Saturday’s commencement ceremony at Memorial Stadium for IU’s graduating seniors officially marked the end of the 2014-15 school year, but anticipation is already mounting for what’s in store for the IU men’s basketball team next season.
That’s because graduation was devoid of any members of last year’s IU team.
And so is the list of 2015 NBA Draft early entrants.
Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr. and Troy Williams each thought about leaving for the NBA before deciding to return to Bloomington to work on their skills.
In total, the Hoosiers return their top eight scorers and rebounders from last year’s senior-less team, which finished seventh in the Big Ten (20-14, 9-9).
Thanks to four-star center Thomas Bryant’s commitment to IU in April, the Hoosiers are a near-unanimous top 15 selection in early preseason polls.
They now face a level of expectation only superseded in the IU Coach Tom Crean era by that of the 2012-13 IU team.
That team was led by a pair of future NBA lottery picks – Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller – and garnered a No. 1 ranking in preseason polls.
After being projected to finish in the bottom half of the conference last season, IU will have a target on its back moving forward.
But they’ll enter the offseason and next season with the same exact mindset as before: Don’t believe the expectations.
“Well, we didn’t believe the expectations last year and we can’t believe the expectations this year,” Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said at the team’s postseason media availability on May 4.
“I think it’s the same mentality, all that matters is what you believe and the group inside that locker room or that film room, wherever we are.
“We believed in ourselves and we felt like we could be a good basketball team. Now we can’t believe that we’re too good and we’ve got to know that we’ve got to get better day by day.”
A portion of IU’s coaching staff, Ferrell and fellow rising senior Hanner Mosquera-Perea experienced a similar situation three years ago when the Hoosiers began the season ranked No. 1.
“That team never felt like ‘we’ve arrived, we’re number one,’” Buckley said.
IU’s culture is about work and daily improvement, Buckley said, and the current cast of Hoosiers will have to continue that trend in order to achieve a similar success.
Some of the faces in the locker room and the pieces in Crean’s rotation will change, but the team’s work ethic and approach will not.
“We’ve just been doing the same thing,” Williams said. “Working out, lifting, nothing new for us. (It’s the) same mindset (with) new people coming in, I mean that’s it, keeping everything the same.”
Ferrell said he and his teammates are aware of the hype surrounding IU’s potential next season.
“We know expectations are high,” he said. “The buzz is already out.”
He wants to be a part of a great team, and he believes the pieces are in place for IU to have one.
“I feel like next year we can have a really special team with guys coming in and guys returning (with) a little more experience under their belt,” Ferrell said.
“I feel like I couldn’t really miss out on an opportunity like this at Indiana.”
