The game against Minnesota was a perfect representation of the Hoosiers’ season: a slow start, lots of threes and a home victory.
The Hoosiers won by a healthy 90-71 score over the Golden Gophers, but it didn’t look so promising early.
IU started off in a 14-6 hole and committed four turnovers in the first six minutes. Some hot shooting pulled them back into the game and they never looked back after the intermission.
IU finished 18-of-32 (56.3 percent) from behind the arc, setting a new program record for 3-pointers made in a game.
Against the Golden Gophers, I saw flashes of the win over Maryland in Assembly Hall. People forget that IU had just a three-point lead at halftime of that game.
Against Minnesota it was a six-point lead at the break that quickly ballooned to 12 in less than two ?minutes of play.
A lot of that came from IU’s star freshmen finding their shots. After freshmen guards James Blackmon Jr. and Robert Johnson combined for just 13 points in their last game, they led IU in scoring with 24 and 19 points, respectively.
IU Coach Tom Crean said those two hadn’t hit a wall, they were just missing shots. He said extra work this week helped Blackmon and Johnson stay in a good mindset.
“They’ve hit the wall a couple times,” Crean said. “I don’t think that was a wall situation (against Maryland). A wall is when you’re mentally not able to stay with it.”
Blackmon and Johnson combined for 11 of IU’s 18 3-pointers.
Of course, all that happened in a Hoosier-friendly Assembly Hall. For some reason, everything seems to change for this team after they take a bus trip.
If they played NCAA Tournament games at Assembly Hall, IU would be a dangerous team. IU plays some home games where they just can’t miss and they simply run away from their opponent.
To keep playing the hypothetical game, if the Hoosiers only played home games this year, what would their record be? They are a different team at home, but that’s not necessarily a ?good thing.
It was a great game for IU, but in the big picture, they’re still a work in progress.
IU should perform well for the rest of the regular season, where three of their last five games are in Bloomington. But as far as the postseason goes, temper your expectations.
I don’t mean to seem like a “Debbie Downer” after an impressive Hoosier victory with lots of positive storylines, but I cannot stress enough how little faith I have in this team on the road.
I will pick IU to win at Northwestern and Rutgers in the coming games, but if they were facing almost any other Big Ten teams, I would be very hesitant.
The only good showings on the road this year for IU have been at Illinois and Wednesday’s loss to Maryland. So they’re on the right track, but IU needs to build off that. One game, a trend does not make.
The eye test is more important in this regard than wins or statistics, so until the Hoosiers start actually looking better in away games, I don’t see much postseason success this season.
crkrajew@indiana.edu
