No. 1 IU looks to rebound from loss

Last season, after the Hoosiers suffered a loss at home to Minnesota – the only team to beat IU in Assembly Hall during the 2011-12 campaign – the Hoosiers continued on a three-game skid to fall to 3-4 in the conference play.

After the home loss to the Golden Gophers, IU traveled to Columbus, Ohio just three days later, only to be trounced by Ohio State, 80-63.

Sunday, just three days after No. 1 IU’s buzzer-beater loss to unranked Illinois, the Hoosiers will again travel to No. 10 Ohio State in hopes of turning around a surprise loss in the middle of the conference schedule.

IU Coach Tom Crean said that even with the short turnaround between the Illinois loss and IU’s game Sunday, he put his players through a hard practice on Friday and had a long meeting to figure out what they could take from the loss.

“If we’re going to be good, it’s not going to be about bouncing back,” Crean said. “It’s about making sure that you’re getting better because if you spend a lot of time bouncing back and worrying about your mentality, well then all the sudden that cuts into your preparation, and that cuts into what you need to do to win the game.

“They were really down the other night, and we knew that we had some squandered opportunities, but we also said that there are a lot of different things you can look at. You can look at calls; you can look at non-calls. There are so many different things, but nobody cares.”

Crean also hinted that after the loss Thursday night, there were other things behind closed doors that he and his staff had to deal with, of which he did not specify. He said, however, he felt comfortable his team was ready to focus on the Buckeyes.

But the Hoosiers have to be prepared to guard each and every one of Ohio State’s players on the floor on Sunday. Last season in Columbus, while trying to slow down Jared Sullinger, a first-round pick in last year’s NBA draft, along with Deshaun Thomas, the Hoosiers gave up 28 points to Lenzelle Smith Jr.

Smith, who averaged 6.8 points per game last season, more than doubled his previous career high of 12.

This season, Thomas leads the Big Ten in points per game, scoring 19.9, and Smith follows as the only other man on the Buckeyes in double figures with 10.5.

When the game gets down to the wire, Crean said that his players have to keep tabs on every man on the court and not lose focus in the moment, as they did Thursday, when they allowed Illinois’s Tyler Griffey an open lane to the basket to roll in a layup as time expired for the upset win.

“You’ve got to weather the storms,” Crean said. “The crowd is fantastic. They’re right there on top of you. It’ll be unbelievable, and we’ve just got to stay truly committed to what’s important.

“You can’t get caught up in the surroundings as much, and you stay true to the game plan.”