Hoosiers to play Nebraska on IU senior night

Seniors Will Sheehey, Evan Gordon, Jeff Howard and Taylor Wayer will suit up in cream and crimson at Assembly Hall for their final regular season home game Wednesday.

The Hoosiers will play Nebraska at 7 p.m. in a must-win game for both teams in their pursuit of earning at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.

During Monday’s Big Ten Coaches Teleconference, IU Coach Tom Crean said there is no question that the Cornhuskers are playing as well as any team in the Big Ten.
Nebraska (17-11, 9-7) won eight of its past 10 games to improve to fifth place in the conference.

“They can beat you in a lot of different ways,” Crean said. “In watching game film today, they can win with the two-man game, the three-man game, defense, 3-point shooting.”

The Cornhuskers are led by redshirt sophomore guard-forward Terran Petteway, who is tied with Michigan State’s Gary Harris for the highest scoring average in the Big Ten at 17.9 points per game.  

By limiting Petteway to five points during the first half Jan. 30, IU (17-12, 7-9) had a 13-point lead at halftime.

The 6-foot-6 wing went on to score 13 points during the second half of the first matchup between the two teams.

Petteway’s second-half performance helped the Cornhuskers rally in the closing stretch of the game to a 60-55 victory in Lincoln, Neb.

“He can really drop his shoulders, and he has to see help before he starts his move,” Crean said. “When that team wins, they are really, really good at getting to the foul line and Petteway is a big, big part of that.”

Petteway draws 5.7 fouls per 40 minutes, per kenpom.com, and averages 5.9 free throw attempts per game.

He shoots 81.7 percent from the charity stripe.

The Hoosiers will need to continue their offensive consistency to combat Petteway’s scoring. IU’s bench only contributed seven total points against Nebraska in January and Sheehey was 3-for-10 from the field.

Crean said trying to build consistency was one of the biggest challenges the Hoosier coaching staff faced this season.

“I think when you look at this season, whether it was the inexperience of guys in roles, whether it was the youth... you’re trying to get your team to be tough in so many areas but consistency really is the greatest form of toughness you can possibly have in a team,” he said. “It takes time to get that.”

IU has solidified third and fourth scoring options in addition to team scoring leaders Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and Noah Vonleh during the team’s most recent home stand.

In the past two games against Iowa and Ohio State, Sheehey, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week, scored 49 points.

Graduate student guard Evan Gordon chipped in 21 points off the bench and the Hoosiers recorded 61 bench points.

“He has really made a big difference in this program from the beginning of time that he got here and is playing his best basketball right now,” Crean said of Sheehey. “He is a big, big part of the leadership of this team and how the team is gaining confidence.”

He said the Hoosiers will need to take the emotion from senior night and play with great energy and toughness against Nebraska.

“And we are going to need our crowd to absolutely help carry us the whole way through,” Crean said.