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Posts Tagged Christian Watford

Zeller: “I’m just not ready to grow up yet”

by in Media | April 26th, 2012

Cody Zeller just isn’t ready to leave Bloomington.

Addressing the media for the first time since he announced he would return to Indiana for his sophomore year, Zeller said this year wasn’t the right time for him to make the jump to the NBA.

“It’s a tough process. I mean, it’s a lot of money,” Zeller said. “I’m just not ready to grow up yet. Paying rent, getting a house, becoming an adult — I’m not ready for all that. I’m enjoying my college career, on and off the court. I’m definitely happy to be here.”

Christian Watford, who also explored his NBA options before deciding to return for his senior season, said he’s excited about playing with the Hoosiers’ highly-rated recruiting class coming in next season.

Watford has been “resting” during the early weeks of the offseason because of a heel injury he played with throughout the season. He had a walking boot on his left foot at the team’s awards celebration Thursday night.

“I just wanted to come back and be a part of this team,” Watford said. “I feel like we can do some great things this next year and help build from right where we left off.”

Jones not ready for career to end

Senior guard Verdell Jones, who missed the NCAA tournament after tearing his ACL during the Big Ten tournament, said Thursday his surgery went “very well” and he is currently working on rehab.

“It was painful the first week after, I couldn’t walk at all,” Jones said. “Slowly but surely it’s gotten better. I’m currently off the crutches, I can walk a little bit. It’s still a little painful when I walk.”

Jones also said he plans to hire an agent “in the next week or so,” and attempt to play professional basketball overseas in Europe.

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HD Video: Hulls, Jones, Watford and Zeller after awards celebration

by in Video | April 26th, 2012

Christian Watford, Cody Zeller, Jordan Hulls and Verdell Jones met with the media following Indiana’s awards celebration at Assembly Hall on Thursday night. Jones discussed his rehab and plans for the future and Watford and Zeller discussed their decisions to return to Bloomington next season.

Watch and listen to their comments in the embedded media players below:

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That’s A Wrap: Defense

by in Commentary | April 13th, 2012

Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our recap of the 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers. Today: Indiana’s defense.

Final stats (36 games): 66.4 points allowed per game, 46.2 FG %, 48.1 eFG %, 34.9 3P FG% , 95.3 adjusted efficiency.

Just about any way you slice Indiana’s defense this past season compared to the 2010-2011 campaign, one things is clear: It improved.

The Hoosiers’ adjusted defensive efficiency got better (99.1 to 95.3); they held opponents to a lower shooting percentage (49.6 to 48.1 eFG%); their defense blocked a higher percentage of shots (7.9 to 8.5%) and stole the ball (9.6 to 9.7%) at a higher rate. But above all, Indiana improved on the defensive side of the ball because it finally figured out how to defend opponents without sending them to the line at an alarming rate.

The Hoosiers finished 333rd in the country in 2010-11 in defensive free throw rate (50.2) with the likes of Bobby Capobianco (10.7), Tom Pritchard (6.5), Derek Elston (5.7), Will Sheehey (5.5) and Daniel Moore (5.0) all committing five fouls or more per 40 minutes. This season, only Pritchard (6.8) notched that distinction. It helped that the team’s defensive anchor, Cody Zeller, had a mature enough game as a freshman not to fall victim to such a distinction as well (3.8 fouls per 40 minutes).

Indiana also just showed more maturity, communication and cohesion. Gone were the days of losing an unhealthy amount of 3-points shooters; the Hoosiers’ D became a team unit this season that held each other accountable and understood the concepts of help defense. Victor Oladipo continued to show elite defensive skills and often got the assignment against a team’s top perimeter player. Sheehey fouled less per 40 minutes (4.1) and showed signs that he, too, is developing into a strong perimeter defender. And Christian Watford, who’s effort and decision-making was often called into question in 2010-11 and early in the 2011-12 campaign, showed more commitment as the season went on. This was reflected by the way Tom Crean used him. He showed more confidence in the Alabama native by sticking him on Trey Burke and Tim Frazier.

Still, if there was one side of the ball that held Indiana back from an elite level this season, it was the defense. While it started out well in the non-conference, Big Ten season brought a little bit of  a different story. Indiana’s defense was only seventh-best on a per possession basis in the conference, allowing 1.06 points per trip. It allowed 82 points to Penn State in a Jan. 8 win, the most the Nittany Lions would score all Big Ten season. The Hawkeyes also posted 89 points in a game they lost to Indiana on Jan. 29. This was also the most points Iowa scored all season in Big Ten play.

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That’s A Wrap: Offense

by in Commentary | April 12th, 2012

Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our recap of the 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers. Today: Indiana’s offense.

Final stats (36 games): 77.3 ppg, 49.2 FG %, 55.2 eFG %, 43.1 3P FG% 76.3 FT %, 44.5 % FTR.

Indiana opened the season with 90+ points in three of its first four games. Many probably attributed it to the level of competition, which included the likes of Stony Brook, Evansville and Savannah State.

But as the wins mounted in the non-conference and the offensive output continued to rank near the top of the heap nationally, it became clear the Hoosiers possessed an elite offense. In the final game of the season, a 102-90 loss to Kentucky in the Sweet 16, it was the offense that kept IU within striking distance of the Wildcats for much of the second half.

So how were the Hoosiers able to jump from the nation’s 64th best offense in 2010-2011 to the 6th ranked offense in 2011-2012?

It all started in the middle with the efficiency of Cody Zeller. His offensive rating of 126.8 was the 14th best in the country. His effective field goal percentage of 62.3 ranked 22nd nationally. And he was among the top 50 players nationally at drawing fouls and getting to the line.

The residual effect of defenses being forced to game plan for Zeller spilled across the rest of the roster. The perimeter opened up and the Hoosiers went from a 34.6 percent three-point shooting team in 2010-2011 to 43.1 percent in 2011-2012, which ranked second nationally. Four different regulars — Christian Watford, Derek Elston, Jordan Hulls and Matt Roth — hit over 43 percent of their 3-point attempts.

Indiana also enjoyed a healthy jump in free throw attempts and converted at a high rate. The Hoosiers ranked 12th nationally in free throw percentage and were 15th in free throw rate (FTA/FGA). Over 23 percent of IU’s points came from the foul line. It was a theme Tom Crean emphasized early in the season and a clear area of improvement.

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Crean talks 2012 class, return of Watford/Zeller on ESPNU

by in Media | April 11th, 2012

Tom Crean was a guest on the ESPNU signing day special earlier this evening and here’s a transcript of the three questions he answered for host Dari Nowkhah:

On what the 2012 recruiting class says about Indiana basketball:

“It says we have a lot of young men that believed in this program, believed in one another in the sense that they wanted to play together and they believed in what we were doing … some of the players that were already in the program and guys like Cody Zeller, that were joining the program at the time, it said a lot about them wanting to make Indiana basketball a really big deal again. And I think they’re going to be a big part of it.”

 On the perception of Indiana basketball in the eyes of recruits:

“I think it’s really strong. I think early on you had to remind a lot of people about the tradition and how big time it is. I think that’s why getting young men on campus when they were really young like ninth graders and tenth graders was really important because our fan base was so strong and at the same time, their parents, their coaches knew what Indiana was capable of.

“When you start talking about the program, but more importantly, when you start showing them what happens with this education if you do it right and what former players have done even after pro basketball, it really  starts to get the family’s attention. And then the players spent a lot of time playing together in different tournaments and playing against each other in their high school seasons and it built some kinship. I think that’s what really helped turn the tide for us.”

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Around the Hall: Watford, Zeller returning for run at title

by in Media | April 10th, 2012

Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall staff:

+ Dustin Dopirak of the Herald-Times looks at the decisions of Christian Watford and Cody Zeller to return for the 2012-2013 season: “Christian Watford apparently decided that his NBA draft stock wasn’t high enough to justify leaving a potential preseason No. 1 team. Cody Zeller apparently decided no draft position would be high enough to justify forgoing three years of college.”

+ Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com writes that “On Tuesday morning, Indiana probably became the favorite to win next season’s national championship.

+ Rick Bozich of The Louisville Courier-Journal believes that Tuesday’s news puts the Hoosiers in the top three next season.

+ Terry Hutchens of The Indianapolis Star begins to dig in on IU’s scholarship crunch for next season and breaks down the possible scenarios.

+ Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News, Watford’s hometown paper, writes that the IU junior was willing to go his own way when he left the state three years ago and is doing so again by choosing to come back for his senior season.

+ Ryan Greene of the Dagger at Yahoo! Sports examines the decisions of Watford, Zeller and Michigan’s Trey Burke to return and the impact on the Big Ten.

+ Mike Marot of the Associated Press writes that both Watford and Zeller have bigger plans for the 2012-2013 season.

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