IU is starting to garner national attention after pummeling Evansville at the Ford Center on Wednesday night. The Hoosiers will get a chance to turn that into 4-0 when they face Savannah State on Saturday night at 8 pm ET at Assembly Hall.
But while the attention is all positive surrounding this team right now, IU Coach Tom Crean said he made sure to bring his team back down to earth.
"We played a complete game but if you really, really want to get better, we needed to do some things better in the second half," Crean said. "There's a ton of things to improve upon. There's really nothing we're doing so well that you can look at and say 'we'll put this on auto-drive and we'll be fine'. It's too early in the season.
"Everything has improved but there's a lot of room to improve even more," Crean said.
Crean gave his squad it's first day off yesterday in a week and a half. An off day could help a team playing in it's fourth of five games in 11 days.
Sophomore guard Victor Oladipo likened the quick turnaround to the days of AAU basketball. If fatigue has been a factor, Oladipo hasn't shown it this season. Not only is he IU's leading scorer at 15 points per game, but he has also shut down the opposing team's leading scorer in all three games this season.
Oladipo said it's a role he's becoming much more comfortable with.
"I feel as though that's my job," Oladipo said. "I have to guard the best player on the other team and it's my job to stop him from scoring. Now if it's a five man, I don't know about that. That might be a little tough."
Luckily for Oladipo, he hasn't had to worry about guarding post players thanks to the early emergence of junior forward Derek Elston. Coming off the bench, Elston is averaging 7.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Elston is also shooting a blistering 71.4 percent from the field compared to his 51.2 percent last season.
After struggling to stay healthy for the better portion of last season, Crean said he's seen a difference in his work ethic that has led to his fast start.
"He worked hard this offseason where a year ago, he didn't work as hard in the offseason," Crean said. "When you don't have your health, you're just going to be a shell of yourself and that's the way it was for him. But he's really improved in those areas and I think his confidence will continue to grow as his health continues to improve."
Elston has benefited from knocking down wide-open 18 foot jumpers on the baseline, created by penetration from the IU guards. The Hoosiers are currently averaging 19 assists per game, which is good for 21st nationally in addition to owning to the nation's No. 2 shooting percentage at 57.1 percent. Junior forward Christian Watford said the ball movement is the best he's seen in his three years at IU.
The unselfish play has translated into IU boasting four players averaging double digit points. In IU's win at Evansville on Wednesday night, the Hoosiers scored 94 points without a player attempting more than eight shots.
"There's a respect level for one another," Crean said. "If you start doing too much on this team, you'll stand out pretty quick and not in a positive light."
For IU, the mindset is still defensive. Crean again harped on deflections being a key barometer for how much effort is being put into the defensive end. In order for IU's fast start to transfer to Big Ten play, Oladipo said that mantra needs to remain constant.
"All of us are buying into this defense-first mentality," Oladipo said. "I think if we continue to have our defense create for our offense then we can compete with anyone in the country"
