Indiana University Athletics
GRAHAM: Hoosiers Look To Navigate Rough Michigan Waters
1/5/2019 4:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Maybe it's exaggerating to call it the basketball equivalent of the Bataan Death March.
Then again, maybe not.
Indiana starts a Big Ten sequence of six road games in eight outings leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, with Sunday's 4:30 p.m. tipoff at unbeaten and No. 2-ranked Michigan.
That is followed by dates at Maryland, versus Nebraska, at Purdue, at Northwestern, versus Michigan, at Rutgers and at Michigan State.
And that means seven out of eight games against teams currently rated among the Top 51 teams nationally by KenPom.
IU then gets to play six of its final conference games at home.
If it survives January.
"Yeah, well, the conference grind is officially here," Indiana coach Archie Miller said before the Hoosiers posted a grueling 73-63 homecourt win Thursday over Illinois. "And I think that our league did a tremendous job in the non-conference, from top to bottom.
"The league is as deep as any in the country, and I think you're going to see, every night, very highly-contested games. Whether it's home or away. And there's very, very little separation between any team. It's going to be very, very interesting to see the ups and the downs, who can handle success and, obviously, who can handle the adversity, because there's going to be a lot of rough waters."
Continuing that metaphor, foes going into Michigan so far this season has amounted to going over Niagara Falls. Bereft of barrel.
Michigan has wiped out visitors at the Crisler Center by 18 points per game, including an 84-67 romp over North Carolina during Big Ten/ACC Challenge play and a 76-57 pounding of Purdue.
(It really hasn't affected Michigan much to play away from home, either, actually. Consider, for example, its 73-46 road rout of defending national champ Villanova.)
"They've had a fantastic non-conference," Miller said of the 14-0 Wolverines who, like the 12-2 Hoosiers, are 3-0 in league play. "They're elite defensively, and, offensively, they're skilled and play with great spacing, like they always do. And they have a way about them right now, a confidence, a swagger, that they can beat you with both sides of the ball.
"I think that's what really, really I admired about their team last year, when they went on that great run (to the NCAA final), how they kind of just morphed into this tough-minded, really, really sticky defensive team that also has great spacing and great players on offense."
Michigan's scoring, as is the case with Romeo Langford at Indiana, is led by a freshman.
Ignas "Iggy" Brazdeikis, a versatile 6-foot-7 Lithuanian by way of Ontario, is averaging 16.4 points for the Wolverines, who also have 6-6 senior Charles Matthews (13.9) and 6-5 sophomore Jordan Poole (13.8) averaging in double-figures.
Poole has scored in double-figures for nine straight games. He and Matthews were standouts during last year's Final Four run.
So was junior point guard Zavier Simpson. Simpson hasn't shot particularly well this season, but he is still the Wolverine catalyst with 86 assists against just 27 turnovers (a 6.1-to-1.9 ratio). He also keys the defense and has a team-high 21 steals.
"I've always said, as I watched them, Zavier Simpson is the MVP of that team," Miller said. "He's unbelievable on defense, and he's unbelievably efficient for them on offense in terms of how he attacks the basket and gets guys involved."
Indiana has played its last two games without its starting point guard, freshman Rob Phinisee, who remains sidelined in concussion protocol.
"We'll plan to move forward without him here for the foreseeable future," Miller said of Phinisee, "and we've got to have next man up, like we've been all year.
"It's been a difficult (situation) … because you're disappointed that you don't have the ability to really have all your troops together at the same time. Got to put that by you, obviously, and go with what you have, which is what we've done all year."
While the lineup of Brazdeikis, Matthews, Poole, Simpson and 7-1 junior center Jon Teske has started all 14 games for Michigan, IU has dealt with a rash of injuries affecting its starting lineup and overall rotation.
Phinisee, senior co-captain Zach McRoberts, Devonte Green, Al Durham and De'Ron Davis have all missed one or more games. Redshirt freshman Race Thompson played just one game before sustaining a concussion that has sidelined him ever since, and true freshman Jerome Hunter, now recovering from surgery, has been unavailable all season.
But 6-8 senior frontliner Juwan Morgan (averaging 16.1 points, 7.8 rebounds), 6-6 guard Langford (18.3, 5.7) and 6-7 sophomore Justin Smith (8.7. 3.8) have proven Hoosier stalwarts in starting all 14 games. Morgan and Langford are both listed among the 50 candidates for the 2019 Naismith Trophy, as is Michigan's Matthews.
And the Hoosiers have repeatedly found ways to win competitive games, injuries or not. Indiana is 4-1 in games decided by three points or less, with the lone loss just a tip-in away from victory at Arkansas.
"I think winning close games like that just builds toughness moving forward, being in those situations," grad-transfer Evan Fitzner noted this week. "It's something you can't really simulate in practice, so I think it's good when we've been in so many of those close games. Just to have that experience moving forward will help us down the road in Big Ten, and then hopefully in March, too."
Morgan, veteran of the Big Ten wars, concurred.
"Yeah, just echoing off Evan, it just builds character for us going forward because a lot of the games are going to end up being close," Morgan said. "It just is what it is; the Big Ten is just great from top to bottom this year, and so just having those under our belt already, we know how to operate in those situations."
But Morgan knows what sort of challenge Sunday and ensuing games constitute. And he's tried to convey that to his freshmen teammates.
"I'd say it's going to be the hardest stretch of basketball they're going to have to play," Morgan said. "It's going to be just as mental as it is physical, each and every game. It'll never be easy. I told them don't expect anything to really just come to you. You've got to go and take it."
IU will have to play one of its best floor games to take a win from Michigan.
The Wolverines average just 9.64 turnovers per game, sixth nationally, compared to Indiana's 14.6, 254th nationally. And the Hoosiers will be without Phinisee, whose 42-20 assist-to-turnover ratio is by far the best among Indiana's regulars.
Michigan also is in the nation's top 20 of field goal-percentage defense (.387) and does so without fouling, incurring just 13.9 calls per game, first nationally.
"It will be definitely a difficult game," Morgan said after the Illinois win of Sunday's assignment. "It's not easy going to Ann Arbor. I don't think I've won against Michigan since my freshman year with Yogi (Ferrell), and that was the 28-0 run (by the Hoosiers during the game). I know they still remember that.
"Going in there, it will be a dogfight for sure, and just like today we had to anchor down on the defensive end. And we know Michigan is a great defensive team, so we have to really run our stuff and be crisp on that end."
The Hoosiers – whose defense forced six shot-clock violations by Illinois – have shown they can play defense, too.
But Sunday poses a more severe test. And the last time Indiana played a team ranked in the nation's top three on the road, Nov. 27 at Duke, things didn't go well for the Hoosiers.
How much has IU improved since then? Enough to have won seven straight games, with Butler, Louisville and three Big Ten foes among the victims.
Michigan, which has won 28 of its last 29 games going back to last season, already looks like the sort of title contender it morphed into a year ago.
"You know, clearly they've earned every bit of their accolades from the start of the season to where they're at," Miller said of the Wolverines, "and they're positioned clearly to have another great season."
If the Hoosiers pull off a win Sunday, even facing the pending January gauntlet, the same might be said of them.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Maybe it's exaggerating to call it the basketball equivalent of the Bataan Death March.
Then again, maybe not.
Indiana starts a Big Ten sequence of six road games in eight outings leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, with Sunday's 4:30 p.m. tipoff at unbeaten and No. 2-ranked Michigan.
That is followed by dates at Maryland, versus Nebraska, at Purdue, at Northwestern, versus Michigan, at Rutgers and at Michigan State.
And that means seven out of eight games against teams currently rated among the Top 51 teams nationally by KenPom.
IU then gets to play six of its final conference games at home.
If it survives January.
"Yeah, well, the conference grind is officially here," Indiana coach Archie Miller said before the Hoosiers posted a grueling 73-63 homecourt win Thursday over Illinois. "And I think that our league did a tremendous job in the non-conference, from top to bottom.
"The league is as deep as any in the country, and I think you're going to see, every night, very highly-contested games. Whether it's home or away. And there's very, very little separation between any team. It's going to be very, very interesting to see the ups and the downs, who can handle success and, obviously, who can handle the adversity, because there's going to be a lot of rough waters."
Continuing that metaphor, foes going into Michigan so far this season has amounted to going over Niagara Falls. Bereft of barrel.
Michigan has wiped out visitors at the Crisler Center by 18 points per game, including an 84-67 romp over North Carolina during Big Ten/ACC Challenge play and a 76-57 pounding of Purdue.
(It really hasn't affected Michigan much to play away from home, either, actually. Consider, for example, its 73-46 road rout of defending national champ Villanova.)
"They've had a fantastic non-conference," Miller said of the 14-0 Wolverines who, like the 12-2 Hoosiers, are 3-0 in league play. "They're elite defensively, and, offensively, they're skilled and play with great spacing, like they always do. And they have a way about them right now, a confidence, a swagger, that they can beat you with both sides of the ball.
"I think that's what really, really I admired about their team last year, when they went on that great run (to the NCAA final), how they kind of just morphed into this tough-minded, really, really sticky defensive team that also has great spacing and great players on offense."
Michigan's scoring, as is the case with Romeo Langford at Indiana, is led by a freshman.
Ignas "Iggy" Brazdeikis, a versatile 6-foot-7 Lithuanian by way of Ontario, is averaging 16.4 points for the Wolverines, who also have 6-6 senior Charles Matthews (13.9) and 6-5 sophomore Jordan Poole (13.8) averaging in double-figures.
Poole has scored in double-figures for nine straight games. He and Matthews were standouts during last year's Final Four run.
So was junior point guard Zavier Simpson. Simpson hasn't shot particularly well this season, but he is still the Wolverine catalyst with 86 assists against just 27 turnovers (a 6.1-to-1.9 ratio). He also keys the defense and has a team-high 21 steals.
"I've always said, as I watched them, Zavier Simpson is the MVP of that team," Miller said. "He's unbelievable on defense, and he's unbelievably efficient for them on offense in terms of how he attacks the basket and gets guys involved."
Indiana has played its last two games without its starting point guard, freshman Rob Phinisee, who remains sidelined in concussion protocol.
"We'll plan to move forward without him here for the foreseeable future," Miller said of Phinisee, "and we've got to have next man up, like we've been all year.
"It's been a difficult (situation) … because you're disappointed that you don't have the ability to really have all your troops together at the same time. Got to put that by you, obviously, and go with what you have, which is what we've done all year."
While the lineup of Brazdeikis, Matthews, Poole, Simpson and 7-1 junior center Jon Teske has started all 14 games for Michigan, IU has dealt with a rash of injuries affecting its starting lineup and overall rotation.
Phinisee, senior co-captain Zach McRoberts, Devonte Green, Al Durham and De'Ron Davis have all missed one or more games. Redshirt freshman Race Thompson played just one game before sustaining a concussion that has sidelined him ever since, and true freshman Jerome Hunter, now recovering from surgery, has been unavailable all season.
But 6-8 senior frontliner Juwan Morgan (averaging 16.1 points, 7.8 rebounds), 6-6 guard Langford (18.3, 5.7) and 6-7 sophomore Justin Smith (8.7. 3.8) have proven Hoosier stalwarts in starting all 14 games. Morgan and Langford are both listed among the 50 candidates for the 2019 Naismith Trophy, as is Michigan's Matthews.
And the Hoosiers have repeatedly found ways to win competitive games, injuries or not. Indiana is 4-1 in games decided by three points or less, with the lone loss just a tip-in away from victory at Arkansas.
"I think winning close games like that just builds toughness moving forward, being in those situations," grad-transfer Evan Fitzner noted this week. "It's something you can't really simulate in practice, so I think it's good when we've been in so many of those close games. Just to have that experience moving forward will help us down the road in Big Ten, and then hopefully in March, too."
Morgan, veteran of the Big Ten wars, concurred.
"Yeah, just echoing off Evan, it just builds character for us going forward because a lot of the games are going to end up being close," Morgan said. "It just is what it is; the Big Ten is just great from top to bottom this year, and so just having those under our belt already, we know how to operate in those situations."
But Morgan knows what sort of challenge Sunday and ensuing games constitute. And he's tried to convey that to his freshmen teammates.
"I'd say it's going to be the hardest stretch of basketball they're going to have to play," Morgan said. "It's going to be just as mental as it is physical, each and every game. It'll never be easy. I told them don't expect anything to really just come to you. You've got to go and take it."
IU will have to play one of its best floor games to take a win from Michigan.
The Wolverines average just 9.64 turnovers per game, sixth nationally, compared to Indiana's 14.6, 254th nationally. And the Hoosiers will be without Phinisee, whose 42-20 assist-to-turnover ratio is by far the best among Indiana's regulars.
Michigan also is in the nation's top 20 of field goal-percentage defense (.387) and does so without fouling, incurring just 13.9 calls per game, first nationally.
"It will be definitely a difficult game," Morgan said after the Illinois win of Sunday's assignment. "It's not easy going to Ann Arbor. I don't think I've won against Michigan since my freshman year with Yogi (Ferrell), and that was the 28-0 run (by the Hoosiers during the game). I know they still remember that.
"Going in there, it will be a dogfight for sure, and just like today we had to anchor down on the defensive end. And we know Michigan is a great defensive team, so we have to really run our stuff and be crisp on that end."
The Hoosiers – whose defense forced six shot-clock violations by Illinois – have shown they can play defense, too.
But Sunday poses a more severe test. And the last time Indiana played a team ranked in the nation's top three on the road, Nov. 27 at Duke, things didn't go well for the Hoosiers.
How much has IU improved since then? Enough to have won seven straight games, with Butler, Louisville and three Big Ten foes among the victims.
Michigan, which has won 28 of its last 29 games going back to last season, already looks like the sort of title contender it morphed into a year ago.
"You know, clearly they've earned every bit of their accolades from the start of the season to where they're at," Miller said of the Wolverines, "and they're positioned clearly to have another great season."
If the Hoosiers pull off a win Sunday, even facing the pending January gauntlet, the same might be said of them.
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