Indiana Team Report

GETTING INSIDE

   Suffice it to say that Indiana won’t have to endure another 6-25 season where a freshman walk-on needs to start 10 games and a team manager needs to see action near the end of the season. Not with three Top 100 recruits, three other strong freshmen and Georgetown transfer Jeremiah Rivers providing reinforcements for the Hurtin’ Hoosiers.

“We had games where the roof almost caved in on us and we might not have come back through it, but that never happened,” said coach Tom Crean.

Blessed with Top 100 recruits in forward Christian Watford, shooting guard Maurice Cheek and point guard Jordan Hulls, Indiana starts Crean’s second year in Bloomington with a significantly higher talent level. Then there’s the marked freshman-to-sophomore improvement that’s already evident in guys like point guard Verdell Jones III (11 points per game) and long-range shooter supreme Matt Roth (6.7 ppg, 53 3-pointers).

But in the year after the Big Ten sent seven teams to the NCAA Tournament—and none of them expect to take a step back—and NIT champ Penn State as well as Northwestern believe themselves to be NCAA contenders, it’s still not the best time to be rebuilding from the ravages of NCAA probation. Senior guard Devan Dumes (12.6 ppg) and Rivers, a junior who sat out last year to fulfill the transfer rule, are the only upperclassmen who figure to make an impact this year. The rest will be up to the youngsters.

“They are all impressive to me in the sense that they are better,” Crean said on Indystar.com. “But I would say (of) the significant improvements of the returners, I would have to go with Verdell and Matt Roth.”

Dumes and Rivers and Jones and Roth and Cheek and Hulls give the Hoosiers the makings of a solid and deep backcourt.

“I’m very optimistic about that because I think we will have depth at that position,” Crean said. “But you really don’t have true depth unless you have real consistency.”

And that, as coaches throughout time have discovered, only comes through experience.

NOTES, QUOTES

  —Sophomore power forward Tom Pritchard, the only Hoosier to start all 31 games last year, is also the only returning post player with significant experience. Though that all but assures Pritchard a job this winter, especially after delivering 9.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, that doesn’t stop coach Tom Crean from hassling the lefthander about his over-reliance on his dominant hand. When Crean met with the IU student body in late September, these were among his words of advice:

“Please make him shake your hand with his right hand because he doesn’t use his right hand when I’m around,” Crean said according to the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. “For him to take that next step, he needs to use his right hand. I say that to him every day.”

• Junior guard Jeremiah Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, spent his transfer year gaining strength. He’s now listed as 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds. “I think he is definitely rapidly improving,” Crean said. “He is stronger. His athleticism has come out at Indiana.” Rivers figures to be a key contributor from the jump.

• Indiana’s 6-25 season (the worst in school history) also featured some of the most painful offensive struggling in IU annals. During the Hoosiers’ season-ending 10-game losing streak, they scored more than 61 points just one time. They averaged 55.9 points during that stretch.

   LAST YEAR: 6-25 overall, 1-17 in the Big Ten; lost in first round of the Big Ten tournament.

   HEAD COACH: Tom Crean (career 196-121); 2nd year at Indiana (6-25).

   QUOTE TO NOTE: “One of the greatest stories ever to hit sports will be the comeback of Indiana basketball.”—Indiana coach Tom Crean speaking to students on the school’s campus on Sept. 23.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

   SCOUTING THE NEWCOMERS: Indiana is integrating six freshmen and Georgetown transfer Jeremiah Rivers into a team that retained four of its top five scorers from last year. According to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, SF Christian Watford (No. 45 RSCI), SG Maurice Creek (No. 58) and PG Jordan Hulls (No. 74) are the best prospects of the bunch. The 6-foot-8, 215-pound Watford, in particular, has the versatility and athleticism necessary to fit in wherever the Hoosiers need him.

   KEY EARLY-SEASON GAMES: The Hoosiers didn’t go quite as crazy as last year, but they’re not dodging many bullets either. The meat of their preseason slate starts on Nov. 19 when they face Mississippi in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico tipoff. IU could play Kansas State in the second round and either Villanova, Dayton or Georgia Tech on the final day. Then there’s a visit from Maryland (Dec. 1), a game with Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden (Dec. 8) and a visit from Kentucky (Dec. 12).

   PROGRAM DIRECTION: After running afoul of the NCAA during Kelvin Sampson’s brief era, the Hoosiers went from perennial NCAA Tournament appearances to a season in peril. Last year’s 6-win season won’t be repeated this year, though those expecting an immediate return to the NCAA scene must be more patient.

   PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP: PG Verdell Jones III, SG Devan Dumes, G Jeremiah Rivers, SF Christian Watford, PF Tom Pritchard.

   ROSTER REPORT:

   —SG Devan Dumes, the team’s leading scorer last year at 12.6 points per game, underwent offseason knee surgery and missed a good chunk of summer play, but he’ll be ready to go when the season begins.

• PG Verdell Jones III (shoulder) and G Jeremiah Rivers (thigh) suffered minor injuries during preseason conditioning and workouts, but nothing severe enough to keep them off the court for a significant length of time.

• Jones and SG Matt Roth, the sophomore guards who combined to average nearly 50 minutes per game last year, each have gained 20 pounds according to coach Tom Crean.

• C Bawa Muniru has been waiting to get through the NCAA Clearinghouse. According to Crean, the Ghana native has nothing left but to get the thumbs-up. In the meantime, he gets to do everything with the team except practice.