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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

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Freshmen break out of brief shooting slump to lead IU

IU vs Minnesota

Freshmen guards James Blackmon Jr. and Robert Johnson appear to be just fine.

Coming off an uncharacteristically poor performance against Maryland, the two combined for 43 points in the Hoosiers’ 90-71 win against Minnesota at ?Assembly Hall.

It was a massive improvement for them after scoring a combined 13 points against the Terrapins. Somewhere in between Maryland and Indiana, the two found their shots.

“It definitely felt good when everybody’s hitting shots,” Johnson said. “Some days, you know, like what happened at Maryland the ball won’t go in, but some games you turn it around. We just have to approach it with the same mindset every time.”

The freshmen’s mindsets seemed fine as they connected on back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second half to double IU’s lead from six to 12 in just 28 seconds. They weren’t done there. They went on to hit six more in the half to help IU pull away.

Together, they combined to connect on 11 3-point tries as part of a record-breaking night for IU (18-8, 8-5) beyond the arc that saw the Hoosiers hit a ?program-record 18 treys.

IU Coach Tom Crean said it was good to see the two play well, but insisted they haven’t hit any sort of wall in terms of freshmen fatigue. He clarified that hitting a wall means a player isn’t mentally able to stay engaged on the defensive end and gets discouraged easily.

“I try to explain it to these guys, that proverbial weight on your shoulders when you’re missing shots and you let it affect you, you become slower,” Crean said. “So all of a sudden it looks like you’re not on the attack as much and you can’t do that.”

So Crean kept Blackmon Jr. about 10 or 15 minutes after shootaround to work on his speed and attacking the basket. He also spent time talking with assistant coach Bennie Seltzer about getting back on track.

“I kept reminding him he’s in great shape,” Crean said. “Just to get in maybe in his mind that everything’s fine when you’re on the attack. You don’t want the mental part to play in ?because it’s really not there.”

Blackmon wasn’t just on the attack. The Fort Wayne native was nearly perfect.

He shot 9-for-14 from the field including 6-for-10 from long range.

“We knew we were going to get shots,” Blackmon said. “We just went back to our old ways and just shot it with confidence.”

Johnson had less success against the Minnesota press defense, accounting for six of IU’s turnovers but made up for it with an efficient? 6-for-10 shooting.

He was 5-for-8 from ?beyond the arc.

The mindset may not have changed, but the results did. And that’s a welcome sign for IU moving forward.

“You don’t want the fact they’ve missed a couple of shots take them away from what their most important job is,” Crean said, “which is to play a complete game.”

For Blackmon and Johnson, Sunday was just that.

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