The Hoosiers have used their three preseason exhibition games to evaluate the team and find a system to maximize the potential of all the players in the team.
Despite the youth of the team, IU Coach Todd Yeagley is satisfied his charges have performed well during the exhibition games, and they look to be able to use that as a springboard to kick-start their regular season.
“You can’t get everything done you hope for in the preseason, but I think we’ve identified our areas the best we can and got a lot of evaluation done in the three games,” Yeagley said. “It’s still a young team, even the guys back. They haven’t played maybe one season together, some of them, let alone two or three, so we thought we got a lot accomplished.”
The three exhibition games have shown IU has the potential to mix it up. The loss to Valparaiso was not the start the Hoosiers wanted for their preseason exhibition games, but Yeagley still sees positives from the three matches.
IU also showed they had the mental capacity to immediately bounce back from their loss, Yeagley said, as they overcame Western Michigan at Memorial Stadium. The men showed a willingness to get physical and had the flexibility to adapt their game to meet the challenge posed, he said.
The Hoosiers returned to their more customary offensive style of play against Marquette.
Those three games demonstrated their ability to mix it up. The acquisition of forward Ben Maurey, a Brown graduate transfer, has also given the attack another option.
Playing at the tip of the offense, Maurey’s physicality and athleticism gives IU’s attack various options. The 6-foot-5 forward can either choose to hold up play or simply use his speed to have a run at defenses.
“I’m not too worried about the number of goals. I want to help the team out as much as I can,” Maurey said. “If I score a ton of goals, that’s great. If my role’s more of drawing men out of the box to free Grant or Femi up or just making the right runs to open up some space for Tanner to dribble through, I’m fine with that. If I’m getting assists and helping make plays, that’s fine.”
His off-the-ball movement could be a key factor in the upcoming game against St. John’s, especially if Yeagley chooses to use flanks to breach the defensive line.
“I see (St. John’s) very compact, so that means your wide players’ ability to stretch them is important, so I emphasize that,” Yeagley said.
The Hoosiers and Yeagley placed emphasis on plays in the wings during Wednesday’s open training.
“It’s going to be harder to play through them, we feel, based on speculation, so we think it might come down to the final serve,” Yeagley said. “That’s wraps you need all year — but maybe this weekend in particular — we wanted to have extra wraps to get around the edge.”
Players like junior Tanner Thompson and junior Phil Fives have the ability to deliver balls from out wide, and having another towering presence like Maurey in the box would give another dimension to the attack.
The new No. 9 could simply go for the ball himself or draw markers out for someone like senior Femi Hollinger-Janzen to ghost in. His presence can also be a bonus on corners, as he can draw markers to him, opening space up for defender Grant Lillard.
Thompson and Fives can also go down the flanks to whip balls in. This, coupled with the presence of having Hollinger-Janzen and Maurey in the box, could be the best way to breach St. John’s goal, Yeagley said, as the Hoosiers look to do their damage from the flanks.
