This year's IDS basketball guide was entitled "Take Two." Apparently statisticians took two last night - points that is, from IU sophomore Verdell Jones.
Late in last night's game, ESPN flashed a small graphic that credited Jones with 20 points. Then he hit a bucket with four seconds to go, adding to his team-high point total and apparently ending the night with 22.
Writing my column from a Bloomington apartment, without a stat sheet in front of me or even time to check a box score due to a rushed deadline, I wrote that Jones led the way with 22 points. I had my editors fact check that number instead.
This afternoon, however, I noticed another media outlet's story listing 20 points along side Jones' name. The box score on both IUHoosiers.com and ESPN.com confirms that lesser point total.
Apparently I was wrong, but I wasn't the only one. The Herald Times, the Indy Star, the Journal-Gazette, the Evansville Courier & Press, the News-Sentinel, The Pitt News, and the New York Post were among the others who made the same error (if you click any of these and they now read 20 points, that possibly proves we do have some readers here on the Hoosier Hype).
The aforementioned Courier & Press wrote that Jones shot 7 -for-13 from the floor and 8-for-10 from the foul line. That equals 22 points, though the official box scores credit Jones with only a 6-for-8 effort from the charity stripe.
So where did those points go? Over to freshman Christian Watford, who is now listed as having 18 points, despite all of the above articles having Watford down for 16.
