Column: Men's basketball needs to build on potential

Potential.

That’s the one reoccurring word that can be appropriately associated with this season’s IU squad, which defeated Hillsdale College, 79-39, Monday evening at Assembly Hall.

The Hoosiers sported a starting lineup of freshman point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, senior wing Will Sheehey, freshman forward Troy Williams, sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell and freshman center Noah Vonleh, a bunch dripping with talent and oozing potential.

But until those two aspects mesh, words such as “stagnant” and “inconsistent” will continue to be labels associated with what is a youthful team.

The raw nature of the aforementioned starting five was on display early, as the Hoosiers found themselves having converted just one bucket — a Noah Vonleh lay-up — near the midway mark of the first half.

Though a slow start would typically be a point of concern, it shouldn’t be considered in such a severe manner.

Why?

IU Coach Tom Crean’s main rotation includes at least three freshmen and three sophomores, a group that was critical in sparking IU’s 77-26 run to finish the game after trailing 13-2 with nearly 10 minutes of regulation having elapsed.

Doom and gloom was the outlook at that point, with a plethora of tweets and other utterances being of the attitude that the upcoming regular season will be painful to watch, but such a quick judgment would be foolish to make after just two exhibition games that are, essentially, glorified scrimmages (no offense to Southern Indiana and Hillsdale).

The second half of the Hoosiers’ second exhibition victory in as many contests was a direct illustration of exactly what Crean’s team is capable of.

“We started the second half switching everything, and two years ago we wouldn’t have done that,” Crean said. “We probably scored 14 points on things we put in today, and probably another six on things we just drew up in timeouts.”

After a hot start on the offensive end for Hillsdale, the Chargers were limited to 24 percent shooting, including a miserable 6-of-27 from the three-point line.

Though piecing together a consistent half-court offense will require time and patience for these Hoosiers, they’re more than capable of creating offense through consistent play at the defensive end, particularly when defensive rebounds and turnovers are converted to scoring opportunities in transition.

And I understand the argument that it was just an exhibition against Hillsdale, but with the tremendous length and breathtaking athleticism inherent within the roster, stingy performances against quality competition are likely to be plentiful.

Defense alone won’t get the job done, as a slew of technicalities requiring improvement, the summation of which is the formation of an identity, which is a never-ending task.

“There is no such thing as ‘garbage time’ at Indiana,” Crean said.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Connor Killoren on Twitter @ConnorKilloren_IDS