IU Looks To Return To Form Tonight

By: Sam Beishuizen, IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana returns to the mainland tonight looking to return to form against winless Alcorn State at 7 p.m. at Assembly Hall after finishing sixth in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational in Hawaii last week.

The Hoosiers (4-2) didn't hide the fact that they were disappointed in their performance in Maui. Indiana head coach Tom Crean and his players insist what went wrong in the holiday tournament can be correctable. With Alcorn State on tap tonight and a road game against Duke looming on Wednesday, IU is in a time crunch to get things fixed.

Above all else, junior forward Collin Hartman said Indiana needs to get back to playing like Indiana basketball tonight.

"We got away from being us," Hartman said of the Maui trip. "We didn't play like we've been practicing to this point. We feel like we let ourselves down and let the opportunity slip away. But all we can do now is work like we have in practice, and really lock into who we are, what we do and what gets us wins."

Crean agreed with Hartman, saying the Hoosiers didn't play like themselves last week whether it be turning the ball over too often, defensive breakdowns or the offense suddenly going cold at inopportune times.

Indiana returned to practice immediately Friday night and kept working through the weekend. The coaching staff put added emphasis on sharpening up fundamentally knowing they've seen the potential in this team already.

The challenge is getting back to it.

"It was so uncharacteristic of the way we practiced and it was certainly uncharacteristic of the way we played against Creighton and even Austin Peay," Crean said, referencing a pair of runaway wins before Maui. "We just made too many careless mistakes and so the biggest things we've got to do is we've got to play more fundamentally sound and that's a huge part of our turnover problem."

Limiting turnovers was one of the major focuses for Indiana in practice after Maui. After watching film, Crean said the turnovers were less a result of Indiana trying to play too quickly and more a product of too much recklessness with the ball.

"A lot of those turnovers, we went back and actually counted the majority of them were fundamental, base turnovers," sophomore guard Robert Johnson said. "So just going back and really staying solid and executing on passing and pivoting and things like that will cut down on a lot of turnovers."

Alcorn State has had to deal with its own struggles out of the gate. The Braves rank fourth from last in Ken Pomeroy's rankings with four double-digit losses on the season already. They looked better Saturday, losing to Florida A&M 73-71 in their closest contest to date.

Johnson described Alcorn State as a "scrappy team" on film. They rank in the upper third of the country in offensive rebound percentage and force turnovers on 18 percent of their defensive possessions

The Braves' opponents average just 13.8 seconds per offensive possession, which indicates tonight's game could go up-tempo quickly. Crean said a key to winning will be sticking to IU's own pace and fundamentals without letting the Braves have their way.

"They're going to want to get into a pace of the game and they're going to want it to be their pace," Crean said. "We've got to be sure that we can get to our pace."

Indiana University Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Collin Hartman

Robert Johnson

Related Videos