A must win game for IU football
The phrase is so much more than just another dumb sports cliché. For IU this weekend, the phrase is the truth.
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The phrase is so much more than just another dumb sports cliché. For IU this weekend, the phrase is the truth.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The order to attack the glass Tuesday night came early for sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell.Before senior forward Will Sheehey attempted a free throw early in the first half of IU’s 81-54 victory against Oakland, sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell yelled instructions.He was barking at Hollowell.“Jeremy, get in there big dog,” Ferrell said.After Sheehey missed the free throw, Hollowell went to work. He maneuvered his way around two Oakland players trying to box him out and secured the offensive rebound, his second board in the first four minutes.Immediately, he went up strong with the ball, putting it in off the glass.On IU’s next possession, Hollowell secured another offensive rebound. This time, Hollowell passed the ball, leading to an easy dunk for freshman forward Noah Vonleh.Two possessions later, Hollowell scored another basket inside the paint.Less than six minutes into the game, he had four points, three rebounds and two assists.Hollowell finished the game with career highs in rebounds with 10, and assists with four.Coming into the night, Hollowell’s career-high in boards was six.“Jeremy wants to be really, really good,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “What we’re trying to help him get to is the completeness that comes with that.”As a team, IU outrebounded Oakland 52-28. Hollowell tied for the team-high with Vonleh, who also grabbed 10 and finished just two points shy of his seventh double-double of the season.Crean said the team’s rebounding numbers were much better tonight, and he knows that’s an area where the team can still improve, and must improve, as the schedule stiffens.After Hollowell’s hot start, he began to struggle from the field. He only added two more points the rest of the night, finishing 3-for-10 from the field.Most startling to Crean, Hollowell failed to get to the free throw line.“We’ve got to get him to the foul line,” Crean said. “We can’t have games where he’s not getting free throw attempts.”But while Hollowell had his offensive struggles, he did succeed in being part of the group that halted Oakland’s Travis Bader. Bader, one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters, finished the night 0-for-10 from beyond the arc, the first time in 62 games he hasn’t connected.“We switched a lot,” Crean said. “When you can switch the way our guards and wings and forwards can right now, that’s a real plus, and it’s got to become a real strength for us.”For Crean, he sees the strength coming for Hollowell. He knows he’s almost there. Tonight, everything came together except the scoring for him. In Crean’s eyes, that’s on the way.“He’s putting bits and pieces in there of what he’s capable of, and I’d be shocked if it doesn’t come together here fairly soon for him,” Crean said.Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A week ago, IU Coach Tom Crean expressed disappointment in his team’s second-half performance against Syracuse. He said he felt like his team didn’t believe it could win.After an 89-68 victory against North Florida on Saturday night, Crean is hoping his Hoosiers continue to rebuild their confidence in today’s 7 p.m. home matchup with Oakland.“The most important thing for us is to keep gaining confidence, keep gaining understanding of what it takes for us to be successful,” Crean said.On Saturday IU showcased its best ball movement of the season, recording a season-high 17 assists.Crean said the ball movement in that game was a big step for the team to finding success, but it has to continue to improve body movement, specifically moving without the ball. He said his team still needs to increase its cuts without the basketball.Crean cited sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell’s play in the opening minutes of Saturday’s game, saying he understood movement and how to have a positive influence on the game. Hollowell opened the game with two assists, and then attacked the basket on the next possession. Crean said more players need to learn how to have an influence like that on the game, even if they don’t have the basketball.But most important to Crean is that the team continue to play within its game plan.When IU fell apart in the second half against Syracuse, Crean said it was because IU got away from the game plan.“We learned when we’re doing the right stuff, good things happen,” Crean said. “We learned when we get away from it, bad things happen. The more that we can learn from that and move forward in these other games, the better we will be.”For now, that game plan is to continue to attack the basket, an area sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said is the area of his offensive game that he most needs to improve, and getting to the foul line.IU is among the nation’s leaders in getting to the foul line, and freshman forward Noah Vonleh, IU’s biggest inside presence, has been named Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times already.But Crean said his team is still working on understanding how to adjust when a team takes those options away. Teams know where IU wants to attack, so they will try to take that from them. Now, the adjustment is making the next counter-move.“If a team tries to take something away, we’ve got to understand that there’s enough other things that guys can do individually and collectively that we don’t have to get our head down like we did last week against Syracuse,” Crean said. “We can just keep going and go to something else.”The final issue Crean pushed in advance of tonight’s game is for his team to continue to play with energy. If it does that, and continues to stick to its game plan and play with confidence, Crean said the team will set itself up for success for the rest of the season.“The greatest thing that can happen for us is to have tremendous confidence continue to just expand because of the way we’re going through the experiences, the way they’re moving the ball, the way they’re getting to the foul line, the way we’re getting out on the break,” he said. “We’ve just got to continue to build on that.”Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It started with a pass from sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell to sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell.On the game’s first possession, IU started with an assist to get its first basket.Then Ferrell sent a pass to Sheehey for a layup. Hollowell passed on an open look at a 3-pointer and passed inside to open freshman forward Noah Vonleh, who converted a layup and got fouled.IU started the game with an assist on each of its first six made field goals en route to an 89-68 victory against North Florida on Saturday night at Assembly Hall.The Hoosiers finished the game with a season-high 17 assists, their most since the tournament game against James Madison on March 22, when they also had 17.IU Coach Tom Crean said coming into the game the Hoosiers set a goal of finishing with 17 or more assists and cutting down on turning the ball over. IU also finished with a season-low 11 turnovers.“It’s amazing what happens when we pass the ball like that and the turnovers do cut down,” Crean said.Ferrell finished with a season-high seven assists. IU assisted on 17 of its 32 field goals.Crean and sophomore forward Austin Etherington said IU averaged around 17 assists per game last year. Crean said last year the team usually had a goal of 20 assists for every game, but with the talent and experience on the floor, he didn’t have to always emphasize the ball movement because the players just took care of it themselves.However, with this year’s new team the emphasis is on low-post scoring through Vonleh and having players attack the rim and get to the foul line. Crean said this year he won’t get too worked up about the assist numbers.He said he knows that isn’t usually his team’s key to success.“When the ball moves like it does, it’s just really good-looking basketball in the sense of the shot may not go, but you’re getting great movement and all of a sudden it’s contagious,” Crean said.“And it’s a fine line these days, especially with the team we have, because we want to get it in the post. We want to drive. You’ve got to get to the foul line.”With the number of assists, it was IU’s best ball movement of the season.A reporter asked Crean if seeing that sort of movement reminded him of last year’s team — the team he never had to worry about hitting the 20-assist benchmark. “If I thought about that, I might have been looking in the corner for Victor, Cody or Jordan to pop in there,” Crean said.Etherington said he knows this team is different from the team he played on last year. He said he understands it’s a different style.But he also said he understands that when opposing teams pack it in, it makes sense for the team to make the extra pass and have more of the feel of last year’s team.“We knew we didn’t want to over-penetrate, and knew the extra pass and one more pass is going to be there,” Etherington said. “And tonight, obviously, we did that, and we hit the best assists like we were saying.”Follow men's basketball reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming into Tuesday’s matchup with No. 4 Syracuse, IU Coach Tom Crean said the Hoosiers would have to find new ways to attack the Orange, including rebounding and getting to the free-throw line.When Crean repeatedly stressed getting to the foul line, though, he probably didn’t expect that to be IU’s only source of scoring for a large chunk of the second half, especially when the Hoosiers weren’t getting there often.During a 12-minute stretch in the second half, IU’s only points came from the line, when it scored seven points while failing to convert a field goal.In IU’s 69-52 loss to Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, the Hoosiers only got to the free throw line 24 times. In IU’s first seven games, it was getting to the free throw line a little more than 36 times per game on average and making about 26 of those shots.Freshman forward Noah Vonleh converted 13-of-16 free throws, but the rest of the team combined to take just eight more foul shots, converting just five of them to make IU 18-for-24 from the line, well below its 26-for-36 average.Syracuse (8-0) was 15-for-25 from the charity stripe. IU only got three more points than Syracuse from the free-throw line.“In the first half, we were establishing it in the post, catching it in the high post looking for guys in the corners, the lanes.,” Vonleh said. “But in the second half we just started settling for 3-pointers, and that’s not what our game plan was.”IU (6-2), which had made an effort in the early part of the season to take advantage of the new foul rules to get to the line more frequently, only managed to draw 23 fouls against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone.And against that zone, in which perimeter shots are usually open, IU struggled once again with its 3-point shot.“We tried to shoot too many jump shots,” Crean said.The Hoosiers were just 4-for-14 from behind the 3-point line, and started 0-for-4 en route to a 10-0 deficit to start the game.IU sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell was the only Hoosier to see one of his 3-point shots go through the net, as he finished 4-for-7 from distance.While IU struggled from that area of the court, Syracuse, and specifically sophomore guard Trevor Cooney, excelled.Cooney converted 5-of-9 of his 3-point field goals to score a game-high 21 points. By himself, he made more 3-point field goals than the Hoosiers.“We did what we came to do,” Crean said. “We got the ball inside. We had movement, we had reversals.”Only one other Syracuse player, freshman guard Tyler Ennis, made a 3-point field goal, but the Orange shot 6-for-13 overall, 18 percentage points better than the Hoosiers.Crean said before the matchup that “it would be silly for us to go up there and think we’re going to outshoot them from the 3-point line.”He expected his team to attack more in transition, get to the foul line more or win the rebounding battle to find a victory.None of those things happened for IU.The other area Crean had stressed that his team would need to do differently than it did in March when IU lost to Syracuse in the Sweet 16 was to limit its turnovers. IU also failed to do that.The Hoosiers had 16 turnovers, almost exactly what it had been averaging coming into the game.Syracuse, by contrast, had 11 turnovers.“In the second half we didn’t take care of the ball as well as we should have,” Ferrell said. “We had a lot of turnovers.”Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When IU plays Syracuse tonight at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., it will be labeled as a rematch of last year’s Sweet 16 game.But it’s a little different. Three of Syracuse’s eight players who saw time in the game last year are gone, and seven of the 11 Hoosiers who played are no longer part of the team.Of the five Syracuse players who are returning, they combined for only 18 of the Orange’s 61 points in that March 28 matchup, with 11 of those coming from Orange now-senior forward C.J Fair. Senior forward Will Sheehey’s nine points are all that return of IU’s 50-point effort.“The bottom line is it’s completely different,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “It doesn’t do a lot of good to put a lot of time into that game because everybody is so different.”IU started just two players who were taller than 6-foot-7 in last year’s game. Tonight, IU will likely start four players who are 6-foot-7 or taller.With the addition of freshmen forwards Noah Vonleh and Troy Williams as well 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell moving into the starting lineup, IU has a team that is more dominant on the glass, something Crean said IU will have to attack.“Both teams are completely different than last year,” Sheehey said. “We’re a little bit better rebounding team than last year. We’ve got a good game plan and we’re going to go in and try to do what we do, move the ball and move bodies.”Last year, Syracuse point guard Michael Carter-Williams, standing at 6-foot-6, dominated the Hoosiers, putting up a game-high 24 points. He was drafted No. 11 in June’s NBA Draft and now plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.The man who matched up against Carter-Williams is returning, though, but in a completely different role. Now-sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell failed to score a point in 23 minutes of action against Syracuse in March and managed to dish out only one assist.With the departures of Cody Zeller, Christian Watford, Victor Oladipo, Jordan Hulls and Derek Elston, Ferrell has been looked to as one of IU’s primary scoring threats this season. Thus far, he has averaged a team-best 18.1 points per game.“It motivated him, I don’t think there’s any question, this summer,” Crean said. “He was motivated. I think he’s a different player. I think he’s a much better player with his percentages. “I don’t think there’s a question that experience going through that a year ago helped this summer and this year thus far, but again it’s our first trip on the road and in that type of environment we’re going to be depending on his leadership.”Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers’ fastest sprint Saturday came at the end of the game.The clock expired on IU’s 56-36 thumping of Purdue, and the Hoosiers collectively ran to the Boilermakers sideline to collect their prize — the Old Oaken Bucket.In a season filled with disappointment, IU’s season ended as perfectly as it could. In that moment, no one was thinking about the failures of this team. Instead, the last moment people will think of for IU’s 2013 season is a moment of pure, unbridled bliss. And for the seniors, particularly wide receiver Kofi Hughes, tight end Ted Bolser, safety Greg Heban and kicker Mitch Ewald, it ended just as it should have.These seniors deserved the Bucket. They deserved that victory sprint. They deserved to take silly pictures with the Bucket.Take a minute to think about what they have had to go through. It’s the last group that was coached by former IU Coach Bill Lynch. They had to endure the process of adapting to a new coach as sophomores — a change several players didn’t survive.“There were so many other guys before Wilson that have now quit, whether they got kicked off or not,” Hughes said.Then there were the growing pains of adjusting to Wilson. IU won just one game in 2011. Times were tough.“There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t know about, and it wasn’t always easy to be a Hoosier,” Hughes said.Last season IU made a small jump forward but still lost the Bucket Game, and the season ended on a sour note.That wasn’t the case for the 2013 campaign. After grabbing the Bucket from the Boilers, Bolser ended up with it and was instructed to carry it over to the student section to sing, “Indiana, Our Indiana.”Somewhere in the swarm of singing Hoosiers, Bolser ended up handing off the Bucket to Hughes. He was happy to give it to his teammate. Hughes said he was happy to finally hold what he had been working for over the past four years. “Holding that bucket and being in that moment is a great statement — a great ending for this long journey that me, personally, that I’ve been on and with everything that has happened and this team and everything we’ve fought through,” Hughes said. “The adversity that IU football has had to go through is really tremendous.”After the game, players took pictures with the Bucket. At the center of one of the pictures sits Bolser, Hughes and Heban, grinning. “Being around all those guys at the end of the game with the Bucket, it’s just memories. Just building memories,” Heban said.While the three are some of the only players on the team who know what it’s like to win the Bucket, this one was different.Hughes said as a freshman he was on the outer edge of the picture. His time with the Bucket was brief.Saturday, he was the one hoisting the Bucket above his head because he knew all that it represented.“The last four years I’ve been able to really know what the meaning is behind the Bucket,” Hughes said. “Especially as a senior. I don’t think you can really understand how significant the Bucket Game is until you are a senior, until you’re in those shoes, and it’s your last game and you can understand the rival. I think there was a really big difference in just how much it meant to me.”This group that has been through so much finished with a sweet win, and the seniors left the program in better shape than when they came in.Now, the program has direction. The program has discipline. They know what they want, and they have set out a way to achieve their goals.While it didn’t happen this year, the program is closer than ever to turning the corner.And it was the work ethic of Hughes, Bolser and Heban that helped change that.“I think we as a senior class set the foundation of what the standard is here at IU for IU football for what needs to be done, and I think they’re going to continue to fulfill that over the next couple of years,” Heban said.When Hughes reflected on the game, he sounded like a proud father. He sounded like the senior leader he is.“The biggest thing that I wanted today was just the whole team playing as one because that’s something that we really haven’t done the whole season,” Hughes said. “It was either the defense was hot or the offense was cold or vice versa. But tonight we put it all together versus our rival, and I was really proud and happy to see that.”A couple of years ago, no one on the team talked like that. Hughes has made the program better not just by his jaw-dropping catches, but by the way he has carried himself this entire season, including waiting for his chance at the Bucket.Hughes never had to ask for it. The team called for the Bucket to be given to him. He — and the entire senior class — had earned it.“I think everyone else, they know the adversity that I’ve faced and the issues I had to fight through and the good times and the bad times,” he said. “I think they all knew how much it meant to me personally just to end on a good note and finish where we’re finishing.”— robhowar@indiana.eduFollow columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At Big Ten Media Day in Chicago way back in July, IU senior kicker Mitch Ewald said it was a "complete understatement" to say IU expected to go to a bowl game this season.After losing to Ohio State 42-14 Saturday at Ohio Stadium, IU's bowl chances were officially dashed.Ewald said back in July the team's goal wasn't even to go to a bowl. As he said, that was the minimum he and his teammates expected. He said then that the team's goal was to be one of the top three teams in the Big Ten.But at 4-7 and 2-5 in conference, IU finds itself as the ninth-place team in the 12-team Big Ten. It's a bottom-feeder, again.In a season that showed so much promise, it's now officially gone. Another season has come and is almost gone, and IU will not be going bowling for the sixth straight season."This is definitely not the season I predicted or that our team hoped for," senior wide receiver Kofi Hughes said.And in one of the oddest turns of the season, it was once again IU's offense, the area viewed as the team's biggest strength, that doomed the Hoosiers in defeat.IU scored just 14 points, well below its 39.1 average. It didn't score until there were just under six minutes remaining in the game.When junior wide receiver Shane Wynn finally put IU on the board with a four-yard touchdown pass, it ended a stretch of more than 125 game minutes in which IU had failed to score a touchdown.Before that score late in the fourth quarter, IU hadn't reached the endzone since the 11-minute mark of the fourth quarter in the Nov. 9 game against Illinois.Before that touchdown, IU had six drives end inside the Ohio State 35-yard line that resulted in zero points."It's frustrating because as an offense we pride ourselves on always trying to score every possession," sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson said. "For us coming short on those possessions, it was real frustrating."Again, the Hoosiers couldn't pin the loss solely on its defense, which again struggled, giving up 42 points. While it certainly didn't play at a high-level at times, it did force Ohio State into three turnovers and two punts. It gave the offense chances -- chances that were never capitalized on."I don't know what it was," Hughes said of the offense's struggles. "Our defense did everything that we could've asked to win this game. Create turnovers, create some stops, give us great field position all day. I really don't know what was going on."The problem wasn't moving the ball. No, the Hoosiers had just 29 fewer yards than the Buckeyes. But they also had 28 fewer points.Every possession, something else stopped the Hoosier offense. Three of those times it was failing to convert a crucial fourth down, one of which was at the Ohio State two-yard line."It felt like we were in the game," Roberson said, "we just wasn't scoring. The name of the game -- you gotta score points in order to win and we just didn't score any points."Even Ewald, who had come into the game with a perfect kicking record in both field goals and extra points, missed not one, but two field goals, off the uprights.Two times? Off the posts? From a perfect kicker, the best in IU history?That sort of, in a way, summarized IU's season. It wasn't what anyone expected.No one expected IU to struggle offensively. No one expected IU to have a routinely porous defense, again, that gave up almost 39 points on average. No one expected IU to lose to Navy or to Minnesota.No one, including Ewald, expected IU to fail to make a bowl game.When Ewald's second kick bounced off the left upright, he put both hands to his helmet and shook his head.The kick, the game, the season, didn't go as planned.Saturday wasn't IU's game, and 2013 wasn't its season to live up to expectations.-- robhowar@indiana.eduFollow columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There are some things in life that can’t be explained. One of those things is the IU football team.How can a team score 52 points one week and three the next?How can a team literally fumble away its chance to win Homecoming? How can a team have such a historically bad defense? You get the point.But there’s something else about this team that is so, so weird, I have no answer for it.Recently, no matter how poorly IU plays, it finds a way to play well against Ohio State.Looking at the team’s record and its statistics, this is mind-boggling.As bad as IU is against Wisconsin, it is competitive with Ohio State.Last year, the Hoosiers fell to the Buckeyes by just three points, 52-49, when it made a late rally that had people thinking upset.In 2011, a year in which IU won just one game, the Hoosiers went to the Horseshoe and lost by only two touchdowns. It doesn’t make sense.I say all of this so that no one calls me crazy when I say IU will be competitive in this game — much more competitive than it was against Wisconsin.Don’t bother looking at matchups or statistics. Ohio State has the advantage in both regards. On paper, the undefeated Buckeyes should smash IU, a team that has won only one of its past five games .I’m not going to try to explain it. I wish I knew what the key was so that I could go make millions breaking this game down. All I know is that this is going to be a competitive game, something IU did not have last week.It certainly makes a difference that this is statistically IU’s last chance to be bowl eligible. Lose this game, and bowl hopes are officially down the drain. That should spark IU’s fire.And then there’s the fact that absolutely no one is giving IU even the smallest of chances in this game. After the performance the Hoosiers had last weekend, there’s not really any reason to think IU has a chance.That means there’s no pressure on IU in this game. The only thing people expect out of IU on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, is a loss. And most people already wrote the Hoosiers out of bowl eligibility.So what’s there to lose?IU can go out and have fun in this game. Unlike last week, players aren’t thinking about how historically bad they have played against their opponent in recent memory.In fact, when they see the Buckeyes, they’ll remember just how close they were to beating them last year. There’s some confidence. The Hoosiers won’t go in already mentally defeated like they appeared to be against Wisconsin.IU is going to be in this game. People are going to be surprised.But they won’t be surprised by the winner. That’s one thing I can agree on.Despite being close, the Hoosiers are still going to be on the wrong side of the final score. But how they will even be in it at the end, I can’t explain.Prediction: Ohio State 48, IU 35— robhowar@indiana.edu Follow football columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Because of Thanksgiving break, this will be the final Q&A with IU Athletic Director Fred Glass. Today we discuss the IU football gameday experience, and we look ahead to IU’s final home matchup: a Nov. 30 battle with Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket.IDS You mentioned last week something about the dorms being opened early for Purdue. What’s the plan for that?GLASS With the support of President McRobbie and Provost Lauren Robel, the residence halls will be open on the Saturday of the Bucket Game.I don’t know exactly when they open, but hopefully fairly early so students can come back from their week’s vacation and do whatever they do on the pregame, and then come to the game and cheer the Hoosiers on to beat the Boilermakers and be able to go home to their dorms and go nighty-night after that.IDS Was this something you had looked into doing in years past and you were just finally able to get it done this year? Or was this just something you had thought of this year?GLASS We have been wanting to do that in years past when the Bucket Game has fallen on Thanksgiving weekend, and we’ve been in conversations with the residence halls folks and with their cooperation and the support of the president and the provost. We were able to get that all put together this year.IDS How do you expect that to affect attendance?GLASS I’m hopeful that it will really increase the students coming.I think after a week being gone in the fall, I think the kids may be eager to get back on to campus and have some fun Saturday and Saturday night in Bloomington.I’m very optimistic that people will make the decision to maybe come back a day before they might otherwise do that and enjoy the last football game of the season, which is great given that it’s against Purdue.IDS Because the Bucket Game does fall on Thanksgiving, and I think during the last four years it has, had you had any complaints about that? Or is this seen as any sort of solution or compromise with the student body to accommodate them a little bit?GLASS We haven’t really had complaints I would say, but I do think since the schedule has shifted in recent years and pushed the game into Thanksgiving weekend. It just makes it harder sometimes for families to go to the game when maybe they have other plans.It makes it particularly hard on the students when they’re on vacation. My hope is that not only the dorms being open but the fact that Thanksgiving vacation is an entire week may make the students more ready to come back than they may have otherwise been if they were only off on Thursday and Friday, as I believe was the case in previous years.IDS What’s your personal favorite memory of the Bucket Game? Is there any one game or moment that sticks out to you?GLASS That’s a great question. I’ve been going to Bucket Games since I was a little kid. I remember going to games where it was so cold people were buying coffee and pouring it into their shoes to keep their feet warm, which was kind of a short-term benefit, long-term probably not so smart. I remember snow being there. I just have a lot of generally positive memories about the bucket. My favorite memory is the last time we beat them at West Lafayette, where we won the bucket three years ago. I’m very optimistic that our fellows will rise to the occasion and bring the bucket back and get the victory flag back up on the pole where it belongs.IDS When IU did win the bucket in 2010, was their a special place you kept it? Where is the bucket kept if it is in Bloomington?GLASS That’s a great question. I don’t know where we keep the bucket. There’s a special box, kind of like a suitcase thing that it’s in, and I’m going to make sure that the Boilermakers bring the bucket down, so when we beat them we can run across the field and grab it and hoist it over our heads because I don’t want to be waiting for it on Tuesday or something like that. I’m hoping the Boilers bring the bucket, I’m hoping the bucket stays in Bloomington. We’ll decide where to exhibit it, maybe in our trophy case in Memorial Stadium. When I was a kid, when I was a student at Bloomington, they used to keep it in the case in the Memorial Union in the hotel lobby there so all the kids could see it. Maybe we’ll move it around a little bit and let the fans get a good gander at it.IDS I don’t know if you’ve thought about this yet, but should IU win against Purdue, how long do you keep the victory flag up?GLASS We have thought about that, and the victory flag stays up until we don’t win. If we beat Purdue and it is the last game of the season, the victory flag will stay up until we’re defeated next football season. If we make it into a bowl game, then whatever the outcome of the bowl is will dictate whether the victory flag stays up until the next season. We have thought about that, and that’s the plan.IDS It could, hypothetically, stay up the entire offseason then?GLASS Exactly. That’s the way we want it to be. It increases the stakes of the last game of the year. Hopefully that’ll be a bowl game. But if it’s not a bowl game, it’ll be the Bucket Game. IDS We got a Twitter question this week. The IU Quarry, the IU student section, wants to know, with Navy off the schedule next year, who replaces them in the non-conference season?GLASS We have four non-conference games next year. Those are Bowling Green on the road, Missouri on the road, North Texas at home and Indiana State at home, not in that order.Follow columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>That was one of the worst performances I’ve watched from the IU football team.The Hoosiers got completely whipped on both sides of the ball Saturday against Wisconsin, getting dominated 51-3 at Camp Randall Stadium.After the game, I received a good deal of text messages from friends complaining about IU’s play. Most couldn’t fathom how this happened — again.One said, “I don’t even think we should play Wisconsin anymore! Wtf!”It was the newest chapter in the Badgers’ absolute dominance of the Hoosiers in the last four years.It’s like there’s some sort of mental block when IU plays Wisconsin. The Hoosiers just can’t do anything against the Badgers. They can’t stop them from running the ball down their throat, and they can’t manage to get any offense going.Saturday was no different.The game was basically decided just six plays after kickoff.After Wisconsin intercepted IU sophomore quarterback Nate Sudfeld, Wisconsin senior running back James White ripped off a 93-yard touchdown run on Wisconsin’s first offensive play.Despite having the entire game to go, there was just a feeling that the game was over. And it was.The Hoosiers never got anything going on offense to climb out of an immediate 20-0 hole after the first quarter.Of all of IU’s losses this season, this was clearly the worst.The defense failed miserably, allowing three Badgers to rush for more than 100 yards, totalling 554 rushing yards on the day.The offense failed miserably, accumulating just 224 yards of offense and totalling just three points on the day.It was a pathetic showing.I didn’t think IU would win — I predicted a final score of 56-21 — but I thought there would at least be some fight.You could argue the defense had some fight when it managed to stop Wisconsin in the red zone three times, but the explosive plays from White, sophomore running back Melvin Gordon and freshman running back Corey Clement overshadowed any of the few good things the defense did.It seems like that’s the easiest thing to pick on from this game. But what was even worse was that IU’s explosive offense only managed three points.Three points? That’s it?The Wisconsin backs were going to get their yards. They’re good. But they shouldn’t have piled up 554 yards. That’s inexcusable.But even more inexcusable is the fact that IU only managed one scoring drive.This is an offense that prides itself on the idea that if the defense allows 100 points, it has to find a way to score 101.IU has scored more than 51 points two times this season, including just last week against Illinois. It’s capable of big numbers. There’s no doubt it is the strength of this team.And it only managed three points against Wisconsin.IU has lost badly to Wisconsin before. This isn’t anything new. But the fact that the offense failed as badly as it did, combined with Wisconsin’s running backs putting up video game numbers, makes this IU’s worst loss to Wisconsin.— robhowar@indiana.eduFollow football columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In all four of Noah Vonleh’s collegiate games, he has recorded a double-double.The first question for the freshman forward Sunday night was whether he’s surprised he’s accomplished that feat to begin his college career.“No, not really,” he said.Vonleh tallied 18 points, his highest total in his first four games, and 15 rebounds, also a new high, in IU’s 90-74 victory against Stony Brook on Sunday night at Assembly Hall.The last freshman to start his collegiate career with at least four consecutive double-doubles was Michael Beasley with Kansas State in 2007. Beasley recorded a double-double in his first 12 games.The last time an IU player had four consecutive double-doubles at any time during a season was D.J. White in the 2007-2008 season.IU Coach Tom Crean added that Vonleh also finished with 15 deflections. Crean said he viewed Vonleh’s performance as a triple-double because of that statistic.In four games, Vonleh is averaging 13.7 points and 11.7 rebounds to go along with 1.3 blocks per game.Despite Vonleh’s quick start to the season, he hasn’t received as much national attention as fellow classmates Jabari Parker at Duke, Andrew Wiggins at Kansas or Julius Randle at Kentucky.But Crean said he wouldn’t want any of those guys over Vonleh, who he describes as a player who has “tremendous humility” and “really wants to be great.”“I wouldn’t trade him for anybody in that class,” Crean said. “There’s a lot of great players and all that kind of stuff, but I’m talking about upside of what he is capable of, what he’s willing to do to get there and how much he knows he doesn’t know at this point.“When you start putting humility into a talented person, now you’ve got a chance for incredible upside.”When Vonleh was asked about the lack of attention, he didn’t seem bothered by it.“I’m just going to keep playing to the best of my abilities, just keep rebounding, scoring, and hopefully I get into that category,” he said.One of the things Vonleh needs to improve on is verbally demanding the basketball when he gets his position on the post, Crean said.“The bottom line is he’s demanding the ball with his body,” Crean said. “He knows if he doesn’t demand the ball, I’m going to take him out of the game because he’s too good not to do that.”Sophomore point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said it’s easier to find Vonleh in the post because of his ability to create space.“What’s enabled him to be so effective on offense, I’d say, is his ability to carve out space,” Ferrell said. “Once he gets the ball, it’s pretty much over I feel like.”Despite the early success, Crean and Vonleh both said there is lots of room for improvement for the freshmen.“He’s going to continue to expand,” Crean said. “He’s going to continue to get better. He’s going to continue to get more comfortable. He’s going to continue, certainly, to get more attention.”Follow men's basketball reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fueled by a career-high 26 points from sophomore point guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell, IU dismantled Samford 105-59 Friday night at Assembly Hall.Ferrell scored 17 points in the second half, including connecting on four 3-point field goals. He finished the game 5-for-7 from distance, and also added six assists."Yogi had his best game at Indiana thus far," IU Coach Tom Crean said. "Won't be his last best game. He let the game come to him. He established it defensively."You could see it coming. You could see it coming in the way he absorbed the film on Tuesday. You could see it coming the way he practiced yesterday, the way he's talking in walk-throughs. Slowly but surely Yogi is figuring out just how good he can be."Sophomore forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea also set a new career-high in scoring, chipping in eight points. Six of his points came via three slam dunks, all of which drew loud applause from the fans. But perhaps the loudest ovation came during his second half dunk when he tipped in a missed layup from sophomore forward Austin Etherington with one hand."That one was nice," Ferrell said.IU (3-0) never trailed in the game, as freshman forward Troy Williams started the scoring for IU with his own tip-in on the game's first possession. It was the second offensive rebound of the possession for the Hoosiers.IU totaled 17 offensive rebounds on the night and dominated the paint, outscoring Samford 56-22. Four Hoosiers reached double-figure scoring, including Ferrell. Freshman forward Noah Vonleh scored 13 and had 10 rebounds to tally his third consecutive double-double to start the season. "He's probably one of the best freshman I've seen, especially as a big," graduate student guard Evan Gordon said.Eight of Vonleh's 13 came in the first three minutes and 55 seconds of the game."This game, we tried to get an inside presence early," Ferrell said. "We were looking more inside-out."Gordon scored double digits for the first time as a Hoosier netting 10.Williams (10) was the other Hoosier to score double figures."Troy made as much progress as anybody has from Tuesday to Friday," Crean said.At one time in the second half, the Hoosiers had a 51-point advantage.IU's defense limited Samford to 29.9 percent shooting on the night. Part of that was IU's 10 blocks on the night. Freshman center Luke Fischer led IU in that category with three. It was the second time in the first three games IU has had 10 or more blocks.IU went on a 24-4 run after Samford tied the game at 2 at the beginning of the game. From that point, the game was never in doubt.During about a five-minute stretch from the 14:29 mark to the 9:07 mark in the first half, IU tallied four dunks, including two from Mosquera-Perea. During that stretch, IU grew its lead from 13 to 22 points.In the second half, IU scored on every possession for seven consecutive possessions from the 14:50 mark to the 11:43 mark.In that stretch, Ferrell made two 3-point field goals. IU grew its lead from 28 to 42 points during that time period.Freshman forward Collin Hartman was the first player off the bench for IU and recorded his first bucket as a Hoosier in the first half. He finished with five points on the night on 2-for-3 shooting in 10 minutes of play."I think Collin was as shocked as anybody that he came in first," Crean said.After just edging LIU Brooklyn just three days ago, Crean said he was pleased his team was able to come out and dominate a game and he liked how his team responded following the narrow-win on Tuesday."The bottom line is, I think they've grown," he said.Samford is coached by former IU assistant coach Bennie Seltzer, who Crean asked fans to give a standing ovation for during his pregame video address.Seltzer, who coached at IU from 2008-2012, said IU has changed a lot since his time in Bloomington."There's no doubt it's a different team than the one I left a few years ago," he said. "The athleticism of that team is completely off the charts. That's probably the most athletic team I've seen in a very long time. "With that size and that athleticism, Indiana's going to be a very tough team to beat."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In 2010, it was 63 points. In 2011, it was 52. Last year, it was 48.That’s been the margin of victory for Wisconsin against IU the last three years.When the two teams play, it’s been ugly, to say the least.The Badgers have flat out looked better than IU in all of those meetings because, well, they were better.I don’t think it’s any different this year.At the beginning of the year, I’m not sure I would’ve said exactly that. There was lots of optimism around this team. All of the pieces seemed to be in place to make a jump. But it just hasn’t happened.IU still lost to Navy. It lost to Minnesota. It lost a game it was positioned to win against Michigan. The jump hasn’t happened yet.And the way IU matches up with Wisconsin, I don’t think it’s going to happen Saturday.Of course, IU Coach Kevin Wilson disagrees.“Our mindset is we’re making strides, and this is an opportunity to show we’re ready to make the next stride,” he said. “You want to do it this week. Let’s go up and fight and have a great week and have a great plan, put it together, go attack, go fight and see what it is. Let’s go up there not hoping and wishing it could happen. Might as well not get on the plane and take the bus trip up to the airport.“I’m looking forward to seeing where the team is, looking forward to having a good week.”The entire season has been a chance like this, notably games against Missouri, at Michigan State, at Michigan and against Minnesota. IU has failed to turn the page in all of those.And the difference with this game is IU has never been close against Wisconsin in recent history.I remember as a freshman watching from my dorm room in Teter as Ben Chappell got clobbered in Madison, Wisc., and the Hoosiers fell 83-20. It was one of my worst-spent Saturday afternoons of my freshman year. IU was never in the game. It was like watching a steam-engine train run over the team.Last year might have been the worst of all.When the Badgers came to Bloomington, there were whispers around the Hoosier football team and the Rose Bowl. Win that game, and there’s a chance IU makes it to the Big Ten Championship game, giving it a chance of going to the Rose Bowl. It was more than a bit far-fetched, but it was within the realm of possibility. And after back-to-back Big Ten wins, optimism in the program was at an all-time high. It represented, perhaps, IU’s biggest chance of making a stride forward for the program.And instead, the Hoosiers got man-handled on their own home field, 62-14.Saturday, the task will be even more difficult. IU will likely be playing without sophomore running back Tevin Coleman, the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.Senior running back Stephen Houston is more than capable of starting, but it means IU is playing one weapon down.And the Hoosiers are going against a massive weapon in Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon. Six times this season, he’s gone for more than 100 yards. He’s averaging 8.1 yards per carry and has gone for 1,160 yards and 11 touchdowns in nine games. He’s a stud.For a running defense that has struggled at times this season, this will be its biggest test.And it’s a test I don’t think the Hoosiers will pass.My prediction: Gordon runs wild against the Hoosiers, who are forced to go to an all-air attack without Coleman. Wisconsin continues its dominance of IU, winning 56-21.— robhowar@indiana.eduFollow football columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It started to click for sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell immediately after losing to Syracuse in the Sweet 16 last year.While sitting in the locker room, he said he realized how much the 2013-14 season would be different. He thought about all the guys who would leave. He thought about how his role would change.He knew what was about to happen. He knew more was going to be expected of him.Then-junior forward Will Sheehey told him on the way back from that loss in Washington, D.C., “We gotta get ready for next year.”Since then, Hollowell has done just that.“Just realizing last year how much we had and how much is gone now — I mean, we lost a pretty good deal of our team,” he said. “So it was just me realizing the opportunity that I have and getting in the gym, working and just ready to capitalize on the opportunity that I have.”Hollowell only played four minutes against Syracuse, recording one rebound and one assist. He didn’t have much of an effect.He was mad at himself. He knew he could do better.And he knew he would have that chance this season.“It really motivated me knowing that I didn’t play so much, didn’t play so well last year,” he said. “As soon as the last game was over I just knew it was time to get ready for next year.”***At IU’s media day, just before the first official practice of the season, Hollowell patted his newest tattoo on his right bicep with pride. He got two new tattoos last summer, he said.One is the Bible verse Philippians 4:13, which says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”The other is his favorite. It’s the one he’s patting. It’s a tattoo of a lion, “my lion,” he calls it.He doesn’t directly say that the lion is a metaphor for him and his mindset going into this season, but it is obvious that’s what he believes.He wants to be a lion this season.“Lions gon’ eat. By any means. Lions gon’ do whatever it takes to get that food,” he said. “That’s what I’m just using for motivation this year.”He’s asked to expand on exactly what that means. He doesn’t understand the question. He thinks he explained it fully with that response.“By any means. If he wants to eat something, he’s gonna eat it. There’s no stopping him,” Hollowell said. “That’s really what that one means.”He wants to be a lion in the sense that he’ll do what it takes to get what he wants. He isn’t going to allow anyone or anything to stop him.At Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis, Hollowell averaged 23.9 points per game his senior season.He was the unquestioned leader of his team. He was the guy.When he came to IU, he joined a team that featured two future top 5 NBA draft picks and three other guys who are now playing professional basketball overseas.He was far from being the guy.But he was part of “The Movement,” the four-man group of guys from the Class of 2012 who chose IU.It was supposed to be the class that brought IU basketball back. Not Victor Oladipo and Sheehey, and the pundits said adding Zeller by himself wasn’t enough.When the team added Hollowell, guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea and center Peter Jurkin, IU was supposed to rocket to the top.But aside from Ferrell, no one from “The Movement” did much in their freshman campaign.Hollowell only averaged 9.7 minutes per game and only scored 2.8 points per game.“I definitely feel like we didn’t live up to the hype that we had,” he said. “It’s just motivating us this offseason. I know I didn’t feel like I played to my potential.“I think we have a real big chip on our shoulder.”Whenever Hollowell talks about last season, he mentions it was a learning experience. He said he learned how to play a role on the team, how to put in the daily work that it takes to be a Big Ten player and how to work on competing at a Big Ten level everyday.Now that he’s learned those things, he’s putting the rest of last year behind him.“I’m just trying to go in this season with a new mindset,” he said. “Last year is over with, so I’m just focusing on this year and doing what I need to do to help this team win.”***Shortly after last season ended, Hollowell lost something else.One of his biggest mentors who he described as a “father-figure” or an “uncle-figure” as well as “a real good friend of mine,” died April 1.Alonzo Buggs was the assistant to the dean of students at Lawrence Central. Every day in high school Hollowell would go into Buggs’ office and talk about life.“The relationship we had was real great,” Hollowell said.Hollowell attended the viewing at the Lawrence Central gym. Buggs was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.“He really meant a lot to me,” Hollowell said. “He really did.”Now the first thing Hollowell does when he gets a new pair of shoes is write “RIP Mr. Buggs” on them.“I do still think about him a lot,” he said.After Buggs’ death, Hollowell said he turned to IU Associate Coach Tim Buckley for guidance.Buckley was a big part of Hollowell’s recruitment to IU. He was one of the guys who helped keep Hollowell motivated last year when he struggled.“He just stayed in my ear telling me to stay after it and keep working hard. Opportunities come,” Hollowell said.Now Hollowell is the third highest returning scorer on the team, despite scoring fewer than three points a game last year.His opportunity has turned into an expectation.“I definitely feel the need to. I’m definitely going to have to,” Hollowell said of his need to score more this year. “I’m definitely going to have to step up and make plays for this team.”But perhaps more important, the soft-spoken Hollowell is now one of the leaders of this team.He’s in charge of making sure freshmen know what to do and how to work hard.“We’re the next thing next to seniors,” he said of himself and Ferrell, both sophomores. “We really have no choice. We have to step up and help Will out with the leadership role. Being with a young team we really have no choice.”It’s a role Hollowell is excited for, but he admits is kind of funny because he was in the same place as the freshmen just 12 months ago. He knows exactly what they’re going through. It’s still fresh for him.“We had a lot of plays last year where I was out there trying to figure out the plays,” Hollowell said. “Somebody would call the play, and I was just kinda lost out there.“We see it in practice this year. It’s kind of funny to see because I was in the same boat last year. We’ve just been working with them. I know how it is.”While he says Sheehey is still the vocal leader of the team, a guy who isn’t afraid to get in your face, Hollowell gets in Sheehey’s face, too.The two friends who bonded ever since Hollowell arrived don’t back down from each other.“He gets in my face. I get in his face,” Hollowell said. “It’s just a respect level from each other. He doesn’t take nothin’ from me. I don’t take nothin’ from him.”In IU’s first game of the season against Chicago State, Hollowell led IU in scoring, netting a new career high in points with 16 and also a career high in blocks with four.It was something he was looking forward to ever since losing to Syracuse.“I’m really ready to come out and show what I can do,” he said. “Game time, I’m going to be ready to play.”Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In this week’s conversation with IU Athletic Director Fred Glass, we talk about the significance of the win against Illinois and the busy season for the IU Athletic Department.IDS How important was that win Saturday against Illinois?GLASS It’s hard to overstate how important it was. The Minnesota defeat was as crushing as any defeat I’ve ever been associated with. I know it was harder, even, on the players and coaches. So for them to all bounce back and have that kind of performance and win a game that way after the disappointment against Minnesota I thought was pretty extraordinary. Especially when you consider, I think the sequence was we were up 21-14 at half, hoping to extend the lead and ended up on the wrong end of 28-21 and then fought back and had a big victory, I think it was terrific.IDS I know that you’ve had fireworks the whole year, but were there more fireworks Saturday? It felt like there were more fireworks.GLASS I don’t think so. The great thing was, though, we had the victory fireworks. We hadn’t had those in a while. It was great to have the victory fireworks at the end of the game. I’m looking at the victory flag right now, and to see it flying is really great.IDS How special was that to see the victory flag raised for the first time in a month?GLASS It was great, man. There’s few sights that I like more than to look at that beautiful victory flag flying against the crisp blue, now winter, sky. I know the team is going to do its best to keep it up there.IDS Is it weird to think there’s only one home football game left this season?GLASS It really is. The cycle goes so fast. Now we’re having basketball go on at the same time as football. The soccers and their postseason tournament — women’s soccer is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a long, long time. So we’re busy on all fronts. And that’s good. This is the time of year where you want a lot of things going on.IDS With a busy weekend in IU Athletics, will you be making the trip to Madison for the football game this weekend?GLASS I’ll go to the men’s basketball game on Friday night and then I’ll fly up to Madison on Saturday morning to be there with the football team.IDS With the recent history against Wisconsin, would a win in Madison mean more?GLASS Well sure. Wisconsin is one of the premier programs not only in the Big Ten but in the country. They haven’t missed a beat under their new head coach. Camp Randall is one of the truly great venues in collegiate football.It’s a huge challenge for our guys and would be a really significant accomplishment if we’re able to go up there and get the win.Follow columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and senior forward Will Sheehey went to Russia to play for Team USA in the World University Games last summer, Ferrell was the youngest player on the roster — the only freshman on the team.He didn’t start during any of the team’s eight games, but he did become one of the most used players off the bench.Against the United Arab Emirates on July 7 in the team’s first game, Ferrell played 24 minutes, the most minutes on the team, and led the team in assists with 13.Two games later, against Sweden, he led the team in scoring, netting 20 points.“His role there really jumped,” Sheehey said of Ferrell.It wasn’t easy for Ferrell as the youngest guy leading some of the top players in college basketball. Then he got used to it.“That was definitely fun, trying to lead some of the other top guys on their college team,” he said. “It was a little difficult at times. I felt like maybe if I would’ve led them a little quicker, a little earlier, we could’ve gotten to where we wanted to get, but we didn’t.”Coming back to IU, Ferrell is seen as one of the leaders of the team. He started all 36 games for IU last year.Sheehey, the only other returning IU player who had started games prior to the 2013-14 season, has only started 19 games in his career.“Leadership, I feel like, may come from me and Will just because we have the most experience I’d say just from last year,” Ferrell said. “I feel like me and Will are definitely going to have to take that leadership role.”IU Coach Tom Crean said he likes the leadership both have provided.But he said Ferrell’s personal success ultimately hinges on how well he does as a leader on the team this year.“He’s got to understand that his greatness is going to come this year from what kind of leadership he provides on a consistent basis when it’s not comfortable or convenient,” Crean said. “Can he get to the basket at a high level, especially with the way these rules are?”Ferrell is the second leading returning scorer from last year’s team, but he was never one of the primary offensive options last year.Ferrell said the biggest thing he worked on in the offseason was his perimeter jump shot.Crean said Ferrell is now the most consistent 3-point shooter in practice on the team.“His shooting has improved tremendously,” Crean said. “There’s been nobody that has come in that gets paid to evaluate that hasn’t made a comment about his improvement, especially on the offensive side.”When Crean talks about the top point guards in the league, he often mentions Ohio State’s Aaron Craft. He said Ferrell needs to use Craft as a model and work to get to his level.During Big Ten Media Day, Craft approached Ferrell and shook his hand. Ferrell smiled, and the two briefly exchanged words.As much as Crean talks about Craft, Craft had a good deal to say about Ferrell.“Sometimes he’s going to beat you. That happens,” Craft said. “Great players make great plays sometimes. You got to have a short-term memory and move on to the next play and just try to let him know you’re going to be there every possession, regardless of what happens, and hopefully you get him to make a couple of mistakes.”Iowa’s Aaron White played on Team USA during the summer with Ferrell. He said playing with him was fun and the two are friends now.White said he was happy Ferrell was on his team for eight games and he didn’t have to play him while Ferrell was wearing cream and crimson.“I know going against him, you can’t keep him in front,” White said. “We tried to press him a little bit last year, and you really can’t. He just dribbles through the defense, and he was doing the same thing overseas. He’s just so quick and so explosive.”Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Assembly Hall sits empty and quiet, except for the people part of the IU women’s basketball team.It’s a Monday, and it’s the first day of official practice of the 2013-14 season.Two years ago, redshirt sophomore forward Kaila Hulls never expected to be here on this court or to be part of this team.In a competitive drill with defenders, Hulls dribbles to her left, with her all-black brace on her right knee trailing behind.Her teammates start to count down as the drill nears its end: “10, nine, eight, seven.”Last year, Hulls never made it this far into the season. She was already watching on the sidelines in August.“Six, five, four.”Entering her third year of college, Hulls, a projected starter who is expected to be a scoring contributor for the team, had not yet played a collegiate game.She makes her way to the left elbow, just inside the 3-point line.“Three, two.”She raises up off the ground with her eyes locked onto the basket and takes her shot, tucking her elbow in to maintain perfect form. The ball flies straight through the hoop, the net making the sound indicative of a perfect shot.Her teammates rejoice. Hulls doesn’t acknowledge it. Watching her, you’d think nothing note-worthy just happened. She simply gets in line to do the next drill. She’s used to hitting shots like that.She’s dreamt of knocking down shots like that in this arena since she was a young girl.And for the past four years, she’s watched from the sideline so many times as her brother, Jordan, made shots like that.Now, it’s finally her turn.* * *Kaila found herself in a familiar situation March 5. She was at Assembly Hall watching Jordan.It was Senior Night. Eight members of the Hulls family stood alongside Jordan as he gave his goodbye speech to the 17,472 people in the stands.She was wearing his No. 1 white Indiana jersey with red lettering and a black zip-up hoodie over it. Ever since she was a little girl, Kaila has wanted to be like him.After four years, Jordan left IU ranked No. 26 all-time in scoring in school history and second all-time in 3-point field goals made. He played in more games in an IU uniform than anyone before.Two years older than her, he’s been her role model. She’s gone so many places where she’s been “Jordan’s sister.”“Some people probably think that’s my name,” she said.But on this night, she’s not just Jordan’s little sister. After all, their relationship is much deeper than that.And she’s a much better basketball player than just his little sister.“Kaila, my little sister — my best friend,” Jordan says in his speech to the fans, dropping his head as he starts to break down. His voice softens, squeaking out the words while the tears start to flow down his face.He’s going through and individually thanking each member of his family, but this is one of his most emotional points in a teary-eyed thank you to his family that he says meant so much to him and his development.Upon hearing that first sentence about her, Kaila’s hands dart to her face, covering her mouth and nose. With her eyes squinting, she’s crying, too.Months later she says she cried because “best friend” summarizes their entire lives together. When she tries to explain their relationship, she can’t, admitting that she’s on the verge of crying just thinking about it. As her role model, she says it was a moment of pride for her, too.“She’s gone through a lot,” Jordan continues in his speech. “Knee surgeries. She’s just as good a basketball player that I am.”He turns his head to his right, talking directly to Kaila.“I’m still taller than you, though, so don’t forget that.”He turns back to the crowd.“They think she’s taller than me and that she’s a better shooter and all this stuff. I just say that to make her feel good, but honestly, it’s not true.”Back to Kaila.“I love you very much. Thanks for always being there for me.”* * *Growing up in the Hulls family in Bloomington, it was naturally assumed that you would play basketball.Kaila’s grandfather, John, coached at Indiana as part of Bob Knight’s staff. Her brother Jay, who is nine years older, played Amateur Athletic Union basketball, and the family always traveled to his games.“We all just got thrown into it. It was literally part of the family,” Kaila said. “My dad put a basketball in my hands, and I sort of just went with it.”She started playing organized ball when she was 6. When she was 8, she played her favorite season of basketball.She got to play on Jordan’s team.“Honestly,” she said, “I just wanted to be like Jordan.”She played on the boys team two years up. Growing up, she always wanted to play with the boys.On that team, she caught passes from Jordan, who was initially taught to pass first. She took all of the shots, he got all of the assists.“I mean, we fought sometimes, but it didn’t matter,” she said. “As long as we won, we were both happy.”They fought about who got to shoot and who had to make the passes. It was nothing big, and thinking back on it, Kaila is forced into a light-hearted chuckle.Jordan grew up an IU fan, which meant Kaila grew up an IU fan. It was the hometown school, and Kaila said pretty much everyone in the family went there.“I always wanted to wear the candy stripe pants,” she said. “It’s every little kid’s dream in Bloomington to play in those.”The preparation started in the Hulls’ driveway on a Goalrilla basketball hoop. She and Jordan would practice on that hoop and play one-on-one all the time. They started at a young age, lowering the adjustable hoop to below 10-feet.But soon, Jordan would raise it to the regulation height. And when he started playing on that, Kaila did, too, at about age 8, she says.Jordan would go on to win Mr. Basketball at Bloomington South, leading the team to a 26-0 record and a state championship his senior season.His college decision was easy. He was going to IU.It wouldn’t be that easy for Kaila.* * *Kaila hates being called “Jordan’s sister.”“She likes to keep it on the DL because she wants to be Kaila and not known as Jordy’s sister,” said Nicole Bell, one of Kaila’s teammates who also lived in her suite at Briscoe last year. “So hopefully everyone starts to know Jordan as Kaila’s brother, because I know sometimes it bothers her.”After Kaila’s freshman year of high school, IU offered her a basketball scholarship. As a 15-year-old, it was too early for her to make that decision.But by the time her senior year came around in 2011 and she had earned All-State honors, IU still made her final three choices.Her dad, J.C., made her do a pro and con list for every school she was considering. She wasn’t sure how she’d fit into IU’s system, but she also knew she’d continue to be “Jordan’s sister.”“I don’t want people to know me as Jordan’s little sister. I want them to know me as Kaila,” she said. “It was tough. I’m not ashamed of it. It’s awesome being Jordan’s sister. I wouldn’t change it. But at the same time, it does get hard because I don’t want to be known as that.”She knew she couldn’t go to IU. She’d put away her dreams for the candy stripes.Narrowing it down to Butler and Bowling Green, she chose the Falcons, despite the school being four and a half hours away — the furthest away she had ever been from her family.“I knew that even though it was far away, I had to kind of separate myself and go my own direction,” she said.“It was hard to leave, but at the same time, I knew that if I would’ve came here at the very beginning, I would’ve always lived under the shadow of Jordan’s sister. I would just always be under him. That’s not bad. I’m not ashamed of it. I kind of wanted to make a name for myself, and I knew that’d be very difficult if I came here at the very beginning.”But it wasn’t easy being that far away.It was even harder when the game she loves so much was taken away from her as a freshman.* * *When Kaila is practicing, she’s not joking around.Her eyes are wide, and she’s always listening to the coach and engaged in the play, even when she’s not in.She stands by herself, quietly observing. She rarely smiles.She’s not the person screaming in the middle of the huddle. She’s not the one yelling encouragement during conditioning.If there’s a break in the action, she might crack a quick joke and steal a quick laugh with Bell or forward Claire Jakubicek, another one of her roommates from last year in Briscoe.Basketball is what brought the three friends together.Last year in that dorm, the three girls would have “jam sessions” where they’d blast Justin Beiber songs, such as “Boyfriend” and “That Should Be Me,” and sing and dance. Bell and Jakubicek note that Kaila is a different person off the court. She’s relaxed and funny and laughs a lot.But not when she’s on the court. There, it’s all business.Her calling card is her 3-point shot. On the first day of practice for the 2013 season, she gets in on 5-on-5 action. Immediately, she flashes with both hands up in a ready position, open behind the 3-point line.“Woo! Woo!” she yells, trying to call for the ball.Once she gets it, she shoots. This time, it’s a rare miss.The next time she gets the ball behind the line, she doesn’t miss. The ball only touches the net on its way through the hoop. Swoosh.* * *Four days after the first practice of the 2013-14 season at Hoosier Hysteria, Kaila runs onto the court by herself as “This is Indiana” plays in the background with about 10,000 fans yelling for her. She gets the biggest applause of any women’s basketball player as she is introduced as the “homegrown product from Bloomington, Indiana.”“It’s always special to get a crowd applause like that,” she said. “But I would have to give it to my brother because he’s probably the reason why I got it.”At Hoosier Hysteria, Kaila is competing in the 3-point contest.Each women’s player is matched up against a men’s player. Kaila has drawn Will Sheehey, the leading returning scorer for the men’s team and a player many considered had a strong chance to win the competition.Kaila only misses one shot on her first rack of balls from the southwest corner.On the rack of five balls from dead center, she’s perfect.“Yes,” she says to herself as she pumps her fist before moving to the next rack.By the time she’s finished, she looks at the scoreboard and says, “Yes!” again as her teammates greet her. She’s smiling. She won 18-11.* * *At Bowling Green’s Midnight Madness in 2011, Kaila, then a freshman, not only won the women’s draw of the 3-point shootout, but she beat the men’s contender.That was the last time she shot a basketball in a Bowling Green jersey.The next day at practice, she went up for a rebound and her leg twisted.She fell to the ground in pain.She hadn’t heard a pop. She was able to walk off the court just fine.After icing it, the swelling went down. The next day, she felt like she could run.But her coach, Curt Miller, told her to have an MRI.He knew she had torn her ACL.“Your heart skips a beat whenever you see a player go down injured,” Miller said. “You could watch her knee wobble as she came to a stop. It was one of those things as a coach that you know deep down, you hope for the best but fear the worst, and in my heart, I knew she had torn her ACL, but we were hoping maybe she’d get lucky.“But she didn’t.”Kaila said the MRI showed her ACL was completely ripped through. Her season was done.“You just hear about injuries like that all the time, and you just think, ‘Oh, that’s never going to happen to me,’” she said. “And it did.”Without basketball, the homesickness got even worse. Her parents frequently visited her at Bowling Green, and she went back to Bloomington whenever she could.“You have the double whammy with an injury with a freshman because freshmen are dealing with homesickness and they’re dealing with fitting in with a new team, with new friends,” Miller said. “So add onto that, take away the game that meant so much to Kaila, and it magnifies everything else that’s going on freshman year.”It was the longest Kaila had ever gone without playing basketball. Her only injuries before were a torn meniscus during the summer of her sophomore year of high school and a broken wrist the summer of her junior year.“I was very discouraged at first,” she said. “I knew it was going to be a long process. But I wasn’t going to quit. I was like, ‘I’ve worked 15 years to make it to the college level. I’m not going to sell myself short.’ I was like, ‘I’m going to make it through this.”But it was not an easy year for her.And it was about to get worse.***Early in the offseason after Kaila’s freshman year at Bowling Green, Miller called a surprise team meeting.He brought everyone in and told them he had taken another head coaching job with a team that Bowling Green could beat by 30 or 40 points.He was going to IU.“It was a very emotional meeting,” Miller said. “Bowling Green was dear to my heart. We had unbelievable success. But it was a chance of a lifetime for me and a dream opportunity.”After successfully recruiting Kaila four and a half hours away from home — the furthest away she had ever been from her family and her community — he was now going back to that place.Kaila’s heart started pounding. And she started crying. She couldn’t stop.“I was, like, so hurt,” she said. “I was like, ‘I cannot believe he’s going to IU.’ And then I was thinking, like, what am I going to do? I came four and a half hours away from my home to play for you and now you’re leaving and going back to my home.”Miller felt bad, too. He knew exactly what he was doing, and how much it probably hurt Kaila.“I told the team and felt bad for everyone in the room, but it was hard to look at Kaila and say, ‘There’s a school you always dreamed of going at, but you came and believed in me and came to play for me, and now I’m going to a school in your hometown and a school you dreamed of being at.’”She didn’t want to talk to him. She couldn’t stop crying long enough to do so. But shortly after, her teammates made her go into his office and talk to him.“She was very emotional and immediately asked if she could transfer back with me,” Miller said. “Tough memories.”Eventually, the paperwork went through, and Kaila was granted permission to transfer.She left Bowling Green after her last final, with all of her stuff packed up in her car. She drove straight to Bloomington, and, without unpacking, drove straight to Cook Hall, the IU basketball practice facility.Jordan was waiting for her.The two started going through shooting drills on the women’s practice court, just the brother and sister together. Kaila told Jordan she had to get used to playing on that court now, and so he would have to get used to it, too.She wasn’t allowed to do one-on-one yet because she was still recovering from her ACL tear, but the two did play H-O-R-S-E. She doesn’t remember who won.“I can’t even describe it,” she said, smiling. “It was so awesome to be in there with Jordan again and just shoot and compete with him.“I was like, ‘This is right.’ It was definitely like a welcome home feeling.”* * *Entering the 2012-13 season, the IU basketball media relations team had come up with the term “Assembly Hulls” to recognize the brother-sister combo playing on the men’s and women’s teams.Miller had told Kaila they were planning to do some sort of competition between the two at Hoosier Hysteria, the official kickoff to the season.After learning this, Kaila said she started practicing even more. She wanted to beat her brother.She would never get the chance to participate in the event.During an offseason conditioning drill in August, just 10 months after tearing her right ACL, she tore it again.“I was devastated,” she said.She couldn’t stop crying. She knew immediately she had torn it. It was an all too familiar pain.They took her to the training room at Assembly Hall. Jordan was already there.The only people in the room were the brother and sister and IU’s team trainer.Jordan hugged her as Kaila cried uncontrollably. He kept telling her it was going to be OK, it was going to be OK.Eventually, after enough hugs, Jordan managed to get her to stop crying. He was the only person who could get her to stop crying.“It hurt really bad, but I would say it hurt me more that I couldn’t play,” she said. “I knew just how cool it would’ve been for me and Jordan to play at the same time.”* * *A little more than a year after tearing her right ACL for the second time, with Jordan playing professional basketball in Poland, Kaila ran onto the court for the championship round of the 3-point contest at Hoosier Hysteria with full strength in her right knee.Her entire family is seated courtside to watch her. Well, “everyone that could make it.”Just as a little girl, she had a chance to go against the boys again.The finals were determined by taking the top women’s scorer and matching her up with the top men’s scorer.Kaila would go against sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell.She struggled on the final few racks, a weird sensation for her. She’s only used to seeing the ball go through the net.When she launched her last ball and stole a glance at the scoreboard, she slapped her hands and refused to smile.As the rest of her team mobbed her to congratulate her, she shook her head with her black adidas headband back and forth.She lost to Ferrell, 17-13.She’s been trained to expect to make every shot she takes, just like her brother.She says when you’ve been shooting basketballs as long as she has, it’s an easy feeling to develop.“Those last two racks got me,” she said, still expressing disappointment. “It was just fun to be out there. Everyone hates to lose, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”Kaila wasn’t wearing the candy stripes for the event. While she wore them for several games last year, she said it’ll be different this year.When Kaila put them on for the first time, she stood in front of the mirror in the locker room and looked at herself.“It was almost surreal,” she said. “It’s hard to even describe because you dream about something for so long. Then I made a decision to not go here, so I was like, ‘Well, that’s never going to happen.’“It’s hard to explain. It was just surreal. I can’t believe that I’m standing here in my hometown playing and representing where I’m from.”Follow reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With 4.8 seconds remaining, freshman forward Devin Davis secured a rebound off of a missed layup from LIU Brooklyn’s Jason Brickman.With a one-point lead, the rebound and subsequent foul all but secured an IU victory.Davis missed the front end of a one-and-one at the line, but it didn’t matter. Brickman would miss a 3-point heave at the buzzer, and IU would hold on to win 73-72 Tuesday night at Assembly Hall.“Tonight was a great learning experience in many ways.” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “This team does not have the luxury of going through close games and hard fought battles yet. Some of the players do, like (senior forward) Will (Sheehey), obviously, but we don’t have a team of guys who have gone through that.“We really didn’t want it to have to be tonight, but it was. The bottom line is if we didn’t have the capacity to get better, if we didn’t have the capacity to improve inside of the game and if we didn’t have the capacity to understand what the game was giving us, we’d have lost the game by 10, 12, 14, 15 points. There’s no question.”On a roster that features 11 scholarship players who are either freshmen or sophomores, the team found a way to win down the stretch, Crean said. And the young guys played a role in that.“It just kind of took a little bit of poise, I’d say, on our end,” sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said.With 5:34 to play in the game, freshman forward Troy Williams hit a 3-point shot to tie the game at 63. On IU’s next possession, Williams hit another jump shot to tie the game again at 65.Sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell drove to the basket to get a layup to tie the game at 67 with three minutes and 30 seconds to go in the game.“Down the road it’ll be huge,” Crean said. “Down the road to have that happen in their second game, it’ll absolutely be paramount to their future to get that. Even if we’d have lost the game, there’s experiences in there that were invaluable for them.“But the bottom line is they found a way to win the game. They found a way to win the game. And the other team was doing everything they could do to win it, too.”With IU trailing late, it was the young players, along with Sheehey, who were forced to step up.Davis not only secured the rebound at the end, but he also helped tie up the Blackbirds with 15 seconds to go in the game, forcing them to call a timeout and almost creating a turnover on a jump ball.“It wasn’t like we had a group of senior guys to go down to at the end of the bench and say, ‘Hey, go in and take care of this,’” Crean said. “We had Evan. We had Will and we had a bunch of freshmen and sophomores.”Freshman forward Noah Vonleh had his second double-double in as many games, finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds.“It’s a great experience,” Vonleh said. “It’s definitely a learning experience just knowing how to handle situations like this.”Hollowell, who had led IU in scoring against Chicago State with 16 points, scored six.Crean admitted that Hollowell did not have a good game, but was encouraged by how he was able to come in late in the game and contribute an important basket when IU really needed it.“He came in and played well when we needed him to play well,” Crean said. “That’s the sign of growth to me.”Crean, who joked with the media as he entered the press room about his late arrival, said he was happy the team won tonight, but would have been happy just with the lessons his young team learned.“We’re really trying to learn here what it’s going to take for us to have real success. Going through nights like tonight will help that.”Follow men's basketball reporter Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Here’s a question I didn’t think I’d ever ask this season.Is IU a better running team than passing team?In IU’s 52-35 win Saturday at Memorial Stadium against Illinois, the Hoosiers piled up 371 rushing yards and 279 passing yards.IU converted 14 first downs on the ground and 13 in the air.I know IU has the surgeon-precision arm of sophomore quarterback Nate Sudfeld and his favorite weapons in seniors Kofi Hughes and Ted Bolser and juniors Shane Wynn and Cody Latimer.They’re all good. But stay with me for a moment.Sophomore running back Tevin Coleman scampered for 215 yards on 15 carries, averaging 14.3 yards per rush against Illinois.His counterpart, senior Stephen Houston, tallied 151 yards and averaged 8.8 yards per rush. Each ran for two touchdowns.Coleman was the first IU back to rush for more than 200 yards since BenJarvus Green-Ellis had 203 in 2003.“Tevin ran like a maniac,” sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson said. “The O-line was opening up big holes for him. Everybody was blocking down the field for him, and he just ran.”In back-to-back weeks, Coleman and Houston have both gone for more than 100 yards.It’s the third time that’s happened this season.It’s the second time this season IU has totaled more than 300 yards on the ground.This argument isn’t meant to take anything away from IU’s aerial attack, which was on full display itself on Saturday as Latimer caught 11 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns.But it does say something about this offense.“I think the development of our run game just shows that there is some maturity on offense,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said.Consider this: IU’s offensive line was playing Saturday without its normal starting center Collin Rahrig, and it has been playing without junior tackle Peyton Eckert and sophomore guard Dan Feeney the entire year.Sophomore guard David Kaminski has also been injured this season.IU ran all over Illinois with half of its starting offensive line.“Our O-line — having people step up — it’s huge,” sophomore tackle Jason Spriggs said. “It’s really something we pride ourselves on.”IU’s rushing effort was a full team effort. Spriggs credited guys like Latimer and Hughes for their downfield blocking.Latimer said he likes run blocking. He understands it opens up opportunities for him.“That opens up the pass a lot,” he said. “The balance of pass-run game, especially with me and an offense like ours, once the offense gets to clicking, there’s no stopping us.“The running game opens it up for us. They gotta figure out which one they want to defend, the pass or the run. When we’re hand to hand on that day it’s going to be a good day for us.”IU has weapons all over the field on offense. But maybe the running game is slightly overlooked. Maybe IU needs to think about keeping it on the ground more often.Think back to the Minnesota game. Maybe if IU keeps it on the ground and hands it off to Coleman that game ends differently.Maybe, just maybe, IU unveiled its biggest weapon — its secret weapon — Saturday.Maybe consistently going to the run and latching your hopes to the Tevin Coleman rocket ship is how IU needs to finish this season.If IU runs the ball more, it will take a strangle hold on time of possession and, as Latimer said, it will expose the defense to long passes over the top, just like it did against the Illini.Spriggs wouldn’t say whether he likes run-blocking or pass-blocking more. He only has one concern.“I like what gets us first downs,” he said.Maybe the key to those first downs is more running.— robhowar@indiana.eduFollow columnist Robby Howard on Twitter @robbyhoward1.