Indiana began the season with 12 consecutive victories.But coach Tom Crean said IU is a better team now than they were after capturing that 12th straight victory Dec. 22 against Maryland-Baltimore County.The No.Indiana plays its second game in four days today against USC-Upstate.
Verdell Jones III is a fan of the short turnaround.
“I like more games because practice is no joke,” the sophomore guard said. “Practices are a lot harder than games, so more games are better.”
The Hoosiers started a busy stretch of games with an 83-60 victory against Howard in the season opener on Friday. Today, IU faces the Spartans, an Atlantic Sun Conference team in its third season as a Division I program. USC-Upstate is in Spartanburg, S.C.
IU then travels to San Juan for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Classic, which begins Thursday. The Hoosiers play three games in four days in Puerto Rico.
Jones had nine points and two assists in the opener.
Coming into the season, Indiana coach Tom Crean said the Hoosiers will look to take advantage of Jones’ flexibility.
“We can move Verdell around so much,” Crean said. “When you have versatility like that, it gives them the chance to progress. I think he’s getting nothing but better, and I think he will have a very good year.”
Jones averaged 11 points last year.
“I learned that you can’t take any plays off,” he said. “As a young team, you have to play hard every play and you can’t make any mistakes.”
He turned it on in the second half of the season. Jones averaged 17.2 points in the final nine games of the season, including 23 points in the final two games against Wisconsin and Penn State.
Jones said things changed after he missed three games in December recovering from a concussion he suffered against Cornell.
“I started working a lot harder in practice and wanted to give my all in the games because you can’t take anything for granted,” Jones said. “Once the Big Ten season hit and I got into a little groove, my confidence started building and I got better and better.”
Crean thinks it’s just the beginning.
“I think when you are young like this, they not only get better themselves, but they get better based on how much their teammates improve,” Crean said. “So the better Jeremiah (Rivers) gets, the more that Jordan Hulls can help us. The stronger and more explosive and understanding of the college game that Maurice Creek gets, the more threes Matt Roth can hit, the better Devan Dumes is with decision-making and ball handling, the better Verdell is going to get.
“ … The more balance you get in your lineup the better everyone else becomes.”
