Gordon improving his element in team chemistry
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Assistant Editor
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Crean wanted senior transfer Evan Gordon to help meld the Indiana Hoosiers’ chemistry.
Nine games in, it seems like Gordon is growing into his niche.
Gordon has been up and down in terms of fitting into what the Hoosiers want to do on offense. Lately, he had been overly passive.
That changed on Saturday as Gordon scored 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting in 19 minutes to help the Hoosiers overwhelm sluggish North Florida.
“He’s always comfortable,” Austin Etherington said of Gordon, who scored in double digits for the first time in five games. “Happened to be tonight where he got the points.”
With Gordon playing so well, the Hoosiers got a glimpse of the reserve group of Gordon, Etherington, Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Stanford Robinson at its best.
On Saturday night, that energetic quartet scored 17 of the Hoosiers’ 52 points in the first half as the Hoosiers began ripping the game away from the Ospreys.
For Gordon, what happened Saturday night was a relief of sorts.
Since he arrived at Indiana, Gordon has realized he wished he had been a Hoosier from the very beginning. It obviously hasn’t been a fairytale start, but thanks in part to Gordon’s three years of play at Liberty and Arizona State, he has the moxie to allow things to come together.
“I think I’ve been comfortable since the start of the season, I always had a deep love for IU,” Gordon said. “Coach Crean expects a lot from us early. He looks at me for leadership. Me having just come here and having to be a leader, it was kind of hard to put both together. Now I can help the guys out and help use my maturity. Just happened to be a good night, and I knocked down some shots. Our team shared the ball.”
Entering play Saturday, the Hoosiers had outscored opponents by an average of 20.1 points per 40 minutes with Gordon on the floor, a sign of his brewing cohesion in different lineups.
“Coach preaches a lot of teams don’t have a bench they can go to so if we come in with a strong bench, then that’s like having five more starters back on the floor,” said Robinson, who had six points and a season-high eight rebounds in 17 minutes.
Gordon has made a committed effort to drive the ball from the wing, which allows Robinson and starting point guard Yogi Ferrell to work more as the ball handlers in pick-and-rolls up top. It also benefits Indiana’s shaky spacing when Gordon draws the attention of defenders in the lane.
“Oh, very much so, when those things are happening, when Evan’s aggressive like he was, that can only help us,” Crean said after his team won for the seventh time in nine games this season. “When guys are really bringing their strengths to the table and they’re influencing each other’s strengths because of it, that’s a good thing.”
Will Gordon score big more frequently in the future? That’s a topic for another time.
For now, Gordon’s accepted his role off the bench with the greater good in mind.
“I was open: It’s not going to be like tonight every night, but tonight’s mine,” Gordon said. “I had to make sure I knocked down the shots. We’re the (reigning) Big Ten (regular season) champs. Generally, I’ll just help out wherever the team needs me.”
Follow Chris Goff on Twitter: chrisgoff_ISL.
