Indiana University Athletics
Defensive Improvement Key During Winning Streak
1/22/2016 2:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Sam Beishuizen, IUHoosiers.com | Twitter
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana's winning formula added a sudden wrinkle in recent weeks.
Defense.
Indiana—the same Indiana team long praised for its explosive offense—is allowing a league-best 0.934 points per possession through six Big Ten games. In conference games alone, the Hoosiers have paired a top-ranked scoring offense with a scoring defense and defensive field goal percentage that both rank third among Big Ten teams.
It's a winning combination for the Hoosiers, who struggled to find a defensive identity early on in the season while suffering three non-conference losses. One they'll hope continues into Saturday's afternoon matchup against Northwestern.
"We're a lot clearer on what we want to do," fifth-year senior Max Bielfeldt said. "There was a little bit of uncertainty sometimes in practice. (The team) harped on the small things, playing defense as a unit, everyone being there for each other.
"I think we really kind of worked on that to a point where it's not getting talked about as much where we have that defensive liability. I think we just worked on it enough where we're starting to be the defensive team we want to be."
So what changed?
Nothing schematically, head coach Tom Crean said. The Hoosiers (16-3, 6-0) are still following the same fundamentals they had in place since the beginning of the season when the offense was forced to make up for defensive lapses.
The difference, Crean said, has been in the execution.
"We're not really teaching different things," Crean said. "We're so different because Thomas Bryant is different. There's a real commitment from the guys to get better, and the freshmen have really improved."
Bryant, Indiana's starting center, has helped alter shots in the post and take away lanes that teams like UNLV and Duke had previously took advantage of in handing IU losses earlier in the season. He's one of a few names Crean has brought up and praised for their all-around improvement in recent games, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.
And it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
James Blackmon Jr.'s season-ending knee injury took 15.8 points per game out of the starting lineup that Indiana would need to replace. At first, Crean said there may have been a few players eying making those points up themselves, but that wasn't going to be the right fix.
"It doesn't work that way," Crean said. "It's got to come from everybody."
Minutes have increased for junior guard Collin Hartman, now a regular starter, and freshmen forwards OG Anunoby and Juwan Morgan, who have both seen more opportunities in Big Ten play. Anunoby in particular has made a habit of turning defense into offense, creating easy scoring opportunities for himself and teammates on the other end.
"Last year, with all the guys that went down when I was as senior at Michigan, we saw that firsthand," Bielfeldt said of players stepping up. "You're going to get a chance. You've got to go in there and play like a veteran."
The tangible proof of improvement has been a welcome addition for the Hoosiers, but tougher tasks lie ahead. When February comes, Indiana will be tasked with slowing down upper-tier Big Ten offenses like Iowa, Purdue, Nebraska (again), and Maryland, among others.
But the change has been welcome for the Hoosiers.
The challenge lies in keeping it going.
"It's basically a mindset," senior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell said. "We've got to have the mindset of, 'Okay, we want to get a stop' and 'We want to hold them under a certain field goal percentage.' If we do that and get multiple stops in a row, that's what gets us going and gets our offense going."
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana's winning formula added a sudden wrinkle in recent weeks.
Defense.
Indiana—the same Indiana team long praised for its explosive offense—is allowing a league-best 0.934 points per possession through six Big Ten games. In conference games alone, the Hoosiers have paired a top-ranked scoring offense with a scoring defense and defensive field goal percentage that both rank third among Big Ten teams.
It's a winning combination for the Hoosiers, who struggled to find a defensive identity early on in the season while suffering three non-conference losses. One they'll hope continues into Saturday's afternoon matchup against Northwestern.
"We're a lot clearer on what we want to do," fifth-year senior Max Bielfeldt said. "There was a little bit of uncertainty sometimes in practice. (The team) harped on the small things, playing defense as a unit, everyone being there for each other.
"I think we really kind of worked on that to a point where it's not getting talked about as much where we have that defensive liability. I think we just worked on it enough where we're starting to be the defensive team we want to be."
So what changed?
Nothing schematically, head coach Tom Crean said. The Hoosiers (16-3, 6-0) are still following the same fundamentals they had in place since the beginning of the season when the offense was forced to make up for defensive lapses.
The difference, Crean said, has been in the execution.
"We're not really teaching different things," Crean said. "We're so different because Thomas Bryant is different. There's a real commitment from the guys to get better, and the freshmen have really improved."
Bryant, Indiana's starting center, has helped alter shots in the post and take away lanes that teams like UNLV and Duke had previously took advantage of in handing IU losses earlier in the season. He's one of a few names Crean has brought up and praised for their all-around improvement in recent games, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.
And it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
James Blackmon Jr.'s season-ending knee injury took 15.8 points per game out of the starting lineup that Indiana would need to replace. At first, Crean said there may have been a few players eying making those points up themselves, but that wasn't going to be the right fix.
"It doesn't work that way," Crean said. "It's got to come from everybody."
Minutes have increased for junior guard Collin Hartman, now a regular starter, and freshmen forwards OG Anunoby and Juwan Morgan, who have both seen more opportunities in Big Ten play. Anunoby in particular has made a habit of turning defense into offense, creating easy scoring opportunities for himself and teammates on the other end.
"Last year, with all the guys that went down when I was as senior at Michigan, we saw that firsthand," Bielfeldt said of players stepping up. "You're going to get a chance. You've got to go in there and play like a veteran."
The tangible proof of improvement has been a welcome addition for the Hoosiers, but tougher tasks lie ahead. When February comes, Indiana will be tasked with slowing down upper-tier Big Ten offenses like Iowa, Purdue, Nebraska (again), and Maryland, among others.
But the change has been welcome for the Hoosiers.
The challenge lies in keeping it going.
"It's basically a mindset," senior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell said. "We've got to have the mindset of, 'Okay, we want to get a stop' and 'We want to hold them under a certain field goal percentage.' If we do that and get multiple stops in a row, that's what gets us going and gets our offense going."
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