Creighton ventured into the backyard of a Missouri Valley Conference rival to land its second basketball commitment for 2011.

Avery Dingman, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound shooting guard, lives in Branson, Mo., about 45 miles south of Missouri State’s campus in Springfield. Creighton and Missouri State were the final schools on Dingman’s list.

“Both schools have good basketball and academics,” Dingman said. “But Creighton is the No. 1 school in the Midwest and has a good business school. There are a lot of business opportunities in the Omaha area, and those things kind of sealed the deal.

“My parents are really big on education. It’s important to me, although I’m kind of big on basketball right now.”

Dingman did weigh location in making his final decision.

“It would have been nice for my parents, being just 45 minutes away from seeing me play,’’ he said. “But I think they both realized that Creighton was a better fit for me.”

Dingman informed Creighton’s coaches Tuesday night that he was accepting their scholarship offer. In addition to Missouri State, he had offers from The Citadel, Central Michigan, TCU and Northern Colorado.

He joins Geoff Groselle, a 6-11 center from Plano, Texas, as members of Greg McDermott’s first recruiting class at Creighton.

Dingman earned all-state honors as a junior for coach Randy Bishop at Branson High School. Bishop said Dingman blossomed as a junior after seeing limited varsity action as a sophomore.

“We had a nice team his sophomore season, one that made it to the state quarterfinals,” Bishop said. “I told Avery that I wasn’t going to play him until he improved his defense. I wanted to see how he would develop over that summer.

“He came in as a junior ready to play. He had a good summer, and I think it was then he realized that he had a chance to play college basketball. He really developed into a gym rat the past two years, and he’s been totally dedicated in doing the extra stuff to turn himself into a player.”

Bishop said Creighton is getting an excellent shooter with good athleticism.

“He’s got some hops and can get up around the rim,’’ Bishop said. “He can shoot the 3-ball and is really good coming off the screen.

“I think he’ll fit in well at Creighton with a coach who likes to do a lot of screening and running sets.”

As a junior, Dingman averaged 21.3 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 56 percent from the field. He was 56 of 148 (38 percent) from 3-point range, and he set single-game school records by knocking down 10 of 13 shots from beyond the arc in scoring 46 points.

Dingman said he wants to work on getting quicker and on his defense in preparing to join the Bluejays next season. He’ll also focus on expanding his offensive game.

“I have to develop more of a mentality of getting to the rim,” he said, “rather than just relying on my shooting."

Dingman made his official visit to Creighton two weeks ago. Steve Lutz was his primary recruiter, and Dingman said he developed a good relationship with the first-year assistant coach, as well as with McDermott.

“We got pretty close during the recruiting process,’’ he said. “I also liked Coach McDermott. You can just tell he is genuine. He’s not fake at all, the kind of coach that is going to turn into some guy you don’t like once you get to school.

“I also liked that he has a good history in the Missouri Valley.’’

McDermott had coached at Northern Iowa for five seasons before spending the past four at Iowa State.

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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