IU opens season vs. Florida Gulf Coast

Sometimes, it’s not about if you win but how you win.

That was the case for IU coach Tom Crean following his team’s overtime victory against Ferris State in its exhibition finale.

“It was far more will than it was skill at the end,” Crean said. “That’s a big deal. For a team that hasn’t had success, that’s a big deal. It couldn’t have been drawn up any better.”

Now, as the IU men’s basketball team opens its 111th regular season when it plays Florida Gulf Coast at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Assembly Hall, the thinking shifts to starting a new year right, and history is on its side.

The Hoosiers have not lost a regular season home opener in 25 years, and they last lost a regular season opener in 1997 at Temple.

FGCU finished last season 8-21, 5-15 in the Atlantic Sun conference. Sophomore Anthony Banks, who was named to the A-Sun Preseason All-Conference Team, leads the Eagles into this season. The 6-foot-6-inch, 210-pound forward averaged 12.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game last season, both team-highs.

He is fully recovered from a surgically repaired foot, and assistant coach Tim Buckley, who scouted FGCU, said the team is preparing for him as if he was any other player.

But Buckley said Banks poses some difficult problems.

“He’s a lot different than a Big Ten center would be because he’s a little bit thinner, but he’s a lot quicker,” Buckley said. “He does a terrific job of catching it and making a quick play to a basket, and he’s very relentless on the offensive boards, so you’ve really got to try to do a good job of keeping him off and not allowing him to get the ball.”

In their two exhibition games, the Hoosiers dominated nearly every statistical category, including rebounds (82-61), field goals made (61-35) and 3-point field goals made (14-5). Sophomore forward Christian Watford led the way, averaging 25 points and six rebounds in those contests.

Junior guard Verdell Jones, who missed both exhibition games due to an ankle sprain, is expected to play.

Crean said he doesn’t have a set starting lineup going into Friday, but if freshman guard Victor Oladipo gets to start — as he did in the exhibition games — it will be the fourth consecutive year IU has had a freshman in the starting lineup to begin the season.

“What I’m trying to get across to these guys is we’re going with the guys that are going to get it done,” Crean said. “I think they’ll learn. I think they’ll grow from it.”