Former Indiana basketball coach explains what Hoosiers are missing in blowout losses

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Tom Crean’s mantra is, “The ball finds energy.”

He’s not seeing a lot of that in Indiana basketball lately.

The former Hoosiers coach, now an analyst at ESPN, joined 107.5 The Fan on Thursday morning and discussed the current IU squad (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten), which is coming off a pair of 25-point losses that have left fans howling.

Crean said IU needs a change in tone and tempo from its guards: Myles Rice (12.4 points, 3.4 assists per game), Trey Galloway (7.2, 3.9) and Kanaan Carlyle (4.5, 1.7).

“It starts with the guards,” he said. “The guards are not doing enough to make everybody else better on the floor. … The ball doesn’t find a lot of energy a lot of times in that offense. It’s not that it just stops; it’s that it doesn’t keep moving at a quick pace. So it may get passed, but it gets passed because there’s not another option to shoot it.”

Crean said he recruited Carlyle while at Georgia, and believes the sophomore can be a disruptive full-court defender.

“Teams are attacking (IU) early,” Crean said. “They’ve got the ball stopped early.”

Illinois scored 60 first-half points in its 94-69 victory on Tuesday.

Gregg Doyel: Not even Woodson’s guardian angel can save him from changes IU requires

Crean also said center Oumar Ballo suffers from what he called “selective conditioning,” in which he plays all-out sometimes but has lapses.

“Not only can he score; he can put the other team in foul trouble. People say he’s not running hard enough. He’s not running hard enough because there’s got to be more demands on that,” Crean said. “Get him in position to score quickly.”

Crean acknowledged the absence of Malik Reneau hurts the Hoosiers, who are 3-2 in games he has missed all or most of.

“They’ve got to get an identity of rebounding. It’s not even close when they don’t play well on the offensive glass. It comes to effort,” he said. “The lack of hitting, physicality, those things all play into it.”

IU was -8 in offensive rebounds and -14 in overall rebounds against Illinois. The Hoosiers…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/former-indiana-basketball-coach-explains-214818328.html

Author : IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2025-01-16 21:48:00

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