Quinn Casteel
Assistant Sports Editor
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ANALYSIS/OPINION
PORTLAND, Ore.– If you look beyond the outlandish peppermint-striped warm-up pants, five NCAA Championships and 111 years of basketball tradition, the Indiana Hoosiers are little more than a glorified version of Wichita State.
Indiana has one of the great basketball traditions in the entire country, but rich program history should not be confused with how good the team is today, as VCU prepares to face the Hoosiers in Saturday’s third round NCAA Tournament game.
Indiana hasn’t had a share of a Big Ten title since 2001-2002. Under current head coach Tom Crean, Indiana has finished 11th, 9th, 11th and 5th in the conference. After going a combined 28-72 in his first three seasons with the team, Crean led them to a 26-8 record this season, going 11-7 in the Big Ten.
Just like VCU’s second round opponent Wichita State, Indiana scores about 77 points per game which ranks 19th in the country. Its field goal percentage is 48.5 percent, which is ninth in the nation. Those are impressive statistics, so much that without even seeing them play, you know that they’re a special offense. And not only are they talented with the ball in their hands, they’re big. The Hoosiers’ two leading scorers, Cody Zeller and Christian Watford, are 6-foot-11 and 6-foot-9, respectively.
However, as VCU found with Wichita State, who ranks equally high in both stats (15th in points per game, 13th in team shooting percentage), the dragon can be slayed if you cut off the head.
“We’re going to pressure. We’re going to be very aggressive, like we always have been,” said Darius Theus on the defensive approach going up against the Hoosiers. “We’re going to try to force turnovers like we’ve been doing all season.”
The Rams have had success shutting down some of the country’s top offenses because Shaka Smart emphasizes to the players to stop their opponent’s first and second options at all costs, by enforcing themselves as the aggressors when the other team has the ball.
“I think defensively we’re much tougher (than last year)”, Smart said after Thursday’s game. “We grind it out better, we get after people a little bit more. And that’s been our calling card all year long. I don’t see that changing in the NCAA Tournament.”
Thursday, VCU targeted Wichita State’s top options the entire game, holding the Shockers’ leading scorer Garrett Stutz (13.5 ppg) to four points on 2-of-11 shooting. Their most explosive player, Tourè Murry (12.2 ppg), had 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting.
Saturday’s matchup with Indiana will require shutting down talented inside and outside players as well, but to a much higher extent.
“We’re going to have to work harder against Indiana,” said Juvonte Reddic. “We need to do our work early and be the aggressors. I’ve seen them play before, and they’re great.”
David Hinton, who stepped up against Wichita State by taking two charges playing in the place of Reddic, said that the approach is the same regardless of the caliber of opponent.
“We watched some of their stuff and studied, but we need to outwork them and just do what we do,” Hinton said.
The country’s No. 1 turnover-forcing team forced just 12 turnovers against Wichita State, but look for that number to balloon against Indiana if they are to pull off another upset. The Hoosiers take care of the ball well at 12.7 turnovers per game, but they can be rattled. They turned the ball over 18 times in a game against Tennessee Chattanooga back in November.
VCU got away with forcing just 12 Wichita State giveaways as the Shockers couldn’t hit enough jump shots in the second round, but if they hope to reach the Sweet Sixteen for a second straight year, they will have to up the ante against Indiana. That being said, the Hoosiers No. 16 ranking in the AP poll is a bit inflated, considered their pedestrian conference record and the fact that they finished fifth in the Big Ten, with their only win in the conference tournament coming against Penn State.
Even as a 12 seed, VCU should be the ones smelling blood in the water right now.