By Kevin Bowen

In the Tom Crean era at IU, the wins haven’t come often and haven’t been the prettiest.

Chalk Sunday night’s 67-44 win over Wright St. in the sloppy category but most importantly in the win column.

Despite 24 personal fouls and 21 turnovers. IU leaned on its defense and moved to 2-0 on the season heading into Tuesday night’s contest with Mississippi Valley State.

“I was really proud of our defensive effort tonight,” Crean said.  “We never got our head down on the defensive end and continued to play at a high level.  Our guys found a way to win a grind it out type of a game.”

In his second game back from an ankle injury, junior guard Verdell Jones III led all scorers with 27 points on 11 of 14 shooting.

The 27-point effort was one short of his career high and Jones showed why he will be counted on night in and night out for the Hoosiers.

“The speed of the game felt easier and the ankle felt good tonight,” Jones said.

Sophomore forward Christian Watford continued his hot start to the season with a double-double.

Making the switch to the small forward position has benefited the Birmingham, Ala. native in the early going and gives the Hoosiers additional scoring from the perimeter.

With Jones and Watford establishing themselves as the main offensive threats for the Hoosiers, the question now becomes where will IU receive other contributions.

It is pretty clear that sophomore guard Maurice Creek is still recovering from his knee injury and it might not be 100 percent until the new year.

If IU is looking for answers in the frontcourt than they better hope Guy-Marc Michel becomes eligible very quickly.

In Sunday night’s contest, Bobby Capobianco, Derek Elston and Tom Pritchard combined for one point, seven rebounds, and 11 fouls in 38 minutes of action.

“We didn’t get a lot of rebounding out of the front line,” Crean said.  “Obviously we need more scoring up front.  No question we have to get better up front.”

IU did get strong contributions off the bench tonight in terms of energy.

Guards Victor Oladipo and Jeremiah Rivers played aggressive perimeter defense in place of Creek, who was saddled with foul trouble (four in 16 minutes) for much of the game.

Wright St.’s Vaughn Duggins and Troy Tabler were a combined 7 of 26 shooting and were hounded all night by Oladipo and Rivers.

Oladipo also gave the Assembly Hall crowd of 15,261 something to cheer about right before halftime.

After the freshman guard was called for a charge with 26 second left in the first half, he responded by stealing the ball from Duggins and taking it in for a layup right as the halftime buzzer sounded giving the Hoosiers a 30-19 lead at recess.

“It was huge for the fans to get into it and I think it gave our team some momentum going into halftime,” Jones said.

Defense was the story for the Hoosiers throughout the entire game as they held the Raiders to 32.6% shooting and the 19 points allowed in the first half was a low in Crean’s three seasons at IU.

Crean has preached turning defense into offense during the first two games and that was evident with IU shooting 60% from the field which is the highest percentage IU has shot under Crean.

The Hoosiers caught a break tonight with Raiders starting point guard N’Gai Evans in street clothes on the bench.  However, they also created their own breaks and for the most part were in command of the toughest non-conference opponent that will visit Assembly Hall all season.

It’s only two games into the season but we did learn a few things tonight.

First, IU has made significant strides in the defensive department and has multiple go-to scorers in the backcourt.

At the same time, IU will struggle mightily when they begin to face teams with big-time post players (i.e. Ferris State’s Justin Keaton).

If the Hoosiers want to achieve that goal of post-season play they must cut down on their 24 and 21 turnovers they have had in the first two games of the season.

A win on Tuesday over a very athletic Mississippi Valley State team should give Crean and the Hoosiers an undefeated month of November, which is something that hasn’t been said much around Bloomington in the past few years.

The old saying of defense wins championships might not hold true to this IU team but they will take defense turning into wins any day of the week.

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