While air-ball chants are officially in full effect in Bloomington, Saturday’s exhibition game against the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds was about something much more exciting: the unveiling of the GaZeller.
That would be IU’s highly touted freshman recruit, formerly known as Cody Zeller, who along with the rest of the Hoosier basketball squad, did not disappoint.
The 16,516 fans in attendance at Assembly Hall saw a more developed, patient and assertive IU basketball team take the floor.
Will Sheehey led the Hoosiers with 18 points on an efficient 8-11 shooting in a 90-72 exhibition win over the Greyhounds.
“He did what he does every day,” Victor Oladipo said of Sheehey. “Will has been working really hard and I know it, I see it every day in practice and now he’s able to show it during the games.”
Jordan Hulls contributed with 14 points on a perfect 3-3 shooting and acted as the Hoosiers floor general, controlling the pace and style of play of the game as the Hoosiers finished the game with only six turnovers.
But the big story of the night centered around Cody Zeller, who after a slow start, gave fans an encouraging performance of 16 points to go along with eight rebounds.
“It’s really fun to coach kid who wants to make his teammates better,” head coach Tom Crean said. “But at the same time, he can do so many things to impact the game, and as the game went on he did exactly that.”
After being subbed out with no shot attempts at the 14:19 mark, Zeller did not grow anxious, instead ignoring the electricity from the crowd begging him to force the action.
Everybody was the theme of the night for IU, as all 16 members of the team saw the floor.
Upon returning to the game midway through the first half, Zeller – channeling his inner gazelle – subtly beat the entire Greyhound defense down the court, leading to a thunderous dunk to go along with a foul for the freshman’s first points as a Hoosier.
“It just shows you how much his presence is going to help our team and help us win,” Oladipo said of Zeller. “You see him getting doubled every time he touches the ball, even sometimes when he didn’t have the ball he was being doubled and that opened the floor for everybody.”
Everybody was the theme of the night for IU, as all 16 members of the team saw the floor.
“You have to have a lot of different tools in your toolbox,” Crean said. “But more importantly, you have to be able to bring them out.”
With 11 players contributing to the teams scoring (53.7 percent shooting), IU has discovered a newfound depth to rely on, an element Crean and his coaching staff have been harping on during the offseason.
“We’re trying to get this team to understand that we’ve got to get out and play a 94-foot game,” Crean said. “That doesn’t mean we have to press the whole game, but we want to run, create off of our defense and be a team at a point where there’s not a big drop-off in our possessions, from the first ten to the last ten, and that’s really hard to get to.”
This go-go-go mentality allows the Hoosier players to focus on, and have confidence in their individual strengths, while at the same time utilizing their collective quickness and athleticism.
“It’s not about the amount of minutes you play, but what you do with those minutes you play,” Crean said.
Exhibit A would be Christian Watford, IU’s leading scorer from a year ago.
Still working his way back from a recent foot injury, Watford struggled to find his rhythm offensively, but was able to contribute by putting to use a newfound quickness and effectively shutting down U of Indy guard Adrian Moss.
Moss, standing just 5-9, appeared virtually un-guardable to any defender Crean threw at him, as he accounted for a game high 22 points.
However, after switching Watford (6-9) onto Moss midway through the second half, U of Indy’s best player was shutdown and rendered ineffective for the rest of the game, as the Greyhound’s saw the Hoosiers pull away for good.
“We’re learning a lot of things right now,” Crean said. “We learned about mindset tonight. We’re not a team that really understands yet how to absolutely put that throttle down and keep it down the entire time.”
Indiana has just over a week to refuel the tank, as it officially opens its regular season on Friday, Nov. 11, when it hosts Stony Brook at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network at Assembly Hall.
