IU men's basketball starts season with exhibition against USI

Shortly after IU Coach Tom Crean and the men’s basketball team released Sept. 12 that the Hoosiers would face the University of Southern Indiana in the team’s first exhibition game of the 2013-14 season this Saturday at 7 p.m., USI lost its leading scorer until at least the middle of December.

On Sept. 16, the Screaming Eagles’ released that senior forward Orlando Rutledge was declared academically ineligible because he “came up a couple of hours short (in academic progress),” he said to the Evansville Courier & Press.

Last season, he averaged 16.4 points and 5.6 rebounds and led the team with 49 3-pointers. In his final collegiate season, he’ll have to miss at least the first seven games while he tries to regain his eligibility for his team’s game against Kentucky Wesleyan Dec. 21.

But IU Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said the Hoosiers have had their own hardships preparing for the start of the season with voids where top-five NBA picks Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller used to dominate.

Although facing Rutledge would have been a good test for the team early on in the season, Buckley said the coaching staff wanted to see USI because of its depth, not just a single player.

“They have a very good program, and even though they’ve lost Rutledge ... they will have found ways to compensate and play together as a team,” he said. “One person can’t do it all by themselves.”

Indiana’s Division II opponent comes to Assembly Hall with years more experience in college basketball, touting eight seniors, 11 upperclassmen and three starters from last year’s squad that went 23-8 and finished third in the Great Lakes Valley Conference during the regular season and runner-up in the conference tournament.

The Hoosiers, on the other hand, will likely have seven players seeing their first time competing on Branch McCracken Court and will have some adjusting to do playing in an NCAA atmosphere.

“It’ll be very important that they do what they do best, that they play within themselves and they play within the team concept,” Buckley said. “We’re going to have to do a really good job carrying out the game plan and how we’ve been taught to play and play together and defend, rebound and take care of the basketball.”

USI averaged more than 14 offensive rebounds as a team last season, and though they lack the height that the Hoosiers boast — with three healthy players listed at 6-foot-9 inches to USI’s one — Buckley said he expects to see a good test in the post as well as a team that may be quicker up and down the court than his squad.

IU’s big men — freshman Noah Vonleh and sophomores Peter Jurkin and Hanner Mosquera-Perea — have to play smart against USI’s smaller but more experienced front court, Buckley said.

“You have to use your size the right way,” Buckley said. “You still have to be sharp. You have to do a good job of beating people to spots. There may be some situations where they’re quicker than we are.

“Even though they may not have the size we do on paper, I think having older guys and guys who have played at a pretty high level, they have guys who know how to play basketball. They’re able to compensate for the things at least on paper appear to be
weaknesses.”

Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.