The Skinny on Indiana

INDIANA HOOSIERS

Get ready for the New Hoosier Revolution coming outta Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana! Head Coach, Tom Crean will reap the rewards of the 3 years of rebuilding the Indiana Hoosiers back into a national powerhouse. Not since 2008 with the debacle that Calvin Sampson put Indiana through has the Hoosiers seen such big names in the program as top 10 national recruit, F Cody Zeller.

Before we go on further, it hasn't been since the early 2000's that Indiana has had top recruits enter Bloomington like they do in Lexington, Chapel Hill and Durham year in and year out.

One could make a theory that the success that Purdue and Butler have had in the past decade has been due to Indiana's slow demise since Bobby Knight's departure in 2000, by taking advantage of the high school hotbed of Indiana and taking recruits that in years past would have signed with Indiana.

Back in 2008, Butler freshman, Gordon Hayward was reportedly originally committed to Purdue but eventually chose Butler due to the killer recruits they had in E'Twaun Moore, JuJuan Johnson and Robbie Hummel. There was not enough touches to go around, and hence Gordan went to Gene Hackman Court in Hinkle Fieldhouse leading Butler to their first National Championship title game in 2009.

If this occurred 15 years earlier, Hayward would probably have signed with Purdue, as Moore, Johnson and Hummel would most likely have signed with Indiana. Purdue was Indiana's sloppy seconds over the years, but now with the demise of Indiana, Purdue moved up one spot over Indiana as the top program in Indiana and the Butler took over as the "Sean Avery Sloppy Seconds" program of the state of Indiana.

The re-emergence of Indiana will truly test Butler's place at the table and see if Brad Steven's Bulldogs program can compete on the recruiting trail. Stevens can coach, there's no question, but his commitment to Butler may be short-lived as Tom Crean's signing of Cody Zeller could put an end to Butler's recent recruiting coups.

Forward, Cody Zeller is the real deal. He is composed and intelligent. He has great foot-work in the post and will run the lanes on the fast break for the entire 40 minutes. He is a great focal point for the Hoosiers offence as Crean has the majority of offensive sets go through the Zeller highway toll booth. This is no shock to Indiana's offence as Crean has instilled Coach Norman Dale's "minimum of four passes" philosophy. Right now, it's tough to see any huge weakness in Zeller's game as he is quite composed beyond his years. Despite his maturity, he could get out-muscled in the blocks by a hulking defender, but this will be negated by Zeller beating that defender down the court on the transition. Yeah I'm looking in your direction Jared Sullinger! I can't wait for that match-up.

Crean has used the past 3 years to rebuild the program the right way with heavy loss seasons, but the development of the following players have helped form the surprising depth of the Hoosier roster.

The guards are set with JR. PG Jordan Hullis pushing the ball up constantly as Crean is pushing the transition game this year more than ever. SR. G Verdell Jones III may not take the ball up the court ala Hullis, but his passing within the half court set has him leading the team in dimes (4.6 assists per game) even above Hullis (3.2 assists per game). The Hoosiers as a whole drop assists in the majority of their scores making it tough to defend them in transition or the half court set.

Soph. G Victor Oladipo is playing great from the wing with his athletic drives to the hoop while playing great one-on-one defence vs the opposing teams top scorer usually. He is still an untapped talent, which makes him a scary commodity once he realizes his potential. He can play well away from the ball, making it easy for Hullis to find him on the break as Victor spaces himself well enough to get open looks under the hoop or from the baseline.

The depth at forward centred around Zeller is soldified with Jr. Christian Watford, Soph. Will Sheehy and Jr. Derek Elston. Watford has some wing span to get off any shot within 10-12 feet of the hoop. Will Sheehy is deceptively fast with an Indiana farmboy jumper ala Jimmy "I can make it" Chitwood. In their game vs. Evansville last week, Sheehy dee'd up Evansville's top scorer very effectively giving Oladipo a break from doing the bang up job one-on one that he was doing. Elston is a big body, still pretty raw, but there will be no digression when he's on the floor giving the other forwards a rest. He will offer the necessary spark a 7th-8th man is supposed to.

Indiana has an under-rated pressure defence that fuels their transition game. They force turnovers above the 3 point line giving pick-six-type easy lay-ups. They will struggle at times with their 3's, but they are less reliant this year on the 3 as in the past couple seasons now with Zeller occupying the paint.

The Hoosiers lack overall size, so they will have games where they struggle getting Zeller the ball. But another strength of Zeller's is his free throw shooting, and Indiana's aggressiveness to to the hoop leads to easy hoops and more trips to the charity stripes. Those easy points add up and will negate any size difference the Hoosiers may be susceptible to.

The emergence of UNC and Kentucky as the top teams in the country this season via their track meet fast breaks makes Indiana's emergence even more likely as they do have fire to fight a Tar Heel or Wildcat fire. This will make Indiana's match up vs. the Jared Sullinger led Ohio State Buckeyes on New Year's Eve an event that could rival that of the UFC pay-per-view that night.

It's been a long decade for the Hoosier nation, and this year could be the first time that the Indiana campus in Bloomington indeed, finally party like it's 1999!