Derek Elston taking new role in stride

Sophomore forward Derek Elston didn't need anybody to tell him he was due for a big night Friday.

But he heard it anyway.

Before the game, his father told him on the phone that he would have to take full advantage of his second-straight starting opportunity. During warm-ups prior to IU's tip-off with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Elston, as told by sophomore guard Jordan Hulls, didn't miss a shot.

Then, right out of the gate, Elston let his play do the talking.

He scored seven of the team's first 11 points, a spark that ignited a 24-0 IU run to open an 88-54 victory at Assembly Hall.

"He really played well, and that was good to see," IU coach Tom Crean said of Elston. "He did all the different things in a short period of time that we need from him. He rebounded, he ran the floor, he scored from the perimeter, he scored at the basket, he passed the ball, he screened and got people open.

"That's what we need. We need that kind of production from the front line, and hopefully we'll continue to get it throughout the season."

Elston played in the "five" position Friday, generally the spot of the team's center. He said he had planned to play the "four," or power forward, position throughout the offseason, but when junior college transfer big man Guy-Marc Michel was ruled ineligible, his role changed.

Now he is learning a whole new position's plays on the fly, while staying true to his versatile game. In his first half run, Elston knocked down shots from as close as at the rim and as far as beyond the arc. He finished with 14 points and five rebounds, playing only 19 minutes as the game was well in hand.

"In an offensive perspective, I feel like I'm quicker than the guy guarding me," Elston said of his new role. "But on defense, I realize that other fives are going to be bigger than me and stronger and I've just got to put up a battle."

It's a role he admits he wouldn't have been able to take on as a green freshman a year ago. Elston said other centers "would have looked at me and laughed." But with adding quickness and muscle over the summer came new found confidence down low.

"Me and coach [Tim] Buckley talk about all the time just being alert and aware," Elston said. "A couple of games, I've had a couple lapses, but right now I feel like I've always got my head on a swivel, my feet are always right, I feel like I'm in the right position a lot of times. I'm just kind of loving it right now."

Not only was Friday a personal statement for Elston, but he said it sent a message that the Hoosier big men were a force nobody could discount.

"We had seen in the paper that we had no answer for the big, and that kind of took us like, 'Are you serious?'" he said "At the practice [Thursday], we kind of went at each other, us five men down there. And now we just realize that, after tonight, you can't really say that."