WHAT WENT RIGHT The simple fact IU fielded a team that won a few games this season is a testament to Tom Crean's coaching ability. Indiana returned just 19 points from last year's team, by far the fewest in the Big Ten, and IU managed to keep plugging along despite a rough campaign. IU suffered its share of heartbreaking losses, including dropping five conference games by five points or less, but the players only occasionally got down on themselves and gave more than a few teams all they could handle.
C Tom Pritchard showed promise early, but he fizzled down the stretch as fatigue set in. Still, the experience Pritchard gained this season will be a positive down the road. Verdell Jones III came into his own as the season progressed, and although he still made mistakes with the ball, he showed flashes of being a star. He averaged 19.3 points over his final four games and finished the year with back-to-back 23-point efforts vs. Wisconsin and Penn State. Jones will likely move to shooting guard next season, where he could develop into a great off-the-ball scorer.
Indiana also battled on the boards despite giving up size to nearly every team it played. IU finished the season ranked seventh in the conference in rebounding margin, a fact Crean figures to build on for the future.
WHAT WENT WRONG Where to start? Indiana's defense was atrocious for most of the season, the Hoosiers ranked dead last in the conference in offense and never really learned how to hold onto momentum either at home or on the road. IU shot the ball poorly, it was awful from the free-throw line and ranked among the bottom in the NCAA when it came to turnovers. The Hoosiers failed to develop a go-to scorer, they featured just two players -- Devan Dumes and Verdell Jones III -- who could create their own offense and were forced to play walk-ons major minutes.
The frustration managed to get to Dumes during a loss to Michigan State Feb. 7, when Dumes threw a trio of elbows -- including one to Goran Suton's nether-regions -- that resulted in a two-game suspension. Dumes later injured his knee and wasn't much of a factor from Groundhog Day on. Indiana mailed in home games vs. Wisconsin and Northwestern late in the season, and the Hoosiers were simply outmanned from a talent standpoint nearly every time they took the court.
In other words, there weren't many positives for the Hoosiers to hang their hats on, and the season proved to be exhausting for players and fans alike.
QUOTE TO NOTE "I want to thank every fan that has supported us - close, far, in Assembly Hall, through email, through letters, on the road, you name it. It has been, as I said to the team after the game, we may not understand how great that is right now, but there will be a time and day where we will look at it and know our fan support was just beyond (anything) anybody could have asked for or imagined. Early on we tried to make it as clear as possible as we were going through all the disaster that was known as Indiana basketball in April and May and part of June, to understand that we had to go through it together. Whether it was all of our players that were coming in, the two returners in Kyle (Taber) and Brett (Finkelmeier), our coaches, you name it. And our administration, we had to go through it together. Well, we had to go through it together with the fans, and every one of them has bought in. I can't say enough about that, and I can't show enough respect to possibly put it into context what that mans." -- Tom Crean expressing his gratitude to the fans for their support following IU's season-ending loss to Penn State.
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