Hoosiers still trying to find identity

IU coach Tom Crean is still teaching.

Instead of letting his team pack it in during games such as IU’s 83-55 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday, Crean has pushed the team through the losses.

He said Saturday he left freshman forward Christian Watford in the game against the Badgers to let him know he has to play hard no matter the circumstances.

“Christian needed to play through today because Christian needed to know that he’s not tired,” Crean said. “I thought the 26th minute to the 33rd minute obviously were as good as he played; were as aggressive as he’s played.”

The move proves Crean knows his player’s ability, but they are themselves still working to find the limitations of their games.

In a season beginning to mount with losses, tweaks like this will need to work for them to win and find themselves.

With No. 11 Michigan State coming to IU, the Hoosiers’ learning process might need to be accelerated.

Inside of a six-game losing streak, IU is now set to face off with a Spartan team that was undefeated in the Big Ten before its point guard Kalin Lucas injured his ankle Feb. 2.

Michigan State proved in that stint that its identity was based largely on what Lucas provided. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers, rife with young players, are still searching for a personality.

Freshman forward Derek Elston has traveled in and out of the starting lineup, all the while playing different positions.

This season for him, a player used to winning games, has been anything but typical. It has also given him doubt, something he experienced rarely before coming to IU.

“I started off pretty well,” Elston said. “But here I harped into sort of a little slump. I’m just taking in a lot of information, and sometimes I get down on myself when I don’t do the right things.”

There is more to making the transition to a season than fans might know.
Elston talked about watching film to better grasp plays, preparing himself for the possibility of multiple positions.  

“I’ve been having to come back in here and look them over and look them over just so I can get the feel for every position,” he said. “And once I get that, I’ll get back to where I was.”

Other freshmen have matured this season. Freshman guard Jordan Hulls didn’t take many shots early in the season.

He is now a 40-percent 3-point shooter and has gone 78 percent from the free-throw line.

“Me and Coach talked about it. He said I was passing up too many open looks,” Hulls said. “Sometimes if I don’t shoot the ball, I’ll get in trouble for it. I’m just trying to take that and learn from it.”

Crean was still working on helping players find out the root of this recent losing streak Saturday.

“There were a couple guys that I really wanted to play through some things there in the second half to prove to them that they could do it at a high level,” he said.

He said the team has to continue to grow mentally for it to progress in the proper direction.

“It’s not a fatigue, physically driven thing,” he said. “It’s more of a mental fatigue that we’ve got to continue to go through.”