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Hovadipo

Official 2016-17 IUBB Preseason Thread

By Hovadipo, in Indiana Men's Basketball

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ElectricBoogaloo    4,307

ElectricBoogaloo
Posted

Did anyone see this Tom Crean Q&A summary on ITH?

http://www.insidethehall.com/2016/10/03/notes-and-quotes-from-tom-creans-friday-media-availability/

Doesn't sound like JBJ has progressed a whole lot:

Quote

On James Blackmon Jr. as he prepares for his junior season: “Making the game simple, him getting better at moving without the ball, him being ready to shoot. Not everybody coming out and trying to show how much better they are at the things that they’ve worked at because they are. I mean, we have added some real skill. I have no doubt. But now we’ve got to transfer it to live, right, and the best way to do that is to make it as simple as possible.”

Whenever I hear a coach talking about making things "simpler", I start to worry about that player.

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Stuhoo    80,889

Stuhoo
Posted
Did anyone see this Tom Crean Q&A summary on ITH?

http://www.insidethehall.com/2016/10/03/notes-and-quotes-from-tom-creans-friday-media-availability/

Doesn't sound like JBJ has progressed a whole lot:

On James Blackmon Jr. as he prepares for his junior season: “Making the game simple, him getting better at moving without the ball, him being ready to shoot. Not everybody coming out and trying to show how much better they are at the things that they’ve worked at because they are. I mean, we have added some real skill. I have no doubt. But now we’ve got to transfer it to live, right, and the best way to do that is to make it as simple as possible.”

Whenever I hear a coach talking about making things "simpler", I start to worry about that player.



I wouldn't worry yet. CTC is accurately identifying his past problems. He hasn't been cleared to play since then, so I think he is saying that the fixes for them are only "hopes" until we see them implemented on the court.

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Class of '66 Old Fart    84,774

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

From the Indiana Daily Student

Hartman's injury raises leadership question for IU

IU Coach Tom Crean was visually upset when talking about senior leader Collin Hartman. The ninth-year head coach got emotionally choked up when giving details about the injury his senior had sustained.

The 6-foot-7 forward went down more than a week ago in practice after suffering a left knee injury that required surgery in a non-contact drill. There’s no timetable set for Hartman’s return, so Crean now has to explore alternate leadership options for his 
inexperienced team.

“With Collin going down, it’s hard,” Crean said. “I just love that kid. That young guy was putting so much into getting ready to be our senior leader, and we’re going to need that right now. The level of toughness that he has is just incredible.”

With IU losing point guard Yogi Ferrell and four other seniors because of graduation and Troy Williams foregoing his senior year to enter the NBA draft, Hartman was the guy to turn to for the 2016-2017 IU men’s basketball team.

Hartman’s career statistics may not particularly blow anyone away. He averaged just five points a game last season, but he leads by his actions and toughness on the court.

The Carmel, Indiana, native played the final three games of the season in the NCAA tournament with a broken right wrist and was one of the Hoosiers’ most fundamentally sound players on the court.

“The only time he used his right hand before the North Carolina game was when they put the shot in him,” Crean said. “He does so many things for us with moving without the ball and making plays. We put together offensive and defensive concept tapes, not highlight tapes, and he’s probably 70 percent of the clips.”

Without Hartman, the junior guard combo of Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr. realistically makes the most sense for the Hoosiers to tap as on-court leaders.

Although Blackmon missed all of conference play last season due to knee surgery, he and Johnson are the only two upperclassmen, aside from Hartman, to see playing time in every game they were healthy for last year.

The two of them also spent the last two seasons learning leadership skills from Ferrell. They will look to lead this club, which has four transfers and four 
freshmen.

With IU starting official practice last Friday, Crean said he is excited to move forward with his young group of guys to build off of what the veterans like Ferrell, Williams, Max Bielfeldt and Nick Zeisloft did last year.

Crean said the only thing the team can do to get better, is by working with one another to have good team defense, move the ball quickly and the have the ability to move without the ball.

“The exciting part is that we get to keep building on that as we go,” Crean said. “I have no idea how many steps it’s going to take for us to get there and be good, but they’re there.”

As for Hartman, Crean and the Hoosiers will be there to support him in his recovery process to make sure he remains a leader and key part of the team, especially when he returns to the court.

“No matter what happens with this right now, I hope that he just continues to build that leadership and mindset that he can overcome anything and can bring a lot of value,” Crean said. “And at the same time we’re going to bring a lot of value to him in the sense of helping him through tough days.”

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Walking Boot of Doom    18,170

Walking Boot of Doom
Posted

Not sure I get the whole "leadership" questions with Hartman going down. TB pretty clearly is going to be a vocal leader. I think RoJo has a lot of valuable experience. And Hartman is still going to be in practice, in the gym, on the bench. I'm not getting caught up on it...

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HoosierAloha    30,068

HoosierAloha
Posted
Not sure I get the whole "leadership" questions with Hartman going down. TB pretty clearly is going to be a vocal leader. I think RoJo has a lot of valuable experience. And Hartman is still going to be in practice, in the gym, on the bench. I'm not getting caught up on it...


I believe in the article with Z3 getting a Pacers camp invite, he said RoJo went at everyone on practice last season. If that can be focused I'll be happy. JBJ seems like he's a CWat kind of leader. TB appears to be the vocal leader and enforcer. We have some good pieces.
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Class of '66 Old Fart    84,774

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

From Sports Illustrated which features a picture of JBJ: 

64 reasons to be excited for the 2016–17 college hoops season (Nos. 64–33)

 

55. James Blackmon is back

Blackmon only played in 13 games last season before he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee. But in those 13 games, he showed an improvement from his already excellent freshman season. He took more of the Hoosiers’ shots and possessions while improving his offensive rating and assist rate. Now that Indiana is without Troy Williams and Yogi Ferrell on the perimeter, Blackmon should have a green light to make plays and put up points. He’ll be helped by the continued growth of second-year big man Thomas Bryant and wing O.G. Anunoby.

List of #64 down to #33

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Class of '66 Old Fart    84,774

Class of '66 Old Fart
Posted

Another great piece of writing from Hutch at The Anderson Herald-Bulletin:  http://www.heraldbulletin.com/sports/thomas-bryant-s-vertical-has-improved-by-leaps-and-bounds/article_8a9ba44e-8c0e-11e6-bc48-970c904844c5.html

Thomas Bryant's vertical has improved by leaps and bounds

BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana University basketball team has been practicing for a week as it gets ready to open the season Nov. 11 in Honolulu against Kansas.

When IU coach Tom Crean met with the media recently to talk about personnel and what he hoped to get out of the first few weeks of practice, he passed on a little factoid about one of his best players, sophomore preseason All-America selection Thomas Bryant.

According to Crean, Bryant is literally jumping out of the gym.

“Thomas has really gotten better athletically,’’ Crean said. “At 14 months, or 14-and-a-half months, his vertical has gone up 13 inches, and I’ve never been around anybody who has done that. His squat has gone up almost 200 pounds since he got here last June. And one of the biggest areas of need for him were his feet and his lower body being stronger, and he’s well on his way to doing that.

“Now we have to apply it to the court where he actually has to go against other people, and that will happen no sooner than when we get to Hawaii, and he’ll have to deal with that right away.’’

Bryant didn’t get a great deal of an opportunity to go up against bigger bodies at IU in the summer time because so many of his teammates were out with injuries. OG Anunoby had a groin injury that limited his work. Juwan Morgan had offseason shoulder surgery. Collin Hartman had a hand injury, and then a week before camp started he suffered a knee injury that required surgery.

And IU’s top two big men in the incoming class stayed home for the summer working on academic issues and didn’t arrive in Bloomington until the day before school started in August.

“We didn’t have the guys who could go against Thomas this summer,’’ Crean said. “So we would tailor half of the week for Thomas just dealing with the strength coach hitting him with pads, the managers and the graduate managers swiping at the ball. We would have short verse workouts that were focused on his inside play and his ability to run out and set ball screens. Then the other times he was kind of in the mode with everybody else where he was working on his shooting, working on the ballhandling, working on the pick-and-roll and working on coming off screens.

“It was just completely training him like a guard which we did with Cody (Zeller) and we did with Noah (Vonleh) and like we want to do with him. The next step would be him guarding those people in the summer which has improved. But again it has improved in a half court, one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three situation, and now we have to see how it will transfer to the court in a five-on-five.’’

 

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