Ever since news of Broad Ripple standout Ron Patterson's decision earlier today to commit to IU in the class of 2012, with Star recruiting guru Kyle Neddenriep out in front with the story , IU basketball fans have wondered what exactly does this commit mean for IU basketball moving forward? In a word, it's huge. Patterson was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 65 overall by rivals.com in the class of 2012 and the No. 10 ranked shooting guard in the country. He said he chose IU over offers from Tennessee, Cincinnati, Xavier, Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech. He also was reported to have offers from Purdue, Illinois and Iowa, and had been getting interest this summer from other Big Ten programs such as Michigan and Minnesota. And he's the highest ranked kid from the state of Indiana to opt to attend IU in the Tom Crean era of the program. But the commitment is huge because Crean has his foot in the door with a very talented Indiana high school class of 2012, one that is loaded and one where IU has several other targets. The Hoosiers still have three scholarships to give in the class if you include their ability to oversign by one. There are four other Indianapolis-area kids ranked in the top 35 in the class of 2012 that are all considering IU. Gary Harris, from Hamilton Southeastern, is ranked No. 16. D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, from North Central, is ranked No. 21, Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell, from Park Tudor, is ranked No. 22 and Jeremy Hollowell, from Lawrence Central, is ranked No. 35. And that's not counting 6-8 power forward Hanner Perea, the No. 13 ranked player in the class, who has narrowed his choices to Indiana and Baylor. Read more: http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/archives/2010/08/what_does_the_p.html
