PHILADELPHIA — Yogi Ferrell is the only remaining member of IU’s last Sweet 16 team.
That was three years ago, when Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford and Derek Elston — all four-year IU players — were seniors.
Now the senior guard is in the same position going into Friday night’s game against No. 1 North Carolina, but he doesn’t want to go out the way his former teammates did. The then-top-seeded Hoosiers fell to Syracuse in a performance Ferrell called uncharacteristic of one of the best teams in the country.
IU Coach Tom Crean said despite Ferrell averaging under eight points a game his freshman year and playing alongside two stars in Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo, he immersed himself in that team and became a leader in his own right.
This season, he’s taken his leadership to another level.
“He not only leads his teammates but he shares, he talks to them constantly,” Crean said.
And Ferrell has had a little help from an unlikely source.
Senior forward Max Bielfeldt, like Ferrell, has been here before. Bielfeldt, who transferred to IU after four years at Michigan, played in the Elite 8 two seasons ago.
As a redshirt freshman, Bielfeldt was part of Michigan’s Final Four team in 2013 that lost to Louisville in the championship game.
Despite being in Bloomington for just one season, Bielfeldt has been a vital part of IU’s turnaround — in more ways than one. The senior forward is averaging eight points and 4.6 rebounds in 17 minutes per game.
It’s something he said early in the season, though, that caught Ferrell’s attention. After the Duke game, when almost everyone was down on the Hoosiers, Bielfeldt wasn’t.
“I remember Max saying we could make a run in this Big Ten,” Ferrell said. “He saw our ability and then we all saw our ability to play. I feel like ever since then our level of play has changed dramatically.”
Ferrell had no idea Bielfeldt would make the difference he has. As the two most experienced IU players, they feed off each other in leading a young team that hasn’t played this far into March.
“His wisdom and knowledge he’s shared is a lot different than mine,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell described Bielfeldt as having an “older-head” mentality.
“What he shares on the court and his knowledge, everyone listens to him,” he said.
Every time he enters the game, Bielfeldt said, the best thing he can be in consistent. And from game to game, he likes to put things in perspective.
“I think me and Yogi have both been around and our perspectives are both true in different ways sometimes,” Bielfeldt said. “He sees a lot of things I don’t, and I see some things he doesn’t. We complement each other pretty well as far as that goes.”
While Ferrell is the only player who’s been a leader on the court for IU since his freshman year, Crean said that’s where he’s seen the most growth in his point guard.
Ferrell said he was thinking back to his freshman year and their Sweet 16 game the other day.
He’s using that experience to help prepare teammates that are now in the same place he was.
“Just have to tell these guys to stick to our principles, everything that we do, our coverages, what we like to do on offense,” Ferrell said. “Because we definitely don’t want to lose this one.”
