RUNNING THE FLOOR: Closer than the experts think?

Wednesday night was rough. Really rough.

It wasn’t so much that IU men’s basketball team looked like it was outmatched.

Wednesday night showed what this team can look like when it just plays poorly.

Turnovers, blown layups, no desire to want the basketball and an inability to even crack Wake Forest’s zone topped the list of reasons the Hoosiers went down in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Now they prepare for Gonzaga, a team that is ranked fifth in the country and on a roll behind better-than-his-stats point guard Jeremy Pargo, who averages just less than 10 points per game.

Tom Crean touted the Bulldogs as one of the best teams in the country, “strong at every position.”

“They can do nine deep,” Crean said on a Thursday teleconference prior to the Hartford Hall of Fame Showcase in Indianapolis.

Call it a hunch, but I think the Hoosiers will stay with them this time. After three blowout losses to NCAA Tournament-ready opponents, I think IU will hang tough Saturday.

I won’t throw statistics at you to back my claim, because truthfully, I have none.
On paper, this game looks like more of the same than a change of pace. Gonzaga scores an average of 20-plus points more than its opponents; it forces more than 18 turnovers per game, and it has experience across the board.

It also has Pargo and Josh Heytvelt, both of whom are legitimate, nationally recognized players.

So no, I have nothing to back up what I just told you: Crean’s bunch won’t get whipped Saturday afternoon in the first-ever basketball game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

That’s why they call it a “hunch.”

This team (the Hoosiers) can run; it honestly does play hard, and it has enough shooters that it seems due for a good shooting night if it moves the ball the right way and not just for the sake of moving the ball.

In my experience, teams good and bad often follow up very bad performances with very good ones. I’m not entirely sure what a very good performance is for this particular team, so I will stop well short of predicting an upset win.

So far this season, the Hoosiers have shown an ability to, at least for certain periods of play, stay with their competition. It seems that if they can just figure out how to sustain that intensity and take advantage of opportunities, they can be there – in the second half anyway.

So here it is: IU won’t win Saturday afternoon, but they won’t get blown away either. Play smart, play hard and with confidence and above all else, get the ball to Tom Pritchard. He needs (needs, needs, needs, needs) to touch the ball early and often, because as his coach pointed out, he’s a reliable passer as well as an offensive threat.

Do these things, and the Hoosiers will put a scare into Gonzaga and win some serious respect along the way.