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[PointGuard]

Ken Yamoto, co-head coach

Recruiting

We have just two players (C Kirk Reeves and SG Brett Mosley) graduating after this season. So we’re going all out to recruit two high-flyers to replace them. We’ve shot high in the past couple seasons, but have backed off going after some of the very best recruits. I think we need to be more aggressive this year and go hard after a few of the top players.

We did aim high and were reasonably successful at getting excellent recruits at least minimally interested in us, but really lighting a fire within them was another matter. Going into September we focused on two high school seniors. Our home visits to them and to others went extremely well. We got one of them to verbally accept our scholarship offer in mid-September and then the other to commit to us at the beginning of October.

PG Mike Williams, 6’0”, Salem, VA. He’s a 5-star recruit who is ranked as the #23 best recruit and who we evaluate as an A+ recruit. He averaged 20.6 ppg, 8.5 apg, 4.4 rpg, and 4.2 spg as a junior. He was a top 10 player at the Indy Elite Camp and a top 5 player at the Big Apple Showcase. He’s an outstanding outside shooter who also likes to drive to the hoop, a high scorer, and an excellent passer and ball-hawk. He’s strong defensively. Our biggest competition for him came from Virginia Commonwealth, UCONN, and West Virginia.

PF Chris Greenfield, 6’8”, Washington, MD. He’s a 4 star recruit who is ranked as the #44 best recruit and who we evaluate as an A+ recruit. He’s an excellent inside shooter and scorer and is a strong rebounder and defender. He had good, but not outstanding showings at the Indy Elite Camp and the Big Apple Showcase, but is a hard worker. It was touch-and-go on getting him, but we edged out Illinois, Florida, Temple, and Duke.

[PointGuard]

Mike McMillan, co-head coach

We’re ready to begin the season. I always get impatient waiting for the season to begin, so it’s great to have mid-November finally arrive. I’m looking forward to seeing how this team does. I like what I’ve seen in practice. We have no holes and have a lot of excellent depth. We’ve got a tough pre-conference schedule, though. Here’s how we’ll start the season:

PG—Jonte Edwards, 6-0 freshman. It’s always a big scary to have a freshman starting at PG, but he beat out strong competition in practice. With Brian Mosley and Calvin Heard we have experienced players who are wanting to take over as the starter. Freshman Terrell Anderson has great potential but needs to gain some collegiate playing time.

SG—Wayne Rush, 6-4 junior. He’s experienced after playing for Georgetown 2 years. Sophomore Ray Richardson played well for us coming in off the bench last season.

SF—Chris Broussard, 6-3 junior. He returns to his more natural position after doing so well for us at SG last season. Sophomore Martin Towers returns as a solid backup.

PF—Kirk Reeves, 6-10 senior. He was tremendous last year and we missed him a lot when he broke his hand. Freshman Lonnie Morrison came to us ready to play and will see a lot of action. And we also have junior Brian Valdez who played very well for us last season in a reserve roll.

C—Marcus Wright, 6-9 sophomore. A very strong transfer player with lots of talent but a personality that leaves a lot to be desired. Backing him up will be sophomore Robert Bowie who was a very solid starter for Alabama last year.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 14, 2045: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (0-0) @ Indiana Hoosiers (0-0)

Ramon Montez: Great start to our season. Our guys came out hungry and steadily pulled away from Notre Dame. By the end of the half we were on top 43-28. Our lead grew to 32 in the 2nd half and we finished by whipping the Fighting Irish 86-58. We outshot Notre Dame 54% to 39% and slammed them on the boards (37-22). Kirk Reeves—13 pts, 6 reb (played just 17 minutes due to fouls); Marcus Wright—11 pts, 2 ast, 2 blk (played just 15 minutes due to fouls); Robert Bowie—10 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast; Brian Valdez—10 pts; Lonnie Morrison—9 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast; Jonte Edwards—8 pts, 5 ast; Brian Mosley—8 pts; Wayne Rush—6 pts, 7 reb, 4 stl; Chris Broussard—6 pts, 6 reb. [1-0]

[PointGuard]

Nov. 17: Indiana Hoosiers (1-0) @ New Mexico Lobos (0-1)

Ken Yamoto: For the 2nd straight game we jumped ahead early and never looked back. We led 47-36 at halftime and continued to pull away throughout the entire 2nd half to blast New Mexico 94-70. We again shot well (54% on FG’s and 53% on 3’s). Chris Broussard—15 pts, 3 stl; Ray Richardson—14 pts, 4 reb; Robert Bowie—11 pts, 3 reb, 2 stl; Kirk Reeves—10 pts, 3 stl; Jonte Edwards—7 pts, 4 ast; Marcus Wright—7 pts, 2 ast, 2 blk; Lonnie Morrison—7 pts. [2-0]

[PointGuard]

Nov. 21: Kansas Jayhawks (0-2) @ Indiana Hoosiers (2-0)

Ramon Montez: The first half was closed all the way with 11 lead changes. We managed to claw out a 33-29 halftime lead. We clamped down defensively in the 2nd half and rapidly drew away from Kansas. The result was an 81-49 lambasting of the Jayhawks. We again show well (53%) while holding our opponent’s shooting to just 29%. We dominated the boards 43-20. Marcus Wright—15 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast; Kirk Reeves—10 pts, 3 reb; Wayne Rush—10 pts, 2 ast; Robert Bowie—10 pts, 7 reb, 3 blk; Jonte Edwards—9 pts, 4 reb, 7 ast, 2 stl; Lonnie Morrison—8 pts, 8 reb, 2 stl. Our 5 interior players are collectively averaging 45 ppg and nearly 20 rpg thus far this season. [3-0]

[PointGuard]

Nov. 25: #5 seed Southern Methodist Mustangs (2-1) vs #4 seed Indiana Hoosiers (3-0) [Palmetto Shootout Tournament, Round 1]

Mike McMillan: We had an explosive offense in our first 3 games and that continued in this game. SMU went up by 5 in the first couple minutes but then we stormed back to rush past the Mustangs and by halftime we led 43-26. Midway through the 2nd half we were ahead by 28 and then we relaxed our D a bit, but still drubbed SMU 89-68. We dropped in 64% of our FG’s and 46% of our 3’s and turned the ball over just 9 times. We played our entire bench and each player scored and had at least 1 assist. Kirk Reeves—16 pts, 7 reb; Lonnie Morrison—12 pts, 3 reb, 4 ast; Wayne Rush—10 pts, 5 ast, 2 stl; Brian Mosley—8 pts, 2 ast; Marcus Wright—7 pts, 5 reb; Brian Valdez—7 pts, 3 reb. [4-0]

[PointGuard]

Nov. 26: #4 seed Indiana Hoosiers (4-0) vs #1 seed, #20 ranked UCLA Bruins (2-1) [Palmetto Shootout Tournament, Semifinals]

Terry Morillo: UCLA ripped Kent State in their opening game of the tournament. The Bruins are a good shooting team that also gets a lot of steals. We’re going to need to protect the ball and also play some tough D. Here’s how it went: We held a double digit lead much of the first half and were up 43-34 at the intermission. But the talented and experienced Bruins began cutting into our lead early in the 2nd half as their defense clamped down, and they took the lead to stay with 11 minutes remaining. We tried to come back but UCLA was just too much for us, and we went down to an 84-75 defeat. This was our first sub-50% shooting game (we only hit 43% of our FG’s) and we got badly beaten inside on both ends of the court. Fouls limited the playing time of 3 of our starters. Robert Bowie—15 pts, 4 reb, 2 blk; Wayne Rush—14 pts, 3 ast; Jonte Edwards—9 pts, 2 ast. [4-1]

[PointGuard]

Nov. 28: Memphis Tigers (2-3) @ Indiana Hoosiers (4-1)

Ramon Montez: We’re starting Robert Bowie at PF and moving Kirk Reeves to C. Marcus Wright will come in off the bench tonight. Lonnie Morrison has a touch of bronchitis, but he’s going to play. We took an immediate lead and never gave it up due to excellent defense. At the half we led 32-25. In the 2nd half we continued to play lock-down D but we also got our offense in gear. We stomped the Tigers 76-50. We outshot Memphis 51% to 38%, out-rebounded them (+5), and made just 12 turnovers compared to 20 by the Tigers. Robert Bowie got into early foul trouble and played just 11 minutes. Ray Richardson—13 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl; Chris Broussard—12 pts, 2 ast, 5 stl, 2 blk; Marcus Wright—10 pts, 5 reb; Martin Towers—8 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl; Kirk Reeves—6 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast. Chris Broussard came down with a sore calf that is unlikely to keep him from playing, but may limit his effectiveness for a week or so. [5-1]

[PointGuard]

Dec. 1: Indiana Hoosiers (5-1) @ #11 ranked Temple Owls (4-0)

Mike McMillan: Our final 6 pre-conference games are against some really good teams, 4 of which are presently in the Top 25 in the polls. Temple may well be the toughest of the six and to go up against them on their court is nearly a death-wish. Temple took us to school. They grabbed the lead and stubbornly held onto it throughout the first half. We fought hard but still trailed 39-33 at the break. The Owls defense was nearly impenetrable for the first 12 minutes of the 2nd half. We got tromped 74-55 and their PG Hector Dilligard ripped us, scoring 30 points. So obviously we have a long way to go to get up to their level of play. Robert Bowie—10 pts, 4 reb; Wayne Rush—8 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl; Chris Broussard—6 pts, 5 reb; Brian Mosley—6 pts, 4 ast. [5-2]

[PointGuard]

Dec. 5: #19 ranked Butler Bulldogs (6-2) @ Indiana Hoosiers (5-2)

Ken Yamoto: Another ranked opponent. Hopefully playing them on our court gives us a chance though. Following 9 lead changes, our offense caught fire and we raced to a 47-25 halftime lead. The two teams played pretty equally in the 2nd half so we came away with a decisive 82-63 win. We shot well, hitting 52% of our FG’s and made 9 less turnovers than the Bulldogs. Wayne Rush—22 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl; Robert Bowie—11 pts, 5 reb; Chris Broussard—11 pts, 2 ast, 3 stl; Kirk Reeves—8 pts, 5 reb, 3 blk; Jonte Edwards—7 pts, 6 ast. [6-2]