooters, and after watching them either ignore the entry pass to the post or throw it away the few times they even bothered to look down there, it seems their passing skills aren’t the greatest either.
On the bright side, fans that came to see Hanner were lucky to have one of his two field goals be a monstrous alley-oop where he took off from outside the paint and threw it down with relative ease. IU fans have a lot to look forward to with this young athlete, especially if he is used the right way.
