2014-2015 Indiana Basketball Preview

Submitted by Padog on

Indiana:

Oh how fun this will be. Indiana loses NINE of thier players. A whole NINE!!! that is crazy. Evan Gordon, Jeff Howard, Taylor Wayer, and WIll Sheehey are graduating. Austin Etherington, Jonny Marlin, Jeremy Hollowell and Luke Fischer are transferring. And Noah Vonleh is leaving early for the NBA. Losing these players means losing: 

55% PPG

62% MPG

62% RPG

50% APG

62% SPG

90% BPG

That is a lot to replace. The way to replace attrition like that is to bring in a really big recruiting class. Indiana did not do that. They are bringing in three solid Freshman, and only have a chance for two more. Here is their projected roster:

#   Name            HT   WT   YR   POS

42 Peter Jurkin   7-0  230   JR.  C

Only played eight games last year after getting injured. May play some valuable minutes off the bench.

12 Hanner Mosquera-Perea 6-9 225 JR PF

The starting Center, pretty much forced into the lineup. Averaged 2.8 points per game last year.

11 Kevin Ferrell  6-0  178   JR.   PG

Uggggghhhh Yogi Ferrell A.K.A. Michigan killer, will probably take all of their shots next year. He took 23% of their shots last year on a team with a future pro. Will most likely be B1G all conference next year. Averaged 17.3 points per game last year. Starting Point Guard.

30 Collin Hartman 6-6 210   SO.  SF

Collin tore his ACL on the 15th of March, so he probably won't do anything next year. As hard as ACL tears are for football players, they are even harder on basketball players. Was not really a contributor before the injury.

22 Stanford Robinson 6-4 193 SO. SG

The starting Shooting Guard, started to blossom late in the year. Will take the third most amount of shots this year. Averaged 6.4 points per game last year.

21 Joe Fagan       6-4  195    SO.  SG

Walk-on, may get playing time you never know.

15 Devin Davis    6-7  221    SO.  PF

The starting Power Forward, only averaged 2.4 points per game, will play a little center.

5  Troy Williams    6-7  206     SO.  SF

Personally my least favorite player on the Hoosiers. After his two dunks against us he decided to stare down our players. To which told him to enjoy the N.I.T errrrr..... Anyways, he averaged 7.3 points per game, and will be a tough matchup for teams.

2  Andrew Calomeris 6-4 183  SO.  SG

Walk-on

   James Blackmon  6-4   180  FR.   SG

Many of you know of Blackmon from when we recruited him. He is a five star and will be the 6th man and eventually a starter. When he starts, Robinson will play the 3, Williams the 4 and Davis the 5.

   Robert Johnson    6-3    180  FR.   SG

A four star who will play, but not a "20 minute a game" guy

   Max Hoetzel        6-7      210  FR.   SF

A three star, he will probably get 10 minutes a game.

 

 

Projected Starting line-up

Point guard: Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell

Shooting guard: Stanford Robinson

Small Forward: Troy Williams

Power Forward: Devin Davis

Center: Hanner Mosquera-Perea

Michigan plays Indiana on the road next year, which is quite a disadvantage for Michigan. Assembly Hall is a Michigan's enemy and the refs are big equalizer when the game is played there. 

This team will not be very good, they will however finish better than teams like Purdue and Rutgers. They will continue to get home cooking and Ferrell will get hot in a couple of games. However, I do not see them finishing any better then 6-12 in the conference. It is too hard to replace nine players.

Next up... Penn State.

 

Comments

buckeyekiller1

April 3rd, 2014 at 2:20 AM ^

The problem that my fellow Hoosier bball fans and I are worried about is the complete lack of front court now that Vonleh is gone. The front court is currently not much better than the year after the Sampson debacle.

Sure, the shooting will improve with Blackmon and another sharp shooting guard named Robert Johnson coming in next year. However, in order to win games next year my Hoosiers are going to have to shoot lights out every single game because the only player that has a chance of getting a board is Perea, and he's the rawest of raw when compared to anyone with a bball IQ. The last time I checked that's not a good formula for wins: shoot above 60% from the field or lose.

FYI, there are 3 Blackmon brothers. Just like the Zellers, word around the state of Indiana is that the talent increases with each younger brother. The youngest is in 6th/7th grade at this point, but from what I hear he's already well ahead of where James Jr was at that point. So fear not UM bball fans, you've got 2 more shots at Blackmons.

piston honda

April 4th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^

I can attest from scouting plenty of Luers games 2 years ago that Vijay is nowhere ner the ballplayer that James is. Can't speak for the youngest honestly. And Vijay is 2 years younger than James, but everyone KNEW that James was special as a frosh. Not so much with Vijay. It's more of he gets numbers bc there's no one else on the team besides him and James, and their dad is the coach.

 

However you are right on the Zellers: they do get better with age. Not so much so with the Plumlees though...

Michigan Arrogance

April 2nd, 2014 at 6:42 PM ^

ooooohh, I just wanted to say that I haven't even read this yet, but I'm expectign this to be a REALLY enjoyable article.

 

ED: "Oh how fun this will be. Indiana loses NINE of thier players. A whole NINE!!!"

 

AHAHHHAHHAHAHAAH so much fun

piston honda

April 4th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^

IU fans (and I am one, admittedly) are by and large worn out on Crean. I think we had decided to bear with some of his quirks and idiosyncracies while rebuilding since we saw guys like Zeller and Ferrell jump on board while still being decimated by the foolishness that was hiring Kelvin Sampson. However, all the transfers (run out or otherwise) and some of his recent decisions, namely the Meyer thing which was the tipping point for me, have soured a lot of Hoosier fans on him. Couple all that with his inability to coach in-game, and I think 2014-15 may be the end of the road for him in Bloomington unless he overachieves big time. Pretty hard to do with no frontcourt however.

freejs

April 5th, 2014 at 2:33 PM ^

Seriously, what is his fucking problem? 

Everyone complains about it, but I still find it mindboggling that a coach violates such an obvious rule - a rule that has a really good reason to exist.

piston honda

April 4th, 2014 at 2:55 PM ^

1) Jurkin sat out with injury this year and never got on the court cuz he's nowhere near good enough, and that's sad bc he's 7'0 and long. He sat out 2 years ago for perceived impermissable benefits from Indiana Elite founder/his guardian Mark Adams, and Perea did as well. He may never play minutes at IU between injury and lack of development, but he was important in getting Yogi.

 

2) Blackmon will start. The best shooter in the nation (arguably) and a McD's AA will start from Day 1 on a team that has no shooters besides Ferrell.

 

3) Stan Robinson was not a primary starter; only did late in the year. The 2 and 3 spots were typically Evan Gordon, Will Sheehey, or Austin Etherington for most of the year.

 

4) Robert Johnson will play a lot. Top 50 recruit and a scorer.

 

5) Agreed, this team may not be very good. However, if they land 1-2 recruits and 1-2 transfers, they may be better than extected, maybe top 4-7 in the league.  Expect Josh Cunningham to commit to IU on Wendesday next week. He's a top 100ish PF/SF. Yante Maten from Michigan is a possibility, but looks like MSU since they offered and since Izzo has a lot of PT to offer now without Payne, Harris, Appling and the others. Trevor Thompson from Va Tech, Eron Harris from WVa, and a few others out there as possibilities.

Padog

April 4th, 2014 at 4:42 PM ^

Thank you for the feedback.

1. Sorry about this one, google only does so much.

2. I agree with you that he will start at one point, but rarely do players walk into programs and get the start from day one. Stanford Robinson will start at the two for the beginning of the season, but Blackmon will most likely be a starter for the B1G season.

3. I never said he was a primary starter, actually I said what you said, he blossomed late in the year.

4. Every high school player that is a top recruit is a scorer. It is pretty easy for them to put up 20   a game at that level. He may play eventually but Indiana is not that bad at the guard spot, he will not play a bulk of the minutes.

5. I think landing both Maten, Cunningham, Thompson, and Harris is very very unlikely. Even three of those is very unlikely. I personally see Harris going to Butler. I also agree with the fact that Maten will go to MSU. Cunningham would be a good start, and Thompson would be even better. If Indiana lands those two players I could see them going 8-10, or 9-9 at best.