DES MOINES, Iowa — Yogi Ferrell wasn’t playing. The Hoosiers were trailing by a point with less than 10 minutes to go when IU Coach Tom Crean decided his senior guard needed a rest.
By the time Ferrell, a senior guard, came back in, IU had taken a six-point lead on its way to beating Kentucky 73-67 and advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
“That’s just us as a team, playing as a team and winning as a team,” senior guard Nick Zeisloft said. “That’s how we won the game. That run right there probably got us the win.”
The players responsible for the run were Zeisloft, freshman forward OG Anunoby, freshman center Thomas Bryant, junior forward Troy Williams and senior forward Ryan Burton, who hadn’t scored a point since Jan. 23.
The Hoosiers went on a 9-2 run in the 1:47 without Ferrell in the game, led by Williams. He started the run by converting a driving layup, being fouled and converting the free throw.
In IU’s next possession, Williams attacked the basket again and fed Bryant, who also converted an and-1 layup. Thirty seconds later, Williams penetrated the Kentucky defense again before finding Anunoby for a 3-pointer that forced Kentucky Coach John Calipari to call a timeout, during which Crean let Ferrell back in the game.
During the three possessions when Ferrell wasn’t on the court in the second half, IU scored nine points on perfect 3-of-3 shooting.
“Troy is always better when he understands that the head has to be up, especially outside of the elbows,” Crean said. “When he’s down the middle of floor it’s different, but when he’s outside the elbows — and he made a great kick pass.”
But it was the player who came in for Ferrell that was the most surprising part of the run. A glance at Burton’s stat line from the time he checked in for Ferrell to when he checked out isn’t overly impressive.
One defensive rebound is all that shows up, but his effect on the game was far greater.
The first possession of the run, Burton ran down a loose ball before feeding Williams, who then gave the Hoosiers a lead they would never surrender.
He also held his own defensively against a team he shouldn’t have been able to match up with physically. He spent time defending Kentucky’s versatile guard Jamal Murray and athletic forwards Skal Labissiere and Alex Poythress.
None of those players scored.
“I’ll be the first one to say that stretch went pretty fast, especially for me,” Burton said. “I think the one thing we did was get stops. They’re a really talented team, athletic and long, so the first thing you have to do is get stops.”
Junior forward Collin Hartman was on the bench for the run but said he had the utmost confidence the Hoosiers would be fine during the stretch.
IU prepares for these types of situations.
The Hoosiers didn’t panic when Ferrell came out. They kept moving the ball, running the offense, defending and playing hard.
One player shouldn’t change that, Hartman said.
“We have guys who can do different things all over the court,” Hartman said. “We may not be able to display it all the time, but we work on it every day in practice. We have full confidence in our guys and their capabilities.”
