Accountability and intensity are the new norms found during IU men’s basketball practice.
Senior forward Juwan Morgan said there wasn’t a defining moment for the team beyond a simple lack of competitiveness. The red team had won six or seven practice segments in a row, and the locker room discussion that followed the next day bred a new sense of competitiveness among the Hoosiers.
“After that practice were just ultra-competitive, like nobody wanted to lose, nobody wanted to run,” Morgan said. “It was just something that just happened.”
While the shift in practice mentality took place during the past couple of weeks for IU, it took until Tuesday night’s home upset win against No. 19 Wisconsin for it to show on the scoreboard. But it remains to be seen if it will continue during Saturday afternoon’s home game against No. 6 Michigan State.
“Building off the momentum that we got against Wisconsin, being able to finish a hard-fought game, should give us a positive balance,” Miller said. “You want to get that pressure sort of off your shoulders as a player, as a coach, whatever, as a team, where you’re coaching and practicing, and you’re playing without distraction.”
Some of the distractions during IU’s run in conference play included being unable to string together wins after its Feb. 2 win at Michigan State. The last time the Hoosiers won at least two games in a row was from Dec. 1 to Jan. 3, when IU went on a seven-game winning streak.
“I think a big thing winning consecutive games, or however, you want to stretch it, you’ve got to be able to score the basketball at some point,” Miller said. “You’ve got to be able to use your defense hopefully to create some offense at times.”
In order for the Wisconsin win to not become another isolated triumph for IU, Miller said IU must play with the same mentality from the first matchup against the Spartans.
“You can’t worry about anything else other than trying to play hard and playing to win,” Miller said. “Usually good things will happen if you have that type of a mindset.”
This is where the increased effort level in practice could serve IU well. Miller said the accountability toward having higher energy levels in recent practices has been led by the players, not the coaching staff.
“Players gotta do it,” Miller said. “That’s the accountability that we’ve been asking for here the last three weeks is for those guys to hold each other accountable, from Juwan all the way down.”
The hope for Miller is the player-led refocusing will lead to repeated success.
Following a Jan. 3 win against Illinois in Bloomington, IU lost five straight home games prior to Tuesday’s victory. This stretch remains the only blemish on IU’s home record this season, as the Hoosiers are 11-5 inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
IU’s postseason hopes would receive a boost by winning both games against Michigan State. The February win in East Lansing, Michigan, was supposed to be the catalyst for IU’s regular season turnaround, and it still may prove to be so, if IU is able to use its newfound focus to maximum effect.
“I just think right now there’s a different type of a focus,” Miller said. “There’s a different type of accountability on what we’re doing every day. That’s the change that needed to happen.”
