The Colonials got a big boost to their roster June 7 when Indiana guard Maurice Creek announced he would transfer to GW.
Creek, who is trying to rebound from his latest injury-prone years, posted a photo of himself decked out in GW gear, announcing that he would be playing as a Colonial next season.
In a phone interview June 7, Creek said he was excited to become a veteran presence on the Colonials’ roster, adding that he had already gelled with some GW players during the offseason.
“I’ve been playing with the guys for a while, and basically they started treating me like family before I was even going to GW,” Creek said. “I’m just glad they found me.”
Because of a ruptured Achilles in 2011, Creek missed the entire 2011-12 campaign for the Hoosiers and chose to redshirt his junior year. He now has one season of eligibility left to play at GW and will be a part of the Class of 2014.
Despite his history of injuries, Creek brings a high level of experience to the still-young Colonials’ back court that will include sophomore starters Joe McDonald and Kethan Savage, as well as recruits Miguel Cartagena and Nick Griffin.
“They got bigs that can play and they got guards that can play and they just needed a little bit of help,” Creek said. “They can help me just as I can help them.”
The announcement comes as great news to head coach Mike Lonergan and his staff, after their somewhat low-key recruiting class was overshadowed by the transfers of seniors Lasan Kromah, David Pellom and sophomore Jonathan Davis. This, in addition to the de-commitment of the team’s top offseason recruit Nigel Johnson, and the move on Wednesday of assistant head coach Kevin Sutton to Georgetown.
“[Lonergan’s] been watching me since my freshman year and he was recruiting me throughout my years in high school, and I decided on Indiana, but he knew what I could do,” Creek said. “And he just said this is what we need on our team to be successful, and they only needed one more piece, and having me could be that piece.”
Creek, a 6-foot-5 guard, was once a top-50 recruit coming out of high school and a Prep-School All-American after his senior year at the Hargrave Military Academy. He put up large numbers in a limited time for the Hoosiers during his freshman campaign, averaging 16.4 points per game and shooting 44.8 percent from the three-point range before his season was cut short after 12 games due to a fractured knee cap.
Returning as a sophomore, Creek put up a respectable 8.3 points per game, but again saw injuries limit his playing time to only 18 games. After the Achilles injury in 2011, Creek served as breakout star Victor Oladipo’s backup, averaging only 1.8 points and 7.8 minutes per game.
Fans will likely have to wait until the beginning of the season to see if Lonergan chooses to continue the youth movement in Foggy Bottom and use Creek as a sixth man off the bench, or if he will trust Creek’s leadership to start over one of his sophomore guards.
He would be “just doing what’s required of you. And basically when you get recommended as a high-level player, you have to play at the highest level at all times, and that’s what I learned at Indiana which is gonna be good when I go to George Washington,” Creek said.
