Indiana Basketball: Complete Roster, Season Preview for 2014-15 Hoosiers

The Indiana Hoosiers, for decades one of the most iconic basketball programs in the country, will begin the upcoming season under a veil of scrutiny, facing many questions about discipline, leadership and judgement in Bloomington.

The past week has not been kind to the program, with head coach Tom Crean announcing four-game suspensions—two exhibition, two regular-season games—for sophomores Stanford Robinson and Troy Williams, each for failing drug tests.

An additional four-game suspension was also doled out to incoming freshman Emmitt Holt for his role in a Nov. 1 car accident which left teammate Devin Davis hospitalized with a head injury.

Davis, who was later found by police to be mostly at fault for jumping in front of Holt's car, has no timetable for return from the accident in which alcohol was a factor.

That’s no way to start a season, and particularly for a team that seems middle of the road.

There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get right to it. This is your complete 2014-15 season preview for the embattled Indiana Hoosiers.

Key Newcomers

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Indiana basketball saw a bunch of players hit the bricks and transfer during the offseason, but Coach Crean will be hoping that a talented recruiting class led by sharpshooting James Blackmon Jr. will help his team mask the lack of a low-post threat, now that Noah Vonleh is off to the Charlotte Hornets.

James Blackmon Jr. (Guard)

Blackmon Jr. actually committed to the Hoosiers as a freshman in high school. He reopened his recruiting process during his senior year at Marion High School—receiving heavy interest from Michigan, Kentucky and Kansas after averaging 33.4 points per game as a senior—before fully committing to his home-state Hoosiers. 

Blackmon has the potential to be an elite backcourt mate for Yogi Ferrell, addressing the Hoosiers’ shooting woes and providing a dynamic scoring option. The McDonald’s All-American was the rated No. 20 in his class by the ESPN 100, and he led the Hoosiers with 18.8 points per game in an exhibition road trip to Canada over the summer.

Robert Johnson (Guard)

Johnson, like Blackmon, is a known shooter who will drastically improve the Hoosiers along the perimeter. He can slot in at either point or shooting guard, and you can expect to see the Hoosiers employ a lot of three-guard sets and try to beat opponents from the outside.

He doesn’t have quite the pure shooting touch of Blackmon, but he still rated inside the top 50 players in the ESPN 100 rankings.

Max Hoetzel (Forward)

Hoetzel is the third piece of Tom Crean’s big recruiting class, but his skill set is substantially more limited than the two guards who will likely carry the team this season.

The 6’8” forward is more of a spot-up shooter from the perimeter, but with the size to become a competent rebounder, should he develop.

Key Returners

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There’s a whole bunch of new things going on in Bloomington this season after the Hoosiers lost two of their three double-digit scorers from a season ago to the NBA (Vonleh) and graduation (Will Sheehey). This is a team with only a couple of upperclassmen, and they'll be looking for a leader.

Yogi Ferrell (Guard)

One of the lone bright spots among the returnees is Ferrell, a 6’0” junior guard who will be expected to take on a leadership role for his team both on and off the court. He was the Hoosiers' leading scorer a season ago, averaging over 17 points per game and leading the team in three-point makes, attempts and assists.

He should benefit from having Blackmon on his wing for the upcoming season.

Troy Williams (Guard)

Williams is facing a bit of uncertainty at the moment, and that’s unfortunate for his team. The sophomore guard compiled a solid first season in Indiana, and the hopes are high that he will up his scoring average in the season ahead. But first he has to get his head straight, return from suspension and commit to the team.

Stanford Robinson (Guard)

Like Williams, Robinson will miss the first two exhibition and regular-season contests of the season after being suspended for a failed drug test. He’ll be eligible to return on Nov. 22 when No. 22 SMU visits Assembly Hall.

He too will be looked upon to emerge as a solid secondary scoring option after a solid freshman campaign.

Roster and Projected Rotation

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Indiana's complete roster can be found here, and we'll be analyzing its starting rotation and projected bench contributors. 

Starting Lineup

PG: Yogi Ferrell, junior

SG: James Blackmon Jr., freshman

SF: Stanford Robinson, sophomore

PF: Troy Williams, sophomore

C: Hanner Mosquera-Perea, junior

Key Bench Players: Devin Davis (forward), Robert Johnson (guard), Nick Zeisloft (guard), Max Hoetzel (forward)

Basically, picking the Hoosiers starting five is like throwing darts at a board and seeing what sticks at this point. Ferrell is obviously a lock, as would seem Blackmon, but shifting Robinson and Williams to the 3 and 4 would make this team undersized for conference play.

Obviously things remain up in the air with Davis' injury and the suspensions of Robinson and Williams for the first two games, but this seems like your best bet at the moment. And it allows Johnson, Zeisloft and Hoetzel to come off the bench and attack the perimeter when needed.

Biggest X-Factors

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Who Will Provide Leadership?

The Hoosiers are a mess at the moment, and there aren't any easy fixes. This is a team that's very young overall and needs a player or two to step in and take charge. 

Drug suspensions? Alcohol-related accidents that land players in the hospital with head injuries?

That's just not the Indiana way. Coach Crean will need to find ways to nip this activity in the bud, or off-court issues could derail the season.

Which Players Will Emerge from a Crowded Backcourt?

The Hoosiers are loaded with a glut of guards that have big-time potential, and that will leave playing time hotly contested. Three-guard looks seem to be the easiest solution, allowing Ferrell, Blackmon and either Williams or Robinson to be on the floor as much as possible, but that leaves the front line a bit thin.

And that will put even more pressure on Mosquera-Perea to emerge as the frontcourt player many hoped he would be when he arrived in Bloomington.

Can the Hoosiers Survive a Brutal Early Conference Schedule?

Bad starts can be kryptonite for young teams, and these Hoosiers are facing a brutal early conference schedule. They open up conference play with road games at Nebraska and Michigan State followed up by a visit from Ohio State to Bloomington. Yikes!

The Hoosiers could easily begin 0-3 in conference play, and road tilts at Illinois, Ohio State and Wisconsin are also dicey. Throw in a home game with a possibly underrated Maryland team, and the Hoosiers could easily find themselves 4-6/3-7 before they hit the soft spot in their conference schedule. 

Could they recover from that type of start?

Best and Worst-Case Scenarios

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Best-Case Scenario

The Hoosiers have the ability to benefit from a conference that simply won’t be as good as it was a season ago. Even among the teams expected to contend for a championship, all will have to deal with a certain amount of rebuilding, losing key pieces from teams that were more formidable last year.

Indiana doesn’t face a tremendously difficult nonconference schedule, and if its guards play up to snuff it could enter conference play with 11 or even 12 wins already in the bank. There the Hoosiers would have to navigate some early difficulties, but could find themselves somewhere in the 21-23 win range and safely in the NCAA tournament.

Worst-Case Scenario

The Hoosiers slot in right in the middle of the Big Ten road for the coming season. They could surpass that, should they get their house in order and receive solid production from a ton of talented guards, but they could fall far short if the wheels continue coming off the train.

The early conference stretch will be crucial. If they can navigate that somewhere around .500, they should be OK. But if they start losing confidence and dropping winnable games—something Indiana fans have known Tom Crean's teams to do—they could find themselves closer to the bottom of the conference and out of the postseason again.

2014-15 Prediction

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The Hoosiers are a team in flux and it’s going to take some time to get things settled and on track.

They will benefit from a nonconference schedule that really isn’t all that tough. They’ll have both Robinson and Williams back in the fold when they welcome No. 22 SMU to Bloomington on Nov. 22, and aside from neutral-site games with No. 8 Louisville and Georgetown, there’s nothing too treacherous to navigate.

If you assume they lose to both Louisville and Georgetown, which we will, that places the Hoosiers at 11-2 entering Big Ten play. They’ll have to navigate through a dangerous early stretch in conference play, but they do get Maryland, Purdue and Rutgers twice, giving them an opportunity to take five of those six.

If they can steal one from Illinois or Michigan, it’s possible the Hoosiers could finish with a 10-8 record in conference and 21-10 overall.

That should be enough to get them into the Big Dance somewhere around a No. 7 or No. 8 seed, where they could snag a win before heading home.