Men's basketball preps for Loyola (Md.)

In late December last year, IU lost after a 21-0 run in the first half against Lipscomb in one of the Bisons’ five road wins of their 2008-09 season.

Some would expect IU coach Tom Crean to use that loss as a lesson to his players, reminding them to always play hard – especially since Crean said IU’s opponent Tuesday, Loyola (Md.), is a Lipscomb-type team.

However, Crean is not following that strategy. After all, nearly a third of this year’s team wasn’t present at the time of that loss.

“We lost to Lipscomb last year because they were a better team than us,” Crean said. “But that was a year ago. It would be kind of silly for me to bring up a lot of Lipscomb where six guys would really have no idea what I’m talking about.

“There’s not a lot of talk about anything other than what we need to do to be better after Saturday night and how we’re going to defend Loyola.”

The Hoosiers do have some experience with a team like Loyola, though. Their coach, Jimmy Pastos, was an assistant coach at Maryland, a team IU lost to 80-68 in their first home performance against a high-major team.

The Hoosiers will look to correct several mistakes they made against Maryland and use their experience to their advantage, freshman guard Maurice Creek said.

“We got out of our game plan,” Creek said of IU’s failings in their game against Maryland. “They got easy shots and easy post feeds and stuff like that. “

Although there are similarities, Loyola is no Maryland. With the same record as IU (5-5), the Greyhounds are near the bottom of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and IU has a 6-0 record all-time against MAAC teams.

Still, Crean said there is reason to take this game seriously.

“This will be one of the hardest-playing teams that they will play at any point,” he said. “There’s no question about it … It’s a team that will do what it takes to win.”

Among the things Loyola does to win is running a “myriad” or defenses, Crean said. He listed six defenses the Hoosiers would have to be ready for.

The adjustment to those changing looks, Crean said, will be difficult. He has tried to give his team the necessary preparation without overwhelming them.

“You can’t give them too much, but we’ve just gotta have a couple of things that are automatics,” he said.

The biggest part of that preparation, Crean said, has been impressing on his team the importance of challenging every shot. Loyola makes about 42 percent of its shots on average and averages 37 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

“If we get careless defensively and we move on the catch and we don’t challenge shots better than what we’re capable of, then we don’t win the game, no matter what kind of game it is,” Crean said. “The number one thing that we have to improve on as a defensive team outside of the rebounding … is to really get up and challenge shooters.

“Don’t short arm it. Don’t be late. Like I keep saying all the time, move on the pass, not the catch. And really get our hand up on people. And when we do that, we’ll be a much better team, and that’s what we’re focused on.”