Freshmen basketball players look to take lead roles

As members of IU men’s basketball freshman class answered reporters’ questions for the first time Friday, it was clear they were outside their comfort zone.

Questions rolled in, and freshmen Luke Fischer, Troy Williams and Devin Davis continued to rattle off three- or four-word answers, or simply agree with their teammates, hastening the 15-minute media session to a close.

This Hoosier recruiting class, viewed by many as one of the country’s top-five teams, didn’t garner three top-60 individual rankings from dishing big shots off to teammates all game.

It is unclear how the freshmen’s nerves will adjust to playing in Assembly Hall.
With just 64 days left until tipoff against Chicago State, forward Collin Hartman said his group of new Hoosiers are still trying to figure out where each of them will factor into IU Coach Tom Crean’s scheme of bringing IU back for another NCAA Tournament run.

Hartman said it is a challenge making the transition from high school to college.
“It’s a lot of hard work to try and figure out what kind of person you are and how much you can get out of yourself,” he said.

“You just have to come in and work hard and know that it’s going to be hard everyday.”
Although official team practice with the full squad and Crean’s coaching staff won’t begin until Hoosier Hysteria Oct. 4, the freshmen had time for valuable work with their teammates in Bloomington during the summer.

With five of the six freshmen listed at 6-foot-6 on IU’s roster, and with losing post-up players Cody Zeller, Christian Watford and Derek Elston in the offseason, Crean’s incoming class will have some big shoes to fill.

But all six freshmen worked with Je’Ney Jackson, IU strength and conditioning coach, to revamp their weightlifting, diet and injury maintenance, ensuring they can work hard every day.

“Just playing in the post against big guys — Hanner (Mosquera-Perea), he’s really strong — and when Cody Zeller came up here in the summer when we played against him, he was real strong,” forward Noah Vonleh said. “It was tough playing against him, but I can just tell I finish a lot better.

“I noticed when I was at the LeBron James Camp in the summer and the
Amar’e Stoudemire Camp, a lot of guys I played high school basketball with and camps were like ‘You’ve gotten a lot bigger and a lot stronger and playing a lot better.’”

Vonleh added he’s put on 25 pounds to complete his 240-pound frame, which will likely take a beating from opponents’ big men this season.

Some of the players, including the lone guard in the class, Stanford Robinson, have taken a liking to improvements to their bodies off the court, too.

“Sometimes I just touch my arms to see how big I got,” Robinson said. “Sometimes I walk around with my shirt off all the time cause I can tell I’ve gotten bigger, and he (Jackson) always tells me to put my shirt back on.”

But after the newness of the bigger arms and ripped chests wear off, the newest Hoosiers will have to find a way to become leaders on a team with 10 of its 13 scholarship players listed as sophomores or younger.

Robinson said the veteran leaders on the team, senior Will Sheehey and redshirt sophomore Austin Etherington, have taken the reigns during most of the summer workouts, but when necessary, they have taken pieces of advice from their new teammates.

“Everybody listens to everybody,” Robinson said. “If Troy was to tell Will Sheehey something on his game and something he should change, Will Sheehey would take it into consideration.

“I think that’s what’s special about our team. We all listen to one another. It’s not ‘Oh, I’m older’ or ‘I’ve been here longer.’ I think that’s what’s going to make us special this year.”

The Hoosiers enter this season ranked significantly lower than last year’s squad, which earned almost all the preseason accolades.

However, the fate of the No. 20 team in the land is in the hands of six of the newest Bloomington residents.

Williams thinks they’ll have it under control.

“We’ll be seen as young, but we’re going to be really talented this year,” he said.

Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.