IU starts season against Bryant

The IU men’s basketball team can put the preseason hype to rest Friday night.

No longer do the Hoosiers have to battle the uncertainty of living up to the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, while having the preseason No. 1 player — sophomore center Cody Zeller — and two John R. Wooden Preseason Top 50 nominees — Zeller and senior forward Christian Watford — on their team.

About eight months after the team’s 102-90 loss to Kentucky in the Sweet 16, the Hoosiers can now battle more than just the expectations the media has had over their heads this offseason.

Bryant becomes their opponent.

And in front of a sold-out Assembly Hall crowd, IU Coach Tom Crean and his squad will get their first real chance to see how they match up this season against NCAA competition.

The Bulldogs, though, come off a season last year where they saw only two wins, while losing 19 games by double-digits.

This offseason, the Hoosiers have faced off several times in inter-squad scrimmages,
including the 15-minute game at the culmination of Hoosier Hysteria. IU also played its only official exhibition game of the season last Thursday against Indiana Wesleyan, winning 86-57.

But Zeller said just the change of pace in not going against his teammates in practice and playing in a meaningful game will help prepare the Hoosiers for what the rest of this season has in store.

“We’re definitely very excited for it,” Zeller said. “It’s a different test for us. We haven’t played a game in so long, it feels like. We’re finally to the day where we can see where we’re at.”

The Hoosiers haven’t lost a season-opener since the 1997-98 season when former IU Coach Bob Knight and his players fell to No. 24 Temple 59-53.

Crean said there isn’t any one thing the Hoosiers will be focusing on to avoid an early loss this season, but he added the one thing he wants his players to focus on is getting better, game by game.

“We have to keep improving on a daily basis, and each game is no different,” Crean said. “But there are so many things that go into it, and it would be too simple to say ‘Let’s go out and play hard, let’s go out and compete.’ There are a lot of things that go into it, and we want to keep advancing constantly.”

IU Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said the Bulldogs pose a strong threat with their speed and may challenge the Hoosiers with communication at the start of the season, but that he believes it will be a good team to start the season off with.

“They’re a very good transition offensive team,” Buckley said. “They really try to push the pace off the make or the miss. We’ve got to do a terrific job of communicating, shrinking the floor, talking to each other and really executing our coverage in that regard, and it’s going to really force us to sprint back and get set.”

Yet even with the Bulldogs’ speed, the Hoosiers boast a much larger lineup, which Buckley said will play to the Hoosiers’ advantage. The team, though, will have to play with a thinner lineup for several games due to the injury of senior forward Derek Elston and the suspensions of freshmen forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea and center Peter Jurkin.

But Crean said even though the team will have to play with a bit smaller lineup Friday and for the next several games, he doesn’t plan on trying any experimenting with lineups Friday night.

“We’re trying to win, and we’re trying to win big,” Crean said.