Throughout the 2016-17 NCAA basketball season, the IU men’s basketball team has struggled to find its identity.
There have been highs, such as the Kansas and North Carolina wins, but there have been many more lows, like the Fort Wayne loss and the entire Big Ten regular season, that are making the good moments for IU fans seem like ages ago.
Because of the Hoosiers’ subpar performance in conference season that resulted in a 7-11 Big Ten record, IU will be the No. 10 seed this week at the Big Ten tournament and opens up play 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Washington, D.C., against No. 7 seed Iowa.
In November, that wasn’t not exactly how the Hoosiers expected their regular season to end.
The Big Ten season started out poorly for IU, which saw its 26-game home win streak snapped against a Nebraska squad that was just 6-6 at the time.
“We didn’t challenge shots enough,” Crean said after the Dec. 28 loss to Nebraska. “Made some turnovers that we just can’t make. And it’s hard to get across to any team, but especially when you get into league play when it’s magnified so much is the mental errors, and we had too many of them tonight.”
And yet, after the 18-game conference schedule, nothing changed. IU finished dead last in the Big Ten in scoring defense and offensive turnovers. The Hoosiers allowed 78 points and turned the ball over 15 times per game this season.
In the last four games, IU is 2-2 with wins against Northwestern and Ohio State and losses at Iowa and Purdue. In each of those games the Hoosiers had a different identity.
Against Iowa, IU blew a 13-point first half lead, turned the ball over down the stretch and didn’t get to the free throw line enough before ultimately losing in overtime. The Hoosiers used a 22-0 run against Northwestern to go up 10 at halftime before promptly letting the lead slip in the second half. It took IU executing in the final minutes of the game to pull out a 1-point win.
Eleven first half turnovers against the Boilermakers cost the Hoosiers, who fell into a hole and weren’t ever able to escape. On Saturday against Ohio State, IU shot 64 percent in the first half to grab a 14-point lead before watching its defense crumble. The Hoosiers even fell behind in the second half, but their hot shooting returned and produced 96 points in a shootout victory.
Crean said the most important thing about his group is that the players don’t get their heads down.
“We’ve had so many close games, including the one at Iowa, and they may be dejected for a bit, they may be disappointed, but they don’t let discouragement kick in,” Crean said on a Big Ten media teleconference Monday morning. “I think all of these close games have helped us because they don’t really flinch.”
Fouls were another main issue for IU throughout the conference calendar. Important members of the Hoosier frontcourt, such as sophomore forwards Thomas Bryant and Juwan Morgan or freshman forward De’Ron Davis, often got into foul trouble early in games, which sent opponents to the foul line and limited the minutes of the IU big men.
In the last seven games, IU has five losses. In those five losses at least one Hoosier fouled out. In the two games that IU won, nobody in cream and crimson finished with five fouls.
Crean said on the teleconference that once the Hoosiers get a step ahead on defense they will not foul as much. He measures and evaluates his team based on its improvement, he said.
“That’s what we try to stay as focused on as we possibly can through everything even in game planning, preparation and film work of past games and future games it still always comes down to a level of improvement,” Crean said. “That’s really what the focus is and they’re well aware of what time of year it is and where we’re going.”
After the Big Ten-opening Nebraska game, Crean wanted to see improvement from his team.
Now, at the end of the regular season he still wants those same aspects to be improved upon.
The last chance for IU to make the NCAA Tournament is to win the Big Ten tournament this week. Crean and the Hoosiers will find out quickly if they’ve improved enough on the little things to give them a chance in Washington, D.C.
Now is the time to see if IU can find its identity.
