Hoosiers, Spartans to battle atop Big Ten standings

After five seasons in the Big Ten, IU Coach Tom Crean facing his mentor, Michican State Coach Tom Izzo, is no longer a novel occurrence.

A stifling IU defense in such a game might be, though.

Perhaps not by coincidence, the teams’ last meeting saw IU hold the Spartans to their lowest score — 55 points — since Crean arrived in Bloomington and was the protégé’s first win against his mentor.

Fresh off Wednesday evening’s 72-49 win against Penn State, the second-lowest point output of an IU foe this season, players and coaches alike pointed to defense as the key behind the team’s successes and failures as they welcome No. 13 Michigan State 1 p.m. Sunday in Assembly Hall.

“Our team right now, they are really trying to put themselves in a place where they can hang their hat on the defensive end,” Crean said. “We’re getting there.”

Before the victory last season, a 64-59 loss in Crean’s first year was the only time IU kept MSU at less than 70 points. Until then, IU suffered a spree of losses to the Spartans including an 80-65 drubbing that gave IU its first Big Ten loss last year.

The Spartans cannot take that honor this season. IU already has a loss. Every team does, MSU included.

Heading into the weekend, the teams occupy the top two slots in the Big Ten standings, Michigan State with a 6-1 conference record and IU coming in with a 5-1 mark. The winner will likely emerge from the weekend as the outright leader in the league standings.

“If you spend too much time celebrating one (game), you spend too much time dreading the result of another. You slide in a hurry in this league,” Crean said. “These guys have done a great job and the entire focus will be on their improvement and preparing for Michigan State.”

Crean and his players have often said success in the conference comes back to defense, both in and of itself and as a catalyst for the team’s full court offense.

“Right now, the biggest thing we can work on is making sure we’re getting better as individual defenders, collective defenders, that our rebounding continues to improve and turning defense into offense,” Crean said. “Sometimes you can do that in this league. Sometimes you can’t. The bottom line is you’ve got to be able to defend.”

Junior forward Will Sheehey echoed his coach and credited defense with helping him break out of a multi-game slump Wednesday against the Nittany Lions, in which he scored 12 points.

“I never think about that kind of stuff as long as I’m playing hard on the defensive end,” Sheehey said. “If you ever see me not playing hard on the defensive end, that’s when you know something is wrong and it’s never going to happen. The offense will come.”

In the case of Michigan State on Sunday, IU players may have to defend some familiar faces from their pasts. MSU sports a pair of Indiana natives on its roster in guards Branden Dawson and Gary Harris. Both players number among the Spartans’ top three scorers with 10.5 and 12.3 points per game, respectively.

A third guard, Keith Appling, leads MSU with 14.1 points per contest. With its own three-guard lineup, IU is likely to again give up some size to the Spartans as it regularly has to opponents this season.

In some such cases, sophomore forward Cody Zeller has gravitated out toward guards on defense, but he is likely to have his own preoccupation Sunday. At 6-feet 9-inches and 270 pounds, Derrick Nix is among the largest centers Zeller has seen this year.

Nix, averaging 9.1 points and 6.9 rebounds, catches Zeller coming off his lowest scoring output of the season, a mere two points against Penn State.

“He might be having a slow night on offense, but he’s doing what it takes to win,” junior forward Victor Oladipo said. “Sure we’ve got to step it up a little bit, but when he plays like that we’ve just got to play together.”

Backing up his teammate’s point, Zeller was second on the team with eight rebounds Wednesday and, combined with his teammates, held PSU forwards to just 18 points on the night.

“When you play defense, when you talk, when you have a complete defensive effort, you’re not going to lose, and if you do, you’ve just got to tip your hat and say ‘next game,’” Sheehey said. “I don’t think in our two losses that we’ve done that. I think we’re working on it.”