The Hoosiers were upset and wanted things to change. IU had just lost to UNLV, their second loss of the Maui Invitational, and were scheduled to play at Duke in a week.
So they conducted a players-only film session. They were planning on watching film together anyway when they got home, but, after the loss, the need was greater. So, even with IU Coach Tom Crean already on his way back to Bloomington, the IU players found out what went wrong in Maui, Hawaii.
“We were going to do it regardless, but we felt like to get it in as soon as possible,” sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. said. “So it was everyone willing to do it, and we just watched the last 10 minutes of our game and just pointed out things that we can get better at.”
Now the Duke game is here. IU (5-2) travels Wednesday to Durham, North Carolina, where it will play No. 7 Duke (6-1).
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Hoosiers will be Marshall Plumlee, Duke’s senior center. IU struggled with rebounding Monday in the first half of its 112-70 win against Alcorn State, a team that doesn’t have a player taller than 6-foot-7. Plumlee is seven feet tall and grabbed 10 rebounds, four offensive, against Kentucky on Nov. 17.
Another concern for the Hoosiers could be how they deal with sophomore guard Grayson Allen. Allen is best at driving toward the basket and finishing, passing to an open teammate or drawing a foul. Defending guards who can drive into the lane has been an area of concern for the Hoosiers at this point in the season.
Against a player like Allen, Crean said he knows the Hoosiers have to improve. Not only can it result in easy layups, but driving the ball into the lane can result in open three-pointers on the perimeter because other defenders have to crash into the lane to defend the ball handler. So far this season, Duke is shooting 38 percent from behind the arc.
“Duke provides a lot of challenges because of the way they drive the ball,” Crean said. “They have very good spacing, and they’re shooting the ball at a high rate.”
IU also struggled somewhat with rebounding in Maui and keeping teams off the offensive glass. But Crean said he isn’t so much concerned with the rebounding or his team’s performance in the Maui Invitational.
He’s more concerned about how his team will handle its first road game of the season in an environment like Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“That is the most important thing: it’s a first true road game in a tough environment,” Crean sad. “I’ve coached against Duke and Mike (Krzyzewski), but I’ve not coached at Cameron so I can’t prepare them as much for that. It wouldn’t matter if I could. I mean, it’s different, right?”
As for the players, they say they’re just excited for the opportunity to erase what happened in Maui and get people to stop talking about it. They have, so they say they hope a good performance against a good team can make people forget.
As for junior forward Troy Williams, games like Duke are the reason he came to IU.
“I just can’t wait for it,” Williams said. “That’s what I came to Indiana for — these big-stage games — so I just can’t wait for it.”
