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.