Column: Hoosiers success starts with Watford

The opening minutes of a college basketball game are not usually as memorable as the final minutes, but they can be the minutes that have the most influence on the course of the rest of the game.

While you can’t win the game in the first few minutes, an awful start can certainly force you into an uphill battle.

For the Indiana men’s basketball team, a good start is especially crucial for senior forward Christian Watford. When Watford gets going early, he plays with more confidence and the rest of the team feeds off of his energy.

Sunday’s 67-59 victory against Northwestern was just another example of how much more crisp the Hoosiers are when Watford locks in early.

On the Hoosiers’ first possession, the senior from Birmingham, Ala., squared up from behind the arc and knocked down a 3-pointer 38 seconds into the game.

By the first media timeout at 15:48, Watford had seven points and two rebounds.

Ten minutes later with 5:24 left in the first half, IU blew open a 15-point lead, 24-9, and Watford had almost half of the points with 11.

“Christian really got us going,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “When we can find a match-up that works when they really can’t defend Christian, we’ve got to ride it as much as we can, and we did.”

When Watford scores early, he instantly transforms into a confident player on both sides of the ball and it has showed during the Big Ten season.

In four out of IU’s five Big Ten conference games, Watford has scored IU’s first points of the game. In that time, he is second on the Hoosiers in points per game with 13.4 and is ranked sixth in the Big Ten with 7.2 rebounds per game.

Not so coincidentally, the only time Watford didn’t score first was during IU’s 64-59 loss to Wisconsin.

On an off-night, Watford managed to score 11 points against the Badgers, but he wasn’t much of a factor and didn’t get onto the board until he hit a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left in the first half.

Despite laboring through a game and earning 11 points, he was unable to provide that early spark that was needed against Wisconsin. Ultimately, it was the difference because Wisconsin was able to hang around through a hard-fought first half.

When Watford finds his stroke early, it is the equivalent to a boxer connecting a couple of big right hooks to his opponent’s jaw in the first round. It’s the initial wave of offense that is backed up by the rest of the IU scoring machine.

But Watford’s success starts with his mindset. When the forward’s mind is set on attacking, good things follow for IU’s offense.

This season, the Hoosiers are getting to the free throw line better than any other team in the conference, and a lot of it has to do with Watford’s aggressiveness and desire to get to the basket.

Only five Big Ten players are averaging more free throws made per game than Watford, who is averaging 4.1 made free throws per game, and only seven players in the Big Ten have taken more free throws than Watford’s 85 attempts.

The senior is leading the Big Ten in free throw percentage (85.9 percent) and his consistency from the line makes him the second biggest offensive threat on the Hoosiers’ roster behind Cody Zeller.

With top-tier Big Ten opponents approaching on IU’s schedule, Watford’s role on the team and in the offense will be vital to the Hoosiers’ success.

Fans will always remember Watford for what he did in the final seconds against Kentucky, but at this rate his scoring in the opening minutes of games will go down as his biggest impact on IU’s offense.

— mdnorman@indiana.edu