IU looks to continue to build confidence with matchup against Oakland

A week ago, IU Coach Tom Crean expressed disappointment in his team’s second-half performance against Syracuse. He said he felt like his team didn’t believe it could win.

After an 89-68 victory against North Florida on Saturday night, Crean is hoping his Hoosiers continue to rebuild their confidence in today’s 7 p.m. home matchup with Oakland.

“The most important thing for us is to keep gaining confidence, keep gaining understanding of what it takes for us to be successful,” Crean said.

On Saturday IU showcased its best ball movement of the season, recording a season-high 17 assists.

Crean said the ball movement in that game was a big step for the team to finding success, but it has to continue to improve body movement, specifically moving without the ball. He said his team still needs to increase its cuts without the basketball.

Crean cited sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell’s play in the opening minutes of Saturday’s game, saying he understood movement and how to have a positive influence on the game. Hollowell opened the game with two assists, and then attacked the basket on the next possession. Crean said more players need to learn how to have an influence like that on the game, even if they don’t have the basketball.

But most important to Crean is that the team continue to play within its game plan.

When IU fell apart in the second half against Syracuse, Crean said it was because IU got away from the game plan.

“We learned when we’re doing the right stuff, good things happen,” Crean said. “We learned when we get away from it, bad things happen. The more that we can learn from that and move forward in these other games, the better we will be.”

For now, that game plan is to continue to attack the basket, an area sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said is the area of his offensive game that he most needs to improve, and getting to the foul line.

IU is among the nation’s leaders in getting to the foul line, and freshman forward Noah Vonleh, IU’s biggest inside presence, has been named Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times already.

But Crean said his team is still working on understanding how to adjust when a team takes those options away. Teams know where IU wants to attack, so they will try to take that from them.

Now, the adjustment is making the next counter-move.

“If a team tries to take something away, we’ve got to understand that there’s enough other things that guys can do individually and collectively that we don’t have to get our head down like we did last week against Syracuse,” Crean said. “We can just keep going and go to something else.”

The final issue Crean pushed in advance of tonight’s game is for his team to continue to play with energy. If it does that, and continues to stick to its game plan and play with confidence, Crean said the team will set itself up for success for the rest of the season.

“The greatest thing that can happen for us is to have tremendous confidence continue to just expand because of the way we’re going through the experiences, the way they’re moving the ball, the way they’re getting to the foul line, the way we’re getting out on the break,” he said. “We’ve just got to continue to build on that.”

Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.