Home court may be the greatest advantage in college basketball, and IU Coach Tom Crean said that atmosphere in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall makes it an incredibly hard place to play.
The IU men’s basketball team begins its regular season home slate Wednesday night against UMass Lowell from the America East Conference in the Indiana Classic. The classic will take place over the span of 11 days against four different teams.
After UMass Lowell, IU will play Liberty on Saturday at home. IU will travel to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to play IU-Purdue University Fort Wayne the following week before rounding out the classic at home against Mississippi Valley State.
Although these teams may be lower-profile than Kansas or North Carolina, which IU will face after the Indiana Classic, Crean said the fans need to come out to support his group this week.
“Right now we need to have an atmosphere that’s second-to-none on Wednesday and Saturday,” Crean said. “Once we hit that floor Wednesday, we need a fantastic crowd. The players are fun for me to be around, they care about each other, they’re working hard every day, and I think the more people around this team, the more they’re going to see that.”
UMass Lowell enters Wednesday night’s game with a record of 1-1 and can put up its fair share of points. Averaging more than 80 points per game in its first two contests, UMass Lowell knocked off Wagner University by double digits Monday after Wagner upset No. 18 Connecticut to begin the season.
The River Hawks are led by sophomore guard Isaac White and leading rebounder junior Jahad Thomas, and junior guard Matt Harris has contributed off the bench to lead UMass Lowell in scoring.
Crean said heading into this week there’s a long list of things IU can improve on both side of the ball after the Kansas victory.
The two main points for improvement he pointed out on defense were communication on screens and hand activity. Post offense and moving without the ball on the weak side were areas where the offense can improve.
“We need to be even more active with our hands,” Crean said. “Not that our deflection numbers, which were pretty high, were misleading, but we can get even more aggressive with our hands.”
IU forced 11 turnovers against Kansas in the season opener but also didn’t attempt a two-point shot until six minutes into the first half.
After IU defeated the No. 3 team in the country and moved up five spots in the polls, freshman forward De’Ron Davis said there’s no added anticipation to get back out on the court as he suits up for his first regular season game at home.
The Hoosiers have won 31 consecutive home openers, and, after going 17-0 at Assembly Hall a season ago, Crean said he loves the advantage his team has in Bloomington.
“It keeps our arena just an incredibly hard place for an opponent to come into, and we need to have that every night,” Crean said. “We don’t need to have that just when we know the other players names from their magazine covers or it’s a rivalry game, we need that every night, and that’s the key to our continued success at Indiana.”
