ANN ARBOR, Michigan — He had two defenders directly in front of him.
Senior guard Yogi Ferrell dribbled around both players before drawing two more defenders at the top of the key. But as those two defenders drifted toward Ferrell, junior forward Troy Williams cut to the basket.
Ferrell lobbed the ball to the now wide-open Williams for an alley-oop as part of a 28-0 run in IU’s 80-67 win Tuesday at the Crisler Center. Ferrell scored six points with four assists during the 11:11 stretch.
“Yogi did a great job of understanding how the game was being played,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “Early when we were trying to come back, the ball was in his hands a little too long. The quicker he gives it up, the quicker he gives it back. That’s when we’re running good offense.”
The lob to Williams was the second straight hookup between the two — the first coming after Ferrell got into the lane once again drew defenders, and found a wide-open Troy Williams cutting toward the basket for an easy layup.
Ferrell’s two other assists during the run came after. The first was to set up senior guard Nick Zeisloft from 3-point range. The last was to set up a 3-pointer by freshman forward OG Anunoby, IU’s last three points of the run.
Ferrell’s six points both came from behind the arc as well. Those were the only two 3-pointer he attempted during the run, and he finished 3-of-6 from behind the arc.
In total, he scored a game-high 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field. He also dished out nine assists.
IU started the game poorly, trailing 15-4 at one point when IU Coach Tom Crean called a timeout. IU was shooting 2-of-9 from the field and 0-of-5 from behind the arc. Immediately after the timeout, Ferrell briefly took over the Hoosier offense.
He drove through Michigan’s half-court defense to the basket on IU’s first two possessions for layups. The next possession he found Zeisloft for IU’s first 3-pointer of the game.
From the time Ferrell made that first layup to when he assisted on Anunoby’s 3-pointer early in the second half, the Hoosiers went on a 41-9 run.
What changed is that Ferrell started passing, essentially. Before that timeout, he did not have an assist. He had two misses from the behind the arc.
“This is why Ferrell is so key,” Crean said. “He can struggle to start the game and adjust as it progresses.” Before Crean called that first timeout, Ferrell hadn’t made a shot. He had missed two from behind the arc.
He didn’t have an assist. The entirety of Ferrell’s stat line came after that timeout with 14:30 left in the first half.
Ferrell actually didn’t score in the last 10 minutes of the game, either. He did have two more assists though, leaving him one shy of his first career double-double.
“Yogi constantly gets better inside of the game,” Crean said. “That’s why he’s such a great player and such a great leader. He figures out the game, he figures out what’s there, he makes adjustments, he listens and he brings his teammates with him.”
