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 6th (or 7th
or 8th 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.
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