If there’s ever an easy time to start playing Big Ten basketball, Jordan Fuchs didn’t choose it.
The freshman forward, a crossover from the IU football team, joined the basketball team Wednesday morning. That night, he was with the Hoosiers as they played Maryland, the Big Ten’s No. 2 team, on the road.
Fuchs has been a member of the basketball team for five days now. That’s enough for IU Coach Tom Crean to be impressed.
“Impressed with his attitude,” Crean said. “He’s brought a competitiveness to practice, he goes to glass, he listens and we’re excited to have him.”
At 6-foot-6, 230 pounds, the converted tight end instantly became one of IU’s biggest players down low. The addition of his size is made even more beneficial by the Hoosiers’ unusually undersized roster, which features just four true post players – two of which are the injured Devin Davis and the habitually benched Jeremiah April. IU ranked No. 204 in the country in average height before Fuchs’ addition, according to kenpom.com.
Fuchs didn’t play against Maryland, but Crean said him taking the court this season is a possibility.
“We didn’t just bring him over to practice,” Crean said. “We brought him over to help us compete, to help us win.”
If Fuchs can regain any of the form he had on the basketball court in high school, he might just do that. He was a 2-star basketball prospect who received offers from Iowa State, SMU and Florida, among others.
He averaged 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in his senior season at Christ the King High School in New York.
For an IU team that hasn’t yet found its solution in the low post, Fuchs further muddles the situation behind starting center Hanner Mosquera-Perea.
Early in the season, freshman Emmitt Holt appeared poised to take Mosquera-Perea’s starting spot, but he’s seen playing time dwindle as the season has worn on. When Mosquera-Perea went down with a knee injury and missed seven games, it was sophomore Collin Hartman – a 6-foot-6 perimeter player – who filled his place in the starting lineup.
If Fuchs continues to impress his new coach, playing time is there for the taking. Crean said he’s excited by Fuchs’ athleticism and spirit in practice.
“Jordan Fuchs has shown tremendous athleticism, competitiveness, toughness,” Crean said. “Not only does he give that second and third effort, but he gives that second and third reaction. They’re two different things. A lot of guys want to give effort, they get beat and they want to give the effort, well he’s got the speed and quickness to do something about it. And he picks things up very fast.”
Six games remain on IU’s regular season schedule, which ends March 7. For Fuchs, there isn’t a lot of time to get adjusted to his new surroundings a couple hundred feet east of Memorial Stadium.
It’s unclear how much he’ll play in those six games. Crean himself said he didn’t know, but that the intent in adding him to the roster was to have him play.
“You never know,” Crean said.
