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Indiana announces plans for August trip to Montreal

Tom Crean

Indiana head coach Tom Crean reacts to the action on the court in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, March 5, 2014, in Bloomington, Ind. Nebraska defeated Indiana 70-60. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

AP

After winning the Big Ten regular season title and reaching the Sweet 16 in 2012-13 Indiana’s relative lack of experience proved to be an issue last season, as the Hoosiers finished with a record of 17-15 and did not play in a postseason event after not being selected for the Postseason NIT. Obviously with that being the case the expectation is that Tom Crean’s program will take a step forward in 2014-15, and the Hoosiers will get in some early game action this summer.

Wednesday afternoon the school made official its plans to play five exhibition games over a six-day span in Montreal. The Hoosiers will leave for Montreal on August 7, and they’ll play five games from August 8-13.

Not only does this give a team that will once again be led by point guard Yogi Ferrell valuable game action, they’ll also have the ten practices that a team is allowed to use before leaving the country for a summer trip per NCAA rules. Indiana has just three upperclassmen on its 2014-15 roster at present time: Ferrell, power forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea and center Peter Jurkin.

With the instructional time (two hours per week), practices and games, Indiana will have a “head start” of sorts in strengthening the on-court chemistry of its young roster.

“The ten practices in the past used to be a much bigger deal until they put in the new rule where we will get two hours to work with our players and ten practices,” Crean said in the release. “This trip will give us a chance to do a lot of things in a short period of time and I think that is really good.”

Among the five games are contests against Carleton and Ottawa University, with Carleton having won ten of the last 12 Canadian national titles and Ottawa falling to the Ravens in last year’s title game. It should also be noted that Carleton has been a difficult opponent for NCAA opponents in the past. Just last season Carleton beat Wisconsin and took Syracuse to overtime in exhibition games last summer.

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