Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our player-by-player recap of the 2012-2013 Indiana Hoosiers. Today: Will Sheehey.
Sheehey (36 games): 9.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.3 apg, 48.6% FG, 34.6% 3PFG, 65.6% FT in 22.3 minutes per game.
Much was expected from Will Sheehey coming into the season and, for the most part, he delivered. Indiana coach Tom Crean referred to him as a “sixth starter” many times throughout the year, and Sheehey performed like a starter at times. He scored in double figures in 17 games, and posted a season-high 22 points on 9-of-9 shooting against Purdue on Feb. 16.
Sheehey’s was the team’s energizer bunny off the bench, and he was never afraid to mix it up a bit if he felt it was necessary. It’s safe to say he wasn’t exactly a fan favorite around the Big Ten, but that’s a role Sheehey relished and thrived in.
His mid-range jump shot continued to be a major strength, but he scored the majority of his baskets this season off cuts to the basket. Sheehey is one of the best players in the country at moving without the ball, and he caught defenses sleeping time and again throughout the season.
If there was a disappointing part about Sheehey’s season, it had to be his shooting inconsistency and his defense. Sheehey showed an ability to knock down 3-pointers — sometimes in bunches (See: North Carolina) — but he wasn’t nearly as consistent from beyond the arc as Crean would have liked.
Before the season, Crean called Sheehey one of the team’s best two defenders, putting him in the same category with Victor Oladipo. But Sheehey’s defense took a step back from a year ago (in this writer’s opinion), especially his on-ball defense. Sheehey struggled to guard quicker guys like Butler Rotnei Clarke, and crafty guys like Temple’s Khalif Wyatt.
WASHINGTON — Indiana saw just about everything imaginable in the Big Ten this season.
DAYTON, Ohio — Yogi Ferrell is often ignored and overlooked because, frankly, you can’t talk about everybody at the same time. Ferrell happens to play on a team with guys named Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller with a coach named Tom Crean. There aren’t enough headlines to go around.
That’s A Wrap: Defense
Final stats (36 games): 62.1 ppg, 43.2 FG %, 44.0 eFG %, 30.4 3P FG%, 27.0 % FTR.
As the 2011-12 college hoops season wrapped and many national pundits ranked the Hoosiers No. 1 heading into this past season — a ranking that eventually carried over to the official AP preseason Top 25 — there was one black mark on Indiana’s resumé: its defense.
“Indiana may well be the proper pick as the best team in the land, but I think if you locked people in a room in late March and made each individual figure it out on his or her own, it wouldn’t have been nearly as obvious that a team with a suspect defense last season should be the best team in the land this season, and at least a few people would have struggled to put them in the top five,” wrote Stats Lord Ken Pomeroy in late October.
ESPN’s Blog Star Eamonn Brennan on the same day: “As the Hoosiers themselves will readily admit, they were not a good defensive team last season. It is rare for a team with a defense so mediocre — they finished ranked No. 64 in adjusted defensive efficiency — to seriously contend for a national title the next season.”
All true and fair. But Indiana quickly shed such a reputation once the ball tipped on the season. It would finish the year No. 13 in adjusted defensive efficiency and show tremendous improvement across the board. The biggest change? Its communication and commitment to team defense. They understood when to switch, when to rotate, when to help and when to stay home. They held each other accountable. They realized good defense could turn into a quick transition bucket, that a turnover or long rebound often meant a dunk or 3-pointer on the other end.
The numbers bear it out. Where Indiana in seasons past struggled to defend the 3-point line — remember games like this or this or this? — they held opponents to a 30.4 percent mark from distance in 2012-2013, 30th best in the nation. An opponent 2-point percentage mark of 43.2 (No. 32) and eFG percentage of 44.0 (No. 15) also had them among the top teams in the nation.
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