Hanner Mosquera Perea remembers getting his first basketball when he was 12 years old.
He was a soccer player then, the favored sport of his home country of Colombia. He was growing, though, a spindly 6-3 before he was even a teenager. His uncle Haver Mosquera, who played small college basketball in Texas and is now a teacher in Dallas, nudged him in the direction of basketball.
Little did his uncle know, Perea would sometimes kick that basketball around like a soccer ball.
"When I was 12, I would go to the basketball court and play with older people (in Bogota, Colombia)," Perea said. "But it wasn't nothing serious. (As far as) the fundamentals of the game, I didn't know anything. I would just go run around and throw the ball around."
From that somewhat humorous image, Perea has developed into one of this country's top high school prospects, ranked as the No. 15 player in the 2012 class.
The 6-9 Indiana University recruit also has been thrust in the middle of more than his share of controversy.
Last summer, a report surfaced that Baylor assistant basketball coach Mark Morefield had sent a text message to Perea's coach Alan Huss at La Lumiere Prep School in LaPorte that threatened to have Perea deported to South America if he committed to a school other than Baylor. The NCAA is investigating.
Then in May, ESPN.com concluded a five-month investigation into the Indiana Elite travel program, Indiana Elite coach Mark Adams and his A-HOPE (African Hoop Opportunities Providing an Education) Foundation that brought Perea to the United States, with a story questioning whether Perea could be in violation of the NCAA's preferential treatment and extra benefits bylaws.
In the time since the ESPN report was published, Adams has repeatedly said the A-HOPE Foundation and his relationship with Perea is in step with NCAA rules and that he has met with both the NCAA and Indiana University compliance officials.
"I read it," Perea said last month of the ESPN.com report before he participated in the Junior-Senior Indianapolis Star Indiana All-Star exhibition game at Kokomo. "I didn't know somebody was doing a story like that. Not everything they said is true, so I'm not going to worry about it. I haven't done anything wrong."
Huss, who was coaching at Culver Academies when Perea arrived there in January 2008, said Perea "has handled (the controversy) as well as a senior-to-be in high school can handle something like this."
"I think he understands what's going on and he knows he can't worry about it," Huss said. "He's worried about getting better on the basketball court and summer school classes and getting himself prepared for IU."
Huss said Perea, who spent time at schools in Alabama and North Carolina before returning to Indiana at La Lumiere for his junior year, "is a different kid" than when he arrived from Colombia more than three years ago.
"It's amazing how far he's come," Huss said. "It's obvious that there's so much more he can do, but he's a hard worker and he's showing glimpses of it now for sure. A few months after he got here (in 2008), we went to Purdue's and Indiana's camps and the staffs didn't even know who he was. That probably shows a little something because those are pretty sharp staffs.
"He just hasn't been in a position that a lot of Indiana kids have where they grow up playing in the driveway with their fathers teaching them the ropes and great teaching all the way through. It was completely new for him, but he's a fast learner and a bright kid."
Perea said he has always been recognized for his jumping ability, which is obvious after watching him for just a few minutes. He also possesses a 7-foot, 4-inch wingspan. That combination makes him a dynamite offensive rebounder and shot blocker.
But there are areas in which to improve. Scouts question his shooting and ballhandling.
"I don't really take shots," he said.
"I've been working on it. I work on playing around the basket first. But I know I do need to start shooting the ball and handling the ball better and doing more than just playing around the basket."
Though it's one step at a time, Perea said his goal is to one day play in the NBA. First he'll join a heralded 2012 class at IU that is ranked as one of the best in the country.
"That's my dream," he said of the NBA. "I know I have to get a lot better to make it, but I'm going to keep working hard to get there. I think playing at IU in college will help me a lot."
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