Indiana-Quick Hitters continued

I just noticed something interesting about Indiana's roster. In Lindy's college basketball preview magazine, the Hoosier's roster includes would-be sophomore guard/forward Malik Story. However, the team's Web site does not list Story on its official roster. What happened to this guy? He was a top recruit and supposed to be a superstar last year as a freshman, but didn't quite pan out. He averaged 5.9 ppg and 2.2 apg. If anyone knows what the deal is with Story, please update me.

Stat-In last year's one-win Big Ten campaign, Indiana led the league in turnovers. With the experience under their belts (drawstrings?) and with Rivers a strong candidate to handle the ball the majority of the time, I think it's safe to say we won't see a repeat of this stat in 08-09.

Stat #2-The Hoosiers averaged 60.1 points per game and defensively gave up an average of 70.6 ppg, both good for last in the conference. I'm predicting that while Indiana may still struggle offensively, especially early in the season due to its youthfulness, Crean will have them playing some wicked D no matter what. That's his style, go all out on the defensive end of the floor to disrupt offenses and make opponents uncomfortable. The players will understand his schemes better in year two and I see them making a big leap in this area.

Devan Dumes and Tom Pritchard-The two key players to this team's success this season, in my opinion. Dumes, a 6-2, 188-pound senior guard is a lethal attacker on the wing (12.7 ppg, 2.9 apg). Pritchard, only a sophomore, used his solid frame (6-9, 242) to abuse post defenders for 9.7 ppg and 6. 4 rpg his freshman year. Both will be breakout stars this year and cause fits for opposing coaches and players who will be attempting to stop them.

That about wraps it up for Indiana. Basically, year two of the Tom Crean era will be progress. How much, no one knows. A highly-ranked recruiting class should mix well with the core of returners, hopefully leading to more than one Big Ten win for the Hoosiers this year. It will be interesting to watch them come together and grow confidence. I think Indiana is closer to becoming the storied program it is known for being than people think.

One last thing to keep an eye on: Recently, Purdue's success has come from snatching up all the top high school players in the state of Indiana, particularly the Indianapolis area. If Crean can show these kids that Indiana is back, he should be able to edge out Purdue for these kids like the school has in the past. The recruiting battle between Crean and Matt Painter will be exciting in the future. Most likely I'll get into this more when I preview the Boilermakers. For now, I'm signing off. RL