When Nick Zeisloft came on his recruiting visit to Bloomington, he saw a video of the Hoosiers winning their last Big Ten Championship.
That was three years ago, and winning the championship is what Zeisloft has wanted since coming to IU.
“Last year I wanted it, and we fell short early,” he said after Tuesday’s win at Iowa. “We had a chance today and we had to take it.”
The senior guard earned an unexpected chance at becoming a bigger part of that championship during the last two games.
With sophomore guard Robert Johnson on the bench with an ankle injury, Zeisloft took his starting spot, and his hot shooting helped the Hoosiers beat Illinois and No. 16 Iowa to win the Big Ten title.
He’ll try to do the same against No. 14 Maryland in his final game Sunday in Assembly Hall.
“Nick and Max, those guys have continued to get better,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “And Nick has done an excellent job. There’s no one I’m more anal about with his shooting, his footwork and things like that. He works at it.”
Last season as a junior transfer, Zeisloft’s consistency from 3-point range became a surprisingly important part of the IU offense.
His 45 percent from beyond the arc was second on the team of players who shot more than 50 3-pointers. And Zeisloft went way past that — 140 of his 158 shots came from long.
He finished the regular season averaging 14.3 points per game, and through the last four games Zeisloft made four 3-pointers each time out.
This season hasn’t been the same. It’s been a year of ups and downs for the senior guard, who struggled for most of the Big Ten season to find his shot.
When Johnson went down against Purdue, Zeisloft made the most of his opportunity in the starting lineup.
He has averaged 32 minutes in the last two games, scoring a combined 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Seven of those were 3-pointers — on just eight attempts.
Earlier in the season when sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. had season-ending knee surgery, Crean made sure it wasn’t just one person making up the playing time or the points.
Sometimes it’s been freshman forward OG Anunoby. It’s been senior forward Max Bielfeldt and occasionally Zeisloft.
Crean has the same philosophy this time around.
“It’s much like what happened when James went out,” he said. “It takes some time to adjust when a guy is out, so you have to have more than one guy step up and fill that role.”
All season, Crean has given credit to his team’s individual improvements.
But after Iowa, Zeisloft and several of his teammates gave credit to their coaches.
“They’re always going to say that it’s the players that win these games, but really without them we’re nothing,” Zeisloft said. “They stuck with us, and we stuck with the process every single day, and those two things are why we’re here.”
