Maryland basketball: Croatian F Ivan Bender will enroll in December, per report

Maryland has secured a pledge from Croatian big man Ivan Bender, EuroBasket correspondent David Pick and Terrapin Times are reporting. The prospect will enroll in College Park in December, Pick is reporting through Bender's advisor Nikola Vujcic. None of the usual suspects are reporting the news, but Pick has a solid reputation in the European basketball world.

There's not much out there on Bender, but there's a heck of a lot more on his younger brother Dragan Bender, a big-time NBA prospect currently on contract in Israel (and unlikely to play college ball in the US, so don't get your hopes up).

The elder Bender's DraftExpress profile lists him at 6'9" and 210 pounds, and he's likely to play power forward at the next level. He's not a direct replacement for Trayvon Reed in that regard, but should help provide some much-needed frontcourt depth after the departures of Reed, Shaquille Cleare and Charles Mitchell. There is a signiifcant red flag, however: he missed the entire 2013-14 season with an ACL injury.

On RealGM (h/t bshock), he's listed as playing 17 games for Croatian club KK Split and 15 games for Croatian youth national teams. For Split, he scored 9.4 points per game with 5.1 rebounds and fairly solid shooting numbers. On the international level, he starred in the 2013 U-19 World Championships, averaging 10.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in three games.

Here's a very dramatic video of him blocking a shot. The only other video available of him, as far as we can tell, is one hour and five minutes of game footage. You can find that if you want.