Today we do our first of six profiles on the incoming recruiting class for
Indiana. We'll do it alphabetically which means today we start with
6-foot-4 Jordan Crawford, a Detroit area player that played a fifth or prep
school year this past season at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. He
played for the same program and coach there as Indiana freshman Armon Bassett.

Like Bassett and if you go back a few years, Tom Coverdale, Crawford used a
fifth year of prep school to help make the transition from a scoring guard to a
point guard. Playing for a well known prep school gives a guard the
opportunity to have several Division One talented talented players around him to
pass the ball to and relieve him of the scoring responsibility that most high
school situations throw upon a talented prospect.

The first view I had of Jordan Crawford was just over a year ago at the
Spiece Run "N Slam in Fort Wayne. At the time I was not aware that he was
or would become a serious Indiana prospect. Since his team included Manny
Harris, who was at the time a serious Hoosier target, I did make it a priority
to catch a few games at the event of "The Family" - the traveling team
those two Detroit area players suited up for last spring .

The Family was a pretty talent laden team as its starting lineup was pretty
much a Big Ten bound group: Durrell Summers and Kalin Lucas, both Michigan State
signees, Harris, who signed with Michigan, IU bound Crawford, and 6-foot-9 Devin
Searcy, a decent big man that signed with Dayton. Because Lucas was a pure
point ranked among the top 35 in the Rivals150, he handled the ball quite a bit.
That may have given way to my initial impression that Crawford was a nice
looking shooting guard prospect. At the time I remember remarking to
another Rivals site owner there that Crawford might be a better prospect in the
long term than Harris if just for the simple fact that he showed what Harris did
not, an ability to simply square up well and knock down a jump shot.