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BLOOMINGTON - It's not last year, that's for sure, when the most important item of Hoosier fan brought to the first practice was a piece of red clothing and a roster.

The names are not quite at the level of a who's who, but a glace of the roster is needed only about 40 percent of the time when the red jersey-clad Hoosiers took the court.

"Just have fun," said second year Hoosier guard Verdell Jones III of his second Hoosier Hysteria of his career. "Tomorrow we have two-a-days so we're just trying to have fun tonight."

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To facilitate this for the players, new events like the slam dunk contest, game with singing group "Straight No Chaser", and then they gave the Hoosiers a vocal lesson in return. Its was the goal of head coach Tom Crean to get more enjoyment out of the annual event in hopes of loosening up the team while also establishing new traditions in in his coaching tenure in front of the 13,000 plus fans at Assembly Hall.

"It's a new type of tradition," said Crean of the event. "We're gonna let them sit back and enjoy it and at 10:30 (A.M. Saturday), we'll crank it up for real again."

When the Hoosiers do that, they'll be trying to improve on a season that produced just a half-a-dozen victories while providing a learning experience like no other for a team that featured just two returning starters. While the goal last season may have been education and simple survival, this year it becomes more about establishing the direction of this team and the program itself.

Read: Things Get A Little Better For IU During Second Rebuilding Year

"A real identity," said Crean when asked if he had a main goal this season. "I think our identity last year was that we played hard and I don't think anyone would argue that."

Creating that would have been difficult last season, when the growing pains produced a number of blowouts and just one Big Ten victory.

"I don't think we always played believing we could win, and maybe there were times that we couldn't," said Crean of the 2008-2009 season.

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But with three primary starters returning this season-Tom Pritchard, Jones, and Dumes-along with the other role players, the experience could be there for the Hoosiers to establish themselves with a type of play.

"I want people to be able to walk in here, someone who didn't have the gift of sight, watch practice for two, two-and-a-half hours and tell them exactly what kind of team they are, by what they felt from their energy, what they heard from them," said Crean. "I know that's kinda corny, but I think that's what an identity is."

While they find that though, a few players believe the Hoosiers can make an impact now.

Read: Maurice Creek Cleared To Play For Hoosiers

"I really think it's shock the world," said Jones of his goals this season. "We have the talent and we have the depth that we didn't have last year. So we're gonna have a great year this year."

Whether that comes to fruition or not will start to be determined on November 13th when the Hoosiers open the season at home against Howard. A trip to Puerto Rico to face Ole Miss, Boston University or Kansas State, home games against Maryland and Kentucky, along with the Jimmy V Classic in New York against Pittsburgh highlight the non conference schedule.

"We don't sell ourselves short just because of lack of experience," said Dumes of this Hoosiers' team.