UPDATE: Hanner Parea responds to the ESPN article on the Indiana Elite and A-HOPE

In a spring that has been filled to the brim with controversies on the college gridiron -- Ohio State, anyone? -- the big news on the hardwood came in the form of a five-month investigation by ESPN into the relationship between Indiana University and the Indiana Elite AAU program, which is associated with the A-HOPE Foundation run by Mark Adams.

Now, there was a bit of controversy when the article first ran in late May about what, exactly, it meant. There wasn't much in the article that put Indiana in a bad light. The piece did, however, paint Adams, his son Drew, and Indiana Elite founder Mike Barnett in a bad light. We can argue back and forth all day about whether the A-HOPE Foundation is credible and legitimate and whether or not the pipeline that the Hoosiers had established was legal.

But we can probably all agree that the most concerning piece of information that was dug up involved 2012 recruit Hanner Parea. A native of Colombia, Parea played for the Indiana Elite, but had trips home paid for and received hand-me-down iPods and lap-tops.

By the letter of the law, that is an NCAA violation.

Parea spoke to Kyle Neddenriep of the Indy Star about the article.

"I read it," he told the paper. "I didn't know somebody was doing a story like that. Not everything they said is true so I’m not going to worry about it. I haven't done anything wrong."

"I'm just going to keep playing and doing what I'm doing. In the end, everyone will know what is true. When I first saw it, it bothered me but I just have keep moving ahead."

UPDATE: Parea also spoke to the Herald-Times:

"People said they are trying to make me go to IU," Perea said. "I picked IU because that's where I feel good. I feel that I'm going to be in a nice place with good people around me. That's why I picked IU. … They never tried to push me. The first thing they told me was I could go anywhere I want. I like IU. I've been around IU a lot, so that’s why I picked them."

"I don't really care because I know all of that stuff isn't true," Perea said. "I'm not worried about it."

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Indiana lands another local recruit

The most important recruiting weekend in Tom Crean's tenure at Indiana is already netting profits.

Just not how Hoosier fans expected.

Cody Zeller, Tyler and Luke's younger brother and a top 25 prospect in the class of 2011, did not commit to the Hoosiers this weekend, but another Indiana native did. Hanner Perea, a 6'8" forward with all the measureables that make scouts drool, committed to Indiana after visiting the campus over the weekend. Perea has a 7'4" wing span, is very athletic, and can run the floor. While he can knock down a mid-range jump shot, Perea is quite raw offensively, but there is enough potential for Rivals to rank him in the top 10 in the class of 2012.

The rest of this post can be read at Beyond the Arc. Continue reading...