Tom Crean’s job security was in question as recently as Nov. 24. That’s when Eastern Washington came into Assembly Hall and edged the Hoosiers in front of a stunned home crowd. After an offseason defined by off the court trouble, it seemed like one more underwhelming campaign might be enough to finally turn speculation over Crean’s future into action.
Small ball offense is saving Tom Crean at Indiana
Nothing calms controversy like winning.
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The Hoosiers began the 2013-14 season needing to replace a pair of top-four NBA draft picks in Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller, but that team's Sweet 16 exit gave Crean little leeway for a rebuild within the fanbase. A 17-15 campaign followed with a young but talented team that saw its offensive efficiency crater from No. 3 the previous season to No. 127. Then the offseason started.
The trouble began in the spring when big man Hanner Mosquera-Perea was ticketed for drunk driving and star guard Yogi Ferrell and junior Stanford Robinson were busted for underaged drinking. Seven months later, Hoosiers forward Devin Davis was injured when freshman teammate Emmitt Holt hit him with his car as both players (under 21) had trace amounts of alcohol in their system. Two days later, Robinson and sophomore standout Troy Williams were suspended for four games after failing a drug test.
That home loss to Eastern Washington -- a Big Sky team that had finished under .500 the last seven seasons -- felt significant after such a problematic offseason. Fast forward exactly two months later and Eastern Washington is tied for the lead in its conference at 14-5 and Indiana is tied for the lead in the Big Ten at 15-4 overall and 5-1 in conference. How did we get here?
Thursday night's win over Maryland was the biggest W for Crean in some time. The Terrapins had become the consensus No. 2 in the Big Ten behind the conference's best defense, but the Hoosiers' five-out attack shredded it from from every corner of the floor. In their second game without starting big man Mosquera-Perea, who has been sidelined by a knee injury, Indiana rolled with 6'6 sophomore Collin Hartman at center. Instead of getting bullied inside, the Hoosiers controlled the tempo and spread the floor in a way that made them seem unguardable.
This game was billed as a meeting between two of the best freshman guards in the country in Maryland’s Melo Trimble and Indiana’s James Blackmon Jr., but there was no question which team had the superior backcourt on Thursday. Blackmon continued his terrific season with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting, while Ferrell hit 7-of-8 three-pointers to finish with 24 points. Hartman was in on the action, too, making all three of his attempts from deep. If only for a night, the Hoosiers’ wide-open, freewheeling style made them look like Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors had decided to don crimson and white.
As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. There's no one like Zeller here this year -- even with the 6'9 Mosquera-Perea, the front court is thin. Losing Noah Vonleh to the NBA draft lottery after only one season in Bloomington hurt, as did seeing three players -- Luke Fischer, Jeremy Hollowell and Austin Etherington -- transfer over the last 12 months.
What Crean has left is a collection of gunners and athletes who go against the Big Ten ideals of size, toughness and strength. Indiana can't play the physical brand of basketball that has come to define the conference, so it doesn't. Instead, Ferrell and Blackmon have the green light to fire at will. Blackmon is averaging 16.9 points per game -- only three Big Ten freshman guards since 1997-98 have done that. Michael Redd, Eric Gordon and current Ohio State freshman D'Angelo Russell make for nice company.
Williams is turning heads, too. He’s always been a tremendous athlete, and that’s manifested itself in numerous highlight reel plays this season. He’s averaging 13.5 points per game on over 58 percent shooting from the floor and is starting to pop up at the end of first round mock drafts. Freshman Robert Johnson -- another top 100 recruit -- is providing scoring punch off the bench, too.
The offense is back in order, up to No. 7 in the nation, per KenPom. It helps when you make 40.6 percent of your three-pointers as a team. The Hoosiers are deadly on spot-on opportunities, ranking in the 97 percentile nationally by scoring 1.13 points per possession. Blackmon, Ferrell, Johnson and Hartman are each considered “excellent” in such instances by ranking in the 83rd percentile or higher individually.
It’s tough to say “Indiana is back” when the defense only ranks No. 199 in the country. The lack of size is likely to doom the Hoosiers eventually. At the moment, though, that isn’t what’s important.
If nothing else, no one is calling for Steve Alford anymore -- the UCLA coach who has watched his Bruins unravel. Crean’s ability to adjust on the fly and maximize his talent has to count for something. There’s nothing that eases offseason tension quite like winning.
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