Rush The Court

Indiana was routinely called to task last season (mainly by Dan Dakich) for playing an underwhelming non-conference schedule. There was some evidence that loading up on cupcakes seemed to hurt the Hoosiers, as they clearly weren’t ready for the arduous nature of the Big Ten slate once conference play started. This season Tom Crean’s team is challenging itself by taking on SMU tonight in Assembly Hall. The Mustangs are coming off a beatdown at the hands of Gonzaga in Spokane, but bring excellent size and experience to Bloomington.

Here’s how the Hoosiers can get a quality non-conference win tonight:

• Keep up the Hot Three-Point Shooting: The Hoosiers have started the season shooting the deep ball at an insane 21-of-38 clip (55.3%). Gonzaga overwhelmed SMU on Monday night with size in its 72-56 win, but the Zags also hit 10 three-pointers to create some distance. Indiana has similar weaponry on the perimeter with its trio of Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr., and Robert Johnson, and will have to get by with what they’ve been doing in their first two wins– primarily spreading the floor with shooters, using the drive-and-kick game, and getting out in transition. As always with Indiana, turnovers will be a key. If the Hoosiers get too sloppy, SMU has the ability to take advantage of those opportunities.

• Win the Point Guard Battle: Ferrell facing Nic Moore will be a great test for the junior floor general. Moore is one of the best guards in the AAC, and is coming off a game where Gonzaga’s Kevin Pangos clearly got the best of him. They’re both similar in that they’re under six feet tall and like to use their quickness to get into the lane. Moore is off to something of a slow start this year (8.0 PPG on 33.3% shooting), so he’d like nothing more than to get his team a nice road victory while proving himself against one of the best point guards in the B1G.
• Survive SMU’s Inside Advantage: With Ben Moore, Yanick Moreira, and Cannen Cunningham, SMU has a legitimate size advantage over the Hoosiers. Hanner Mosquera-Perea has been excellent so far, but he has to stay out of foul trouble. Indiana could play zone to prevent that, but they weren’t very good against Texas Southern on the possessions where they went to a 2/3. Having Troy Williams back should help a little, but he will be giving up size to these three as well. Look for freshman Tim Priller to get some extended time if Larry Brown’s squad is scoring too easily in the paint. Aside from figuring out a way to clone Mosquera-Perea, this could be Indiana’s only option defensively if SMU is scoring easily inside.
• Hope Tom Crean Doesn’t Get Too Cute: Crean’s game strategies have been questioned in the past, and last season there were times when he made some head-scratching decisions in terms of how he managed his bench. The Hoosiers have to stick to what they’ve been doing so far on offense. If Blackmon Jr., Johnson, and Nick Zeisloft are playing well, keep them on the floor. Crean only played nine guys on Monday night, simply because he didn’t have more options. This is a big game for both teams in the non-conference slate, so now isn’t the time to try to force Williams and Stanford Robinson back into the mix if it doesn’t give them a chance to win.