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Matt Graves inks first recruit at South Alabama

Austin Karazsia - South Alabama

Greene County Daily Word

Just a little over a month on the job, first year South Alabama coach Matt Graves announced the signing of 6-8 forward Austin Karazsia as his first recruit.

Graves, who was Brad Stevens’ right-hand-man at Butler during their back-to-back Final Four runs, and South Alabama made headlines in late March when the Jaguars announced the hiring. Just weeks later, Graves hired former steady Butler point guard Ronald Nored to his staff.

Karazsia, who excels on the gridiron perhaps as well on the hardwood passing for 3,328 yards and 42 touchdowns last fall at Linton-Stockton High School, hails from the Hoosier state living just less than 90 miles from the Butler campus.

Is Graves transforming South Alabama into Butler South? Probably too soon to make a bold statement like that, but one cannot help but make that parallel with Nored and now Karazsia heading south to Mobile, AL to join Graves.

In a release from the South Alabama athletic department on May 2nd, Graves had this to say about Karazsia:

“I am very excited that Austin has decided to join the Jaguar basketball family. He really fits in with our program’s vision and values. We believe his upside is tremendous now that he will be able to focus year-round on basketball after having an outstanding career as a two-sport athlete.”

Karazsia led Linton-Stockton to a 24-4 record last season and to the Class 2A state championship game and his coach, Joey Hart, had this to say about the gifted multi-sport athlete:

“Austin combines work ethic, size, intelligence and a skill-set that allows him to continually improve. He shoots awfully well for a kid his size and he doesn’t run like a big kid—he’s athletic and can move, but the biggest thing with him, is his work ethic and intelligence. It’s two intangibles that give him a great chance to succeed.”

“Work ethic” and “intelligence” are two intangibles that seemingly describe every successful Butler basketball player during Matt Graves’ tenure as an assistant coach with the Bulldogs -- he was named as the associate head coach in 2010. In fact, these descriptors are an apt depiction of what Ronald Nored brought to the Butler program from 2008-2012.

The late 2013 signing is attributed to Karazsia deciding to pursue basketball at the collegiate level, rather than football. If history tells us anything, it is that having a good deal of success in football at the quarterback position -- a highly cerebral one at that -- will bode well for Karazsia on the court; one has to look no further than Aaron Craft and Greg Paulus who were both high school star quarterbacks.

If we are to glean anything from Karazsia’s commitment to South Alabama, it is that Matt Graves may be developing a pipeline straight from his old recruiting grounds in Indiana.

You can find Kevin on twitter @KLDoyle11