Being in the middle of the Big Ten pack at Indiana? Unacceptable, unless you’re talking football.
That’s what restless IU fans have grudgingly settled for since Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo departed for the NBA after a 29-7 season capped by a disappointing 2013 NCAA tournament .
Over the last two seasons Tom Crean’s Hoosiers have teased us with flashes of brilliance tarnished by unconscionable breakdowns. To break that pattern and become a Big Ten contender requires consistency, according to the beleaguered coach.
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Fewer unforced turnovers, a frequently fatal flaw which turned a 5-1 start into a 9-9 conference record last year, would help. So would a defensive upgrade. The permissive Hoosiers finished last in scoring generosity (71.6 ppg) and field goal percentage (.475), which derailed a league-leading offense.
Hopeful of regaining respect, four returning starters should improve on a 20-14 season. It starts with guard Yogi Ferrell, returning for his final rodeo. The tireless senior led IU in scoring (16.3 ppg). assists (4.9 apg) and minutes (34.9 average). Those numbers earned him preseason All-American second-team recognition from USA Today and Sporting News.
About all the 5-11 playmaker hasn’t done is dunk, something he last did in his senior year at Park Tudor High School. When he accomplished that feat in practice over strength coach Lyonel Anderson in practice, Ferrell admitted, “I kind of surprised myself.”
Crean is a devoted advocate. Deftly dodging a direct comparison with Maryland’s Melo Trimble, who was named the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year, he said, “I wouldn’t trade Yogi for any other guy in the country.”
If Ferrell improves his decision-making, Crean suggested: “he has a chance to leave as one of the best who’s played at Indiana.”
Four years are flying by much more quickly than the IU floor general anticipated.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” he said. “I wish I was a freshman again, just learning the ropes.”
His returning playmates include James Blackmon Jr. (15.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg), who spent much of the summer rehabbing a surgically repaired torn meniscus in his left knee; 6-7 Troy Williams (13.7 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and sophomore Robert Johnson, a 33-game starter.
Much of the early buzz around the Hoosiers, who were ranked No. 13 in one preseason poll, centers on Thomas Bryant, a 6-10, 245-pound freshman who was a consensus top 30 recruit. He averaged a double-double to lead Huntington Prep Academy (N.Y.) to a 31-3 record and was an MVP in the Derby Festival Classic,.
Bryant has been limited in early practices because of a sore arch, but Crean gushed over his athleticism and work ethic at Big Ten media day last week. “I’ve never had anybody make the jumps he has athletically,” Crean said, citing a vertical leap improvement of nine inches in seven weeks. “His energy is infectious.”
Enjoy him while you can. Bryant has been placed on the Abdul-Jabbar watch list and could join Noah Vonleh as another one-and-done Hoosier.
Undersized last year, the Hoosiers have embraced Michigan transfer Max Bielfeldt, a 6-10, 240-pound graduate student who appeared in 68 games for the Wolverines. His decision was influenced by a 2013 visit to Bloomington by the No. 1 Wolverines.
“It was one of the loudest, if not the loudest place I’ve ever played,” said Bielfeldt, recalling IU’s upset.
Once a dependable role player, he was named Sixth Man of the Year during his time at Michigan. Others fitting that descripton include 6-6 Collin Hartman, IU’s only holdover in the front line, and Nick Zeisloft. Both marksmen swell the number of Hoosiers who have averaged nearly 20 minutes a game to six.
Hartman connected on nearly 50 percent of his three-pointers and received 12 starts. Zeisloft, a graduate student who started 31 games at Illinois State before transferring to Indiana, led the Big Ten beyond the arc with a .514 percentage.
“We’re two deep at every position,” Crean insists.
That depends. Not until Bryant, Hartman, Williams and Blackmon heal.
That can’t be soon enough with a challenging non-conference schedule that includes Bellarmine, one of the top Division II teams in the country; Creighton, Wake Forest (Maui Classic), Duke and Notre Dame.
John Mutka is a freelance columnist for the Post-Tribune.
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