Hoosiers Notebook: Yogi feasting late
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Editor
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Yogi Ferrell, the Big Ten’s third-leading scorer, has been ineffective lately at the start of games, and then going to work later on. It was the same story Sunday: He shot 0-for-2 in the opening half and then finished with a team-high 17 points as the Hoosiers defeated Illinois.
After the game, Ferrell admitted that he picks his spots, and it turns out his lack of initial production isn’t from passivity.
“I know I had a bunch of turnovers at the beginning of the game, they kind of boxed me in a little bit,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell said he doesn’t want to be overly patient during slow starts because it’s better “to push and kind of just play really.” Interestingly, when Ferrell spoke in preseason practice about his out-of-the-blocks dominance of James Madison in the 2013 NCAA tournament, Ferrell hinted at a more frequent appearance of “the way I came out” that day, meaning with a lot of energy and intent to score. Ferrell had 14 points in the first six minutes of that 83-62 victory.
But now, he said, “I pretty much just drive.”
“Pretty much kick and let the guys feed,” he said. “Swing the ball, look for open shots.”
Illinois coach John Groce left Assembly Hall saying, with a grimace, “Ferrell imposed his will against us in the second half.”
In addition, Tom Crean has experimented recently with a new starting lineup. He went to Stanford Robinson two games ago — after his breakout showing against Wisconsin — easing some of the shot creation burden on Ferrell’s shoulders. That’s altered the formula in the first stages of the game.
“Get to the rim just as well as I do,” Robinson said. “Getting to the rim is a fun thing to do. It lifts me up, and I think it lifts my teammates up too.”
ETH’S BEST: Austin Etherington had a good afternoon on Sunday.
Coming off the first start of his career, the sophomore returned to the second unit and poured in a season-high seven points on 2-for-4 shooting in a career-high 21 minutes. He had all of his points in the first half, all in a span of less than four minutes, capped by two free throws with 10:33 left to give the Hoosiers a five-point lead. Afterward, he credited teammates for allowing him to focus on simply playing hard.
“I know that my role is to come in and try to bring as much energy as I can to the game,” he said. “You know, sometimes right after the start, it’s like a slow game at some point. So I just come in and play with heart and try to feed some energy to these guys. These guys had a great game. So it looks like it worked.”
EVAN’S TEST: Evan Gordon is in the midst of a miserable shooting slump.
The Hoosiers’ sixth man missed all five of his attempts on Sunday against the Illini.
In all, he’s missed 37 of his last 52 shots.
HOWARD EARNING TRUST: Crean was impressed by Jeff Howard’s play on Sunday.
The Hoosiers big man finished with two points, a rebound and an assist in 14 minutes, but many of his defensive contributions won’t show up in the box score. Howard was on the floor from the 9:52 mark of the second half until 4:07 remained in the game, a sign that Crean is confident in the former walk-on’s progression from benchwarmer to rotation piece.
He had a big tip-in with a little under six minutes to play to give Indiana a nine-point lead and force Groce into a timeout.
“Really didn’t play for three years, now playing in key moments,” Crean said.
Follow Chris Goff on Twitter: chrisgoff_ISL.
