IU Coach Tom Crean’s words were almost prophetic.
Prior to IU’s win Saturday against Butler, Crean said the game’s winner would have much to do with whoever rebounded better.
IU outrebounded Butler 48-40. The Hoosiers won 82-73.
After a 20-point blowout loss to Louisville that saw the Cardinals outrebound the Hoosiers by 18, junior forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea blamed a lack of toughness for IU’s struggles. In the win against Butler, toughness was exactly what Butler’s Kameron Woods said made the difference for IU (9-2).
With a 7 p.m. tip against New Orleans (3-4) at Assembly Hall on Monday, IU’s frontcourt will look to stay tough.
“I don’t think it was anything special, any type of scheme to get rebounds,” Woods said Saturday of IU. “They were just more physical.”
So for Woods, there was no firm explanation. It was just a matter of IU playing stronger, which is welcome news to a Hoosier frontcourt that has challenged itself to play with more physicality.
Sophomore forward Troy Williams said that since IU’s loss to Louisville—in which he grabbed just one rebound—he and Mosquera-Perea have taken it personally upon themselves to become more aggressive on the boards as two of the Hoosiers more athletic players.
Even in IU’s wins against Pittsburgh and SMU, IU was outrebounded. It’s a trend that caught the players and Crean’s attention as a problem needing to be solved, regardless of short-term success in the win-loss columns.
IU’s No. 4-ranked scoring offense made up for the lack of rebounding in those wins, but freshman guard James Blackmon Jr. said earlier this year that IU can’t use its explosive offense as a crutch.
One way or another, the Hoosiers have repeatedly said rebounding will need to improve.
The solution, at least for now, appears to lie in the players’ mindsets.
“Just toughness, really,” Williams said of what made the difference against Butler. “Against Louisville, we weren’t very successful on the boards, but in practice the last couple of days and in our last game, we worked on rebounding and it seemed to show (Saturday).”
Williams himself has been key in that as IU’s leading rebounder in its past two wins.
He registered the strongest statistical game of his career against Butler by scoring 22 points, dishing three assists, blocking two shots and hauling in a career-high 11 rebounds.
“Troy has tried to do the best he can do responding from the Louisville game, when his backboard work was not up to par,” Crean said. “He’s made that much more of a desire for him, and I think that showed today.”
New Orleans owns a rebounding margin of 1.4; which ranks 159th in the nation. Indiana’s margin of 4.2 ranks 93rd.
Kevin Hill does most of the rebounding damage for the Privateers, averaging 6.6 boards per game. The 6-foot-7 junior forward is also averaging 10 points per game.
In terms of what the statistics say, New Orleans has not been one of the nation’s better rebounding teams. Regardless for Indiana, building consistency has become the priority and Crean will be looking for that to continue.
“Frankly, we’ve made a lot of progress since the Louisville game in mindset, will, tenacity—all those types of things,” Crean said. “We have made progress and we have to keep making progress.
“Every day you want them to be better than what they were. It sounds corny, but it’s the absolute truth, and they can’t get ahead of themselves. We’ve got to keep holding them to that standard they are raising every day.”
