A columnist’s notebook for you

The IU men’s basketball team heads up to Northwestern tonight, and while I’d love to regale you with witty repartee that would surely cut you all to the collective quick, well, frankly, I’m just not that good.

Instead, I thought I’d bring you a melange of topics, briefly touched upon – or what we industry types like to call a notebook. So, without further ado:

Get ready for the back cut
Senior forward Kyle Taber is the only Hoosier to log any significant minutes against Northwestern’s notorious Princeton offense, which makes its money with moving bodies and plenty of backdoor cutting for layups; watch Georgetown play for 40 minutes – you’ll get the idea.

Taber, who earned a bloody nose in a scramble for a loose ball in practice Tuesday, said the Hoosiers will “do some things differently” against Northwestern’s offense, though he wouldn’t identify specific strategies. He did say he thinks the Hoosiers have prepared well but added that facing such a beast is no minor feat.

“Once you get out there, it’s a totally different thing,” he said.

IU coach Tom Crean said having Jeremiah Rivers, a veteran of the offense at Georgetown, on the team has helped preparation.

“He knows the intricacies of their offense and their defense so well,” Crean said of Rivers. “(The Wildcats) are so well-schooled at how to read your body, so we have to stay consistent with how we are trying to play.”

But what about the defense, Coach?
Northwestern also employs a version of the 1-3-1 zone, which the Hoosiers saw from Michigan and even ran a bit against Minnesota on Sunday. This particular rendition of the 1-3-1 is holding opponents to a shade under 59 points per game, good for fourth among Big Ten teams.

Crean said his team has been prepping for the Wildcats’ particular edition of the scheme by running 6-on-5 and 7-on-5 offensive drills in practice.

Speaking of preparation, Crean said as a whole he believes his team has begun to get to the level of performance and focus needed in practices, though “there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

“Every day, we’re better than we were the day before,” is the goal, according to Crean, “and the last couple of weeks, we’ve been that way, and hopefully that’s going to transfer into a game here pretty soon.”

Oh no, not Kevin Coble again...
When IU and Northwestern met in Evanston, Ill., last February, Kevin Coble dropped a career-high – and frankly, astounding – 37 points, nearly upsetting the then-No. 15 Hoosiers.

Everything else about the matchup has changed, but Coble, third in the conference with 15.9 points per game, is still there.

Coble’s inside-outside skill presents a matchup problem for the Hoosiers, whose best three-four spot defenders either surrender size or quickness to the 6-foot-8 senior forward from Scottsdale, Ariz.

Taber said neither he nor freshman forward Tom Pritchard would be starting on Coble, but “we both might get a chance at him.”

“We might do a lot of switching,” Taber said. “I think we’re going to try a lot of different people on him.”