Nick KrugHONOLULU ? Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean believes Friday’s game against No. 3 Kansas in the Armed Forces Classic is important, but that has not stopped the Hoosiers from enjoying all of the other experiences along the way.
“You come out here and you gotta get locked into playing the game and winning the game and all that,” said Crean Wednesday night from the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Fitness Center. “And we’re trying to really keep up the mindset that whatever we’re doing at that given time, that’s the most important thing of the day. Whether we’re visiting with servicemen, practicing, touring or visiting with young kids, we want to make sure we’re fully into that and our guys have done a really good job of that.”
Like the three other teams opening their seasons in Hawaii — Kansas, Arizona and Michigan State — Crean said the opportunity to experience, up close and personal, such an important part of American history added to what already would have been an amazing trip even if just for the basketball.
“When we were asked to do this a couple years back, this was a great honor,” Crean said. “It’d be very hard to say no to something like this…. To get a chance to see what Pearl Harbor’s all about, it’s something they’ll always have in their minds. Once you’re here, it’s incredible. Once you leave, it gives you incredible memories, and they’re a lot more than just basketball.”
In addition to touring Pearl Harbor, which included an hour-long trip to the USS Arizona Memorial and a kids clinic to cap the night, the 11th-ranked Hoosiers practiced Wednesday and again will again today in preparation for Friday’s showdown, keeping both sessions what Crean described as “short but sharp.”
“There’s no shortage of getting better at basketball out here,” he said. “But there is a great mindset of making sure that we take it all in, just like all the other teams are.”
As for the game against an experienced and talented Kansas team expected to win a 13th consecutive Big 12 regular season title this season, Crean said he loved the chance for his squad to get a tough test right out of the gate.
“It’s a huge, huge opportunity for our team on many levels to play against a great program, against a team that, from top to bottom, is really sound and solid,” he said. “It’s maybe as fast a team, on film from last year and this year, that most of these guys will have faced.
“The way they’re coached, the way they execute, the way they defend, (KU coach Bill Self is) on ’em about their rebounding, so that’s gonna play into it. They’re outstanding and we’ve just gotta play as hard and as smart as we possibly can and try to keep it as simple as possible.”
Kansas and Indiana will square off at 8:30 p.m., central time, Friday night at Stan Sheriff Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii.
