Indiana University Athletics
Morgan Does More Than Score
11/20/2017 9:51:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana - Coach Archie Miller wasn't about to throw in the towel.
(Not on purpose, anyhow.)
Neither was Juwan Morgan.
And, sure, junior forward Morgan scored 10 of Indiana's first 14 points after halftime Sunday to help the host Hoosiers rally past South Florida, 70-53.
But what really got the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall crowd and his Hoosier teammates going were Morgan's hustle plays.
"I thought Juwan brought the crowd into the game," Miller said afterward, "with his effort."
To wit:
The game was 39-39 when Morgan drew cheers with a big block, then had a personal offensive-rebound flurry at the other end to draw a foul and sink two free throws to give his club its first lead of the period.
After two more Morgan free throws forged a 43-43 tie, he then made a steal and a driving layup to give his team the lead for good with 12:18 left.
Another Morgan offensive board drew the foul that got IU into the bonus at the 11:32 mark. Then he picked up his third personal in productive fashion, preventing a dunk by USF's Tulio DaSilva at the other end.
Morgan exited with 10:14 left to an appreciative ovation. He returned to help put the Bulls away down the stretch.
A ferocious Morgan block of a Stephan Jiggetts layup attempt led to a Robert Johnson layup to make it 60-47 at the 4:50 mark.
And if Johnson's left-wing 3 was probably the dagger with 2:46 left, bumping the bulge to 65-51, further catharsis was served up to the home folks at the 0:54.3 mark as Johnson fed Morgan for a massive two-hand slam.
That hoop left Morgan with 15 points. And when he snagged the game's final rebound at the defensive end, that gave him 10 boards for the second double-double of his career (the first coming last season against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville).
Morgan also tied a career-high with four shot-blocks. And supplied innumerable instances where he was in the right place doing the right thing.
"Juwan Morgan was a key player on that team," USF coach Brian Gregory, Miller's predecessor at Dayton, said post-game. "They don't run one play for him. Not one. All he does is set ball-screens and roll.
"But, you know, he gets a double-double tonight. He plays so hard and he's accepted that role. And, you know what? He's going to make a lot of money doing that role because there's not a lot of guys who will play that hard and do those things."
Johnson – also terrific on both ends for the Hoosiers while scoring a game-high 21 points – was also appreciative.
"I think everybody pretty much rallied around his energy and his effort," Johnson said of Morgan. "I think once we built on that, it was good for us."
Miller concurred.
"I thought Juwan Morgan basically jump-started the team in that second half," Miller said. "He played extremely hard. His work on the glass was great. He gave us confidence."
Miller has developed a good reputation for, among many other things, developing tough-minded defensive teams. Morgan seems a ready ally in that regard.
"Because I just like to let my offense come through offensive rebounds and things like that, I think I just take more pride in the defensive side," Morgan said. "If I can get us a stop and somebody then goes down and hits a big 3 for us, I'm just as happy with that as getting a 3 myself.
"It was just coming together on the defensive end (tonight). That's where we got out in transition, and it makes offense so much easier, when you're going 3-on-2 and 2-on-1. We just had to get the stops on defense. We knew the offense would come with that. We could leak out (in transition)."
The Hoosiers were certainly more efficient when they had the ball after halftime. They had 10 turnovers at intermission but just three afterward.
"I think that just goes with trying to hit singles rather than home runs," Morgan said. "… In the second half, we let the play develop more."
But perhaps even more telling was holding South Florida to just 19 second-half points. And Morgan was catalytic.
"He was fantastic," Miller said. "It wasn't about shooting 3s. It was about playing hard. I thought he played extremely hard on both ends of the floor. The offensive rebounding was unbelievable effort. And the 10 free throw attempts kind of show the aggressiveness he played with tonight. Just happy for him. I thought he really played well."
Miller was less happy when he flapped a towel in frustration as a loose ball wasn't corralled in the first half, inadvertently sending both the towel and his play-card onto the court and compelling a technical foul call from the officials.
"I didn't really want a technical foul," Miller recalled. "I was clearly ticked-off we didn't get a loose-ball rebound. But I'll take that technical foul."
Because the exhibition of emotion drew a positive response from the crowd. They liked to see some fight from their coach and their team, still working through the transition of a new staff working on a new approach with new players.
And they applauded again as Morgan took a towel as he came to the bench after having ignited the decisive 29-10 stretch run.
"I told Juwan that if he continues to play like that," Miller said, "he's got good days ahead of him."
And that would help prompt more good days ahead for IU.
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana - Coach Archie Miller wasn't about to throw in the towel.
(Not on purpose, anyhow.)
Neither was Juwan Morgan.
And, sure, junior forward Morgan scored 10 of Indiana's first 14 points after halftime Sunday to help the host Hoosiers rally past South Florida, 70-53.
But what really got the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall crowd and his Hoosier teammates going were Morgan's hustle plays.
"I thought Juwan brought the crowd into the game," Miller said afterward, "with his effort."
To wit:
The game was 39-39 when Morgan drew cheers with a big block, then had a personal offensive-rebound flurry at the other end to draw a foul and sink two free throws to give his club its first lead of the period.
After two more Morgan free throws forged a 43-43 tie, he then made a steal and a driving layup to give his team the lead for good with 12:18 left.
Another Morgan offensive board drew the foul that got IU into the bonus at the 11:32 mark. Then he picked up his third personal in productive fashion, preventing a dunk by USF's Tulio DaSilva at the other end.
Morgan exited with 10:14 left to an appreciative ovation. He returned to help put the Bulls away down the stretch.
A ferocious Morgan block of a Stephan Jiggetts layup attempt led to a Robert Johnson layup to make it 60-47 at the 4:50 mark.
And if Johnson's left-wing 3 was probably the dagger with 2:46 left, bumping the bulge to 65-51, further catharsis was served up to the home folks at the 0:54.3 mark as Johnson fed Morgan for a massive two-hand slam.
That hoop left Morgan with 15 points. And when he snagged the game's final rebound at the defensive end, that gave him 10 boards for the second double-double of his career (the first coming last season against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville).
Morgan also tied a career-high with four shot-blocks. And supplied innumerable instances where he was in the right place doing the right thing.
"Juwan Morgan was a key player on that team," USF coach Brian Gregory, Miller's predecessor at Dayton, said post-game. "They don't run one play for him. Not one. All he does is set ball-screens and roll.
"But, you know, he gets a double-double tonight. He plays so hard and he's accepted that role. And, you know what? He's going to make a lot of money doing that role because there's not a lot of guys who will play that hard and do those things."
Johnson – also terrific on both ends for the Hoosiers while scoring a game-high 21 points – was also appreciative.
"I think everybody pretty much rallied around his energy and his effort," Johnson said of Morgan. "I think once we built on that, it was good for us."
Miller concurred.
"I thought Juwan Morgan basically jump-started the team in that second half," Miller said. "He played extremely hard. His work on the glass was great. He gave us confidence."
Miller has developed a good reputation for, among many other things, developing tough-minded defensive teams. Morgan seems a ready ally in that regard.
"Because I just like to let my offense come through offensive rebounds and things like that, I think I just take more pride in the defensive side," Morgan said. "If I can get us a stop and somebody then goes down and hits a big 3 for us, I'm just as happy with that as getting a 3 myself.
"It was just coming together on the defensive end (tonight). That's where we got out in transition, and it makes offense so much easier, when you're going 3-on-2 and 2-on-1. We just had to get the stops on defense. We knew the offense would come with that. We could leak out (in transition)."
The Hoosiers were certainly more efficient when they had the ball after halftime. They had 10 turnovers at intermission but just three afterward.
"I think that just goes with trying to hit singles rather than home runs," Morgan said. "… In the second half, we let the play develop more."
But perhaps even more telling was holding South Florida to just 19 second-half points. And Morgan was catalytic.
"He was fantastic," Miller said. "It wasn't about shooting 3s. It was about playing hard. I thought he played extremely hard on both ends of the floor. The offensive rebounding was unbelievable effort. And the 10 free throw attempts kind of show the aggressiveness he played with tonight. Just happy for him. I thought he really played well."
Miller was less happy when he flapped a towel in frustration as a loose ball wasn't corralled in the first half, inadvertently sending both the towel and his play-card onto the court and compelling a technical foul call from the officials.
"I didn't really want a technical foul," Miller recalled. "I was clearly ticked-off we didn't get a loose-ball rebound. But I'll take that technical foul."
Because the exhibition of emotion drew a positive response from the crowd. They liked to see some fight from their coach and their team, still working through the transition of a new staff working on a new approach with new players.
And they applauded again as Morgan took a towel as he came to the bench after having ignited the decisive 29-10 stretch run.
"I told Juwan that if he continues to play like that," Miller said, "he's got good days ahead of him."
And that would help prompt more good days ahead for IU.
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