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(12/16/13 4:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS — When IU Coach Tom Crean left the press room after Saturday’s 79-72 loss to Notre Dame, senior forward Will Sheehey boiled down Crean’s criticisms.Crean talked about how his squad needs to continue to develop an identity with freshmen and sophomores seeing the bulk of the playing time.For Sheehey, in the midst of his final season as a student-athlete, his demeanor and short responses said it all.“Second-chance points, turnovers are two things that we have to cut down on,” he said simply. “He’s (Noah Vonleh) got to demand the ball, and we’ve got to throw it to him. It’s as simple as that.”In IU’s first 11 games of the season, the Hoosiers have shown promise in creating a winning format, though against a non-conference slate. IU won its first five games of the season. Vonleh, a freshman forward, notched double-doubles in his first four collegiate games and fell just a rebound shy with 18 points in a win against Washington in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic.In losses to Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame, Vonleh has averaged just 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. On Saturday he finished with eight points and six rebounds.But one of the biggest problems was his five shots and sole free-throw attempt in 21 minutes of action.During the past six games, Vonleh, IU’s main post presence, has taken just 27 shots after appearing to be one of IU’s best scoring threats early in the season.Early on Saturday, as the Irish started with a smaller, four-guard lineup and man-to-man defense, Vonleh excelled with two buckets in the first 2 minutes of the game.Then the Hoosiers fell behind, the deficit reaching double-digits with 6 minutes and 36 seconds left in the half as Notre Dame switched to a 2-3 zone that perplexed the Hoosiers.The slew of jump shots soon followed — a trend that Crean has said countless times this season can’t happen because of the lack of trustworthy shooting abilities.“We shot too many jumpers to begin the game, but some of that is we’re not demanding the ball inside the way we need to,” Crean said. “We’re not demanding it verbally. We’re not demanding it physically the way that we need to.“We’re not a team that’s going to be real successful thinking we’re going to shoot a lot of jump shots. We’ve got to get into the lane. We’ve not been real successful when we’re not in the bonus early enough. We’re not successful enough when we’re not dominating the free-throw line.”Crean said his team came into Saturday No. 1 in the country in rebound margin and one of the top teams at getting chances at the free-throw line, but because the Hoosiers had to be on attack mode from the start — they never led — players didn’t trust their postgame against the zone and instead relied on jumpers.In the first half, they managed to stay within striking distance with a combination of a post-presence and outside shooting. Sheehey and Gordon got into a rhythm outside and finished the first half with 16 and eight points, respectively, to go along with 16 points in the paint for the Hoosiers.IU tied the game twice early in the second half — at 47-47 and 49-49 — but Crean said his team couldn’t fight all the way back as it had in their previous losses. He said they had strayed away from what makes his IU squad flourish.“We made a bunch of runs, but we just couldn’t get all the way over the hump — whether it was a missed shot or a missed play defensively.“We want to shoot the ball, but we want to shoot the ball after it’s been reversed, after it’s been to the paint, after it’s gone inside out. We did that last year. We just had better 3-point shooters, so right now we’ll get better shooting the ball, but we have to understand how we win.”In the second half, Vonleh scored just two points and pulled down just three rebounds. The Hoosiers forced just eight fouls and were outscored at the free-throw line by seven points.With a team that has succeeded so much playing inside out this season, Crean said his team has to continue to progress over the next few weeks before conference play, learning to stick to the simple method that keeps this IU team in games against some of the top competition in the country.“Any team that’s going to be successful forms an identity. It’s formed over a period of time, and what I’m learning with a very young team is that every time you think you’re taking a step toward that identity, it’s very easy to take a step or two back.”Follow Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/11/13 4:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last Saturday, graduate student guard Evan Gordon set a new season-high mark of 15 points.Tuesday at Assembly Hall in IU’s 81-54 victory against Oakland, IU’s first man off the bench had eclipsed this mark by the end of the first half.With another night of just two missed shots, shooting 10-for-12 from the field and 4-for-5 from beyond the 3-point line, Gordon scored 26 to lead the Hoosiers to an 81-54 victory against the Golden Grizzlies.Over the past two games, Gordon has shot 17-for-21 and has scored 41 points. He scored just 45 points combined in his first eight contests as a Hoosier.After the game, Gordon said he hadn’t checked his phone yet to see if his brother, former Hoosier Eric Gordon, had texted him and given him a hard time for coming up short of his career-mark of 33 points he scored in his first game in the cream and crimson against Chattanooga.Gordon laughed, nodded and said he hadn’t heard from him yet. For the last two nights, he’s just been the open guy.“We’ve just been moving the ball as a team. I’ve stayed aggressive,” Gordon said.But he said during his low-scoring output his first several games, starting point guard Kevin “Yogi’ Ferrell kept telling him to stay confident. Gordon worked more in the gym with IU Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley, and he’s risen to the occasion when his teammates have needed him the last two times on the court.“Yogi stayed on me to make sure I stayed confident in my shot, and our coaches stayed on me, and I’ve been doing extra work, so it’s all coming out,” Gordon said.“When your team has confidence in you to make your shot, it gives you confidence.”Gordon entered the game with 15 minutes and 45 seconds left in the first half and almost immediately got on the stat line. After freshman forward Noah Vonleh blocked a shot on defense, Gordon drove the court and evaded a charge call to lay in a left-handed layup off the glass just 22 seconds into his game.Gordon caught fire minutes later. After a layup the possession before, he hit his first of four 3-pointers. Just 46 seconds later, his second one fell.IU’s backup point guard came in again in the first shift of the second half and made his first bucket, a floater off the glass from near the baseline with 12 minutes and eight seconds left in the half. He followed with another 3-pointer to give him eight-straight shots made to start the night, passing his mark from the last game by one shot and just one short of tying senior forward Will Sheehey’s mark of a perfect 9-for-9 in a game last season against Purdue.Three minutes later, he suffered his first miss, a blocked layup.Although he didn’t quite set records Tuesday night, Crean said he hopes to continue to see this success from his backup point guard.Crean said he hasn’t given any thought to penciling Gordon into the starting lineup yet, but with the fluidity of his lineups, anything is possible before the Hoosiers’ next game against Notre Dame Saturday.“Hopefully that confidence continues, and it will if he continues to spend that extra time in the gym,” Crean said. “I have no doubt.”Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/10/13 12:14pm)
IU Coach Tom Crean talked to the media Monday previewing his team's game against Oakland at Assembly Hall Tuesday at 7 p.m. He said his team has focused on preparing for the one of the NCAA's top 3-point shooters, Travis Bader, who leads all active players in 3-point attempts (984) and 3-point makes (397).
(12/10/13 5:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>So far this season, the Hoosiers have had mixed success defending the 3-point shot.As a whole, the team’s numbers look pretty solid. Opponents have only averaged 28.6 percent shooting from behind the arc thus far, but the Hoosiers are allowing an average of more than 20 attempts from long range per game.Monday evening, IU Coach Tom Crean said defending the 3-pointer against one of the best 3-point threats in the nation will be his team’s pivotal focus on defense. As the Hoosiers take on Oakland and senior guard Travis Bader at 7 p.m. at Assembly Hall, Crean said he hopes his players can limit Bader to fewer than his nearly 11 attempts per game from beyond the arc.“He never stops moving. He’s the top returning 3-point shooter in the country, let alone the top one right now,” Crean said. “He does a great job using his body. He pushes off to get open. He shot fakes. He definitely knows how to set you up.“He’s one of those guys, if you relax for a second, it’s going up.”A few weeks ago, the Hoosiers managed to shut down Evansville’s vaunted 3-point threat D.J. Balentine to just 5-of-17 shooting from the floor and an 0-for-5 mark from behind the arc. Outside of that game, Balentine is shooting 50 percent from 3-point land this season.But against Syracuse, Crean said the Hoosiers struggled to keep track of the Orange’s long-range threat, Trevor Cooney, in transition. Cooney put up nine 3-point attempts, sinking five of them and leading Syracuse to victory with a game-high 21 points.Crean said his players can’t let that happen again tonight.“This is a little bit of a better-moving Cooney. The number one thing we didn’t want to let Cooney do is get lost in transition, and he got lost in transition twice,” Crean said. “You can’t let great shooters get lost in the game.“He (Bader) moves so well without the ball, and he doesn’t have to have the ball in his hand to create.”Crean said he was also impressed watching Bader shoot comfortably off of either foot, whether he was squared up or not before his quick release. As long as his teammates can find him, Crean said, Bader will be a constant threat.“That one time you don’t find him, and you just give him a little bit of space, he doesn’t need much time, and he doesn’t need much space, and he can shoot it off either foot.”Sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said he’s been impressed while watching game tape of Bader at how quickly he manages to get his shot up. The Oakland senior leads the country this season with 4.4 3-pointers per game and is tied for the lead with 11 attempts per game.For his career, Bader is the active leader in college basketball in both makes and attempts from behind the arc, with a career mark of 397-for-984, making him a career 40.3 percent long-range shooter.“There can’t be any air space when we’re guarding him ‘cause he can fire it up from NBA range or anywhere,” Ferrell said. “We’ve just got to limit his touches, and that’s just going to be our key defensively in transition, just limiting his touches and taking away their offense.”Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/10/13 12:18am)
Monday, sophomore guards Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell and Jeremy Hollowell talked with the media about Tuesday's matchup against Oakland, specifically about the importance of stopping the top 3-point shooter in the nation: Travis Bader.
(12/09/13 3:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming into IU’s game Saturday against North Florida, both the coaching staff and the players noted how deep the Ospreys were, having a rotation that extended to 10 or 11 players contributing each night. Eight of their players were averaging at least six points per game this season.Until Saturday night, sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell had been the only Hoosier to stick out as a consistent high-scoring option, averaging more than 17 points per game.In the Hoosiers’ 89-68 win against the Ospreys, it was guard Dallas Moore that took over on the offensive side, scoring a game-high 27 points. But it was IU’s four players in double figures and nine players with at least six points — five of them coming off the bench — that propelled IU to victory.“You try to get anybody on your team, whether they’re starting or coming off the bench to play with a play on-demand mentality, and I think these guys did that,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “They responded from their disappointment the other night, and we treated it like a short-term setback.”Graduate student guard Evan Gordon led the way with a season-high 15 points off a 7-for-9 shooting mark from the field. Gordon made each of his first seven shots, threatening a perfect 9-for-9 mark that then-junior Will Sheehey set last season on Feb. 16 at home against Purdue.Gordon said he didn’t feel any better in the game than any previous contests this season.He put it simple. Saturday, he said he had to knock down shots, and he was happy to fill that role.“I’ve been comfortable since the start of the season. It just happened to be a good night,” he said. “I knocked down some shots and got out into the open court and scored a little bit.“Our team shared the ball. I was open. It’s not going to be like tonight every night, but tonight’s mine, and I had to make sure I knocked down the shots.”Gordon’s night began with a wide-open 3-pointer from the left corner to begin a 7-0 IU run after North Florida crept within two points at 12-10. Gordon’s reverse left-handed layup less than a minute later capped it and forced an Osprey timeout.North Florida fought back within four points at 28-24 on an 11-2 run. Minutes later, Gordon and freshman guard Stanford Robinson combined for seven of nine IU points in one minute and 24 seconds to pad IU’s lead as they went into the locker room up 52-35.After 20 minutes, Ferrell was IU’s lone scorer in double figures with 12 points, but Gordon and Robinson, along with freshman center Luke Fischer, sophomore forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea and sophomore guard Austin Etherington provided the necessary energy from the bench to fill roles on both ends of the court.After the Hoosiers’ bench scored nine of IU’s 11 points and the team’s lead grew past 20 points, Mosquera-Perea and Fischer scored six points each on back-to-back runs of their own. By then, with more than eight minutes left in the game, IU led by more than 30.Together, IU’s bench scored 41 of the team’s 89 points, while pulling down 21 of the team’s 49 rebounds and committing just four of IU’s season-low 11 turnovers.Three of IU’s starting five eclipsed 10 points: Ferrell scored 14, followed by freshman forward Noah Vonleh with 13 and sophomore guard Jeremy Hollowell with 12 points.Gordon led the bench scoring with 15 points and was followed off the bench by Mosquera-Perea’s eight points and Etherington’s six. Robinson and Fischer also each tossed in six points. Robinson finished with eight rebounds, second on the team behind Vonleh — who pulled down 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.Crean said he had eight players come in for an extra workout Saturday morning at 10 a.m. They also stayed around for the team walk-through at 2:30 p.m. and the game that evening.He said this extra work from guys including Fischer, Etherington, Robinson and Mosquera-Perea has led to their growth and understanding of their roles coming off the bench.On Saturday night, Gordon was just one prime example of the production any member of IU’s bench may have to have as the Hoosiers venture into conference play in less than a month.“It just happened to be tonight he (Gordon) got the points,” Etherington said. “He works hard like everyone else, and he deserves what he got tonight, and everyone is happy for him.”Follow men's basketball reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/08/13 4:49pm)
IU Coach Tom Crean met with the media after Saturday night's 89-68 victory against North Florida at Assembly Hall. With stellar performances off the bench from senior guard Evan Gordon and others, Crean emphasized the extra work all his players have been putting in lately.
(12/08/13 5:49am)
After IU's 89-68 defeat of North Florida Saturday night at Assembly Hall, three of the Hoosiers' leaders off the bench talked about how each of them helped to contribute towards IU's first win in front of a full IU crowd of students since Nov. 17 against Stony Brook.
(12/08/13 1:45am)
At halftime, the IU men's basketball team leads the North Florida Ospreys 52-35, led by sophomore guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell with 12 points a two 3-pointers.
(12/07/13 12:00am)
IU players senior guard Evan Gordon and freshman forward Troy Williams talked to the media Friday evening on how they moved past Tuesday's loss and what they're expecting from North Florida, who the Hoosiers play Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Assembly Hall.
(12/06/13 11:58pm)
In the team's press conference Friday night previewing their game Saturday night against North Florida, but IU Coach Tom Crean and his players addressed the lack of leadership on the court in the second half against No. 4 Syracuse Tuesday night in IU's 69-52 loss at the Carrier Dome.
(12/06/13 11:29pm)
IU Coach Tom Crean spoke with the media Friday afternoon about his team's opponent this Saturday, the North Florida Ospreys. First, he said that his team didn't need much talking to after Tuesday's loss to Syracuse 69-52 and has been focusing on their game plan for Saturday to get back on track at Assembly Hall in front of their fans and the IU students.
(12/06/13 1:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nearly three weeks ago, the IU men’s basketball team had just finished up a streak of four home games in 10 days, starting the season 4-0.Since then, the Hoosiers have taken two trips away from Assembly Hall — losing to both of the ranked opponents they’ve faced — and played just one game in front of a slightly smaller home crowd than normal over Thanksgiving break.Saturday evening, the Hoosiers have a chance to get back on track after a decisive 69-52 loss to No. 4 Syracuse in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge when they face North Florida at 7:30 p.m. in Assembly Hall.The Ospreys come from the Atlantic Sun Conference, which also includes Florida Gulf Coast — the team that made a surprising run to the Sweet 16 in last March’s NCAA Tournament.After coming off a struggling season where North Florida finished 13-19 and lost by double-digits 14 times, the Ospreys have begun their 2013-14 campaign 5-5. The team’s losses include a scare of then-No. 10 Florida in the season opener (77-69) as well as huge losses to current No. 3 team in the nation Ohio State (99-64) and most recently to Alabama this Wednesday 76-48.The Ospreys come to Assembly Hall a fairly high-scoring team averaging 73.1 points per game this season. Their offensive attack is led by senior forward Travis Wallace who is averaging 12.4 points per game while shooting nearly 60 percent from the field (54-of-93).“He’s a guy that you have to come in and understand that they’re going to run post isolations for him,” IU Assistant Coach Kenny Johnson said. “He’s an undersized post player at 6-foot-6, but he’s somebody that they’re going to run sets for.”IU will also have to look out for North Florida spotting up from behind the arc. The team has put up nearly 20 3-pointers per game, shooting 36.1 percent. Comparatively, the Hoosiers are shooting just 28.1 percent on 3-pointers, but holding their opponents to just a 27.1 percent average.Johnson also pointed out that the Ospreys’ balanced scoring attack, with eight players scoring more than six points per game, may cause trouble for the Hoosiers with several legitimate scoring threats able to be on the floor in any lineup.“They’re a fast-paced, high-scoring offensive basketball team,” he said. “It’s a personnel game more than anything else because they’re going to play 10, 11 guys each and every game and they all have different strengths.”From watching the game tape from North Florida’s first 10 games this season, Johnson noted that the Ospreys tend to play a good amount of zone defense. Tuesday, the Hoosiers suffered in another battle against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense, and after the game, IU Coach Tom Crean said his players lacked communication both on the court and in the locker room.In his team’s first game back in front of IU students and a packed Assembly Hall in nearly three weeks, Johnson said it will be imperative the young squad learn from their mistakes at the Carrier Dome earlier this week.“(We’re looking for) just that constant improvement, consistency throughout the game,” Johnson said. “We want to try to put a 40-minute game together. We want to have our communication at a higher level. This is another team that will play zone for long stretches in the game, so just another opportunity to improve our execution.”Follow men's basketball reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/04/13 10:46pm)
After the IU men's basketball team's 69-52 loss to No. 4 Syracuse Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome, IU Coach Tom Crean said that his team was too quiet in the locker room during halftime. This, he said, led to a lack of dedication to his team's game plan that worked well in the first half when they overcame an early 10-0 Syracuse lead.
(12/04/13 5:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The younger Hoosier squad managed to weather a game-opening 10-0 run by No. 4 Syracuse Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome, but just as freshman forward Noah Voleh secured IU’s first tie of the game more than two minutes into the second half, the team’s worst dreams came to fruition.A team without a pure, consistent shooter and a coach who shied away from taking a timeout during a one-sided scoring tear plagued the Hoosiers as IU fell victim to a 25-4 run during the bulk of the second half, falling to the Orange 69-52 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.In the opening minutes of the game, ghosts of the Hoosiers’ loss to Syracuse in March arose as the Orange ran off with the game’s first 10 points to put IU in a deep hole off the bat.IU Coach Tom Crean’s squad missed its first seven shots from the field. Two free throws from Vonleh and a steal and layup from fellow freshman forward Troy Williams brought IU within six.Sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, who went scoreless in his first game against Syracuse last season, hit his first of three 3-pointers to cut that lead in half.Crean said his players began to execute their game plan. Early at least, the Hoosiers showed they could go punch for punch.“We did what we came to do,” he said. “We got the ball inside. We had movement. We had reversals.“We aren’t going to kill them with threes. We don’t have a Trevor Cooney (Syracuse sophomore) right now.”After falling behind by as many as nine multiple times, a quick 7-0 run got the Hoosiers right back in it.Despite shooting slightly worse than 33 percent from the floor in the first half, the Hoosiers trailed by a single point before Syracuse’s firecracker Cooney hit one of his five 3-pointers to stretch the lead to 33-29 at halftime.But during that break, as media members and fans tweeted about how IU had weathered the storm, Crean said he knew his team was already beat.Surrounded by a locker room dominated by freshmen and sophomores, Crean said the break was very quiet and lacked the confidence, poise and determination of a team that thought it could take down one of the best teams in the country on the road.“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms that maybe didn’t have a chance to win, but they didn’t know it, and I’ve been in locker rooms that knew that they could win the game, and they just had to play excellent to do it,” Crean said. “I haven’t been around too many good locker rooms that were quiet.”Ferrell agreed.“We were really quiet. Maybe guys didn’t think the game was winable,” he said. “I felt like guys didn’t feel like we could win this game.”And even with a few quick points to tie the game out of the gate, the lack of poise and confidence in their game plan quickly shone through.The freshmen duo of Williams and Vonleh scored four straight points to pull the Hoosiers even for the only time in the game.But even during that stretch, Williams and Ferrell put up questionable 3-pointers that Crean said showed a lack of discipline and dedication to what was working in the first half.After pulling even, 21 seconds later IU fell behind again off a layup from DaJuan Coleman, and the Hoosiers’ hope faded quickly.The Orange tore off a 12-0 run in 4 minutes 9 seconds, and the Hoosiers would make just seven free throws in the following 6 minutes 31 seconds as Syracuse’s lead eclipsed 20 points.Nine turnovers between field goals. Forced jump shots. A flagrant 2 foul on sophomore guard Austin Etherington taking Cooney to the deck that would rile up the 26,414 fans in the Carrier Dome to levels rivaling anything heard in Assembly Hall.As Etherington sprinted into the lock room to avoid the boos, jeers and cat calls from the Syracuse faithful, the Orange held an insurmountable 54-36 lead that would survive until the end.“It wasn’t like we went to a new offense,” Crean said. “We tried to shoot too many jump shots. Noah Vonleh went 13-for-16 from the foul line.“You can’t give Syracuse live-ball turnovers. We just lost our way a little bit in the sense of the attack. Being aggressive, forcing the ball inside.“I’m disgusted with the lack of leadership and unbelievably disappointed in the fight in the second half.”Vonleh said even as a freshman he recognized something off in the locker room, and he added that he didn’t think the Orange had done anything to beat them in the second half.Crean said he wasn’t sure if his team would have won coming out confident and ready to take a punch as it had in the first half, but he sure would have liked to see them try.“I would have really liked to have been able to have this team have a measuring stick of what it takes to play against a top five national championship contender,” Crean said. “The view we have tonight, I don’t like it right now, and I hope it’s not very accurate.”Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/04/13 4:27am)
IU freshman forward Noah Vonleh spoke briefly to the media after Tuesday night's loss to No. 4 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. In IU Coach Tom Crean's press conference, he said he noticed a lack of poise during halftime and in the second half, and one of his youngest leaders said he agreed, noting the differences in his team's play during the two halves.
(12/03/13 5:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last season, before the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, IU Coach Tom Crean had four days to prepare his veteran team to break through Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone defense. But even as the No. 1 team in the country for much of the season, the Hoosiers met their match.A team that had shot 41.1 percent from beyond the arc during the season made just three of 15 3-point shots, allowing the Syracuse defense to pressure Cody Zeller in the post and create havoc whenever the No. 4 pick in last summer’s NBA Draft tried to put up a shot in the paint.Sure, the Hoosiers missed some easy points in the paint, some open looks from long-range and got to the foul line just 24 times. As Crean said after the game, it just wasn’t meant to be.“We just made too many mistakes,” Crean said on Monday. “We picked a bad time to have a bad game.”After a week to prepare, tonight the Hoosiers travel to Syracuse, N.Y., for their battle in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge to face a team who recently moved into the top five in the country — to No. 4 — after Monday’s latest AP poll was released. Though the pain still lingers from being knocked out of last year’s tournament, senior forward Will Sheehey said preparing for tonight’s game has involved more film and less reflection to take down the Orange.“We’re going to look at it purely like a basketball game, not really with the emotions surrounding it,” Sheehey said. “Obviously, them ending your season last year isn’t what you want to do, but we’re going to dive into some film, and we have been looking at some specific things from the game – not necessarily the emotional part but more the Xs and Os.”In the final game of last season, Sheehey was one of only five IU players who managed to score against the Syracuse defense, adding nine points while grabbing four offensive rebounds.Because the Hoosiers don’t quite have the shooting capabilities as last year’s team with then-seniors Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford, Crean said grabbing missed shots in the paint and getting second and third opportunities in a single possession will be key for a team that has struggled at times from outside.“One thing for us a year ago is we shot the ball extremely well from three, and that game we didn’t,” Crean said. “You’ve still got to have other ways to get there. We need to get to the foul line and get offensive rebounds. Those are things we’ve got to be able to do now no matter who we play.“It would be silly for us to go up there and think we’re going to out-shoot them from the 3-point line; that’s not what our team is right now, but there are a lot of different ways we can play and attack in this game.”Syracuse brings a solid, balanced scoring attack led by senior C.J. Fair, the member of the Orange who hit double figures — 11 points — against the Hoosiers last season. Through seven games this year, he’s putting up 18 points per game while playing in more than 36 minutes per game.More menacing still, even after losing James Southerland, Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche after last season, the Syracuse defense that has continued to thrive this season, grabbing more than 10 steals per game and forcing their opponents into more than 17 turnovers per game.In Washington, D.C., last spring for their Sweet 16 matchup, the Hoosiers committed 19 turnovers — including 12 in the first half. Then a freshman, Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell coughed it up four times while failing to score any points and taking a seat to start the second half for the first time all season.Although Crean shied away from looking at tonight’s game as a rematch for revenge, he said his coaching staff, returning veterans and freshmen alike learned from watching film during this week off that keeping control of the ball is a must if the Hoosiers want to keep pace and pull off an upset of their own.“The turnovers and the mental errors were some of the most painful things the first time we played them,” Crean said. “They’re very good at getting you settled. Getting settled is a recipe for disaster.“The reason they’re undefeated is because teams were attacking them, and then at some point they stopped attacking them, and I think you’ve got to keep to playing and taking what the game is giving you the entire game.”Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.
(12/03/13 12:50am)
IU forward senior Will Sheehey and freshman Noah Vonleh talked about getting to play on a national stage in Syracuse Tuesday night in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and what they learned from watching film of IU's loss last season to the Orange.
(12/03/13 12:38am)
IU Coach Tom Crean talked with the media Monday about what his team learned from playing No. 4 Syracuse last season in the Sweet 16, how he doesn't want his veterans looking at this game as revenge, and more.
(11/24/13 2:13am)
IU Coach Tom Crean talked with the media yesterday after the Hoosiers' first loss of the season in the championship of the 2K Sports Classic to Connecticut at Madison Square Garden.