Northwestern adds 7-2 cousin of Bulls' Deng

Northwestern announced the addition of 7-foot-2 center Chier Ajou to next season's team on Wednesday.

Northwestern announced the addition of 7-foot-2 center Chier Ajou to next season's team on Wednesday.

Ajou, who is Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng's cousin, chose Northwestern over Butler.

The 235-pound Ajou played last season at St. Thomas More School in Connecticut. He attended Culver Academies in Indiana his previous two years. He averaged 14 points, nine rebounds and 2.6 blocks last season.

"The addition of Chier completes a terrific freshman class that we're very excited about," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said in a statement. "He is an outstanding young man who is athletic, has great upside and is a good fit for our program. He'll provide our team with a dimension we haven't seen in a while."

Chier joins Northwestern's 2012 recruiting class of Kale Abrahamson, Sanjay Lumpkin and Alex Olah. The Wildcats will also add to next year's team Jared Swopshire, who transferred from Louisville and will be eligible immediately, and Nikola Cerina, who sat out last season after transferring from TCU.

The Wildcats return seven players, including four starters, and two redshirt freshmen from last year's NIT team.