POSTGAME: Victims of a huge second half Spartan comeback, IU dropped its third straight Big Ten road game tonight, 66-58.
We have to hustle down to the media room for press conferences now, so this will be short and sweet, but the main difference (without a final scoresheet in front of me) was turnovers. Michigan State committed 14 of them in the first half, but had to have lowered that number considerably in the second half (again, no scoresheet) as the Hoosiers coughed up the ball repeatedly.
Thanks to that efficiency, the Spartans went on a 14-0 run, in addition to an 8-0 run, to overtake the lead and hold the Hoosiers off in the closing minutes.
Look for more in the next couple of days on the Basketblog.
HALFTIME: The Hoosiers played exceedingly well in the first half and are up 30-20 at the break.
I would use one word to sum up IU's performance in the first half: confident. A.J. Ratliff has been confident shooting, Armon Bassett has been confident running the team on offense, and the Hoosiers have collectively just seemed confident on the defensive end.
(Also confident, though he might consider adjusting that stance a little bit: Lance Stemler, who can't hit a shot to save his life.)
Defensively, Ratliff and Errek Suhr have shared responsibilities guarding MSU guard Drew Neitzel, and have for the most part checked the guard extremely well on high screens. IU has hedged those screens well and rotated to the screener well on all but a couple of occasions, and the Spartans have had a tough time getting into their offense as a result.
This is a tough arena, and the Hoosiers have had some trouble on the road in second halves recently (see: Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Michigan) so it's likely to be a close game down the stretch. Nonetheless, IU fans probably couldn't be much happier with the first half, all things considered.
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UPDATE: Now, THAT'S a national anthem. MSU organized a flag the size of the court, as well as timely explosions, for the pregame festival.
Here's IU's confirmed starting lineup: D.J. White Lance Stemler Armon Bassett A.J. Ratliff Rod Wilmont
There you have it. See you at halftime.
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Though I'm usually not one for media-created histrionics, these Saturday night College Gameday games are pretty sweet.
Case in point: Not only does this game give ESPN a chance to hype up a game that would normally just serve as yet another in-conference test for both teams, but lucky student media guys like me get a chance to see Dick Vitale, Dan Shulman, Erin Andrews and - for some weird reason - the Schwab.
Yeah, that guy from ESPN's "Stump The Schwab" is here (we saw him in the media room in the food line). He wasn't wearing his trademark throwback hockey jersey, and as far as I could tell, no one was trying to stump him. Nonetheless, pretty cool, if you're a stat and trivia freak.
There's still about an hour before gametime, but the student section is entirely filled. Ah, the wonders of first come, first serve seating, huh? The Breslin Center overall is a great venue - new, clean, spacious. It sort of feels like an NBA arena, similar to, say, Conseco Fieldhouse. Nice.
The Hoosiers have quite a test tonight. This place alone is tough enough to win in, but Michigan State has finally been hitting on al cylinders the past few games, which included a blowout win over Iowa and an upset over No. 1 Wisconsin. As Kelvin Sampson said yesterday: "They came home and got healthy." They also stopped turning the ball over, too, and that always helps.
IU's starting lineup is still in flux, as far as we know. As of yesterday, Earl Calloway was officially a gametime decision. Tonight, Calloway was warming up with everyone else and looked to be capable of dribbling and passing at his normal level. Shooting, however, was shaky; Calloway struggled to get the ball to the hoop on almost all of the midrange jumpers Matt and I saw him take. There were rumblings in the media room that he might start, but not play that much. We'll see.
Sampson might also consider starting Ben Allen alongside D.J. White tonight. The Spartans feature two players over 6'10 (Marquise Gray and Drew Naymick) in their starting lineup, so the Hoosiers might have to go to Allen to match up effectively. That's certainly another option.
As of right now, here are the official projected starting lineups, according to the IU athletic media relations information:
IU: F D.J. White F Mike White G Rod Wilmont G Armon Bassett G A.J. Ratliff
MSU: C Drew Naymick F Raymar Morgan F Marquise Gray G Travis Walton G Drew Neitzel
MSU just ran back out onto the court for layup lines and such, and it's already starting to get loud in here. Oh, and Jay-Z just declared a state of emergency in "Show Em What You Got," which was just blaring over the loudspeakers. We'll see whether that applies to IU or MSU in the next hour or so.
