INDIANAPOLIS - Yogi Ferrell was frustrated.
In the first half against Butler, the junior guard was held scoreless. Charged with guarding Butler’s top offensive threat Kellen Dunham, Ferrell picked up two quick fouls and was forced to the bench.
He finished the first half playing just nine minutes. He had zero points. IU Coach Tom Crean had said Ferrell’s intensity leading into the game was at an all-time high, but the fouls and frustrating first half made it seem “almost like a hot air balloon got all the air taken out.”
But by the end of IU’s 82-73 Crossroads Classic win against No. 23 Butler, all the air had returned. Ferrell scored 20 second-half points to help IU pull away in the second half, becoming just the 48th player in IU history to score 1,000 points in his career.
The first half knocked Ferrell down. But when IU needed the player Crean describes as one of the nation’s best two-way players, Ferrell stepped up.
“Guys were just trying to tell me to take over the game, so I was just trying to look for my shots, drives kicks—basically whatever we needed,” Ferrell said. “The mentality was to attack them.”
Attacking was just what Ferrell did.
With just under 14 minutes left, IU trailed by six points after a Butler dunk.
The Butler crowd had become increasingly loud, sensing an opportunity for Butler to open up the game.
On the ensuing IU possession just 11 seconds after the dunk, Ferrell elevated for a 3-pointer.
Swish.
The 3-pointer started a personal 10-4 run for Ferrell that tied the game up at 57-57. He scored 19 of IU’s final 35 points, a run during which the Hoosiers outscored the Bulldogs by 15.
Any frustration from sitting on the bench in the first half was unleashed in the final 20 minutes. His teammates told him to take over the game, so he did.
“He’s very good, but his leadership has come a long way and you can see him commanding his guys out there,” said Dunham, who played against Ferrell growing up. “He’s a threat outside, as well as inside driving, passing. I see a lot of improvements in his game.”
Dunham was the reason behind Ferrell’s foul trouble in the first place. Typically, Ferrell guards the best opposing player, regardless of who it may be which brings its challenges each game.
Crean said Dunham especially has an ability to draw contact. He looks for ways to draw fouls and get to the free throw line, which was exactly what he did in the first half where he scored 18 points with Ferrell mostly on the sideline.
With Ferrell back on him in the second half, Dunham managed five points. All while Ferrell was exploding for 20 on the other end.
“He wanted to play so bad,” Crean said. “It doesn’t matter who was ask him to guard, he’ll take that matchup and he’ll do the right things with it. And you saw what happened in the second half.”
Ferrell’s 20-point second-half performance came just when the Hoosiers needed it.
Butler is a team that prides itself in toughness, but even Butler Coach Chris Holtmann admitted that IU was tougher in the second period.
Crean said to credit Ferrell for that, first and foremost. When his time was taken away from him, he did his best to lead from the sidelines.
But when Ferrell got back in, he made his mark on what for him was a historic day.
“Absolutely, he did a great job, but we’re far more as a team than a one man group when it comes to leadership,” Crean said. “But at the same time, his presence is really, really important to everybody.”
