ACC/Big10 Preview: Indiana Q&A with Mr. Terry Hutchens of the Indy Star‏

Mr. Hutchens covers the Indiana Hoosiers for The Indy Star.

You can find his work at:

http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/

Maryland will face the Hoosiers in Assembly Hall Tuesday night, as part of the ACC/Big10 Challenge. Baltimore Sports and Life thanks Mr. Hutchens for answering a few questions about Indiana.

Baltimore Sports and Life: “After the unfortunate situation that arose under former Head Coach Kelvin Sampson, the Indiana program was turned over to former Marquette Head Coach Tom Crean last-year.

Crean suffered through a 1-17 season in his return to the Big 10 (former Asst. Coach with Michigan State). In year two, Crean has brought in a 6 man recruiting class Rivals.com ranked 11th in the country, added a talented transfer in Jeremiah Rivers (Georgetown), and returns several players who had extended playing-time last year.

The talent-level obviously looks improved. Is the fan-base prepared for incremental improvement? Or does the fan-base see a program that is a 5x National Champion, and believe vast improvement needs to happen overnight?

I guess my real question is will Crean have the opportunity to see his vision through, or do you see Crean ultimately being forced out like Billy Gillispie was at Kentucky, while the Hoosiers go looking for their own version of John Calipari?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “I think Indiana is committed to Tom Crean and vice versa. There’s a 10-year contact in place but there’s some serious language in this one in terms of buyout penalties if either side opted to try to get out of the contract. If you listen to Tom Crean, there’s no doubt in his mind that this program will get back on its feet. But it’s not something that can happen over night. At programs like Kentucky, when Gillispie took over that was a completely different set of circumstances. There was still a nucleus in place to rebuild from. Indiana started completely over with Tom Crean. They had one returning scholarship player (Kyle Taber) and he had been a walk-on for the first three years he had been at Indiana. Beyond that they had one other walk-on (Brett Finkelmeier). That was it. They completely started over. And so last year was difficult and so will this season be I’m guessing. Indiana is still being picked ninth or 10th by just about everyone in the Big Ten. As for the IU fan base, it’s not a real patient group but I think people are OK with incremental improvement. I don’t think anyone expects them to get back to the NCAA Tournament this year. I think the most optimisic fans are hoping to be around 500 late and that the team would have a shot at the NIT. My preseason prediction was 12-18 but that was with the thought they would go 1-2 in Puerto Rico. So they’re going to have to steal one now that I wasn’t counting on before.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “The top two 2009 recruits were SF Christian Watsford, and SG Maurice Creek, who were both Top 60 National players. Each has received over 25 minutes a game during the first 5 games of the year, and are the 1st and 3rd leading scores on the team.
What immediately jumps out to you about their games? Who else stands out for you in the freshman class?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “The thing that both Watford and Creek bring to the table that wasn’t here before is athleticism and guys who can get to the rim. They are playmakers. Creek is a guy who is always around the ball. He’s a good shooter but he does have some lapses where he disappears a little bit. Watford needs to bulk up a little bit but has shown some good signs. Derek Elston has been the most surprising member of that class. He’s the sixth or seventh man ran now and is giving them good minutes in the front court off the bench. Jordan Hulls was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball and is a hometown boy from Bloomington. I’m not sure he has completely acclimated himself to the college game but he’s starting to show signs of good things. He’s a good shooter and he’s the IU point guard of the future. He chose Indiana after beginning to get interest from Duke. Bobby Capobianco will give them help in the front court. He’s a banger and someone who will share minutes with Tom Pritchard up front. Bawa Muniru is a kid that was just given his academic clearance a week before the exhibition games and he’s slowly getting up to speed. I wouldn’t expect to see him a lot against Maryland but maybe by the time the Big Ten season rolls around he could be getting some minutes. He has the one intangible that you can’t coach: He’s 6-11.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “Devan Dumes is a SR Guard averaging 13.8 minutes, and 3.6 points after a JR season where he averaged 27.9 minutes, and 12.7 points a game. Pritchard is a Soph Forward averaging 18.4 minutes, and 5.2 points after a Freshman season where he averaged 29 minutes, and 9.7 points a game. Have these two players bought into this drastic reduction of playing-time? After a 1 win conference season, is everyone on the same ‘team first’ page?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “What Indiana has this year that it didn’t have last year is competition at every position. Last year, as Crean has said over and over recently, the players could all work as hard as they wanted but they had to play by necessity. Anyone capable of playing got minutes. That’s not the case anymore. Now you’ve got Jeremiah Rivers, Jordan Hulls and Verdell Jones III competing for minutes at the point guard. You’ve got Jones, Creek and Dumes competing hard at the shooting guard. The same is true at each of the other positions. And so I don’t think it’s a case of being on the “team first” page but rather it’s just a matter of learning what you need to do to get playing time and then making the most of it when you get it. Pritchard’s reduction in minutes is a little bit misleading, too, because his problem is he can’t stay out of foul trouble and has had a lot of pine time because of that. Dumes is still recovering from offeeason surgery and doesn’t look 100 percent yet.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “One returning player who has not seen his time reduced, is 6’5 Sophomore Guard Verdell Jones. Jones is averaging 12.2 Field Goal Attempts per game, and 13.2 points. Where can he improve?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “Verdell Jones III needs to be a better decision-maker in the open court. He tends to turn the ball over way too much and gets caught trying to do too much and make the difficult pass rather than the better one that is available. But ever since about midway through the Big Ten season last year Jones has really come on and has been one of IU’s most consistent players.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “The aforementioned transfer Rivers seems to be making an impact. He didn’t score a lot at Georgetown, but he did have 68 games of playing experience under his belt. The JR Guard is averaging 8.8 points a game, and has 3 games of at-least 9 points, and 6 rebounds. Is he a ‘glue-guy,’ type of player?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “Absolutely. He’s another one that sometimes tries to do too much but he’s quickly become the leader on this team and is a guy the younger players look up to. I think he’s a completely different player than he was at Georgetown, and Indiana, and specifically Tom Crean’s system, seems to be to Rivers’ liking.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “After starting the season 2-0, Indiana lost 3 consecutive games in Puerto Rico. There is no shame in losing to an SEC team like Mississippi. There is even no shame in losing to the Colonial’s George Mason who had already pushed Villanova, and Georgia Tech this year. I am surprised to see that Indiana not only lost to Boston University, but were dominated on the boards (46-31) by the American East team. How did the Terriers manage to get to the foul-line 40 times?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “Indiana is a work in progress. They led that game almost the entire way but just let Boston hang around too long. The Terriers were 1-of-11 from 3-point range for the first 38 and a half minutes and then hit their final two in crunch time and that was the difference. And a young team seemed to fold a little bit under pressure. But that’s just experience. I’m guessing losing to a team like that will add to IU’s experience. Someone said after that game that they though it was IU’s worst loss in history falling to Boston University. History is a long time and people shouldn’t forget that. And I happen to remember a loss to Lipscomb last season at Assembly Hall that was particularly troubling, too.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “In Maui, both Cincinnati and Wisconsin packed their defense in, and dared Maryland to shoot. I imagine Indiana will have a similar approach. In-turn, the Terps will be attempting to press Indiana, and get the game into an up and down the court affair. How confident is Coach Crean with his PG play? How would you attack the Hoosiers?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “I would pressure IU and try to force the younger players into making mistakes. I would be very physical with them and see how they respond. And I wouldn’t be afraid to foul them and put them on the line as Indiana shot 59.2 percent from the line the first five games. That said, it will be a raucous atmosphere in Assembly Hall and sometimes that can be the great neutralizer. I expect a pretty good game to tell you the truth.”

Baltimore Sports and Life: “The ACC is 10-0 in the ACC/Big 10 challenge, including a 62-35 record overall. The only Big10 team with a winning record in the event is Michigan State at 5-4. This year though, the Big 10 currently has 6 teams ranked in the Top 25, and Wisconsin certainly also looked capable of that level against the Terps. Will the Big10 put their first win on the board?”

Mr. Terry Hutchens: “Tough call. There have been other years when I thought the Big Ten might win the series, too, but something always went the other way. I would like to see the ACC-Big Ten Challenge be more of a clash between teams ranked close to each other from year to year in the conference standings rather than the current setup which is clearly just with ratings in mind. IU plays a high level opponent every year regardless of its record. Last year IU was picked last in the Big Ten and played at Wake Forest. This year IU is picked 10th and plays Maryland. But that’s the nature of the beast when you’re a top notch program that has taken a slip in recent years. So I guess I really don’t know but I do expect the Big Ten to be more competitive than it has been in the past.”