The state of Indiana must be on threat level red, because Tom Crean has this place on lock-down. While still reveling in recent news of Cody Zeller’s commitment and ongoing buzz about Park Tudor guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell’s future decision, the Hoosier nation was blind-sided with unexpected and great news regarding two other top Indiana players. After a Hoosier victory over Evansville last night, both Devin Davis (Warren Central) and Colin Hartman (Cathedral) gave their verbal commitment to Coach Crean. Add these two to the tally, and Crean now has nine in-state commits for the next four years with hopes of adding more. This is an incredible turnaround, especially considering that over the last four years, only four Indiana recruits were locked down for the Hoosiers. Coach Crean is bringing the Indiana talent back to where it belongs. Home. Hoosiers playing for the Hoosiers is what IU is all about.
With all that being said, let’s turn our focus to last night’s game. My student season tickets had me posted up in the balcony for last night’s game. However, the lack of fans on the student side of Assembly Hall made it easy to relocate seats which were more appealing. The turnout of students continues to be dismal so far this season in Bloomington. Granted, the absence of students last night can most likely be associated with the beginning of Thanksgiving Break. I hope to see the student section fill up after break when the competition thickens.
The Hoosiers put on an ugly display throughout the first half. As one can see from the +/- stat chart below, Indiana had a horrendous first twenty minutes, doomed by turnovers and fouls. IU’s free throw shooting for the game was also terrible, less than 54%. There were positive things happening in the game, however, such as Tom Pritchard’s performance. Pritchard has come a long way since being the guy that no one in the crowd trusted to make a layup. He had a solid showing tonight and continues to show endless effort on the court. Five blocks and eight points from a guy with a broken shooting hand is enough to earn respect from me. In fact, his stats from last night did not do his performance justice in my opinion. He simply brought a lot of energy out onto the court. Verdell Jones had another nice game as well with 18 points. But it would be nice to see him lower his turnover count and increase his assist count (4 turnovers, 3 assists last night). Although he seemed to be struggling early, Maurice Creek ended up with a great performance himself. It’s great to see him scoring again with 19 points last night, 12 of which came within two minutes. At the end of the day we came out with a victory, and that has us sitting at 4-0 to start the season. I’d like to see the Hoosiers play well for forty minutes instead of just the last twenty, and ultimately I think we may be able to give some more talented teams a little bit of challenge. We are making progress one game at a time.
