IU looks to build off emotional win in Notre Dame showdown

How does a team respond after upsetting the No. 1 team in the country on a buzzer-beater for the ages?
 
How does a team try and have a normal week of practice with final exams clogging the usual schedule?
 
How does a team not overlook its next opponent after becoming ranked for the first time in four seasons?
 
“My big thing to them after the game was, when you get a win like that, the attention that it receives, there’s going to be so many more people wanting answers from you, and the bottom line is you’ve got to continue to have even more questions,” said IU Coach Tom Crean.
 
The No. 18-ranked Hoosiers will look to avoid a hangover when they take on Notre Dameat 4:15 p.m.  Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in the inaugural Crossroads Classic.
 
Crean said to downplay the significance of last Saturday’s 73-72 win against No. 1 Kentucky would be foolish.
 
“I don’t want them to put it behind them,” Crean said. “I want them to build on it. I think it could be a springboard to future opportunities. I think it would be very stupid, and it wouldn’t make much sense for us to come in here and try and downplay that it happened. It wouldn’t make any sense.”
 
IU senior forward Tom Pritchard said the mindset following the win was dictated early in the week.
 
“We took it in that night, and we’re all moving on,” Pritchard said. “The coaches and the players all said on Monday’s practice that we were going to move on and still focus on what we need to do later in the season.”
 
For Pritchard and the rest of the seniors, Saturday’s game has a different significance to it. The last time IU faced Notre Dame was in the Maui Invitational when the Hoosiers lost 88-50 to the No. 8-ranked Irish, marking the first loss of the Crean era.
 
The 38-point drubbing was one Pritchard said they haven’t forgotten.
 
“For the guys who played against them our freshman year, the game didn’t go so well, so we’ve got an extra chip on our shoulder, and we’ve been remembering how bad we want to beat Notre Dame,” Pritchard said.
 
But unlike the 2008 Irish squad, the 2011 bunch does not boast scoring threats like Luke Harangody and Kyle McAlarney. Notre Dame has had to deal with a slew of injuries this season, including an ACL tear to senior guard Tim Abromaitis, who averaged more than 15 points per game last season.
 
There are only four players on Notre Dame’s roster who have played in all 11 games this year. One of those players is sophomore guard Jerian Grant, who played on the same DeMatha (Md.) High School team as IU sophomore guard Victor Oladipo.
 
According to Oladipo, he and Grant have remained close friends since the two left Maryland to play their college ball in Indiana.
“Going back home and working out with him, I know how much hard work he puts in and how much he really wants to be good,” Oladipo said of Grant. “But at the same time, guess what? He can’t be good on Saturday.”
 
Grant has been one of the lone consistent scorers for the Irish, averaging 12.4 points per game this season. For an Irish team that is 0-3 against major conference teams, the newly ranked Hoosiers present a new challenge.
 
And for an IU team hoping to respond after an emotional win against then No. 1 Kentucky, the Irish will pose another test. But with finals week over, Crean said Saturday is a test the Hoosiers cannot afford to fail.  
 
“If we spend time worrying about the fact that okay, they’ve had a really long week with exams, and they’re mentally challenged a little bit because of how much work they’ve had to put into academics, and we’ve got this preparation, and they’re coming off this incredible win with all this hype, then we’re setting ourselves up for failure,” Crean said.