The phrase “Basketball is back” had a deeper meaning for IU on Thursday night.
After one of the worst three-day off the court stretches in IU men’s basketball history, a bit of normalcy was restored among IU fans.
They weren’t tweeting about suspensions or the horrible tragedy of the Devin Davis accident, and they got to see their team actually play basketball.
And another normalcy was made clear to IU fans: this is junior guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell’s team.
The star point guard’s stats weren’t that impressive compared to his fellow backcourt mates. Ferrell went for 16 points, six assists and four rebounds.
Junior guard Nick Zeisloft and freshman guard James Blackmon Jr. combined for 50 points. They went a combined 20-for-20 from the free throw line and 6-for-13 from three.
Freshman guard Rob Johnson also had a solid outing, scoring 13 points and showing off some of his tenacious defense.
The other guards had their shining moments. But don’t be fooled by the box score statistics.
Ferrell is still the best player on IU’s roster.
And it’s not close.
I tried to count the number of times Ferrell would blow past his man, wait for the help defense to come and find a wind open jump shooter on the wing, but I lost count. It happened so often.
Ferrell can get anywhere he wants on the court at any time. His handles are ridiculous. His vision is incredible.
And this year, he actually has some offensive weapons.
Johnson, Blackmon and Zeisloft are all above-average offensive players. Blackmon and Zeisloft are elite shooters. Plus, none of these three players were on the team last year.
At times, Ferrell didn’t look like a point guard, he looked like a scientist. He was playing with his new toys. He was experimenting in his lab, trying to get his teammates open looks and put them in the best situation to succeed.
He could have scored 30 points if he wanted, but what fun is that?
It was against Northwood. I know, I know. But it’s not like the opposing point guard was a scrub.
Ferrell was matched up most of the night with Northwood junior guard Maurice Jones.
Jones is a transfer student who was a two-year starter at University of Southern California — and the leading scorer in his last season as a Trojan — before losing his scholarship due to academic issues.
When Ferrell was out of the game and Blackmon had to guard Jones, Blackmon was struggling.
On back-to-back possessions, Jones was able to burn Blackmon off the dribble.
The first occurrence resulted with an and-one for Jones, and on the next play Jones got past Blackmon, and another Hoosier had help off his man. Jones then found his teammate for a three-pointer.
When Ferrell was guarding Jones, Jones wasn’t getting nearly as easy looks. Ferrell is an outstanding defender and a gifted passer. Blackmon may be a better natural scorer, but Ferrell is much better in other facets of the game.
Those facets don’t show up in the box score as often as total points, but the fact remains: this is Ferrell’s team.
ehoopfer@indiana.edu
