Hoosiers head into Thanksgiving with 5-0 start

As the IU men’s basketball team heads into a five-day break from competition, the streak of consecutive minutes without trailing keeps growing.

The Hoosiers (5-0) extended that streak to 146:21 Monday night in route to a 79-43 win on Monday night against Gardner Webb (2-3).

After a sluggish first 20 minutes of play, IU turned an 11-point halftime lead into a dominating second half thanks to the energy of sophomore Victor Oladipo.

Subbing out of the game less than two minutes into the second half for a missed defensive assignment, Oladipo returned to the game at the 15:46 mark with the Hoosiers up 40-25.

Turning up the energy on the defensive end and of the 16,621 fans in Assembly Hall, Oladipo forced four straight Gardner Webb turnovers during a 6:21 field goal drought for the Runnin’ Bulldogs.

“(Crean) told me I needed to pick it up,” Oladipo said. “We had a little heart to heart and I came into the game and just tried to take it to another level with my defense. I was just trying to put pressure on the ball and turn them over.”

Oladipo finished the game with 13 points, five rebounds and five assists but it was the four-turnover stretch in the second half that caught his teammates eye.

“Guys were literally throwing the ball out of bounds because Victor was right there,” junior forward Derek Elston said. “Victor’s that guy who can bring us all together and if things are going bad Vic’s our go-to guy.”

The Hoosiers leading scorer through the first three games of the season, Oladipo’s presence on the defensive end has been unmatched. His 17 deflections Monday were the most Crean has had in his four seasons at IU.

“He turned it up a couple gears and that’s the Victor consistency meter we are going to follow from here on out, because consistency for him is different than for others, because he does have a motor that’s very impressive,” Crean said.

He’s got length. He’s got athleticism. He’s got toughness. He’s got grit. I don’t know many people that would want to bring the ball up against him.”

Wanting to get into the act of his sophomore teammate, Will Sheehey broke the game open with his own personal 10-0 run over a 1:48 span to push the Hoosiers lead to 59-29 halfway through the second half.

The 15 points matches a career high for Sheehey and he has now scored in double figures off the bench in four of five games.

“Crean) wants me to come off the bench and bring energy so that’s just what I try and do,” Sheehey said. “They (the 10 points) were all in the flow of the game and they all were off great passes.”

Leading scorer Cody Zeller continued his strong start to his college career with 13 points and nine rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting.

The five wins come in an 11-day span and the Hoosiers will enjoy almost a week off before Butler (2-2) heads to Assembly Hall on Nov. 27.

“It won’t be a break, because we are getting ready for an extremely difficult game Sunday night,” Crean said. “They know we’ve got some really big things coming up and they’ve earned the right to be in games like that.”

The Hoosiers are off to a 5-0 start for the second consecutive season and have won each game by at least 20 points, which has never been done in school history.

Bigger tests are on the immediate horizon for IU, but even Elston admitted the 2011-2012 Hoosiers have a different feel to them than years past.

“A lot of times last year it was kind of a one-on-one game, get yours, and see if you can have a good game,” Elston said. “Now I don’t think anybody really cares. Just as long as there is a ‘W’ besides the end of the score. We don’t care anymore. We just want to win.”