Big-Boy Basketball Pending for IU

By: Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana men's basketball certainly aspires to Top 25 status this season.

Marquette is already there.

Coach Steve Wojciechowski's Golden Eagles bring a 3-0 record and the nation's No. 24 ranking into IU's Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for tonight's 8:30 p.m. tipoff.

The matchup is part of the Gavitt Games series pitting the Big East against the Big Ten, and Marquette was the preseason pick to finish second in the Big East by the league's coaches – behind only defending NCAA champion Villanova.

And Indiana's improved pack-line defense is about to get truly tested for the first time this season.

"Marquette is as good of an offensive team as you'll see," IU coach Archie Miller said Monday. "Challenge you in a lot of different ways with their shooting and their pace.

"Markus Howard is, if not the premier scoring guard in the country, he's going to be up there by the end of the season. And they have a slew of wings and just size. And they can come at you with a couple different lineups that really cause problems. It will be a big test for us … especially for our young guys."

Junior guard Howard, son of IU running back Chuck Howard (who played for coaches Sam Wyche and Bill Mallory in 1983 and '84), is averaging 26 points, eight rebounds and six assists per game. And he's coming off a 37-point night (hitting 7 of 10 3-pointers) against Bethune-Cookman.

Howard nuked Providence with 52 points last January. He can hit step-back 3s and, if defenders crowd to take that away, he can drive around them. He was named one of the nation's top 12 players by the AP in preseason polling.

"It's always a team approach (defensively) but, individually when you're matched up on him, that's a tough deal," Miller said of Howard. "You're going to have to be willing to understand he's going to make some tough ones.

"He's got a live dribble. He's got the ultimate green light. He's not going to stop attacking. He's a 40-minute guy, and you just have to be really tough-minded. As we head into this one, all of our perimeter guys are going to have to do a good job, but as a team we're going to have to really be aware where he's at and what he's doing … and understanding that, yeah, he's going to get some, but we've got to make it hard on him."

But Howard is hardly the only Golden Eagle the Hoosiers have to worry about, because Marquette deploys multiple proven shooters in its up-tempo approach and "four out-one in" set, the sort favored by the NBA-champion Golden State Warriors.

And just as the Hoosiers have a natural guard-frontliner offensive punch in senior Juwan Morgan and freshman Romeo Langford, Howard is complemented by 6-foot-8 junior Sam Hauser, who enters averaging 12.5 points, 6.0 boards and 2.5 assists.

Hauser's brother Joey, a 6-9 redshirt-freshman, was ranked the 52^nd best recruit nationally by 247 Sports, has now joined the fray and averages 8.5 points and 7.0 rebounds off the bench. Both brothers can hit 3s.

"They're both very skilled big guys," noted IU 6-10 grad-transfer Evan Fitzner, himself a fine outside shooter. "I played against some guys like that in the past (at St. Mary's). You kind of have to guard them a little differently, a guy like that. Your help-side defense probably changes a little – you can't help off as much. So it's a different game plan guarding guys like that.

"I think the big (comparison) that stands out to me was Kyle Wilcher, who (graduated) at Kentucky but who I played multiple times when he was at Gonzaga. Just a big guy who has a well-rounded game … you're guarding a four man who can space the floor. It takes a different approach."

Indiana (2-0) held its first two foes, Chicago State and Montana State, to combined .287 shooting from the field, including just .170 from 3-point range (8 of 47). But Marquette constitutes and entirely different challenge.

"They're very good in transition, and they can really shoot the 3," Miller sai of the Golden Eagles. "Marcus himself made over 100 last year, (shooting them) at over 40 percent. Sam Hauser made close to 100 at almost 50 percent, at 6-8. They bring in his younger brother Joey, who's tremendously skilled in the front line, and then I think (6-7 soph Jamal) Cain shot over 40 percent. So they're a prolific shooting team."

Indiana has shot it well this season, too, but mainly in the paint. The Hoosiers have shot a robust .563 from the field thus far, but just .310 from 3-point range (13 of 42) and an abysmal .558 from the free throw stripe.

The Hoosiers have four players averaging double figure scoring – Langford (15.5), sophomore forward Justin Smith (13.0), Morgan (11.5, with 9.5 boards) and Fitzner (10.0) – and with freshman point guard Rob Phinisee close at 9.0.

Phinisee's emergence at the point (with junior guard Devonte Green hampered by a thigh bruise as one of several banged-up Hoosiers) is one of the bright spots in the early going for IU.

"Rob has been doing a nice job." Miller said of Phinisee. "He's gaining confidence, I think, with every opportunity. Like all freshmen, he's going to have those ups and downs and some plays that are good and some plays that are bad, but Rob has been very solid.

"I wouldn't say he's been a pleasant surprise (because) we have confidence in him. I think he has confidence in himself. His teammates have confidence in him. It's a great opportunity for him on Wednesday to continue to build on it."

Miller said Green and starting senior winger Zach McRoberts, who exited the Montana State game last Friday with a sore back, are "game-time decisions" regarding availability against Marquette.

Davis' minutes are still limited after his rehabilitation of an Achilles injury sustained in January. IU redshirt-freshman forward Race Thompson has concussion symptoms and freshman winger Jerome Hunter remains sidelined indefinitely with an as-yet-undiagnosed leg condition.

"There have been no definitive answers yet," Miller said of Hunter's situation, "but he's going to be out an indefinite period of time, and we're hopeful here in the next 24 to 48 hours we can get a little bit more clarity.

"We're banged up in general right now, so it's going to put pressure on everyone."

But pressure of the sort IU will face against Marquette – and then with Sunday's true road game at Arkansas, a famously tough place to play – is welcome. Consider the five-game stretch the Hoosiers will face at the end of the month and carrying into December:

At Duke; Northwestern; at Penn State; Louisville; Butler (at Indianapolis.)

And Indiana's newcomers are likely about to experience the Assembly Hall crowd at full-throat.

Asked after the Montana State game about the difference between hosting a Top 25 foe such as Marquette, Davis said: "This place explodes. This place is going to be loud."

Miller is anxious to see how his younger players react.

"How hard are we willing to play in front of a great crowd?" Miller said. "You've got some young guys in there for the first time with that high-major feeling with 17,000 people in there, and those guys are going to have to be -- third game in their college career, they're going to have to be more ready than we've ever asked (them) to be ready.

"We play against a couple unique styles this week, as well. That will help our guys experience those things down the line … you know, a true road game at Arkansas is going to be a really, really difficult environment. It's a difficult style to play against and prepare for. Early on, we're going to test our guys in terms of how we prepare, and what we have to improve on rapidly to be good."

And if IU improves rapidly, and manages to get wins Wednesday and Sunday, perhaps good enough to be in next week's To 25.

Indiana University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Evan Fitzner

Devonte Green

Jerome Hunter

Romeo Langford

Zach McRoberts

Juwan Morgan

Rob Phinisee

Justin Smith

Race Thompson

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