Brian Evans and Joe Hillman know.
They’ve been through the Indiana-Purdue basketball wars, winning their share,
losing a few.
Forget the blather about treating
every game the same. Rivalries are never the same, whether it’s IU-Purdue,
Duke-North Carolina, Kentucky-Louisville and more.
IU coach Tom Crean knows this. He
also knows his freshmen won’t really understand what they’ll face tonight until
they experience Mackey Arena in all its gold-and-black passion. The students,
called the Paint Crew, end every timeout at every game with a chant certain to
come with the Hoosiers on the floor:
“IU sucks!”
Still, Crean wanted to give his young guys
an edge. He had Evans and Hillman talk to the team Tuesday afternoon before
they boarded the bus for the trip to West Lafayette.
The message, senior guard Jordan
Hulls, was clear:
“It’s a rivalry game. Throw
everything out the window. You’ve got to bring it no matter who you’re playing.
It will be hostile out there.”
Teammate Will Sheehey knows that
hostility. He’s made two trips to Mackey Arena, with a 1-1 record to show for
it.
What Evans and Hillman had to say,
he said, was a plus.
“Those guys have been there, done
that. They’re a huge part of this tradition. They have the wisdom because been
there. They give us advice, and we make sure we listen. We have our plan. It’s
icing on the cake for those guys talking to us.”
The No. 3 Hoosiers are eight- to
10-point favorites depending on where you look. They are 18-2 overall and tied
with No. 1 Michigan for first in the Big Ten, with 6-1 records.
Purdue is trying to recover from a 7-6 non-conference record, a brutally difficult task given the strength of the
Big Ten. The Boilers are 11-9 overall, 4-3 in the conference. They have won
four of their last five games since going to a starting lineup that includes
three freshmen -- Ronnie Johnson, A.J. Hammons and Rapheal Davis -- along with
veterans Terone Johnson and D.J. Byrd.
But this game, Sheehey said, goes
way beyond that.
“We all know it’s our biggest
rival. The game will be tough, hard fought. It’s the same level of intensity
every year.
“They’re a physical team. They
rebound well. They like to pressure full court. Those are some things we’ve
been working on. It’s just a tough game.”
Associate head coach Steve McClain
did the scouting for this game. He knows, as well as anyone, the challenges IU
faces.
“There’s no question they’re
playing a lot of young guys,” he said, “and their veterans are also stepping it
up and playing well.
“With Rapheal and Ronnie and
Hammons starting and getting games under their belts, they’re getting better
every time they play.
“Every team creates a different
challenge. Terone Johnson is one of the better wings (in the Big Ten). Ronnie
Johnson as a freshman point guard is doing a great job for them.”
McClain down played the fact many
of the players on both teams are familiar with each other because they either
played high school or travel ball against each other growing up.
For instance, Jordan Hulls and Derek
Elston played on the same AAU team as Purdue forward D.J. Byrd, that Yogi
Ferrell and Purdue’s Ronnie Johnson played with and against each other during
their high school/travel ball days, that Hanner Perea played at La Lumiere in
northern Indiana with Purdue’s Rapheal Davis and Jay Simpson, Cody Zeller’s
Washington team beat Travis Carroll’s Danville squad in the semistate, and that
Carroll and Donnie Hale played against Zeller and IU’s Austin Etherington in
the Indiana senior-junior All-Star series.
“The kids probably think about it
more, but once the game starts, I’m not sure who they played with in AAU ball
has a lot to do with it.”
What does mean something is that
the Hoosiers want to be 7-1 in the Big Ten entering Saturday night’s showdown with
Michigan. ESPN has been hyping that game almost as hard as Ray Lewis denied
performance enhancing drugs allegations.
Bottom line -- if IU wants to win
a Big Ten championship, it has to win this game.
******
If you saw the latest Scout.com
rankings, you know IU’s recruiting class for 2013 remains outstanding.
Noah Vonley is the highest-rated
player, at No. 7. Then comes No. 59 Stanford Robinson and No. 66 Troy Williams.
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