What to Watch For - Keys vs Creighton

The Indiana men’s basketball team (2-0) will host the Creighton Bluejays (2-0) tonight in a Gavitt Tipoff game. Creighton isn’t quite the same program since head coach Greg McDermott’s son, Doug, left for the NBA. Last year, the Bluejays were just 14-19. This season may not be that much better as they return only one starter in 6’10” forward Toby Hegner.

That doesn’t mean this game won’t be a challenge. Hegner may be the only returning starter, but this team has quite a lot of young talent and is adept at spacing the floor. Additionally, McDermott’s sixth squad at Creighton is very efficient and fast, averaging 1.226 points per possession, which on average lasted merely 12 seconds in their last game.

Make no mistake; this is not Eastern Illinois or Austin Peay. This will be the Hoosier’s last chance to prepare before the Maui Invitational where they will play some of the best teams in the nation. This game will give everyone a better opportunity to evaluate what needs the most work going forward. The key areas for Indiana’s game against Creighton are:

1) Indiana Setting the Pace

Another 20-turnover performance isn’t going to cut it in this game. The guards don’t need to play a perfect game, but they must control the speed. If they try to play Creighton’s style, which has allowed them to average 98 points per game this season, they run the risk of tiring out their limited big men and opening themselves up to potential foul trouble. Creighton has more post players and if IU has to rest their taller players for extended periods of the game, the Hoosiers will be relatively helpless down low. Indiana is good in transition, but they’ve already shown to be turnover prone this year, which is the exact opposite of Creighton, who have just 22 turnovers this year.

2) Play Sound Defense

This is probably going to be one of the keys you see a lot when previewing an IU game. It is common sense that defense needs to be good to win a lot of ball games, but for Indiana specifically that has been a struggle. There are definitely signs of progress on this front from last season, but giving up 76 points to Austin Peay isn’t confidence inspiring. Making Creighton work for their buckets as opposed to playing matador defense just to get the ball back will pay huge dividends. They don’t have to do anything fancy, just bring intensity and desire that Hoosier fans love so much.

3) Taking Advantage of Height

The Hoosiers don’t necessarily have a height advantage in this game – Creighton has quite a few bigs – definitely more than Indiana. Creighton however starts three players 6’3” or shorter so IU’s lineup of Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr., Troy Williams, Max Bielfeldt and Thomas Bryant compares to that quite favorably. Coach Tom Crean spoke to the need for rebounding to improve especially from the guard positions.

This is a game where there is no reason for them to not have a good performance. Of course, that is predicated on Bryant having a strong performance, as he will be needed to box out Creighton’s big men for the guards to crash the boards. Bryant got his feet wet in the first two games, but this will be his first legitimate competition as a college basketball player. He has to prove that he can play at a high level against Creighton, because in about a week he will be playing against the best of the best.

Over the next two weeks, after going through Duke and potentially Vanderbilt as well as Kansas, there will be a much clearer picture of if Indiana belongs among that best of the best category or if they are still chasing it.