Crean uses practice to prepare team for final exhibition

With just a week left before its first regular-season contest, the IU men’s basketball team has work to do.

The Hoosiers will play today against St. Joseph’s, a small Indiana school that will play its biggest game of the season against IU. Crean said his team will be presented with an opportunity to tighten some of the less polished portions of its game, but expects St. Joseph’s to present the team with some problems on Monday.

“St. Joseph’s is coming off a loss yesterday to IUPUI,” he said. “They’ve got some key returners back. I think they shoot the ball really well, and they’ve got a good mix of inside-outside.”

As was seen in IU’s first contest against NAIA Grace College, when jitters and kinks are present, talent isn’t as much of a factor.

Just for good measure, though, Crean said, “They play in as good a D-II league as there is in the country.”

The Pumas were 15-13 last season, and ended their season against Northern Kentucky in the Great Lakes Valley Conference first round.

Like IU, St. Joseph’s has a young team and a relatively new coach. The Pumas’ roster has six freshmen and a coach, Richard Davis, who is in only his fourth year at the helm.

While facing a team that is also rebounding, IU will continue to work on the finer points of its game.

Grace College was limited by its size when facing IU, which resulted in 63 2-point shots from the Hoosiers.

However, many of those were missed – from point-blank range. IU sophomore forward Tom Pritchard said IU will correct the misses against St. Joseph’s.

“Our offense has been really good,” he said. “But the one thing Coach really stressed was finishing those layups. I know we missed a lot of layups last game, and that’s something we’re going to try to work on in this next game.”

In order to overcome the problems that come with being a new team, which are mainly chemistry and unforced mishaps on offense, Crean has put his team through tougher practices leading up to St. Joseph’s.

“Guys are starting to really awaken to the fact that there’s real competition for minutes, for spots,” he said. “It’s been chippy this week – there’s been some good battles.”      

All have reacted, but the different groups of the team have responded differently leading their last contest of the preseason.

Crean said the younger guys on the team have been challenged daily in practice more than they ever have been in the past.

“We’re looking forward to seeing guys compete against the daily rigors of what it takes to compete in and bring it out in a game,” he said.

Those who remember last season would rather forget it, and Crean said they’ve tried to dispel any thought that the coming season will result in the same outcome as the 2008-09 season.

“For the returners, it’s a new day,” Crean said. “There’s nothing about last year that wants to be remembered in here, other than how hard it is to win and how hard you have to practice every day.”

Crean said he expects the same intensity from St. Joseph’s that Grace College brought to Assembly Hall, and he anticipates his team’s reaction to be the way it was in the closing moments of its first contest.

“It’ll be a good test for us,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll come, they’ll be excited just like Grace was, and we’re looking forward to the same thing.”