Northwestern basketball coach Bill Carmody announced the addition of Chier Ajou (pronounced SHEER ah-JOE) to the program for the upcoming 2012-13 season. But he may not be eligible until 2013-14, depending on the NCAA ruling
At 7-foot-2, Ajou becomes the tallest player in Northwestern history. He competed for two years for Culver (Ind.) Academies prior to attending prep school last year at St. Thomas More School in Connecticut.
“The addition of Chier completes a terrific freshman class that we’re very excited about,” NU Coach Bill Carmody said. “He is an outstanding young man who is athletic, has great upside and is a good fit for our program. He’ll provide our team with a dimension we haven’t seen in a while.”
Ajou helped Culver Academies to its first state final appearance in school history in 2011 as the team reached the 3A championship game. He averaged 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while shooting 59 percent from the field. Ajou then attended prepschool for one year at St. Thomas More, posting averages of 14 points, 9 rebounds and 2.6 blocked shots per contest.
He joins Kale Abrahamson, Sanjay Lumpkin and Alex Olah as true freshmen for Northwestern in 2012-13. In addition, Jared Swopshire joins the Wildcats after graduating from Louisville and has one season of eligibility remaining, while Nikola Cerina has two seasons of eligibility at NU beginning next season after transferring from TCU. The cousin of Luol Deng of the Chicago Bull chose Northwestern over Butler.
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