Bassett shines in Hoosier win

Over the past few games, the IU men’s basketball team has turned its defense from a liability to a strength.\nAfter back-to-back losses to Connecticut and Wisconsin in January, IU began to add some zone defense in with its traditional man-to-man defense to hide mismatches at the power forward position. While the zone has helped IU’s play, the defensive effort of sophomore guard Armon Bassett has catalyzed the Hoosier defensive attack as IU has gone 5-1 since dropping those two consecutive games.\nBassett’s defense was on full display Tuesday night as the No. 15 Hoosiers defeated rival No. 14 Purdue 77-68.\nThe stats aren’t eye-popping – Bassett had a lone steal – but the sophomore guard’s intensity at the point of attack on the defensive side set the tone for the rest of his teammates.\n“I think when I play with energy on defense, my teammates feed off of it,” Bassett said. “We got up by five and I pushed my defense up, and we ran the lead up to 10 or 12. I just have to try and do that as much as possible.”\nSome of the Hoosier difficulties on defense have been due to the graduation of point guard Earl Calloway, who left a void in the Hoosier defense at the point of attack, IU coach Kelvin Sampson said.\nBassett, who has played through most of the season with an ankle injury, has begun to embrace the role left by Calloway, junior forward Kyle Taber said after the game. Bassett’s play held Purdue guards Keaton Grant, Chris Kramer and Tarrance Crump to a combined 18 points.\n“He’s done really well with that,” Taber said. “I know one point in the game when he got a really big stop, and there was a jump ball. I think that was a big turning point in the game. He has really set the tone for us.”\nOn the offensive end, Bassett had one of his most efficient outings, scoring 16 points on 4-5 shooting, including 4-4 from beyond the arc. Bassett would have had an unblemished game had it not been for his five turnovers.\n“I thought Bassett played a very good game even though he had five turnovers,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “He had some key baskets.”\nNo shots were bigger than the two 3-pointers Bassett hit in a two-minute stretch in the second half which answered runs by Purdue to try and get back into the game.\nProving he could hit from outside gave Bassett the opportunity to drive the lane and force Purdue into foul trouble early in the second half. This strategy paid off as the Hoosiers hit 30-34 from the charity stripe.\n“Instead of making extra passes, especially with E.J. (Eric Gordon) and Armon, we wanted those guys to really drive it,” Sampson said. “Play through D.J. (White) as much as we could, knowing that they would double him, just try to get to the free throw line.”\nOn top of his defense and scoring, Bassett grabbed a career-high eight rebounds. For the sophomore guard, his role is to do whatever the team needs to win.\n“Some nights it may be to score when D.J. and E.J. aren’t going,” Bassett said. “Just to point my guys in the right direction and be a leader out there. Trying to be coach Sampson out there on the court.”