By Craig Smith
Bloomington — Some games are supposed to be easy wins.
After playing Maryland, Pittsburgh and Kentucky in consecutive games, the Indiana University men’s basketball team has reached the portion of the schedule designed to serve as a nice warmup before the start of the Big Ten campaign.
Last year, the Hoosiers followed a blowout at Kentucky with losses to Lipscomb and Northeastern at home, foreshadowing a 1-17 Big Ten campaign.
This time, the second half resembled the easy game that was expected as the Hoosiers pulled away for an 81-58 victory over North Carolina Central at Assembly Hall.
The Eagles (2-9) have served as cannon fodder for North Carolina, Miami, Iowa and Air Force this season and are only in their third season at the Division I level, but no one would have been able to tell which team was brought in for the easy victory based on the first half Saturday. The Hoosiers (5-5) shot 56 percent from the floor in the first half but had eight turnovers, which turned into 11 points for the Eagles. Indiana led 36-33 at halftime.
“Well, the first half I think it was pretty clear we were still somewhere in the middle of one of our classes in exams and our mindset was not what it needed to be in the sense of defense and rebounding,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said.
“It’s a great lesson for a team to learn: no matter how hard we have worked, no matter how much time we have spent on the details of the game on the sense of defense and rebounding and pushing the ball, we weren't doing those things.”
The defense held the Eagles to 25 points on 28-percent shooting from the field in the second half as Crean started the half with the players he said brought the most energy on the defensive end: Jordan Hulls, Tom Pritchard, Maurice Creek, Christian Watford and Jeremiah Rivers. Indiana went on a 32-9 run to put the game away.
Watford scored no points in the second half, but that won’t matter to Crean.
“Christian played great defense. When I am rating his half, it will be one of his better halves of the season,” the coach said.
Creek will also probably grade pretty highly, but not for the 20 points that he poured in the second half. Crean put Creek on C.J. Wilkerson, NCC’s leading scorer this season, after Wilkerson had 12 points in the first half. Wilkerson went 3 for 10 from the field in the second half. Creek finished with 29 points and seven rebounds.
"Oh my goodness, I wish he had an exam today or something. The kid can flat-out shoot the basketball and he's dangerous,” North Carolina Central coach LeVelle Moton said. “The sky's the limit for that young man. He's incredible. I think if there's such a thing as a quiet 29, he had a quiet 29. He's real smooth. I love him and he's a good kid. He's playing for a great coach, so I'm sure he'll prosper in the system."
Jordan Hulls had five points, six rebounds and seven assists in the second half. But Crean focused on what else he wants from the freshman guard.
“We need him to shoot the ball,” Crean said. “He is one of our high-level shooters. When we have shooting drills in practice, Maurice and Jordan are consistently coming out on top.”
Crean said that if this team is going to lose again before the Big Ten campaign, Tuesday’s game against Loyola (Maryland) has the potential to be another Lipscomb-like shocker.
But the players are confident that the team that flew to Puerto Rico last month and went winless is not the same team that flew back from Puerto Rico.
“After we went 0-and-3 in Puerto Rico, we sat down and had a long talk as a team,” Creek said. “We had lost a couple of games that we shouldn’t have lost and after that talk, I knew we were going to get better.”
n Notes — The only Indiana player not to play was Matt Roth, who is out long-term with a broken right foot … Derek Elston started over Tom Pritchard. It was the first time in his collegiate career that Pritchard did not start.
