PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Tom Crean isn’t Norman Dale and Cody Zeller isn’t Jimmy Chitwood.
No, these Hoosiers aren’t anybody’s underdogs and Crean knows it.
The 2012-13 Indiana basketball team will enter this season with much hype and hoopla surrounding them, and Crean can see, hear and feel the expectations as he walks around Bloomington.
“Oh, it’s big, absolutely,” Crean said Friday at the Brayden Carr Foundation clinic at Rutgers.
“I think they [people in Indiana] feel great. I think they’re excited and I think that’s great because they’ve lived through a lot of tough things the last few years. And they’ve had to hear a lot of nonsense and see us struggle and go through all that and I think they’re all happy to have their program back at a very high level.”
Indiana was one of just two teams to beat eventual national champion Kentucky last season, doing so on a last-second 3-pointer by Christian Watford.
They return Zeller, a 7-foot sophomore who would’ve been a surefire NBA lottery pick had he opted to leave campus.
And they bring in one of the most acclaimed recruiting classes in the nation.
Indiana enters the season ranked No. 2 in the Sheridan Hoops Preseason Top 25 behind Louisville.
“It would be unrealistic to try to push those [expectations] away, because that’s just the way that it is,” Crean said of all the hype following last year’s 27-9 record.
“To act like those expectations of other people weren’t out there would be foolish but to act on the expectations of other people would be just as foolish. And I think the bottom line is for them to work in the way that they’re capable and focus on where they want to go with it.”
In Zeller, the Hoosiers have a rare guy who would’ve been a lottery pick had he left campus, but will now have a year to improve in the college environment.
“What he brings is an incredible skill-set that is always getting better,” Crean said.
“He’s got tremendous intelligence, character and athleticism. And then you combine the work ethic and the skills that he has. And now what he’s done is he’s constantly out of his comfort zone, which in turn has made him better at some of those things — handling the ball, shooting on the perimeter.”
He added: “We’ve got to make sure that he’s a really hard cover, because I’m sure most teams are going to build their defensive scheme around how they keep the ball out of his hands.”
When Zeller does eventually follow older brother, Tyler, into the NBA, Crean believes some team will get a difference-maker.
“I think Cody is going to be one of those guys that he’s going to be able to affect somebody’s ability to win in May or June,” he said. “I think he’s got that kind of ability.”
In addition to Zeller, Crean’s freshmen group of Jeremy Hollowell, Hanner Perea and Yogi Ferrell are expected to make instant contributions.
Crean is especially high on the 6-8 Hollowell.
“I think Jeremy Hollowell, he’s got a skill level that’s just coming out because he’s stretching his athleticism all the time right now,” Crean said.
“He’s getting some basic things that he hadn’t had to do as a forward, as a guy that can play inside and outside. And what he’s doing, he’s got so much more confidence in his ball-handling. And that wasn’t the role that he had to play in high school. But he was very well coached because he’s got a work ethic, he’s got a desire, he loves to be in the gym.”
He added: “I think he’ll even surprise some people with his intensity level.”
With all the talent and experience on the roster, Indiana has a chance to compete for a run to its first Final Four since 2002.
And what makes this year especially interesting is that Indiana’s neighbors and rivals, Louisville and Kentucky, are also expected to be in the mix.
“There’s a window of opportunity to go right now and I think that’s what we’re all trying to focus on,” Crean said, “and I think that’s what we’re all trying to focus on doing the best with that and keep enlarging that window all the time.”
