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To the despair of many Indiana fans and probably Phil Jackson, Tom Crean's offense prizes the three-point shot. His best offenses have been extremely efficient behind the arc. Last year's team, which had the 9th highest adjusted offensive efficiency rating in the nation also had the 6th highest 3P% at 40.6 per Kenpom. The 2013 Hoosiers had the third highest efficiency rating and the 4th highest 3P%. This is a long-winded way to say that I think Grant Gelon should find a niche where he can contribute at Indiana.
Grant is not a well-known prospect; he doesn't have a profile on 247, ESPN, or Scout as of Wednesday evening and it was just recently that he began to turn the heads of high major programs. On July 10th Kyle Neddenriep wrote, "Gelon hasn’t yet snared a Division offer but is getting interest from programs such as Denver, Furman, Illinois State, Iona, IUPUI, Montana State, Western Michigan and Youngstown State."
Shortly thereafter, on July 12th, he received his first scholarship offer.
Congratulations to Crown Point senior Grant Gelon for picking up his first scholarship offer from Western Michigan University.
— CPHS Basketball (@CPBulldogHoops) July 12, 2015
The first time Crean was noticed following Gelon's play was also on July 12th, when his AAU coach said, "that Crean planned to track Gelon the rest of the month of July." Tom must've liked what he saw, because he offered Grant a scholarship and Grant Gelon became the first member of Indiana's 2016 recruiting class.
We do know a few things about Gelon - he's 6'5", the 102 made three-pointers he racked up in his junior year, at a clip of 43 percent, set a record at Crown Point and he once caught a 39-inch northern pike in Canada. That about covers it. But it's easy to imagine him filling a similar role for Indiana as Matt Roth once did. Or maybe even one as large as Nick Zeisloft does now. To let Grant tell it, he's ready to get his hands dirty. "I really can't be happier," he said. "I know I keep saying it, but I really can't be more excited." It's a good thing he feels the way that he does because if Grant Gelon wants to get a lot of court time at Indiana he should be in the gym shooting threes right now.