Hoosiers face tough test against Buckeyes

IU coach Tom Crean said his team’s loss to No. 8 Purdue on Wednesday night was largely based on the inability to stop potential All-Americans E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson.

Unfortunately for Crean, it doesn’t get any easier from here.

The Hoosiers face No. 2 Ohio State — led by freshman forward Jared Sullinger and four upperclassmen — at 4 p.m. Sunday in Columbus, Ohio. 

And if IU has a chance to upset the Buckeyes at Value City Arena, it needs to defend better as a whole.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of us not competing,” IU sophomore guard Jordan Hulls said. “It’s a matter of us not executing.” 

Crean has been critical of his team’s defensive play during the past three games, and the Hoosiers have not responded the way he has hoped.

Following the Hoosiers’ 73-69 loss to Michigan — in which IU trailed late in the game by 22 points — he said the team needed to be “more combative.”

After IU’s 70-64 loss to Northwestern on Feb. 19, Crean emphasized “not enough team accountability on the defensive end.”

On Wednesday night, it came down to not playing smart enough defensively.  
 
“We played hard and we competed, but like I said, we weren’t as smart as they were,” Crean said. “We had too many mistakes, especially in the first half, defensively. We couldn’t get over the hump.”

An area of concern for IU during the three games has been slow starts. In those matchups, the Hoosiers went into halftime down eight points to Michigan and 10 points to both Northwestern and Purdue.

Despite battling back in all three games, IU could not overcome the early deficit.
“On offense, we didn’t flow into it as well as we needed to,” Hulls said specifically of the Purdue game. “We were a little stagnant.”

And if there is one team in the conference the Hoosiers can’t afford to dig a hole against, it’s Ohio State. 

The Buckeyes boast the top-scoring offense in the Big Ten (77.1 percent per game) and the second-best field goal percentage in the nation (49.3 percent). The veteran squad is led in the post by Sullinger, who averages a team-best 17.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. 

But while Sullinger and senior teammate Dallas Lauderdale make up one of the conference’s top frontcourts, Ohio State may be even stronger on the perimeter.
Senior Jon Diebler and junior William Buford are two of the Big Ten’s top-six 3-point shooters. Redshirt senior David Lighty presents a tough matchup because he is tall, long and can play either the guard or the forward position. 

Though freshman guard Aaron Craft comes off the bench, he plays starters minutes and is comfortable with the ball in his hands at all times.

IU junior guard Verdell Jones said Wednesday that smarter overall play will translate into wins in the final games of the season. 

“It’s very frustrating to know we made little mistakes here and there,” Jones said. “If we corrected those, we are right in the game.”