Indiana University Athletics
GRAHAM: Another Morgan Memory
3/10/2019 5:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The ceremony at the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall was to dedicate the first official state historical marker on the Indiana University campus.
It honored Bill Garrett, the capable and classy 1947 Mr. Basketball from Shelbyville who blew away the Big Ten basketball color barrier.
It was a sunny April afternoon in 2016. The basketball season was over. So I wasn't necessarily expecting to see current IU players at the ceremony.
But then I saw Juwan Morgan was in the crowd. Unofficially and unannounced.
I wasn't surprised. Because I had already learned that Morgan cares around the right things. And that he pays attention.
And when I saw him, I realized that here was the perfect guy – capable and classy – to be representative at that ceremony. He embodies what Bill Garrett was all about.
Great teammate. Leader. Smart. Tough. Aware. Terrific player. Better person. That's the consensus among those who know Morgan well.
Morgan had already gotten my attention and everybody else's at IU long before, very early into his Indiana basketball career.
Long before he hit his first 10 shots and capped his final regular-season Assembly Hall appearance with a massive two-hand slam off an alert tip from senior classmate Zach McRoberts with 1:40 left in Sunday's 86-73 Hoosier romp over Rutgers on Senior Day.
Just another item Morgan placed for permanent residency in my memory banks.
Morgan's freshman season, his left shoulder popped out of its socket. I remember the anguish on his face.
I also remember how he returned to play almost right away.
And I remember, even after a harness was rigged for Morgan to play with the bum shoulder, how it popped out again. And seeing the pain again. And seeing him return to play again. And again. And again. Four times in one seven-game stretch.
One might say Morgan kept shrugging off the injury, if shrugging hadn't been so painful.
Most of us lost count how many times that shoulder eventually popped out, and how many times Morgan dealt with that agony and came back to play for his team. Maybe Morgan knows. Enduring that sort of pain tends to get seared into one's synapses.
But there he still was, at the end of that season, as a key guy off the bench helping the Big Ten champion Hoosiers knock off Chattanooga and Kentucky for a Sweet Sixteen finish.
By that time it was already established that this scion of a proud military family was a warrior on the basketball battlefield. Even while wounded.
So many subsequent Morgan memories have now flood back into my brain that this column threatens to become tome-length. I'll restrict it to a few from the past couple of years.
At the 2017 Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis against Notre Dame, Morgan finished with a then-career-high 34 points, hitting 13 of 17 shots from the field, 8 of 11 free throws, and added 11 boards.
But the final numbers didn't tell the whole story, such as how well he contested Notre Dame pre-season All-American Bonzie Colson on both ends.
They don't really tell how, by sheer force of will, Morgan led IU to victory – scoring the last eight points in regulation and then eight more in OT, getting the go-ahead dunk off another alert hustle play by McRoberts.
Morgan found the Crossroads and Bankers Life Fieldhouse agreeable again this season when he hit 12 of 14 shots from the field (including 4 of 6 from 3-point range) and all seven of his free throws for a new career-high 35 points against Butler – and the Hoosiers needed all of that before Rob Phinisee's dramatic buzzer-beater won it.
This season, Morgan authored the second triple-double in Indiana history, the first in 47 years, with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists Dec. 22 against Jacksonville.
But perhaps a signature moment this year was Morgan's insanely great put-back to win the Michigan State game just over a week ago, when the Hoosiers were desperate to build momentum coming off a double-OT win over Wisconsin.
Morgan, despite drawing a foul from MSU's Xavier Tillman that had Morgan falling onto his backside, got his right hand of the rebound a Romeo Langford miss and somehow got the ball back up off glass and in.
And Morgan hit the ensuing free throw that proved decisive point in a 63-62 victory over the No. 6 Spartans that further fueled Indiana's late-season four-game winning surge.
It was an effort play that could have saved a season, literally, at least in the terms of making a coveted NCAA bid potentially viable.
And, goodness gracious, how many effort plays has Morgan made?
How many times has he reached deep to help his team overcome adversity and challenging circumstances?
Morgan has shepherded teammates through a coaching transition from Tom Crean to help lay the foundation for what I think can become an iconic tenure at Indiana for Archie Miller – even as he helped the Hoosiers through injuries and a brutal 1-12 Big Ten stretch this season.
"I think the one thing about Juwan, he's an adult," Miller said Sunday. "You know, I wasn't here before he got here, or in the recruiting process, but from very early on we dealt with a very mature guy. He's so coachable when it comes to asking him to do things that other guys don't want to do. He does it.
"He's become really, really a quality leader just because of how he operates and does his thing. For two years, we've pretty much put him in a position to be a lot of different things, but he pretty much stuffs the stat sheet as a player. There's nothing that he really can't do … he's just a consummate team guy. To me, he's one of the best players in the Big Ten in the last two years, and in our transition, he's given us a chance."
Morgan made sure Rutgers didn't have much of a chance to spoil Sunday's Senior Day.
Foul trouble reduced Morgan's minutes all day but he re-entered with 15:44 to play, after Rutgers had pulled back within 54-44,
Phinisee hit a 3 for IU off a Langford assist.
Then Morgan personally put things out of reach.
Morgan faced up and then moved to a left-handed finish, drawing a Myles Johnson foul, for a conventional 3-point play.
After a Shaquille Doorson bucket inside for Rutgers, Morgan struck again, this time scoring while drawing a foul on Doorson and again hitting the free throw for a 3-point play.
Then after an offensive rebound to keep the ensuring Hoosier possession alive, Morgan arose from the left wing to swish a 3 at the 12:34 mark.
Nine straight IU points by Morgan. Twenty point lead, 66-46. Ballgame.
That was Morgan's 10th made field goal in 10 attempts.
His final dunk off the McRoberts hustle play left Morgan with a game-high 25 points. He exited for the final time with 1:26 left to a standing ovation that lasted almost a minute. And the one the that greeted Morgan's subsequent Senior Day speech was about three times that long.
"It was great to see him finish the way he did, as well, to go out like that," Miller said. "He deserves it."
He most certainly does.
Morgan is one of just five players in the storied Hoosier history to cap a career in the program's all-time top 30 players in scoring, top 15 in rebounding and top 10 in shot-blocks. He joins Alan Henderson, D.J. White, Ray Tolbert and Eric Anderson. That is august company.
He is also one of 13 active players in the nation to have supplied at least 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists and 100 shot-blocks.
But it's the less quantifiable stuff that perhaps has mattered most.
And Waynesville, Mo., native Morgan has now taken up residence in Indiana hearts. Where Hoosier hoops heroes permanently reside.?
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The ceremony at the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall was to dedicate the first official state historical marker on the Indiana University campus.
It honored Bill Garrett, the capable and classy 1947 Mr. Basketball from Shelbyville who blew away the Big Ten basketball color barrier.
It was a sunny April afternoon in 2016. The basketball season was over. So I wasn't necessarily expecting to see current IU players at the ceremony.
But then I saw Juwan Morgan was in the crowd. Unofficially and unannounced.
I wasn't surprised. Because I had already learned that Morgan cares around the right things. And that he pays attention.
And when I saw him, I realized that here was the perfect guy – capable and classy – to be representative at that ceremony. He embodies what Bill Garrett was all about.
Great teammate. Leader. Smart. Tough. Aware. Terrific player. Better person. That's the consensus among those who know Morgan well.
Morgan had already gotten my attention and everybody else's at IU long before, very early into his Indiana basketball career.
Long before he hit his first 10 shots and capped his final regular-season Assembly Hall appearance with a massive two-hand slam off an alert tip from senior classmate Zach McRoberts with 1:40 left in Sunday's 86-73 Hoosier romp over Rutgers on Senior Day.
Just another item Morgan placed for permanent residency in my memory banks.
Morgan's freshman season, his left shoulder popped out of its socket. I remember the anguish on his face.
I also remember how he returned to play almost right away.
And I remember, even after a harness was rigged for Morgan to play with the bum shoulder, how it popped out again. And seeing the pain again. And seeing him return to play again. And again. And again. Four times in one seven-game stretch.
One might say Morgan kept shrugging off the injury, if shrugging hadn't been so painful.
Most of us lost count how many times that shoulder eventually popped out, and how many times Morgan dealt with that agony and came back to play for his team. Maybe Morgan knows. Enduring that sort of pain tends to get seared into one's synapses.
But there he still was, at the end of that season, as a key guy off the bench helping the Big Ten champion Hoosiers knock off Chattanooga and Kentucky for a Sweet Sixteen finish.
By that time it was already established that this scion of a proud military family was a warrior on the basketball battlefield. Even while wounded.
So many subsequent Morgan memories have now flood back into my brain that this column threatens to become tome-length. I'll restrict it to a few from the past couple of years.
At the 2017 Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis against Notre Dame, Morgan finished with a then-career-high 34 points, hitting 13 of 17 shots from the field, 8 of 11 free throws, and added 11 boards.
But the final numbers didn't tell the whole story, such as how well he contested Notre Dame pre-season All-American Bonzie Colson on both ends.
They don't really tell how, by sheer force of will, Morgan led IU to victory – scoring the last eight points in regulation and then eight more in OT, getting the go-ahead dunk off another alert hustle play by McRoberts.
Morgan found the Crossroads and Bankers Life Fieldhouse agreeable again this season when he hit 12 of 14 shots from the field (including 4 of 6 from 3-point range) and all seven of his free throws for a new career-high 35 points against Butler – and the Hoosiers needed all of that before Rob Phinisee's dramatic buzzer-beater won it.
This season, Morgan authored the second triple-double in Indiana history, the first in 47 years, with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists Dec. 22 against Jacksonville.
But perhaps a signature moment this year was Morgan's insanely great put-back to win the Michigan State game just over a week ago, when the Hoosiers were desperate to build momentum coming off a double-OT win over Wisconsin.
Morgan, despite drawing a foul from MSU's Xavier Tillman that had Morgan falling onto his backside, got his right hand of the rebound a Romeo Langford miss and somehow got the ball back up off glass and in.
And Morgan hit the ensuing free throw that proved decisive point in a 63-62 victory over the No. 6 Spartans that further fueled Indiana's late-season four-game winning surge.
It was an effort play that could have saved a season, literally, at least in the terms of making a coveted NCAA bid potentially viable.
And, goodness gracious, how many effort plays has Morgan made?
How many times has he reached deep to help his team overcome adversity and challenging circumstances?
Morgan has shepherded teammates through a coaching transition from Tom Crean to help lay the foundation for what I think can become an iconic tenure at Indiana for Archie Miller – even as he helped the Hoosiers through injuries and a brutal 1-12 Big Ten stretch this season.
"I think the one thing about Juwan, he's an adult," Miller said Sunday. "You know, I wasn't here before he got here, or in the recruiting process, but from very early on we dealt with a very mature guy. He's so coachable when it comes to asking him to do things that other guys don't want to do. He does it.
"He's become really, really a quality leader just because of how he operates and does his thing. For two years, we've pretty much put him in a position to be a lot of different things, but he pretty much stuffs the stat sheet as a player. There's nothing that he really can't do … he's just a consummate team guy. To me, he's one of the best players in the Big Ten in the last two years, and in our transition, he's given us a chance."
Morgan made sure Rutgers didn't have much of a chance to spoil Sunday's Senior Day.
Foul trouble reduced Morgan's minutes all day but he re-entered with 15:44 to play, after Rutgers had pulled back within 54-44,
Phinisee hit a 3 for IU off a Langford assist.
Then Morgan personally put things out of reach.
Morgan faced up and then moved to a left-handed finish, drawing a Myles Johnson foul, for a conventional 3-point play.
After a Shaquille Doorson bucket inside for Rutgers, Morgan struck again, this time scoring while drawing a foul on Doorson and again hitting the free throw for a 3-point play.
Then after an offensive rebound to keep the ensuring Hoosier possession alive, Morgan arose from the left wing to swish a 3 at the 12:34 mark.
Nine straight IU points by Morgan. Twenty point lead, 66-46. Ballgame.
That was Morgan's 10th made field goal in 10 attempts.
His final dunk off the McRoberts hustle play left Morgan with a game-high 25 points. He exited for the final time with 1:26 left to a standing ovation that lasted almost a minute. And the one the that greeted Morgan's subsequent Senior Day speech was about three times that long.
"It was great to see him finish the way he did, as well, to go out like that," Miller said. "He deserves it."
He most certainly does.
Morgan is one of just five players in the storied Hoosier history to cap a career in the program's all-time top 30 players in scoring, top 15 in rebounding and top 10 in shot-blocks. He joins Alan Henderson, D.J. White, Ray Tolbert and Eric Anderson. That is august company.
He is also one of 13 active players in the nation to have supplied at least 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists and 100 shot-blocks.
But it's the less quantifiable stuff that perhaps has mattered most.
And Waynesville, Mo., native Morgan has now taken up residence in Indiana hearts. Where Hoosier hoops heroes permanently reside.?
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