No. 1 IU takes down Ball State

After yet another slow start for the IU men’s basketball team, the Hoosiers (6-0) pulled out another double-digit victory against Ball State (2-2), the team’s first of two in-state opponents on its nonconference schedule.

With just a 10-8 lead six minutes into the game, the Hoosiers took over, beating the Cardinals 101-53.

So far this season, the Hoosiers have either trailed or held just a two-point lead midway through the first half in five of their six games, yet IU has an average winning margin more than 30 points per game.

Senior guard Jordan Hulls said he and his teammates simply haven’t been ready to play a full game yet this season, and in these first few games, he said it’s showed.

“We’ve just got to get off to a better start,” Hulls said. “If we want to continue to win, we have to play the full 40 minutes.”

Hulls himself started slow Sunday night, failing to take a shot until 5:35 left in the first half, where he said he played a little too cautious.

But from there, the senior caught fire, scoring 12 of IU’s final 18 points in the half, going 5-5 from the floor, including 2-2 from beyond the arc.

As a team, the Hoosiers ended the half on a 40-11 run to go into the locker room with a 50-19 lead.

Even with the 31-point lead, the Hoosiers never let up, and that’s just the way the coaching staff has told them to play, Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said.

“In order to be a championship-caliber program, that’s the way you have to play,” Buckley said. “You can’t take any possessions off. Every possession is just as important as the last possession.”

The Hoosiers continued to sprint up and down the court, sporting several unconditional lineups to allow guys deeper on the bench to gain some playing time and experiment with new roles, Buckley said.

Ten of IU’s 13 players who saw minutes against Ball State scored at least two points, which Buckley said shows just how deep the Hoosiers are.

“Guys that are coming in off the bench, whether they’re a couple rotations down, they know that that’s their time to get meaningful minutes, and that’s what we’re about,”
Buckley said.

Coming off the bench, junior forward Will Sheehey led all scorers with 19 points off an 8-9 shooting night from the floor.

After missing his only three-point attempt with 10:06 left in the first half, Sheehey hit his final six shots, including several mid-range jumpers close to the baseline.

Buckley said Sheehey, coming off two games in Brooklyn, N.Y., during the Progressive Legends Classic where he scored only eight total points, came back to Bloomington last week and spent a long time practicing, and it showed.

“Will probably didn’t shoot it as well as he would have liked when we played in Brooklyn, and he got in the gym and he worked,” Buckley said. “He got shots up and shot free throws. He did all the things you have to do to try and get better, and that’s the only think we know is work.”

Four other Hoosiers scored in the double-digits as well, including a double-double performance from senior forward Christian Watford, who scored 11 points to go along with 10 rebounds.

Hulls scored 17 points, shooting 7-10 from the field. Sophomore center Cody Zeller, 15 points, and junior guard Victor Oladipo, 13 points, followed, each shooting 5-7 on the night.

Yet, even with five players in double figures and the 48-point victory, Buckey said the Hoosiers still have room to improve in taking care of the ball and starting to play a bit too fast as the lead began to pile up. He said, that he enjoyed his team’s intensity even midway through the second half, which he said they need for a full 40 minutes if the Hoosiers are going to have success in Big Ten play.

“I think the culture is such that every practice has the intensity of a game — everything we do has that intensity,” Buckley said. “I think our guys know they want to be great, and in order to do that, we have to push and continue to get better and better.”