Have you ever counted to 30 seconds?
This is an odd question, but have you ever actually watched the second hand on a clock tick and tick until 30 seconds have passed?
Thirty seconds is a long time.
There’s a lot you can do in that span. You can take and send a selfie. You can cook “Minute Rice,” if you’re okay with it being half cooked. You can even watch the Pizza Rat YouTube video — twice.
You know what Bellarmine couldn’t do in 30 seconds? Take a shot.
In the first five minutes alone, IU forced two shot-clock violations.
The Hoosier defense set the tone early in a merciless 73-49 beatdown of Bellarmine.
The Knights moved horizontally more than vertically as they rarely got to the basket and had to settle for difficult long-range looks.
Their best player and Division II preseason All-American Rusty Troutman was suffocated by OG Anunoby’s shutdown defense and long arms — so much so that with just minutes left in the first half, he made his way to the nearest wastebasket to puke.
It may have been his best heave of the game.
Anunoby spearheaded the defense, but it was a team effort through and through.
“We just focused in on the defensive end because we know that Bellarmine has great players that can knock down really great shots,” sophomore center Thomas Bryant said. “We just wanted to keep them in front and make them work for everything that they had to do.”
When a player attacked the rim, the Hoosiers consistently had a player trap the ball down low, with the speed to get back to the three-point line to contest the shooters.
At game’s end, IU had 13 steals and three blocks, but those numbers don’t tell the entire story.
This is a squad that came into its own on the defensive end during last year’s Big Ten season. Its March Madness victory over Kentucky was purely due to the movement and athleticism on the defensive side.
Even though we’ve only seen a few exhibition games, IU Coach Tom Crean seems gung-ho on giving as many players — especially the freshmen — playing time while building a unit that relies on each other.
As a “positionless” roster, according to Crean, this squad has the flexibility to switch on the perimeter and in the post ensuring a tough matchup for any opponent. At the very least, IU’s opposition will have to work hard to get a shot off.
Crean spoke about the defensive effort in his postgame press conference. He made sure to focus on the amount of stops that the Hoosiers had to start the second half — six straight — and the 59 deflections that they had as a team.
“It’s real easy sometimes to come out in the second half and take the foot off the gas a little bit,” Crean said. “They never did that.”
Although a Division II school, Bellarmine’s offensive firepower has been otherworldly at times. Last season, they scored more than 80 points per game on 51.2 percent shooting. Against IU, they put up 49 points on 35.3 percent shooting. I’m not a mathematician, but that first set of numbers seems higher than the latter.
IU is not perfect. Their shooting is shaky at best right now. The starters and lineup have yet to be decided, and the leadership from last year needs to be replenished.
However, the team has already found a place to hang its hat — the defensive side of the ball. With Anunoby and Bryant anchoring the post and the guards able to switch consistently no matter the opponent, trying to score against the Hoosiers is going to be agony.
Defense wins championships and the hearts of the Hoosier faithful.
