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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

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Nonconference season comes to a close with Georgetown

Junior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell dribbles the ball against Grand Canyon University at Assembly Hall.

Indiana last left Madison Square Garden with a bitter taste in its mouth.

Nineteen turnovers, cold second-half shooting and poor defense in the paint ]combined for a 20-point loss to Louisville in a game IU nearly had a chance to win.

Saturday is a chance for redemption.

The Hoosiers (10-2) will make their second trip to New York City in just 18 days to take on the Georgetown Hoyas (7-3) on Saturday at noon in IU’s final nonconference game of the regular season.

Like the last time IU Coach Tom Crean’s team travelled to the Garden, IU is on a 3-game winning streak. The matchup with Georgetown serves as one final chance to bolster an NCAA Tournament résumé all while building consistency.

“The moment you think that you’ve got something worked out is the moment it goes away,” Crean said. “We’re a long way from understanding yet how to play a full 40-minute game.”

“Consistency” has been the buzzword surrounding this Hoosier team since its earliest days of a preseason trip to Canada.

Consistency from junior forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea. Consistency from a young group of freshman guards, from sophomore forward Troy Williams and even from the likes of preseason All-Big Ten selection Yogi Ferrell.

Last year’s Hoosiers struggled with consistency. One game IU was beating then-No. 10 Michigan. The next it was beginning a 3-game losing streak to Minnesota, Penn State and Purdue.

In crunch time, last year’s team faltered. IU was 7-11 in games decided by 10 or fewer points.

Crean likes to remind members of the media that had IU averaged two more made 3-pointers per game last year, IU would have won six more games.

Saturday’s matchup against Georgetown starts a stretch of four games—the next three being against Nebraska, Michigan State and Ohio State—where stats guru Ken Pomeroy’s game-by-game projections predict IU losing all four games by just a combined 12 points.

The 2013-14 team had trouble in games like those, but Ferrell says the 2014-15 team is different.

“I feel like this unit is a lot more connected,” Ferrell said. “We all go in the film room and talked about what we needed to do, and when we string together wins, that can just push us and push our level up in practice and carry over into the game.”

Crean has preached rebounding as key for IU throughout the season, and Georgetown is one of the best in the nation in that category. The Hoyas sport an offensive rebound percentage of 40.7 percent, ninth best in the nation according to Pomeroy.

Those boards on the offensive glass lead to easy put-back scoring opportunities. That’s partially why Georgetown’s 2-point shooting percentage is just shy of 53 percent, ranking 38th in the nation.

That’s Mosquera-Perea’s burden to carry, and he knows it.

As IU’s primary presence in the post, he understands that he’ll need to shoulder the load in the painted area and try to limit those second-chance boards.

“At this point, I have to bring a lot to the table for us to win or us to be able to have a good game,” Mosquera-Perea said. “So blocking shots and rebounding. I know that had to be a few of the top things that I have to do every game, so (I’m) just trying to keep that going.”

Keeping it going is exactly what Crean wants to hear. With non-conference coming to a close, there won’t be any more perceived easy victories.

Every game from here on out becomes a fight. And it starts with Georgetown at Madison Square Garden.

“The moment you think you’ve got something worked out is the moment it goes away,” Crean said. “Everything has got to continue to improve.”

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