Margin of error is thin for Hoosiers
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Assistant Editor
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Nineteen days left in November, some 30 games to be played, and here was the reigning Big Ten regular-season titlist, on the outside of the national rankings, shooting 38 percent with 14 turnovers at home against an opponent from the obscure Northeast Conference.
Second game of the season for the Indiana Hoosiers: too close for comfort?
“We had some guys who learned the hard way the level of preparation you have to have,” coach Tom Crean said after the Hoosiers survived a completely unexpected test from LIU-Brooklyn with a 73-72, down-to-the-last-shot win in Assembly Hall that erased an early nine-point deficit.
“Even if we’d lost, there were experiences in there that were invaluable,” Crean said. “Tonight was a great learning experience in many ways. We don’t have a team of guys who have gone through close battles. We didn’t want it to be tonight. It was. It’s invaluable to have a game where guys can get this type of experience.”
It looked anything but invaluable when Indiana freshman Devin Davis, going to the line with 4.8 seconds left, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 while trying to close out a game that had swung the Hoosiers’ way in the second half. That’s when Blackbirds point guard Jason Brickman, deemed a near-superstar by Crean for his ability to control and take over games, snared a loose rebound and dribbled into a lengthy but unchallenged 3-point heave that barely grazed the net as the buzzer sounded.
“As many mistakes as we made, this team found a way to get over the top,” said Crean, who had oddly managed the stretch run by resting Yogi Ferrell for more than five minutes and sending out a small lineup for the biggest defensive possession, making it open season for the faction of fans who like to second-guess Indiana’s sixth-year coach, accomplished as he may be.
“When you’re playing as many young guys as we are, they’re going to make mistakes,” Crean said. “We’re not there yet. We haven’t had as much time in practice to get into the details because we’re still learning fundamentals. That’s on me.”
But Crean was spared a night of agonizing, thanks in part to a pair of guys who just played their first game for the Hoosiers four days ago.
One of them is Massachusetts export Noah Vonleh (pronounced Von-LAY, all of you television broadcasters who are sure to make garbled attempts at getting it right). His first two performances (highlighted by a combined 28 points and 25 rebounds) left little to be desired, and were even beyond the 2013 No. 13 recruit’s early expectations.
The other is Troy Williams, a Virginia native. He made three huge plays in succession with less than six minutes remaining. Williams tied the game with a 3 from the right corner, tied it again with a pretty one-handed jumper from the right baseline and then corralled a defensive rebound, one of his six boards overall. With nine points, Williams was the only supporting scorer behind Vonleh, Ferrell and Will Sheehey.
The difference in this one ultimately was a matter of volume. Indiana got off 71 shots to the Blackbirds’ 55, which stemmed from the Hoosiers winning the tussle for offensive rebounds 20-9. They had 16 second-chance points compared to nine for LIU-Brooklyn. That mattered because of how poorly the Hoosiers shot the ball when they got opportunities. Getting more opportunities was a necessity.
One reason the Blackbirds hung around was that Indiana’s bench was simply horrible, scoring just five points on 10 shots in addition to the 11 fouls and a 1-of-3 performance at the charity stripe in 65 minutes. On a night when LIU-Brooklyn reserve Troy Joseph was superb (16 points, six rebounds), it was a key factor in the close finish.
Coach Jack Perri had his defenders crowd the paint and overload the strong side in the first half, then morph into a zone look for the second that accomplished some of the same means with different ends. Those tactics put pressure on Indiana’s unproven shooters, who usually failed to deliver and finished 7-of-26 from behind the arc.
“We settled,” Crean said. “They had a lot of respect for our driving game, our post game. They didn’t have a lot of respect for our shooting. I don’t blame them.”
Brickman scrapped his way to 11 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. He just missed a challenged, driving layup in the final seconds. Davis rebounded and went to the line. When the Blackbirds fell just short of a magnificent road win, someone rubbed Brickman’s head, and Crean made an analogy to Ohio State star Aaron Craft.
“He almost got us,” Crean said of Brickman. “He wants to pick you apart with his passing. We over-helped. That young guy is trying to carve you up.”
Indiana, though, refused to turn into a turkey two weeks before Thanksgiving. As Crean put it, “Nobody got down.”
And Sheehey stepped up. He finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Nearly all of it came in the second half, when he could actually buy a bucket and willed himself to drive and pass instead of just firing up a shot every time he touched the ball.
“They were daring us to shoot,” Sheehey said. “We shot it, which is what you should do. The shots I took in the second half were a lot more open.”
Looking ahead, the Hoosiers can point to a few areas where they can reasonably expect to do better. Sixth man Evan Gordon will probably do better, the 3s will probably start falling more often (they’ve made only 21.1 percent, after being one of the country’s better 3-point shooting offenses two years running), and the defensive rotations will probably start clicking.
“I’m not concerned at all,” Ferrell said of the 3-point woes. “Maybe it was an off night. It’s a growing process.”
The end of that process is far off, and on Tuesday, in a situation that smacked of anything but fun, freshman hearts surely were racing as LIU-Brooklyn came oh-so-close to the unthinkable.
“I told them to stay together and take it possession by possession,” said Ferrell, a sophomore who qualifies as a wily veteran with this bunch. “I like how we kept coming back. It took a little poise on our end.”
Poise, indeed. Indiana’s current margin of error: It’s too close for comfort.
Follow Chris Goff on Twitter: chrisgoff_ISL.
