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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

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IU's trip to Canada shows promising improvement

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When the IU men’s basketball team played five games in Canada earlier this month on a preseason trip, it was a blast from the past.

The games weren’t broadcast on television , so Hoosier fans had to read recaps from the journalists covering the games, discovering IU went 4-1 against its Canadian foes . The whole thing felt very 1960s-ish.

If the 1960s had Twitter, that is.

With the overwhelming majority of the Hoosier fan base unable to see IU play with their own eyes, they instead had to try to digest and interpret box scores.

Like IU fans who couldn’t make the trip to the land of hockey and maple syrup, I also did not watch the games and was left to scour the box scores and look for signs of what is to come for IU ?basketball.

Without further ado, let’s look at three points I took away from the Hoosiers’ trip to Canada by just looking at the cold, hard numbers.

James Blackmon Jr. is pretty good

The much-ballyhooed freshman broke IU fans’ hearts when he decommitted, and then he restored their faith in all that is good when he committed a second time to play for IU.

And he seems to be living up to the hype.

In five games, Blackmon was the Hoosiers’ leading scorer, averaging 18.8 points a game . He was also very consistent. In the five games, Blackmon scored 21, 19, 20, 14 and 20 .

That kind of consistency from a freshman is both surprising and promising. Blackmon, joining junior guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and sophomore guard and basket-attacking virtuoso Stan Robinson, gives IU possibly the best-scoring backcourt in the conference.

However, it is yet to be seen how Blackmon is on ?defense.

Ferrell has proven his worth as a stellar defender ­— just ask former Michigan guard Nik Stauskas — and Robinson has the potential to make an all-defensive team in his career, in my opinion. But we’ll have to see if the 6-foot-2-inch  Blackmon can be at least average on the defensive side of the ball.

Sophomore Troy Williams might have made the leap

One facet that made last season frustrating for IU fans was the untapped potential of Williams. Here was an incredibly athletic player along the lines of Victor Oladipo, but he didn’t progress throughout the season the way IU fans had hoped.

If the Canada trip is any sign, Williams has made the necessary improvements to his offensive game to become a reliable second or third banana on offense.

Williams was right behind Blackmon in scoring, averaging 18.4 points a game .

But the sophomore lacked the consistency of Blackmon, scoring 18, 5, 27, 21 and 21 points in the five games .

One thing should be promising for IU fans: Williams shot the ball much more efficiently than he did last season.

Williams was 51 percent from the field last year , which is not a bad figure at all.

But in Canada, Williams turned into an efficiency machine. He was 37-for-56 from the floor , good for 66 percent of field goals , which is jaw-dropping for a perimeter-orientated player.

The one thing Williams really, really needs to truly take the leap is some semblance of a three-point shot. He was miserable last year from behind the arc, going just 6-for-29 the entire year, good for 21 percent .

Only time will tell if Williams has a reliable three-point shot. In Canada, Williams was just 0-for-1 from three .

If Williams can raise that figure to even 30 percent, it would allow the Hoosier offense to space the floor more and give Ferrell and the other guards more room to ?penetrate.

Rebounding might be an issue

With Noah Vonleh wearing a Charlotte Hornets uniform and Luke Fischer going to school at Marquette , the Hoosiers’ frontcourt is lacking in size.

IU signed previously unknown 7-footer Jeremiah April this offseason to try and get some height on the team, but he wasn’t able to play in Canada because of a sprained ankle .

Junior forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea also wasn’t able to play because of a visa issue . The Colombia native would have probably started at center during the Canada trip, so the team rebounding stats might be a little misleading.

But they are still alarming. IU’s opponents had more offensive rebounds in four of the five games . And in the other game, they were tied with Ottawa with eight offensive rebounds apiece .

What should scare IU fans is that the Hoosiers weren’t going against Big Ten teams. They were going against Canadian teams that aren’t as big and physical as other conference foes.

Will Mosquera-Perea and April make that much of a difference on the glass when the season rolls around? I’m guessing not.

IU might be a better offensive team this season than last with the additions of Blackmon and freshman guard Rob Johnson, along with the improvement of Williams.

But it remains to be seen if they’ll have a significant interior presence or be able to protect the rim at all.

A preseason trip is just that — a preseason trip. IU Coach Tom Crean and his assistants will have dozens more practices to implement their system, and this team may be vastly different come winter.

But man, it was great to have basketball back again, even if it was just a preseason trip that wasn’t televised.

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