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IUP resolves to improve offensive execution in 2025

The IUP Crimson Hawks have a New Year’s resolution: Get better on offense.

Most resolutions don’t last more than a few days. The Hawks need to sustain theirs through January and February and into March.

“The most important thing we need to work on is offensive execution,” Christian Moore, a 6-foot-1 junior transfer from New Hampshire and the team’s leading scorer, said. “I think a lot of games we beat ourselves on the offensive end — not knowing plays, spacing, not making one more pass. The emphasis going into the next game will be on offensive execution, for sure.”

IUP closed 2024 at 6-6 overall and 3-2 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference before taking a seven-day holiday break. Given its youth and inexperience at the college level, and setbacks due to injuries and eligibility, the Hawks have progressed slowly, sometimes matching a step forward with a step backward.

“When you play teams that are as talented as you or more talented or more experienced than you it’s important that you play near-flawless,” IUP coach Joe Lombardi said. “So, you can’t forget where you’re supposed to go on a play or just mentally break down. You can’t match them physically so your advantage has to be effort and mental approach.”

IUP gets a chance at a new start Thursday for its first game in 12 days to open a long and grueling stretch that includes 14 matchups with seven PSAC West teams. IUP plays host to Division III Thiel (5-5) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and opens PSAC West play Monday at Edinboro.

“It should be a really good flip on the season,” freshman point guard Kymani Merraro said. “I think we all understand it, so we should be going back to how we’re supposed to be playing.”

Moore averages 18.2 points per game. The rest of the starting lineup consists of the 5-9 Merraro (13.4 ppg, 4.3 assists); Damir Brooks (12.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg), a 6-6 redshirt junior forward; Tyler Grove (11.1 ppg), a 6-7 freshman forward; and Sarp Furton (3.8 ppg.), a 6-3 sophomore guard.

The reserves are 6-5 freshman forward Ian Herring (7.3 ppg) and transfers Alfonso Pickens Jr. (3.0 ppg), a 6-3 junior guard, and Luke Triggs (5.5 ppg), a 6-6 junior forward.

IUP opened the season with an unsettled roster. Dallis Dillard, a senior guard and proven scorer who is coming off knee surgery, decided three weeks ago to redshirt rather than return to the lineup at well below 100 percent. In November, Bautista Rodriguez, a 6-6 freshman forward who was slated to start, was deemed ineligible by the NCAA for violating a rule regarding international players and must sit out the season.

“Now you kind of know what you’ve got and you’ve got to work with it,” Lombardi said.

IUP is shooting 43.7 percent overall and 30.9 percent from 3-point range and scoring 72.3 points per game and allowing 72.8. Assists-to-turnovers are slightly negative at 134-136, and the rebounding margin has dwindled to 1.3.

Defensively, IUP holds opponents to 42.6 percent shooting overall and 33.2 percent from 3-point range.

“We really have to focus on our offensive execution and getting stops,” Merraro said. “It just comes down to tight possessions and executing, and I feel like we’re really locking in and making good strides.”

Opponents ramped up the defense on IUP’s top guards, Moore and Merraro, who hit some rough stretches after fast starts to the season. Grove, who also started fast, fell into a shooting slump but showed signs of breaking out in two games before the holiday break.

Brooks has four double-doubles, but the lean and long center sometimes gives up 40 or 50 pounds and 2 or 3 inches in the low post.

“We’ve just got to improve in a lot of areas,” Lombardi said. “When I look back, I see the guys that have improved the most are the freshmen, but they had the biggest strides to make. I’m grateful we’re making progress, and we’ll be better each month. That means they’re taking the coaching and making strides. I’m optimistic about that because sometimes you coach guys and they don’t get any better.

“And we have to get better at more sustained effort. The effort has been really good — it’s not like the guys haven’t been playing hard — but we need to get better. The mental part of the game is what you can improve the quickest.”

IUP’s practice Monday included an intense 5-on-5 scrimmage between the first and second teams. The second team, which included Dillard and Rodriguez, won.

Afterward, an intense discussion followed when players gathered around the water cooler at the end of practice. Then they headed to the weight room to finish a day that included individual workouts and two 90-minute practice sessions.

“They enjoy each other and they enjoy competing,” Lombardi said. “They’re growing in championship DNA. They have a lot of intangibles that sometimes you can’t find in teams. We just have to mature our bodies, mature our games and mature our understanding of how we need to play to win.”

A similar schedule followed Tuesday and a lighter session was set for Wednesday.

“I came back with the mentality that we’re going to work harder than anybody,” Lombardi said. “Guys were happy to get back, to work. They don’t run from work. That’s a good sign for January, February and March and a good sign for the future being that we have this whole team back.”