What To Watch For - Indiana vs. EIU

When the Indiana Hoosiers open their 2015-2016 men’s basketball season they will host the Eastern Illinois Panthers on Friday the 13^th of November. Friday the 13^th has become synonymous with bad luck and it would take an awful lot of that for them to drop this game. If IU simply plays its style it should start head coach Tom Crean’s eighth season in Bloomington with a victory.

The No. 15 ranked team in college basketball will almost undoubtedly be overwhelming for an EIU team that has been projected to finish in middle of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Panthers have some talent in Cornell Johnston, the 5’7” sophomore guard who was last year’s OVC Freshman of the Year and senior wing Trae Anderson who averaged 13.2 points per game last season, but on paper this EIU team is outmatched across the board by a team that features a number of excellent players.

Eastern Illinois is a mid major with a roster that has very little college basketball experience. IU is a group led by a battletested backcourt that has big aspirations to play well into March Madness. This game will serve the Hoosiers as another opportunity to tune up before their Maui Invitational appearance later this month. Through two exhibition games it is pretty clear that there is plenty of room for improvement on this team. While the team will look to grow in all categories, these are the key areas to watch for in Indiana’s season opener:

1. Can the frontcourt dominate an inferior opponent?

Freshman center Thomas Bryant has taken the court at Assembly Hall four times in front of fans- at Hoosier Hysteria, Haunted Hall of Hoops, vs. Ottawa, and vs. Bellarmine. In each of his four performances, fans have seen the good and the bad of his game. While Bryant is certainly an upgrade from what fans saw in last year’s frontcourt, he is only a freshman. Michigan transfer Max Bielfeldt has joined the team, but as a career reserve, he never put up too great of numbers in the Big 10, so how much can fans realistically expect him to add? The team will obviously progress as the season goes on – if they peak now this will be a very disappointing campaign – but it would go a long way in making fans feel better if the front court could have a similar performance to Ottawa where they outrebounded the Gee-Gees 46 to 34. If Indiana is going to have the type of year fans hope for, their big men have to play well enough against much higher levels of competition than EIU.

2. Is decision making in the backcourt improved?

Indiana turned the ball over 19 times against Ottawa. They can get away with that against a Canadian team, but stiffer competition will take advantage of that. The Hoosiers improved that figure against Bellarmine and only turned it over 13 times. That is a lot better, but IU also looked pretty poor in the second half of that exhibition. Senior Yogi Ferrell will likely split ball-handling duties with James Blackmon Jr. and Troy Williams this season. The decision making of Indiana’s new ball handlers will be key in the success of this year’s squad. No team can afford to squander possessions, especially not one with a questionable defensive identity. Which leads to the next key...

3. Which defense shows up?

It was the storyline all of last season. How good would Indiana be if they played a lick of defense? The 42 point second half they allowed to Division II Bellarmine isn’t exactly confidence inspiring for Hoosier fans. But there has been stretches this preseason where the team showed an awful lot of improvement on the defensive end, even forcing a shot clock violation - something last year’s team may have never heard about. Crean has said his lineups will vary this year based on matchups- lets see how effectively Indiana can exploit them.

As far as keys to this game, Indiana must simply do what they do well. That will likely be enough for them to win on Friday. These specific areas are where there is a lot of doubt and plenty of room for improvement based on what we’ve seen to date.

It’s inevitable that the Indiana men’s basketball team we see come March will be a lot different than the one that trots out onto McCracken court in Assembly Hall on Friday.