IU Wins Exhibition Easily but Guy-Marc is the Story

After Guy-Marc Michel's 14 point, 10 rebound performance in the Night of the Living Red scrimmage, I think most fans were anxious to see the big fella in tonight's exhibition opener.  Unfortunately, news broke about an hour before tip-off that Guy would not be suiting up due to the NCAA reviewing his eligibility status.

After all that we have been through, I couldn't believe it when I initially saw this news.  However, after reading Crean's statements more thoroughly and hearing his brief post-game comments on the topic, I don't think this is going to turn out to be a huge deal.  At least, I hope it doesn't.

Here are Crean's comments on the subject:

"The NCAA is reviewing the status of Guy-Marc Michel.

Prior to attending North Idaho Community College, Guy participated in club basketball in France, where he finished high school and enrolled in some college courses. In three years with the French club, Guy participated as a member of an amateur team. In his third year, he was `called up' for limited participation with a team that included professional players.

Given the experiences of other international student-athletes who have participated in European basketball systems, we anticipated some extended review of Guy's status.

We have great respect for the NCAA's process, particularly because we know they have a practice of reviewing each individual student-athlete's case on its own merit, with a focus on what's best for the student. We also appreciate the NCAA's increased understanding of the circumstances facing international student-athletes, which led to recent rule changes that permit immediate eligibility for entering freshman with the same competitive experiences as Guy.

With these factors in mind, we are hopeful for a positive resolution to Guy's case within the coming weeks. While he is not eligible to compete at this time, he will continue to improve in practice, and he'll continue doing very well in the classroom, until the process is complete. We will have no additional comments until the matter is resolved."

After re-reading, the specific part that gave me comfort was "the NCAA's increased understanding of the circumstances facing international student-athletes, which led to recent rule changes that permit immediate eligibility for entering freshman with the same competitive experiences as Guy."  This would lead me to believe that Guy will ultimately be eligible, but it's just a matter of when.

But then again, this is the NCAA we are talking about here.  While Tom Crean says that they have great respect for the process, that is one thing I am going to have to disagree with the Coach on.  The process sucks or at least the timing of it does.  My guess is that the NCAA has had all the relevant information on Guy for weeks, if not months, and they just take their own sweet-ass time getting these things resolved.  It's rediculous.  Hire more people if you need to, but there is no reason that Guy-Marc Michel should be in street clothes for the exhibition opener.

We'll keep a close eye on this story as it unfolds, but hopefully it will be resolved quickly and GMM will be declared eligible in the near future.

Also absent from tonight's game was Verdell Jones III.  Verdell suffered an ankle injury, but is expected to be ready for the regular season opener on November 12th.

I was able to watch tonight's game on bigtennetwork.com for a small fee.  The quality was crap, but I was pleased that when I got home well after the game had started, I was able to "rewind" and watch from the beginning.  The game will be on TV Thursday night on the Big Ten Network under the listing of Student U at 9:30pm ET/8:30pm CT.

The Hoosiers did win the game easily by a score of 89-37 over Division III Franklin College.  It's difficult to truly assess the team performance when it is such a mismatch, but I'll include my player-by-player observations below.  The second exhibition game against Ferris State on November 8th should be a little more of a test.  I believe Ferris State is Division II and features a D-II Player of the Year candidate.

Christain Watford
Watford was the clear-cut player of the game with 25 points in 24 minutes, including 12 points in the first 3:32 of the game.  He hit his first 6 shots and scored in a variety of ways -- down low, mid-range, and a couple from beyond the arc.  Later in the game, he also drove the lane for a nice dunk.  9-11 shooting overall that included 2-3 from the arc.  If the move to the 3-spot gets Watford into favorable match-ups against smaller players and gives him opportunities to score from all over the floor, then consider me a big-time supporter of Watford moving to the 3-spot.  Of course, Guy-Marc Michel getting time at the 5-spot is an important factor in making this happen.

Maurice Creek
Outside of Guy, the player that I was most anxious to see in game action was Mo Creek.  There is no doubt that he is still favoring the injured leg, but I was very pleased to see that his minutes were not limited and he was not shying away from driving the lane into traffic.  It almost seemed like there were either certain movements or cuts that bother him or maybe even trouble putting together a series of moves.  Another telling sign was that Creek opted for a nice and easy lay-in rather than a big-time dunk after he had a steal and a clear break-away.  Now, here's the best part.....even while still trying to get the rust off and get back to 100%, Mo managed 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals in 20 minutes. 

Tom Pritchard
You might look at Pritch's 0 points in 19 minutes and say "uh-oh, smells like sophomore Tom Pritchard".  But I actually thought Pritchard looked good tonight.  It should also be mentioned that he has a heavy wrap on his left-hand (shooting hand), so he gets a pass on his 0-3.  He grabbed a team-high 7 boards, had 2 blocks, and took a charge.  Crean praised him in the post-game for moving well and doing the little things.

Jordan Hulls
I wasn't too impressed with Hulls tonight.  Nothing glaringly wrong with the stats of 5 assists and 2 turnovers.  But the 2 turnovers were both really ugly and I just didn't get a great feel for him running the show at the point.  I guess I look for a point guard to CREATE and put pressure on the defense and I don't see that out of Hulls.  I think he will be better served with someone else running the point and finding space to get some good 3-point looks.  Hopefully that will all work out when Verdell comes back from his ankle injury.

Daniel Moore
Now that we have a full set of scholarship players, it's time for Daniel Moore to go sit at the end of the bench, jump up and down, and waive towels, right?  Not so fast, my friend.  Moore is going to battle and battle and battle and if some guys (like Hulls) don't play at a high level, he will be ready to take some of those minutes.  Moore had 18 points in the Cream and Crimson scrimmage and followed that up with 12 points on 6-7 shooting tonight.  Again, tonight's competition wasn't Big Ten caliber or even small D-I caliber, but Moore was impressive.  I'm not saying Moore should start of even see significant minutes, but my point is that he is not just going to go sit at the end of the bench and be a cheerleader.

Victor Oladipo
Oladipo got the starting nod tonight without Jones in the line-up.  I think Victor will see minutes if he defends and rebounds.  It's too early to tell how effective of a "lock-down" defender Oladipo is (or can be), but he showed tonight that he definitely has the athleticism to get in the passing lanes and get some deflections.  Crean said in the post-game that Victor has 21 more deflections in practice than any other player.  He also showed some versatility on offense by draining his only 3-point attempt to go along with 2 dunks and another bucket for a perfect 4-4.

Will Sheehey
Sheehey struggled a bit.  He drove in the lane on a few occassions but seemed to force it and came up empty on each try.  Definitely looked like a freshman.  He also missed two front-ends at the line and had a couple turnovers.  However, like Oladipo, he is very athletic and was able to get into the passing lanes on a few occassions.

Derek Elston
Elston had a solid all-around effort with 9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.  Looking forward to a very good year out of Elston.

Jeremiah Rivers
I like Rivers out of the point guard position.  He was able to get a few rebounds and easy baskets and had 0 turnovers in 13 minutes.

Matt Roth
Roth is another player that I am anxious to see how he returns from injury and to see if he can expand his game.  However, even if he remains a specialist, I do think he can be very effective in that specialist role.  He is always smart with the basketball and has a beautiful stroke.  I hope he is able to earn regular minutes in the rotation this year.  Tonight, he was 1-2 from the arc and had no turnovers. 

Bobby Capobianco
Only 7 minutes from Capo.  He did his thing, nothing too surprising.

Box Score

Tom Crean post-game comments:
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/allaccess/?media=207389

Player post-game comments:



Inside The Hall: The Minute After

Go Hoosiers!