Colby Stratten, Bloomington North’s standout senior shortstop/pitcher, has committed to play baseball for Coach Tracy Smith’s Indiana Hoosiers. Stratten chose IU over Northwestern.

Stratten is leading the 23-4, No. 5-ranked Cougars with a .460 average and also has a team-high five home runs. As a pitcher this season, he’s 6-0 with a 1.89 ERA and has fanned 27 batters in 33 1/3 innings. As a junior, Stratten set a school single-season fielding record for shortstops. He’s a three-year starter for North’s varsity.

More on this story Friday.

As per usual…

Theo Pinson told reporters at his press conference on Wednesday in North Carolina that the turning point came during a conversation with North Carolina coach Roy Williams on Thursday.

The 6-foot-5 wing from Wesleyan Christian Academy in High Point, N.C., and consensus top-20 player was torn between Indiana and his home state school.

He wouldn’t say what he and Williams actually talked about, but he said he decided afterward that he wanted to stay close to home.

On Wednesday, he made it official with a press conference at his school and chose North Carolina over Indiana, as well as Duke, Louisville and Georgetown.

“It came down, really, to Indiana and Carolina,” Pinson told reporters. “Me and Roy, we had a very good relationship. I had a very good relationship with coach (Tom) Crean also. It’s just, why not play in front of your peers for four more years if it has to be like that. I felt like that was the best decision.”
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The NBA just held its Draft Lottery. The picks are as follows.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

2. Orlando Magic

3. Washington Wizards

4. Charlotte Bobcats

5. Phoenix Suns

6. New Orleans Pelicans

7. Sacramento Kings

8. Detroit Pistons

9. Minnesota Timberwolves

10. Portland Trailblazers

11. Philadelphia 76ers

12. Oklahoma City Thunder

13. Dallas Mavericks

14. Utah Jazz

Chad Ford of ESPN.com has Victor Oladipo going No. 5 to the Phoenix Suns after the lottery. Jonathon Givony of DraftExpress.com has Oladipo going No. 4 to the Bobcats and Zeller going No. 11 to the 76ers.

Indiana signee Luke Fischer, who also was named Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball this year, was named to the Parade All-America Team.

Indiana has so far invested more time and energy into recruiting Theo Pinson than any other player in the Class of 2014. Wednesday afternoon, the Hoosiers will find out whether or not it was worth it.

Pinson, a 6-foot-5, 170-pound wing from Wesleyan Christian Academy in Greensboro, N.C. and a consensus Top 20 recruit in the class will announce his college choice at his school at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday. Pinson is considering Duke, Georgetown, Indiana, Louisville and North Carolina.

All five are blueblood programs and Duke and North Carolina have the benefit of being in Pinson’s home state, but none of them have made put as much into Pinson’s recruitment as the Hoosiers have. Pinson has taken one official visit and it was to Indiana in February for the IU-Michigan game. North Carolina, which Pinson has seen on numerous unofficial visits, is considered IU’s top competition in his recruitment.

“I think Theo has been Indiana’s top priority at that position all along,” said Dave Telep, the senior national basketball recruiting analyst at ESPN.com. “We’re about to see whether or not that pays off. Indiana has earmarked him as their No. 1 guy, and I’m not sure that anyone else has, but North Carolina is his home state, so everything is possible.”
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Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt continues to list Indiana as one of the teams secure in hopes of hosting an NCAA Tournament regional and lists the Hoosiers as one of the teams that are on the bubble but just out in hopes of gaining one of the eight national seeds, which bring with them the right to host both the regional and super regional rounds. Fitt says Louisville would now be the last team to take one of those eight, but that the Hoosiers could leap frog the Cardinals if they stumble in the Big East Tournament and the Hoosiers win it.