Preview: #IUBB Opens Season Against EIU

OPENING TIP
• Indiana University begins its 116th season of men's basketball and will open the season against Eastern Illinois and returns four starters from a team which made the program's 38th NCAA Tournament appearance. The Hoosiers were 2-0 in exhibition season with a 73-62 win over Bellarmine and an 82-54 triumph over Ottawa (Canada). EIU is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference and finished 18-15 last season and placed third in the West Division. Coach Jay Spoonhour is in his fourth year with the program.

Eastern Illinois (0-0) at #15 Indiana (0-0)
Friday, Nov. 13 • 7:00 p.m.
Assembly Hall (17,472)
Live Stats: IUHoosiers.com
TV: BTN Plus (Scott Stewart, Sam Rumpza, Olivia DeWeese)
Radio: IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, Joe Smith)
Sirius Radio: Channel 98
Mandarin Radio: Listen for Free
Last Meeting: Indiana 94, EIU 55 (March 19, 1992 - NCAA Tournament)

UP NEXT
• The Hoosiers will host the first round of the Maui Jim Maui Classic Monday at 7 p.m. against Austin Peay of the OVC.

HEAD COACH TOM CREAN
• Tom Crean begins his eighth year of leading the Hoosiers. Over the last four years, IU is 93-45 and leads the Big Ten with 19 regular season wins over ranked opponents during that time. During that same span, the Hoosiers have appeared nationally ranked in at least one major poll during the season. He has also seen a Big Ten best three players selected in the NBA lottery over the last three years and has recruited a McDonald's All-American in each of the last five years. In addition, he has seen seven of his players score 1,000 points or more in an IU uniform. Since 2011, the Hoosiers have averaged 23 wins per season compared to 20 averaged at IU from 1995-2008. Seven players have scored 1,000 points in their career under Tom Crean at Indiana. Christian Watford (1,730), Yogi Ferrell (1,379), Verdell Jones III (1,347), Jordan Hulls (1,318), Cody Zeller (1,157), Will Sheehey (1,120) and Victor Oladipo (1,117).

SEASON OPENERS
The Hoosiers are 95-20 all-time in season openers. Under Tom Crean, the Hoosiers are 7-0 and have outscored opponents 94-63 on average in those tilts. The Hoosiers have won 17 straight season openers and 30 straight home openers. Crean is 15-1 in his season openers as a head coach.

NEXT YEAR'S SEASON OPENER
Four traditional college basketball powers will play next season in a hangar on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, weeks shy of the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Hoosiers will take on Kansas and Arizona will battle Michigan State in the 2016 Armed Forces Classic.

EXPERIENCE STARTING
Senior point guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell has started all 102 games he has played in, junior forward Troy Williams has started 60 of 64 games that he has played in, sophomore James Blackmon, Jr., started all 33 games he played in last season and sophomore Robert Johnson started 33 of 34 games as a freshman.

BIG MAX
After starting just three games during his career at Michigan, graduate transfer Max Bielfeldt saw his name in the starting lineup in both exhibition games. He averaged 8.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in the preseason.

MINUTES MANAGEMENT
In two exhibition games last season, five players averaged 30.5 minutes of playing time per game. This year, eight players logged 17.5 or more minutes in the games against Ottawa and Bellarmine.

FRESHMAN STARTERS
Center Thomas Bryant will likely be the 12th freshman in eight seasons to crack the opening night starting lineup under Coach Tom Crean at IU. Here is a look at how some of the other frosh have fared in their first college game at IU.

2008 (vs. Northwestern State)
Tom Pritchard, 13 points, 10 rebounds
Verdell Jones III, 18 points, 5 assists

2009 (vs. Howard)
Christian Watford, 14 points, 11 rebounds
Maurice Creek; 17 points, 2 rebounds

2011 (vs. Stony Brook)
Cody Zeller, 16 points, 10 rebounds

2012 (vs. Bryant)
Kevin Yogi Ferrell, 10 points, 7 assists

2013 (vs. Chicago State)
Noah Vonleh, 11 points, 14 rebounds
Troy Williams, 13 points, 2 rebounds

2014 (vs. Mississippi Valley)
James Blackmon, Jr., 25 points, 4 rebounds
Robert Johnson, 15 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists

STRANGLEHOLD
• In each of the two exhibition games, the Hoosiers held their opponent scoreless for a period of eight minutes. Against Ottawa, IU went on a 23-0 run midway through the second half and in the first half against Bellarmine, the Hoosiers broke the game open with an 18-0 spurt.

SECOND CHANCE
In two exhibition games this season, the Hoosiers had 34 offensive rebounds, led by Bryant's 10. Last year in two exhibition games, IU had 18 offensive boards as a team.

FERRELL PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
• Senior All-Big Ten guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell has been named second team Preseason All-American by The Sporting News and USA Today, in addition to garnering third team honors from Athlon Sports and fourth team mention in Blue Ribbon Magazine. A first-team NABC and USBWA All-District selection last season, Ferrell was sixth in the Big Ten averaging 16.3 points and was fourth in assists at 4.9. He also has made a three-pointer in 65 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the nation. Ferrell, 6-0, and a native of Indianapolis, ranks 22nd on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,379 points, sixth in career assists at 438 and fourth in 3-point field goals made with 193. All three of those totals will make him the Big Ten's active leader in those categories entering his final season.

WATCH LISTS
• The Indiana Hoosiers were well represented on the preseason watch lists released by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this month. The watch lists recognize the top 20 players in the country at each of the five positions on the court. Here's who was recognized from Indiana:
Bob Cousy Award (Top PG): Kevin Yogi Ferrell
Jerry West Award (Top SG): James Blackmon Jr.
Julius Erving Award (Top SF): Troy Williams
K. Abdul-Jabbar Award (Top C): Thomas Bryant

IU EXPECTED TO HAVE TOP OFFENSE
• Both ESPN.com and SI.com expect IU to have the best offense in the country.

• From John Gasaway of ESPN.com: "Last season an Indiana offense led by James Blackmon, Yogi Ferrell and Troy Williams lit up the Big Ten to the tune of 1.11 points per possession. (And, yes, the conference turned right around and scored 1.11 points per trip against these very same Hoosiers. You may not be seeing Tom Crean's men listed among my top 10 defenses later this week.) All of the above players are back for 2015-16, along with Robert Johnson, Nick Zeisloft, Colin Hartman and freshman big man Thomas Bryant. Incredibly, IU has shot 40 percent or better on its 3s in league play in three of the past four seasons, and in 2014-15 the Hoosiers made the leap from "horrible" to "precisely average" in terms of turnovers. If Indiana's able to attain above-average success this season in terms of holding on to the rock, this offense can rival what fans saw in Bloomington during the Oladipo-Zeller days."

• From Luke Winn of SI.com: "The Hoosiers had a top-10 offense last season, and they have the right pieces to be the nation's best scoring attack in '15-16. Senior Yogi Ferrell is the most efficient lead guard on any title contender—our projections have him using 23.1% of IU's possessions with a phenomenal 127.2 offensive rating. All of the Hoosiers' shooters are back from a team that took nearly 40% of its shots from long-range last season and made 40.6% of them, and they upgraded at center, where they'll be adding five-star big man Thomas Bryant into the starting lineup.

Head Coach Tom Crean Previewing Eastern Illinois

Opening Statement:
"I think our guys are excited and at the same time they know they have to get a lot better and the film shows that. The bottom line is we can improve a lot of the controllables, which are: our effort to the glass, our sprint backs on defense, our awareness off the ball, our anticipation of screens.

"I think the quick pass, reading where our cuts are and sometimes not just standing but reading how we're being played and making cuts. We want to play a lot of random basketball, when the ball is moving, that's our best offense and our fast break is like our motion offense when we get it going. We have so many players that can play different places and what we have to do is continue to make a quick pass with a lot of movement and that just keeps the game moving.

"At the same time, defensively, we have to do a better job at taking that away. So, I know we're excited to play against Eastern Illinois. We have a lot of respect for Jay Spooner, his father Charlie, was one of the great coaches of all-time and was always good to me, I'd call him a personal friend. Jay has done a fantastic job in his own right as a coach. This team plays very fast, they play very innovative; they can play through all five guys, they can isolate.

"Johnston is a matchup problem. Trey Anderson is an extreme matchup problem because of his size and the fact that he can overpower you with his back to the basket and off the dribble and at the same time is an outstanding passer and really finds cutters. So we've got to do a great job of being aware of them. And Hardy can shoot the ball and their "5" can really shoot the ball.

"For us, it's going to be a matter of just really staying within our principles to our transition D, our half-court defense, getting the ball out quickly, and building on things from the first two games and making a much more concerted effort to go through the paint in everything, well not everything that we do, but with a lot more what we do. Whether its through the drive, whether its through the post up and certainly whether its through our offensive rebounding and we're looking forward to it."

On what he looks at to measure defensive success:
"Field-goal percentage defense, three-point defense. The turnover part is going to be big for us; that can really change the field-goal percentage. So, the less turnovers the better, obviously, because those are so indefensible so many times because you can't get back and stop people.

"To me, that's the big one and then what are our rebound numbers like, what are they getting offensively, what are their offense rebound numbers like. We want to be very very good at making tough, challenged shots come from tough, challenged passes, and when teams are allowed to move the ball around, it creates a lot more open looks.

"When it comes to the in-house stuff for us, it's going to be what are we doing at the rim, what's our help like there and then there's always specifics inside of a game. Like this team does a really good job at dropping the ball off to the baseline, so we have to make sure that we're really good at taking away that element of their offense. But really, our turnovers, their offensive rebounds but first and foremost field-goal percentage defense and our three-point defense. Point differential is a huge one, point differential usually really plays out. I think the year we were number one for so long, I think we ended up fourth in the country in point differential, so that all bears out, but that is over a period of time. We certainly want to look at, at our in-house stuff, we want to look at how we are out of timeouts, want to look at how we are on runs, we want to look at what our deflection numbers are obviously and grade those pretty heavily."

On the keys to offensive rebounding:
"Well, we're not offensively rebounding the ball well enough, so I haven't really paid much attention to those numbers, other than the fact we haven't gotten to the foul line like we should in the first two exhibition games. But some of it is really getting guys to understand how active they have to be and whether we're back or whether we're at the boards. I think that the biggest thing for us, we can get a lot better with our block outs.

On the emphasis on physicality?
"Not as much as you think, because so much of it right now is playing hands free, so much of it. Even the other night in the game on Monday night, I thought it was called differently in the second half then it was the first even. Because I think the referees are getting used to it and I don't have an issue with that. The days of 'let's go figure out how the game is going to be called', I think until everybody gets a comfort level, referee wise, it's going to take some time for that and obviously every game will be different.

"You want to be physical on your blockouts, you want to be physical and legal on your screens. Places where you need to be really physical, you have to be really detailed and airtight with your technique. To me, the biggest thing we're trying to get better at is defending cutters, defending the ball without being overly physical, because as soon as you put your hands in, a lot of times it's a foul, especially in the second half.

"To me, where your physicality is really going to show itself and this is where we're getting stronger but now we got to play through it better it's if your really getting low. In football it's pad level, in basketball it's really getting the shoulders down. If your shoulders are high and you're bending at the waist, you're not going to be nearly as physical, quick or athletic as you need to be. You have to get your body built up to be able to do that in the pace of games. So, when your low and playing with leverage, well now you're a more physical team.

"But if you start to think you're going to win the game with your hands outside of deflections and activity with your hands, you're not, because it's going to end up being a free-throw shooting show. So, real balance there and the film is important. We broke down a lot, even more so this week then what we have not that we've had a couple of games to get a feel for it. It's different when you scrimmage yourself but when you start to get a feel for it from the other games, now that we've had the Big Ten referees, we can start to hone in even more in what we want to do."

On whether talking to referees during the games allows for further explanation of calls:
"Sure, yeah. There's a big difference in being upset about something and trying to get understanding. I think we're all in it together. I think the players, coaches, the referees. We're all in it together, because the rules have changed. It's like the shot clock, it may not play itself out over 2, 3, 4, 5 games, it's going to play itself out over a period of time and that's the same thing with the rules.

"So, getting a feel from them on what they see, getting some clarity and trying to coach it that way is the most important thing and I always appreciate when they do tell you what they see. It's a lot different when you are telling them what you saw, I'm sure that'll come, but it's a lot more of getting that understanding to help them even more at timeouts and at halftime."

On what film has shown in the times Max Bielfeldt and Thomas Bryant have been on the court together:
"They can continue to do a lot more, they can continue to be to more active offensively, defensively, all the way around. As you've seen, they both have 3-point range being that person who can make those shots. It's a little hard because Colin (Hartman) and Thomas have missed so much time of live action and practice, and we see that on the court. We were on a minutes limit the other night with Thomas and somewhat of a minute's limit with Colin and so it wasn't that I was taking Thomas out because he wasn't playing well, it was more of managing it and helping him get ready for situations.

"They ran some different things that we hadn't spent a lot of time on yet and so obviously we've done more of that the last couple of days to get ready for different types of actions. It remains to be seen. I'm no closer to knowing what the starting lineup is tomorrow, I just don't know. I'll decide at some point tomorrow. I do like the fact that those guys have played together, because I think that's going to be needed, just like its going to be needed with Juwan (Morgan) and there'll be times where it's Troy (Williams), Colin and one of those guys. When we can get bigger and still not lose any speed or mobility or ball movement, it will be good for us."

On how long he will have to manage minutes with some of the guys:
"Well you want it to be. We tried to do that with Cody (Zeller) but when it's time to win the game, it's time to win the game. It's more based on, there's the injury situation and knowing it's a long season and it's the freshman situation. It's really trying to steal some time, through timeouts, help them to continue to learn, help them to continue to get better coming off the bench.

"I didn't think the other day we were very good at all. Once we've gone to the bench and coming back, and certain guys were, but it wasn't where it needs to be. We're not playing nearly as fast as we're going to play when it comes to pressure. We have to get our half court defense solid and we're working towards that. Eventually we're going to play a lot faster with pressure and we're not very good at taking the ball out of bounds yet and getting up the court, that's something we haven't spent enough time on and we will. There's a lot of room for growth in all of those areas, managing minutes of young guys is a huge part of that when you have such a long season."

On Jim Harbaugh being in town with the Michigan Football team playing at Indiana on Saturday:
"Well, our house will be full. I think it's fantastic, I love Jim. Jim and John treat me like their brother, they always have. We're almost 25 years in right now as far as me knowing them.

"I don't know, I think a lot of it will depend on his schedule. I know his family will be there, there will be friends of the family that will be there. If he's there, that's great and if he wants to sit on the bench like he did before, he can do that. If he wants to sit behind the bench or at the scorers table, whatever he wants and we look forward to seeing him. We'll have our competition, he'll have his competition and hopefully along the way there'll be time to see each other's families. I know Joanie and our kids will be able to see his wife and children so that will be nice."

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Max Bielfeldt

James Blackmon Jr.

Thomas Bryant

Kevin Yogi Ferrell

Robert Johnson

Troy Williams

Nick Zeisloft

Indiana University Athletics