Getting to know all about you

Stark reality was being handed out like lollipops at Assembly Hall on Thursday.

As guards Jeremiah Rivers and Devan Dumes stood talking to the media in the southeast corner of Branch McCracken Court, focus sharpened on the predicament these Hoosiers are in, the one we all knew was coming.

Dumes and Rivers talked about their experiences bonding with the team, working with the coaches, learning about the tradition synonymous with basketball at IU. They both spoke like well-prepared new Hoosiers, freshmen ready to don the legendary candy stripes for pregame layup drills.

But they aren’t freshmen, they’re juniors. And while they are new, they’ll still have to be leaders, even though Rivers must sit out this season after transferring from Georgetown.

Dumes was candid when asked if he already felt like one of the veterans for the Hoosiers, heavy stuff for a kid just months removed from Vincennes.

“Pretty much,” Dumes said, stone-faced. “It’s going to be a tough task to go through, but everything is a challenge in life.”

A challenge this will be. With two returners, one senior and eight freshmen ready to rock the gym at Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 17, IU needs all the experience it can get, regardless of where it comes from.

Thursday, 2/3 of the Hoosiers’ junior class — all transfers — recognized the seriousness of their squad’s predicament. Dumes played it straight, saying the whole team — not just the freshmen, juniors, etc. — are “taking it in together.”

“It might seem like that on the outside, but on the inside we are still a family, whether you’re a freshman or not,” Dumes said. “We just have to gel quicker than others.”

The Hoosiers got their first chance at full-team work Wednesday, when Rivers said they came together with the coaches and worked on a variety of things, position-by-position.

“We are trying to feel each other out and get ready,” said the eldest son of NBA Champion coach Doc Rivers. “Trying to understand how we’re going to play together, what’s going to work and what’s not going to work.”

That chemistry, what will or won’t work, is likely the only thing that will save the Hoosiers from a whole lot of losing this winter. So just how does a team that’s probably played more getting-to-know-you games than the Mousketeers find that magical tonic?

“We go out to eat, we go to the movies, we bowl, just fun stuff, you know, like teenagers would do,” Dumes said, adding that he’s among the best bowlers on the team. “Nick (Williams) and Verdell (Jones), they do all the talking on the bowling, but they’re not that good.”

Still, despite all their talk about what the Hoosiers are doing to get better in the now, both Rivers and Dumes alluded to a recognition that this team’s best days may be a little bit farther ahead of them. From Dumes’ point of view, this year can only make IU stronger.

“I think just having the understanding of how hard it is to win and improve, but knowing that it’s good and that you have to do it,” Dumes said. “Going through all of this hard work, and what coach Crean is putting us through — will be putting us through — will ultimately pay off.”

That doesn’t mean anyone is packing up for the winter. The Hoosiers still have high expectations of themselves this season. And despite the slew of pundits (including this one) that have written off the Hoosiers’ chances this season to be more than a spoiler squad, Dumes insisted he’s not giving in — it’s just not natural.

“We’re taught to let people think what they think,” Dumes said, “but I wouldn’t be a basketball player if I didn’t think we could win now.”

For the Hoosiers, it will take a lot more than one man’s will. But after an off-season full of jolting change and abrupt departures, it’s a start. Right now, that’s all anyone can ask for.

See you Tuesday.