That's the Game: Lamar

There’s really not too much to say about beating Lamar by a score of 85-72.  This is a young team who is playing four games in the span of a single week, a tough order this early in the season.  There are those who are saying the Hoosiers should have won by more, and there is definitely room for improvement, but Indiana did just what it needed to win.  Was it pretty?  No, not by a long shot.  But it got the job done.

The Good:

• The return of Devin Davis.  Devin Davis, who suffered a traumatic brain injury on Halloween night, returned to the Assembly Hall for the first time, surprising his teammates by meeting them in the locker room and sitting behind the bench.  Davis was released from a rehabilitation hospital in Indy on Wednesday, and all reports are of the progress he is continuing to make.  He was smiling on the court during warmups, even doing complicated handshakes with his teammates, a good sign for memory and motor skills.  This was a welcome sight for all Hoosiers, and was by far the biggest highlight in a less than impressive win for Indiana.

• Turnovers (or lack thereof).  Hoosier fans had to be concerned when the team turned it over seven times in the first half (the same number of turnovers as they had the entire game against SMU) against a weak team like Lamar.  But Indiana righted the ship in the second half, only giving it away two times for a total of nine for the game.  No player had more than two turnovers, and Robert Johnson, who had four against SMU, had only one.  It should be noted that of the nine turnovers, seven were steals by Lamar with four of them resulting in dunks or layups and another resulting in a missed transition three-pointer.  This indicates that the Hoosiers were getting lazy with their passes, something they can’t afford to do against better teams.  On the other hand, it also means there were fewer dumb unforced turnovers (like stepping on the baseline or traveling), a welcome sign with a young team.

• Guard Play (for the most part).  With an asterisk on the defensive end, the guards for Indiana once again played well.  They secured 18 rebounds (led by James Blackmon Jr. with 6), which is critical for this undersized team.  Blackmon once again led the scoring with 21 points (including 5-7 from deep and 4-4 from the free throw line), while Yogi Ferrell chipped in 19 (including 3-5 from deep and 2-2 from the line) and Johnson added 13.  With the guards being such a large percentage of the team, they will need to continue to play well as a group, although it doesn’t really matter which of the group step up in a particular night.

• **The Play of Emmitt Holt.  This is a very tentative “good” thing, seeing as Holt played for only five minutes.  But in that time he scored four points, grabbed two boards (one of them of the offensive variety), had a steal and one turnover.  He was physical down low while he was in and was active on defense.  Considering he signed with the Hoosiers just days before classes started and was well behind his teammates (having missed all of the summer workouts and the Canada trip), the fact that he has the skill he does is a good sign.  He is going to have to learn quickly, as the non-physicality of Hanner Mosquera-Perea paired with the absence of Devin Davis leaves a large defensive gap in the paint.  As I’ve said, if he can contribute 10-12 minutes of solid play a game, this team is going to look much, much better.

The Not-so-good:

• Intensity(or lack thereof).  The Hoosiers never had it, never really tried to put a very bad team out of its misery.  Instead, Indiana let them hang around, even getting the score as close as 77-70 in the closing minutes of the game.  The Hoosiers were lazy on both ends of the court, throwing lazy passes on one end and allowing easy drives and entry passes on the other.  Now to be fair,  this was the team’s third game in a span of five days and came only two days after the tough SMU game.  So fatigue was likely an issue, as was the lack of practice time to hammer out any flaws discovered against the Mustangs.  Add to this the facts that it is really difficult to “get up” for a game against one of the weakest teams in the country and that this is a prime time to experiment with lineups and game plans, and it really is a recipe for a bit of a letdown.  The real test will be seeing how the Hoosiers respond against Eastern Washington on Monday.

• Defense (and that damn 2-3 zone).  Offense is what makes games fun to watch.  Defense is what wins games (and championships).  For the Hoosiers, offense will be there with room to spare.  But this is beginning to look like Indiana football from the past few years, namely can the Hoosiers score more points on offense than its defense is going to give up?  Now, as I said, this game was one to experiment with game plans, meaning the Hoosiers did some things they most likely would not have if they were playing a higher-level team.  That being said, the 2-3 zone in particular looked absolutely horrendous.  The players in the paint were unable to keep the Cardinals from scoring easy points at the same time as the perimeter guys were unable to put enough pressure on the guards to keep them from driving at will.  They also allowed a guy who had made two three-pointers on the season to hit 4-7 from deep.  All around the court guys looked out of position, whether it was Mosquera-Perea looking absolutely lost or any of the guards over-helping and leaving guys open.  As I said after the last game, I really hope we see less and less of this scheme as time goes on.
• *It should be noted that in the final 3:30 of the game the Hoosiers played primarily a five-guard lineup (with Mosquera-Perea subbing in for all of 30 seconds) and allowed Lamar to score only two points during that stretch.  This defense, even with 6’0” Ferrell guarding the post, actually looked ridiculously good compared to the 2-3 zone it had used earlier in the game, and I found myself liking it more than the four-guards-plus-Hanner lineup to start the game.  I’m not sure how much we’ll see of this lineup moving forward, but I liked it.

• Free Throws.  The Hoosiers hit 16-24 from the line, with five of the misses coming from Mosquera-Perea and three coming from the usually-dependable Collin Hartman.  So I guess you can’t really say that the whole team had trouble shooting, considering the four other guys who shot free throws hit them all.  It’s really Mosquera-Perea who is the most concerning, as he is Indiana’s only legitimate big man.  He has the ability to draw fouls at a high rate, but it doesn’t matter too much if he can’t hit the ensuing free throws.  So moral of the story: Mosquera-Perea needs to get in the gym to work on his free throws and on boxing out.  Oh, and on not jumping at every shot fake that comes his way.  If he can get the hang of these things he could turn out to be a valuable big man.

Final Word:

Lackluster would once again be the best final word for this game.  But this being the third game in a five-day span, I'll take lackluster over adjectives like "disastrous" or "catastrophic."  Based on last night, the Hoosier defense has a very long way to go, giving up way too many easy points to a very bad team.  The plus side is that there shouldn't be too many games in which the strength of Indiana's offense doesn't offset the weakness of their defense.  For now, they can use this game as the learning opportunity it is and grow from it.

Up Next:

The Hoosiers host the Eagles of Eastern Washington in the final game of the "Hoosiers Showcase" tomorrow (November 24) at 7:30 on ESPNews.  This will be a tougher team than Lamar, with the Eagles ranking 148th out of 351 by Ken Pomeroy.  They are 3-1 on the season, with their lone loss coming against SMU.  Their wins? Against Texas Southern, Utah Valley, and Walla Walla (I'm not making this up, they are the Wolves and are an NAIA school).  The Eagles haven't been particularly good at anything related to free throws on either end of the court, but have been very good at hitting two-point shots and are actually hitting around 11 threes per game.  It’ll be interesting to see if the Hoosiers use the dreaded 2-3 zone for long, as it has been ineffective at both keeping opponents out of the paint and preventing them from shooting threes.  The Eagle defense hasn't been impressive thus far, ranking in the bottom 20 in adjusted efficiency per Pomeroy.  He likes Indiana to win by a score of 79-67 with an 88% chance of victory.  My gut's going to say that the Hoosiers will be just as fatigued as last night, meaning the defense is still going to be rocky.  Because of that, I'm going to put the score closer to 88-76, but Indiana could surprise me by locking down the paint and blowing the Eagles out of the gym.

That's the Game: SMU

Man is this team fun to watch!  Frustrating at times, yes.  Makes you want to pull your hair out at times, yes.  But fun to watch all the same.  The Hoosiers ground out a 74-68 win, the 16^th victory over a Top 25 team in just over three seasons, over the taller, more experienced SMU mustangs.  This was a big win for a young team which is trying to grow up together this season.  They didn’t play perfectly, but they did just what they need to in order to win.

The Good (and there was a lot of it):

• James Blackmon Jr.  There are not enough superlatives to describe the play of the freshman guard through three games this season.  He’s averaging 23 points per game to go along with five rebounds, and his shooting percentages are ridiculous (61% from three-point and almost 90% from the line).  Against the toughest team he’s seen so far, Blackmon scorched the Mustangs for 26 points on 5-10 shooting from deep and 7-7 from the line.  He also led the team in rebounding with seven and didn’t turn the ball over a single time in 34 minutes.  He was deadly from anywhere on the court and was just as willing to pull the trigger off the dribble as he was off of a pass.  This is going to make him very difficult to defend if he can keep it up.

• Turnovers and Ball Movement.  The Hoosiers only turned the ball over seven times.  Let me say it again: the Hoosiers only turned the ball over seven times!  Not seven times in a half, but for the whole game.  I never imagined I’d be able to type that.  The only player who had more than one turnover was freshman Robert Johnson, who had four (many coming from trying to drive into traffic).  The only other players with a turnover were Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Troy Williams, with the final turnover coming from a shot clock violation.  This stat is the story of the game for the Hoosiers, who averaged 15 miscues a game last season, and who were badly outrebounded and outshot.  It should also be pointed out that along with the few turnovers, Indiana also assisted on 16 of their 21 made field goals, a ridiculously high assist rate of 76%.  Point guard Yogi Ferrell had seven of those assists, which, when matched with his zero turnovers is much more like the play expected from the junior.  That kind of ball movement while holding onto the ball will be critical for the Hoosiers this season.

• Three-point Shooting.  While their shooting percentage did go down this game, Indiana is going with the idea that if you keep throwing them up they will eventually start to go in.  The Hoosiers attempted 33 threes, which is a single-game record during the Coach Crean era, connecting on 12 of them.  There were also some huge threes at key points in the game, highlighted by Nick Zeisloft’s four-point play which brought the Hoosiers within five with about eight minutes to play in the first half.  Collin Hartman and Zeisloft later had a couple of big threes to open up an eight point lead, one from which the Mustangs weren’t able to recover.

• Guard Rebounding.  The starting backcourt of Blackmon (seven), Zeisloft (one), Johnson (six), and Ferrell (five) combined for 19 rebounds on the night, something that will need to continue for a very undersized team.  With the team pulling the trigger so often from deep, there is an opening for many long rebounds to escape the paint and fall into the hands of the shorter guys, which should be a bit of a trend for the Indiana guards.

• Fouls and Free Throws.  The Hoosiers committed a respectable 17 fouls, but only six of those resulted in free throws being shot and only four of them resulted in free throws being made.  The Mustangs were a poor 5-10 from the line, with no player hitting all of his free throws.  It is important to note that big man Mosquera-Perea had only two fouls and that no players had more than three.  Indiana also got to the line at a high rate and mostly hit their free throws, going 20-25 as a team.  Blackmon, Ferrell, and Zeisloft were perfect from the line, while Mosquera-Perea was 1-2, Stanford Robinson was 2-3, and Troy Williams was 5-8.

• Return of Williams and Robinson.  Speaking of Williams and Robinson, these Hoosiers got into their first games of the season after sitting in the locker room while being suspended for the first four.  Neither played as many minutes as will be expected and needed from them come Big Ten play, with Williams playing 23 and Robinson playing only nine.  They were, however, fairly productive while they were on the court.  Williams scored 11 points while grabbing four rebounds and two steals, and Robinson had two points and three assists.  Most importantly, these two guys were able to diversify the Hoosier offense with explosive drives which usually ended with either free throws or dishes to the perimeter for threes.  This is of monumental importance to an Indiana team which will likely not get much consistent offensive production from their limited big men and who still need to keep defenders honest to open up outside shots.

• Poise.  While there were moments proving otherwise, for the most part the Hoosiers did not look like the young team that they are.  That quality they were missing last year, the ability to keep a cool head in a tight game?  Yeah, they found that last night.  Down 20-8 about halfway through the first half, Indiana did not panic and would go on to build a five-point lead going into the half.  And when the Hoosiers saw that five-point lead turn into a five-point deficit early in the second half they still did not panic.  Last year, this would likely be a loss for Indiana, between the rocky starts to halves and the slower pace.  Multiple guys stepped up at key times, including the key threes mentioned earlier.  Most impressive in this regard were the charges taken by Mosquera-Perea, with one being the final nail in the coffin for SMU.  Even though this remains a young team, they appear more together on the court, which will help them maintain the poise needed to win close games.

• The Crowd.  The Hoosier faithful showed up to this game, a far cry from the earlier games this season.  Even though many students had already left town for Thanksgiving Break, those who remained got loud, as did the rest of the Hall.  The Hoosiers were visibly able to draw strength from the support, and the Mustangs obviously struggled against it, turning it over 19 times.  The Assembly Hall was as loud as I’ve heard it in quite some time, and here’s to hoping it can stay that way for all the big opponents Indiana will be hosting.

• Favorite Lineup.  My favorite lineup, all stats aside, featured Ferrell, Blackmon, Johnson, Williams, and Hartman.  I know this lineup does not have a true big man, but the combination of Hartman and Williams does a fair job of holding its own in the paint on defense and every player is a potential deep shooter on offense.  Add in the fact that the three guards have rebounded well so far this season, and this lineup might be the Hoosiers’ best option against bigger teams.  It should be noted that the lineup replacing Johnson with Robinson is also impressive and is a bit more diversified because Robinson has a slight edge in driving ability over Johnson, who is the better shooter.

• Live by the Three…  Indiana made 21 field goals as a team.  Twelve of those were from deep.  That means that 57% of the shots made were from three-point land.  Looking at three-point attempts versus total field goals attempted is about the same, with just under 57% of the shots taken being of the deep variety.  It worked for the Hoosiers this time, shooting just well enough to overcome the taller, more-accurate-shooting Mustangs.

The Not-so-good:

• Overall Rebounding.  I mentioned that the starting guards for Indiana had 19 rebounds.  It also needs to be noted that the team grabbed only 27 total rebounds.  That’s right, four guards had 70% of Indiana’s rebounds.  And how many did starting big man Mosquera-Perea have?  That would be zero.  Twenty-nine minutes played and not a single board for the tallest guy who played for the Hoosiers.  That is decidedly not good for the team, as this was the first test against a truly taller team.  We’ll see where they go from here.

• Defense of Mosquera-Perea.  He just looked lost much of the night on the defensive end.  Yes, he took two huge charges, but that’s about the only good thing you can say about his defense last night.  Many times he was out of position, leading to very easy buckets (and put-backs) for SMU.  He jumped at every shot fake he saw, opening up the hoop every single time.  He seemed to do a bit better in man-to-man, but in the 2-3 zone, he never seemed to be in the right spot and just looked flat out lost.  He also still has yet to grasp the concept of boxing out, which would help him secure rebounds and lower the number of put-backs against him.  Hopefully we’ll see Mosquera-Perea grow a lot more as the season goes on because he really has improved from last year.  For now, I like Hartman better in the post, and that thought just scares me.

• The 2-3 Zone.  Indiana used a 2-3 zone several times throughout the night to help mask how incredibly short the Hoosiers were, primarily during the stretches where a four-guard lineup was used.  As previously mentioned, this zone looked particularly bad with Mosquera-Perea anchoring the paint, forcing the perimeter guys to collapse even further and leaving shooters open, particularly Nic Moore, the only Mustang with more than one made three-pointer.  I hope that this defense sees limited use from here on out or else the Hoosiers really need to improve it before the Big Ten season.  With how short the team is, I’m betting it’ll be the latter.

• The Start of Halves.  Once again, the Hoosiers struggled at the beginning of both the first and second halves.  This has been an issue for Indiana since last season and was one it had trouble overcoming in the past.  It is encouraging to see that the Hoosiers could still get the win against a good team while starting slow, however they won’t always be able to replicate this.

• Least Favorite Lineup.  My least favorite lineup, and the one which was statistically the weakest, was the starting lineup of Ferrell, Blackmon, Johnson, Zeisloft, and Mosquera-Perea.  Many of my issues with it come from the aforementioned defensive zone troubles, as this lineup is particularly deadly on the offensive end.  It can work well against teams the same size or shorter, but those teams will be few and far between, especially in the Big Ten.  Hopefully we don’t see this lineup for extended stretches after this, but I really don’t know that that’ll be the case.

• …Die by the Three.  They didn’t die last night, but they would have if they hadn’t made so many threes.  It’ll be difficult for the Hoosiers to hit double-digit three pointers every game, so it will be important to start relying a little less on it.  I’m not saying they shouldn’t shoot the three, but smart shot choices could be the difference between a win and a loss in a close game.

Final Word:

The Hoosiers got the win they needed, even if the SMU team was not quite as impressive as they will be with the return of Markus Kennedy in the spring semester.  But they passed their first test and move to 3-0 on the season.  They were far from perfect, but showed glimpses of promise throughout the game and looked more ready to play against big opponents than last year’s team.

Up Next:

The Cardinals from Lamar University will come to the Assembly Hall, which actually holds more people than are enrolled in their school.  Once again, this is one of the weakest teams in the country, with Ken Pomeroy ranking them just two slots above Mississippi Valley State.  They are actually shorter than the Hoosiers, although a bit more experienced.  There are only two things they are doing remotely well so far: offensive rebounding and forcing turnovers.  So far, they are 1-2 on the season, losing 54-93 to the same SMU team the Hoosiers just beat and 55-65 to Texas State.  Their lone win came against NAIA LSU-Alexandria.  The Hoosiers should be able to easily handle the Cardinals, and it should provide an opportunity to give some younger guys some playing time and to experiment with lineups a bit.  Pomeroy likes Indiana 86-59 with a 99% chance of winning, which sounds about right to me. 

The Game Ahead: SMU

On Thursday (at 8pm on Big Ten Network), Indiana will host the Mustangs of Southern Methodist University, who are currently ranked 22^nd.  This will be the first real test for the Hoosiers, who have beaten their two opponents by an average of 35 points.  This is not true for the Mustangs, who faced (and lost to) #13 Gonzaga on Monday.

The Teams:

This game just a few months ago looked likely to be a chance to host a Top-10 team.  Then the Mustangs lost the #2 recruit in Emmanuel Mudiay (who is now playing professionally in China) and then learned that big man Markus Kennedy would miss the fall semester because of academic issues.  This still appears to be a team which can make its way into the NCAA Tourney come March, but some of the excitement has worn off.  The team is currently 1-1, having defeated Lamar by 39 and lost to Gonzaga by 16.  They are also a bit taller than the Hoosiers, having an effective height, a stat used by kenpom.com which looks at height by position, of +2.5 inches.

The SMU starting lineup has been consistent so far this season, featuring the three-guard backcourt of Nic Moore, Keith Frazier, and Ben Emelogu, along with forward Ben Moore and center Yanick Moreira.  This is a team that is good at moving the ball, with a high assist rate as a team, but also likes to keep the pace a bit slower than the Hoosiers are going to want.  In fact, against Gonzaga, the Mustangs seemed to struggle the most when they began to take more shots earlier in the possessions, pushing up their pace.  They have had success so far this season in grabbing offensive rebounds, something Indiana is really going to have to watch.  This Mustang team also spreads out the scoring, not relying overly on any one player.

On the flip side, SMU has not done a good job thus far at keeping opposing teams off of the offensive glass, which the Hoosiers will need to exploit.  They particularly have had trouble with long rebounds off of missed threes, which should go in favor of an Indiana team which likes to shoot from deep.  SMU has also struggled with keeping opponents off of the free throw line, which the Hoosiers could use to their advantages if they can start hitting their free throws consistently.

The Hoosiers will gain back three players who were suspended for four games in sophomores Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson and freshman Emmitt Holt, giving Indiana the fullest roster it will have this season.  Even without these players, they have had no problems handling their first two servings of cupcake, beating Mississippi Valley State by 51 and Texas Southern by 19.  Kenpom.com has Indiana’s effective height at -.5 inches, making them one of the shorter teams in the country and second only to Michigan State within the Big Ten.

The Indiana starting lineup has been consistent throughout the suspensions, but will likely see a shakeup now that these players have returned.  They have used a four-guard lineup with Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson, and Nick Zeisloft, along with forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea.  A likely change would be to swap Zeisloft for Williams to add some height to the lineup.  Either way, the Hoosiers also like to move the ball, becoming better at making the extra pass than they were last year.  The highlight of the Indiana season so far has been the ability to shoot the ball well (everywhere except the free throw line), having a ridiculous 71% effective field goal percentage (55% from three-point and 65% from two).  While I’m sure this will cool of some, the Hoosiers will continue to shoot well.  On the defensive end, Indiana has had some success in keeping opponents off the free throw line and limiting their three-point shooting, both of which will be put to the test with the better level of competition.

Turnovers, on the other hand, have been a bit of an issue so far for this year's version of the Hoosiers, giving it away on 21% of their possessions.  This is still a young team and turnovers will happen, but limiting the dumb turnovers as much as possible will be key.  Rebounding has also been an area of concern for the Hoosiers, even when facing much shorter competition.  They give up far too many offensive rebounds, especially against smaller teams.  The players are going to have to be physical when crashing the boards most of the season when they are facing bigger teams in order to give themselves the best chance possible to secure the ball.

The Matchups:

While it’s true that in general every matchup is important, especially in a game against a ranked team, in this case there are three which stand out as being particularly critical.  Those are the point guard match up of Ferrell versus Nic Moore, the big men of Mosquera-Perea versus the duo of Moreira and Cannen Cunningham, and the forwards of Ben Moore versus whoever the Hoosiers decided is the four-man.

The point guard matchup is really interesting for me, having watched Nic Moore while he was at Warsaw High School (the rival of my beloved Wawasee).  This means that we have two native Hoosiers facing each other at the point.  (As a side note, Indiana walk-on Nate Ritchie is a graduate of Northridge High School, also in the same conference as Warsaw and Wawasee – go NLC!)  As a fun added twist, Moore began his collegiate career at Illinois State, the same school from which Nick Zeisloft transferred to join Indiana, meaning the two were teammates for a while.

All of this aside, Nic Moore (I’m using both names in order to distinguish him from his teammate Ben Moore) has really come onto the scene of late, being named to the Wooden Award Watch List along with Ferrell.  He is an assist-oriented point guard who can shoot the ball well when he chooses to shoot, hitting 44% of his shots from deep last season.  He has quick hands on defense and also plays the most minutes of anybody on the team.  He does turn the ball over a bit, but that’s to be expected with the team’s primary ball handler.  Ferrell is a similar type of point guard, often looking to assist just as frequently as he shoots.  He is also dangerous from beyond the arc, hitting over 40% of those shots.  Ferrell seems to drive a little more frequently than Nic Moore does, but he is also listed as about three inches taller than Moore (although it’s probably more like one inch).  I will give a very slight edge to Ferrell on this one, but it’s very close and both are going to be key pieces for their teams.

On the other end of the height spectrum, the matchup of the big men is going to go a long way toward defining how this season will play out for the Hoosiers.  While Moreira, who is 6’11”, is the starting center, he and Cunningham (6’10”) split the time pretty evenly.  In the case of Moreira, he is about two inches taller but is actually a bit smaller than Mosquera-Perea (about five pounds).  He appears to have a solid skillset on offense, but is still trying to gain the same on the defensive end, not being particularly effective at stopping opposing bigs.  Against Gonzaga, Moreira seemed to force drives and shots a bit, but he does get his fair share of offensive rebounds too.  Cunningham is about the same size as Mosquera-Perea, but also seems to play toward the perimeter a bit too, even if he’s not a real threat to shoot from there.  He’s been good at drawing fouls and he hits the ensuing free throws at a high rate.

Mosquera-Perea appears to be better on the defensive end, especially where blocking is concerned.  At the same time, he has cut back on the number of fouls committed from last year, but this will be the first big test of that theory.  He can also be very quick up the court when he wants to be, making himself a big target in transition.  While his offense has been hit-or-miss thus far, if he can concentrate on catching the ball before doing anything else and on not making a Sports-Center-Top-10 play every time he touches the ball, his skillset should be enough to keep this team going.

The final matchup holds a bit of uncertainty, as Ben Moore is the leading scorer for SMU and it’s unknown who Coach Crean will start in the four-slot.  The natural player to guard him would be Williams, who is returning from suspension, as he is more of a typical four than Zeisloft, or Johnson, or Blackmon.  However, it has not yet been said if the returning players would immediately join the starting lineup or if a further part of their punishment is that they do not automatically regain that privilege.  If the latter is the case, there are a couple different options to guard Ben Moore.  If the lineup stays the same from the first two games, that player is Johnson, though that is giving up a lot of height.  The possibly more tempting option would be to start the rehabbing Collin Hartman, who is closer in height.

Whoever it is guarding Ben Moore will have a pretty tough task.  He is the leading scorer for SMU at 16.5 points per game.  He’s versatile in scoring, hitting mid-range jumpers with ease (especially out of the pick-and-roll) and driving exceptionally well, even over taller players.  One byproduct of this is that he draws fouls well, even if he isn't always consistent at hitting the free throws.  He also grabs offensive rebounds at a high rate, something his defender is going to have to watch.

While Williams is in, even if he isn’t starting, he should match up well with Ben Moore.  He is a bit of an unknown at this point, having not played this season, however the coaches say he has improved from last year.  With that in mind, Williams was good last year at not committing fouls, which could come in handy against Moore.  He also has a ridiculous vertical leap, helping to boost his rebounding numbers on both ends of the court.  Last year, he wasn’t much of a threat from deep, but was a great driver who could either take it to the hoop himself or dish it off; this should remain the same this year, especially with so many threats on the perimeter.  Finally, Williams is explosive and quick down the court, which should aid the Hoosiers in speeding up the game beyond what the Mustangs want.

Johnson on Ben Moore is a bit of a stretch, seeing as it would mean giving up five inches of height.  On the other hand, he has had stellar defense for a freshman, with quick hands to create havoc.  He has also shown the ability to not foul, being one of the best on the team in the category.  In reality, however, Johnson should only be used against Ben Moore under desperate circumstances, allowing him to better match up with an equal-sized guard.

The final option for a starter against Ben Moore, and one who will see time against him regardless, is Hartman.  He is of equal size, and has been particularly effective on defense this season.  He has been very physical, especially against bigger guys, which is really impressive considering he tore his ACL only nine months ago.  The one knock on Hartman right now (in the small sample size of games so far) is that he’s been a little foul-happy, which doesn’t work quite so well when the person being guarded is good at drawing fouls.  I think Hartman will be able to do well against Ben Moore as long as he plays the way he has been so far this season.

Final Thoughts:

This could be a good first test for the Hoosiers.  It will be interesting to see how the three returning players blend with the rest of the team, especially Holt, who joined the team after the Canada exhibition trip.  His size could be really important for a severely undersized team if he can even have 10-12 minutes of solid play a game.  Williams and Robinson will have a bit of an easier time coming back, being veterans for Indiana.

Ken Pomeroy has the Hoosiers winning 70-65 with a 71% chance of success.  If Indiana can push the pace just a little bit and make the Mustangs uncomfortable, this five-point difference could grow.  Should the pace slow down, however, the Hoosiers have not had recent success at playing slower ball.  I’m going to basically go with Pomeroy on the differential on this one, but I’m also going to push the score just a bit to somewhere around 78-72.  But your guess is probably as good as mine at this point.

That's the Game: Texas Southern

Last night the Hoosiers were able to put on the cruise control and beat the Texas Southern Tigers by 19 with a final score of 83-64.  But that’s not what most of the headlines this morning were talking about, or at least not what they were leading with.

No, the real story from last night was the return of former Hoosier coach Mike Davis, the first person to ever coach an opposing team at the Assembly Hall after leaving.  The sparse crowd at tip-off gave Davis the welcome back that he deserved: a standing ovation. 

The Hoosiers would go on to win what was a lackluster game, never really having to work hard to win and never really putting the game away entirely.  While some of the sloppiness from the previous game went away, Indiana just never really looked fully engaged, which unfortunately can happen sometimes with lower-tier opponents.

The Good:

The freshman starting duo.  Robert Johnson did a little bit of everything, putting the team on his back in the first half.  His final stat line read 21 points (leading all scorers), 3-4 from three-point land, five rebounds, six assists, a steal, and only one turnover in 36 minutes.  And just when he began to fade a bit in the second half, up stepped James Blackmon Jr.  After being almost invisible in the first half (he only had two points), he started up right where Johnson left off, ending the game with 19 points (also 3-4 from deep), five rebounds, and also only one turnover.  I would argue that even with the return of veterans Troy Williams and Stan Robinson both Blackmon and Johnson should retain their starting roles based on how they’ve played so far this season.

Turnovers (ish).  Indiana ended the game with 13 turnovers, many of them being of the dumb unforced variety.  But it’s also the second game of the season for a young team.  Dumb unforced turnovers are going to happen.  An honest assessment of this team leads me to think that a turnover total under 15 is going to leave this team in a good place (unless they stop hitting their shots AND don’t rebound well all at the same time).  A more detailed look at this stat shows that no freshman had more than one turnover, with Johnson and Blackmon combining for two in a total of 69 minutes on the court.  This is a very encouraging sign that the freshmen who are handling the ball are doing it well.

Assists and blocks.  The Hoosiers racked up 17 assists on the night (with 32 made field goals).  This alone is good.  But 13 of those assists came from Johnson (six) and junior point guard Yogi Ferrell (seven).  This is great for the two primary ball handlers on this team and if they can both keep this up against stiffer competition, the Hoosiers could surprise a few teams.  The blocks by some Indiana players were also impressive.  Junior forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea swatted away five shots (a career high for him) while the 6’7” sophomore forward Collin Hartman had three blocks of his own.  Both saved some plays for their teammates with these blocks, and it’s a good sign of things to come if it continues.

The play of Collin Hartman and Nick Zeisloft.  They both played their roles very well, even if it was a little quietly.  Zeisloft, who at times has seemed to force things (including shots, drives, and passes) on the court, took what was there.  He hit both of the shots he took (both being threes), grabbed six rebounds (the highest on the team), had an assist, two steals, and only one turnover.  This is the Nick Zeisloft who needs to show up every game, even if he does lose his starting spot to the returning Troy Williams.

Hartman was similar, continuing his first-man-off-the-bench role.  He finished with three points, four rebounds, three blocks, two steals, an assist, and a single turnover, all in 17 total minutes.  He’s looking particularly active on defense, with one sequence sticking out to me in particular.  Freshman Max Hoetzel stole the ball under the opponent basket before promptly throwing it right back to a waiting Tiger.  The said Tiger was a little too eager on the shot, but it was rebounded by another Tiger, as all the Hoosiers had already taken off down the court, save Hartman.  He came up and swatted the put-back attempt out-of-bounds, giving the rest of the team a chance to get back to defense and saving Hoetzel from giving up those points.  These are the types of smart plays Hartman has been making since his return from tearing his ACL in March, and it is these same smart plays which are making the argument for his continued playing time as players return.

The Not-so-good:

Rebounding.  The Hoosiers were once again outrebounded by an inferior, and shorter, team.  The average height of TSU is 6’4”, but they were without 6’7” starting senior forward Jose Rodriquez.  IU has an average height of 6’6” both with and without the three Hoosiers who will be rejoining the team Thursday.  So both teams are a bit undersized, and Indiana should have been able to grab rebounds in bunches.  But they didn’t.  While Mosquera-Perea had a decent overall game, he is continuing to struggle with the concept of boxing out in order to better get both hands on the ball on rebounds.  In comparison, three of his four fellow starters (all guards) had as many or more rebounds, and the final starter, Ferrell, only had one fewer.  That’s not good.  The Tigers were able to rebound about a third of their misses, whereas the Hoosiers rebounded on under 30% of their misses.  This needs to change before Indiana starts playing better, taller teams.  However, if they can keep shooting the way they are and keep the turnover total under about 15, the rebounds won’t always kill them.

Turnovers from upperclassmen.  Eight out of the team’s 13 turnovers came from the starting duo of Ferrell (five) and Mosqurea-Perea (three).  This is way too many from the veterans.  Some dumb freshman mistakes at this stage in the game are expected, and one or two per game from the veterans is understandable.  But Ferrell in particular should not be turning the ball over this much, even if he did have seven assists to balance it out. One of these turnovers, right at the end of the first half, saw Ferrell step on the baseline just after Coach Crean took a timeout to draw up a final play of the half (practicing for games where it would matter).  Luckily for the Hoosiers, the Tigers weren’t good at capitalizing on the turnovers, only scoring two points off of the eight veteran miscues.

Free throws (are called free for a reason).  But the Hoosiers don’t seem to be treating them that way, only hitting nine of 16 attempts for 56%.  I mean, maybe some of these guys should start taking their free throws from behind the three-point arc, seeing as the three-point percentage was higher than the free throw percentage as a team.  This is one of those things which is fixed through repetition, so hopefully some of these guys are hitting Cook Hall to put up some free throws before the game Thursday.  I would also like to see the team get to the line a few more times per game, but this should also increase some with Williams and Robinson back in the lineup, both of whom were very good at drawing fouls last year.

The Final Word:

Lackluster.  That is a good final word for this game.  The Hoosiers had trouble again with the starts of each half, and never really put the Tigers out of their misery.  This isn’t too harmful in these cupcake games, but won’t help any in the Big Ten schedule.  The Hoosiers need to rebound much better than they already are, and really just need to play more physically overall.  Some of this will be helped with the players returning on Thursday.

Up Next:

Thursday, Nov. 20, the Indiana hosts the Mustangs of Southern Methodist University.  This is decidedly not a cupcake game (even with the Mustangs missing a few key cogs from their lineup), so this game will feature a preview post all its own.  Be on the lookout for that tomorrow or Thursday afternoon.

That's the Game: Mississippi Valley State

As expected, the Hoosiers annihilated the Delta Devils of Mississippi Valley State 116-65.  And as I thought, UIndy probably would have blown this team out of the water as well.  The Hoosiers dominated just about every aspect of this game, as you would expect looking at the score, and it’s going to be difficult to find much to nitpick on offense when every single one of your eligible players (including walk-ons) score.

Some of these first games are a bit difficult to analyze, what with the youth of the team, the quality of the opponent, and, right now, the missing of some key players.  But here’s what we saw in the first serving of cupcake last night.

The Good:

The Indiana offense.  It may not have always been pretty, but this team got it done on this end of the court.  They shot lights out, connecting on 11 out of 23 three-point attempts.  One game in, the Hoosiers are leading the country in effective field goal percentage (which gives weight to three pointers) with 75.4%.  As previously mentioned, every single Hoosier scored, including 6’11” freshman Jeremiah April, who was only cleared to play by the team physicians that night.  Freshman phenom James Blackmon Jr. led all scorers with 25 points (second only to Eric Gordon Jr. for number of points in the first game for a Hoosier), hitting 7-10 from the floor, including 3-4 from deep, and 8-9 from free throw.  Fellow freshmen Robert Johnson and Max Hoetzel contributed 15 and 19 points respectively, while also grabbing seven and nine rebounds each.  Juniors Yogi Ferrell and Nick Zeisloft rounded out the double-digit scoring with 15 and 16 points.  Like I said, it’s difficult to find many flaws when a team scores this many points (almost 1.5 per possession), and it’s also difficult to analyze it much, based on the quality of the opponent.

The start, the middle, and the end.  After two exhibition games in which Indiana found itself in an early hole, the Hoosiers put the petal to the metal early and never really let off the gas.  IU trailed for a grand total of 21 seconds early in the game, but held a nine-point lead halfway through the first half before seeing that lead jump to 23 points at the half.  Just as impressively, the Hoosiers came out just as strong to start the second half, pushing the lead to 36 points in the first five minutes.  By the end of the game, when the final lineup consisted of four freshmen (including a walk-on) and a redshirt junior walk-on, the score stood at 100-54 with five minutes remaining.  Not only did this lineup not let MVSU gain any ground, they actually pushed the lead from 48 to 51 points.  Oddly enough, this lineup, while being perhaps the least experienced lineup possible, was easily the tallest, with every single player being 6’7” or taller and Hoetzel as the point guard.

The Not-so-good:

Turnovers upon turnovers upon turnovers.  Of course, when a team plays as fast as this Hoosier team does, turnovers are going to happen.  Add the youth of the team to the equation and this team will likely turn the ball over a lot.  In this game, they turned it over 19 times, 13 of those coming in the first half.  These turnovers tended to come in fits, including five within a span of about a minute and a half.  The miscues were also predominately committed by freshman, with the youngsters accounting for 12 of the total 19.  Six out of the seven remaining turnovers were committed by the combo of Ferrell and Zeisloft, each having three.  Many of the turnovers were of the really dumb unforced variety, mostly the byproduct of young players playing really fast.  These numbers could go down as these players gain more experience and learn their own pace limitations, but the numbers are likely to remain higher than IU fans are going to enjoy.  There was, however, a positive side to the turnover saga, with the Hoosiers committing only two turnovers in the first 13:50 of the second half.  If Indiana can play more like that, this could be a dangerous team.

The Final Word:

The Hoosiers ran and scored and ran and scored and ran some more.  Fans are mostly going to find this team to be a fun one to watch, even if there is some frustration and face-palming at times.  Indiana scored the most points in a game in almost 21 years, falling only two points shy of the Assembly Hall record of 118.  Every Hoosier scored, they outrebounded the Delta Devils by 27 (lead by Hanner Mosquera-Perea with a career-high 12), and they were deadly shooting from just about everywhere on the court.  This is exactly what this team needs to do game in and game out, even though their first true test doesn’t come until Thursday, Nov. 20, against SMU.

Up Next:

Former Hoosier coach Mike Davis brings his Texas Southern Tigers to the Assembly Hall on Monday, Nov. 17, in his first return trip since he walked the sidelines for Indiana.  In their game yesterday, the Tigers lost to Eastern Washington (a team the Hoosiers will host on Nov. 24) by a score of 86-62.  Per kenpom.com, the Tigers are ranked 279^th out of 351 teams, and he has the Hoosiers winning 88-67 with a 96% chance of victory.  I’d venture to say that Indiana will put up more points than that, but overall this should be another helping of cupcake in the early season.

That's the Game: Exhibition Style

Last night the Hoosiers took on the Greyhounds of the University of Indianapolis and won 76-63.  Now, everything that follows should be taken with a grain of salt, seeing as this was an exhibition game and several IU players remain unable to play, whether through injury or suspension.

The Good:

There were plenty of positive take-aways from the exhibition, with the understanding that exhibitions are a time for experimentation and not necessarily the most fine-tuned play.  The first two of these were the play of freshman Robert Johnson and sophomore Collin Hartman.  Johnson recorded the Hoosiers’ only double-double of the night, as a 6’3” guard, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.  He did this by going 6-6 from the floor, including 2-2 from deep, and 1-1 from the free throw line.  He also had 3 assists, a steal, and only 2 turnovers while doing a significant portion of the ball-handling.  Another positive to Johnson’s game came in the form of a single foul in 35 minutes while being aggressive and playing solid defense, especially for a freshman.

Hartman, who is coming off a torn ACL in March and is already playing in games (albeit with a minute limit), does not seem to have lost a step since his injury.  He played 18 minutes, contributing 8 points – again, perfect from the floor, including 2-2 from three-point land – 2 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal.  Stats aside, however, the part of Hartman’s game which impressed me the most was his ability to hold his own as IU’s center (at 6’6”).  I do realize that this was against UIndy, whose tallest guys are only 6’7”, but it was a sign of progress that Hartman could play physically in the post because, even though the thought of a Hartman vs Frank Kaminsky matchup during the Wisconsin game is a bit scary, the Hoosiers are incredibly thin up front and having a versatile player like Hartman could be key.

Some other good things:

The combo of James Blackmon Jr. and Yogi Ferrell.  Blackmon had 14 points (although a bit less efficiently than the first exhibition as it took him 15 shots), an assist, and a block.  Ferrell had a game-high 19 points (although he only hit 3-out-of-6 free throws) and 5 assists.  The two did have 4 combined turnovers, however they are the two primary ball-handlers so have some of the most opportunity to turn it over.  Not only are the two already playing well together, which is a great sign for the season to come, but they also seem to back each other up well, taking the load off of each other when needed.

A 22-0 run to end the half.  The Hoosiers found themselves in the hole early in the game, going down 6-17 about 5 minutes into the game.  They were down 20-28 with about 7:30 minutes in the first half before going on to score 22 unanswered points to end the half 42-28.  The Hoosiers didn’t panic, which is possible with such a young team, and were able to take the lead for good.

The play of Hanner Mosquera-Perea (part 1).  Mosquera-Perea had 2 quick fouls in the first 5 minutes.  He did not have any more through the remainder of the game. For Mosquera-Perea, that’s probably the most you can hope for, that when he gets into foul trouble he’s able to regain composure and play without adding to the problems.  He also chipped in 14 points (including 8-10 from the line), and had 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks, rounding out a solid performance.

The Not-So-Good:

As with any game, especially during exhibition experiments, there were some areas which did not look particularly pretty.  The two primary team-wide flaws in this case were turnovers (just like last year) and rebounding (not so much like last year).  Neither of these flaws are coming completely out of left field, seeing as this is a young, short team.  Does this excuse it?  No.  But it does explain it.

The Hoosiers turned the ball over 18 times on the night, including 5 from redshirt junior transfer Nick Zeisloft alone.  They were at least creative with their turnovers, ranging from passing to the other team, to a shot clock violation, to a 10-second violation, to a player-control foul (aka a charge).  It must also be said that this same team only turned it over 10 times in the first exhibition game against Northwood, meaning this could be more of an anomaly than a trend.  But just two games doesn’t really give enough insight to determine that one way or the other.

IU was also outrebounded.  By UIndy.  Whose average height is just over 6’3”.  If that’s not embarrassing, I don’t know what is.  UIndy managed to rebound on almost half of their misses, something which does not bode well for the Hoosiers moving forward.  Granted, this was without sophomore Troy Williams and freshman Emmitt Holt who are both 6’7” and will return in time for the SMU game.  However, the Hoosiers will still be undersized when it comes to Big Ten play, even if they can get away with it many times in the non-conference schedule.

Some other not-so-good things:

The play of Hanner Mosquera-Perea (part 2).  While Mosquera-Perea did do a good job of coming back from early foul and turnover trouble (and did have a solid overall game), he just does not look ready to play ball like the big men of the last few years.  I said multiple times during the game that they needed to get some sticky tack for his hands because the ball was just bouncing off of them.  He appeared on rebound attempts to simply jump as high as he could, hoping to outreach any opponents rather than boxing his man out.  The biggest thing it seems that Mosquera-Perea could do right now to improve would be to learn how to put his body into somebody (anybody) on the rebound.  This will give him the space he needs to truly corral the rebound and make it easier to hold onto the ball (without the help of any illegal material).

The play of Nick Zeisloft.  After a tremendous start to his IU career in a 24-point effort against Northwood, Zeisloft was a different player against UIndy.  As previously mentioned, he was responsible for 5 out of IU’s 18 turnovers (which is 27% of the total turnovers).  He had 4 total points (on 4-4 from the free throw line, all of which were the result of technical fouls, not from drawing the foul), 4 rebounds, a block, and 2 steals.  Just as important as the stats was the issue of Zeisloft looking almost lost anytime the ball was not simply fed to him for the shot.  When he was close to the basket handling the ball, he was more likely to turn the ball over by trying to unnecessarily fight his way through traffic.  But again, this is a single game and could be an anomaly.  Players have bad games; what’s important is to see how he responds in IU’s first regulation game on Friday.

The lackluster stretches to begin and end the game.  Really, the more concerning of these was the rough start to the game, where the Hoosiers quickly went down 4-14 and would not take a lead until there were only 4 minutes left in the half.  IU was missing shots, turning the ball over, and not doing anything particularly well on defense, including defending the paint and closing out on shooters.  The reason this is more disconcerting than the end is that these are the starters (ish – Williams will definitely be in the starting lineup, as could sophomore Stanford Robinson).  This should be the best lineup with the least experimentation.  The final lineup, on the other hand, featured freshmen Johnson, Max Hoetzel (who was also on limited minutes after a mild injury) and Tim Priller along with walk-ons Ryan Burton and Nate Ritchie.  As the game goes on, experimentation increases which also increases the odds of having an experiment which fails to work.  As long as the Hoosiers can figure out how to begin the games (or at least how not to begin them), they should do well.  But if the slow starts continue into the Big Ten schedule, bad results could follow.

The Final Word:

There’s not much along the lines of a final word to be offered after an exhibition game.  This won’t get any better with some of the regulation non-conference games (I’m not sure that DII UIndy couldn't beat Mississippi Valley State, the first regular season opponent).  But here’s where we stand right now.

The Hoosiers are undersized.  This isn't going to change this season.  This also isn't automatically a deal breaker for the team because they have speed, shooters, and a few guys who can play a little bit taller than they actually are.  As long as they can be more aggressive on the rebounds, there are likely only a few teams who will really give them fits (see Wisconsin with a more prototypical center in Kaminsky).

The Hoosiers also will turn the ball over more than anyone (other than opponents) will like.  They are young and they will play fast, which will lead to turnovers.  But their shooting ability should help to counter this; as long as they can use their remaining possessions well (aka making their shots), the turnovers won’t often hurt too badly.

The team did about as well as can be expected in the preseason.  They tried some things that work and they tried some things that didn't.  Newcomers Blackmon and Johnson could be major contributors over the season, and Zeisloft could make for a solid 6^th (or 7^th or 8^th depending upon the work of Hartman and Robinson) man as long as he can keep a handle on the ball.  The guards (or semi-guards/small forwards in the case of guys like Hartman and Williams) will likely dominate the game, with big men like Mosquera-Perea and Holt likely complementing them.  This team will run (and run and run some more) no matter who they play.

Speaking of who they play, the Hoosiers face some good teams in the non-conference portion of the schedule (the strength of the Big Ten speaks for itself).  The first test of the season should come against SMU on November 20, and the schedule also features Louisville and Georgetown in NYC, Butler in Indy, and Pittsburgh at Assembly Hall for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.  This is a nice improvement over the last few seasons, although it still lacks a true marquee home game, the likes of which have not been seen at Assembly Hall since December 10, 2011 when a kid named Watford hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to knock off then-number-one Kentucky and send a cream-and-crimson mass onto Branch McCracken Court to celebrate.  Hoosier fans, however, should be satisfied with the decrease in consumption of cupcakes in the non-conference.  At least for now.