The best way to preview this IU-Kansas college basketball matchup is with a look at the NBA.
Stick with me for a second. I think I know what I’m doing.
On Nov. 9, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks squared off in Madison Square Garden for what turned out to be a pretty interesting contest. The Knicks won 110-96 thanks to a 38-point drubbing in the final quarter.
We could talk about New York’s improved defense, Carmelo Anthony’s resurgence or Brooklyn’s shoddy play to end the game, but since this is Indiana, so we must reference the fact former IU point guard Yogi Ferrell played his first NBA game.
He was called up to the big leagues, signed by the Nets on the same day of his premiere game. He put up five points with three assists and one rebound.
The Hoosiers’ chief guard of the last four years is gone, on to greener pastures. This Friday against Kansas will be IU’s first real test without him.
This — the 2016-17 season — will be a new era for the Hoosiers, a Yogi-less one. And the newfangled backcourt is going to have to find their groove, and quick, if they’re going to beat the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks.
Led by guards Devonté Graham and Frank Mason III, who make up two of the four guards on the All-Big 12 Team, the Jayhawks’ backcourt is one of the more intimidating in all of college basketball.
This may be too hot of a take, but Bellarmine University and Hope College — IU’s first two exhibitions — are not Kansas. Let’s take a second to allow that to cool down.
What will make or break the Hoosiers, especially early on in the season, is their backcourt play. In the most recent game against Bellarmine, IU started three guards: junior Josh Newkirk, junior James Blackmon Jr. and junior Robert Johnson.
This team will not have a ball-dominant playmaker like Ferrell, but that may be the best thing for the Hoosiers in the long term. The reliance on Ferrell to make plays was sometimes reminiscent of movies with Leonardo DiCaprio. Just throw him in there, put some old clothes on him and get out of the way.
Now the Hoosiers will have to distribute the ball, especially against a top-team like the Jayhawks.
This must be a team effort. That’s my expert analysis.
“Their point guard is going to have to be by committee where they can pass the ball ahead,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said in reference to IU’s guard play. “The ball can’t just stick in one guy’s hands and have him run everything. It looks like they’re doing a good job of that.”
What we have here is one resolute force — Kansas’s backcourt — and one question mark — IU’s. There’s a sense of optimism, as with this question mark comes a high ceiling, but as we saw with the losses to unranked St. John’s and UNLV, not everything comes into place right away.
IU didn’t pull any punches with their early schedule.
With Kansas on Friday and No. 6 North Carolina rapidly approaching, the Hoosiers must find a guard combination to pair with OG Anunoby and Thomas Bryant.
If not ... dear guard.
