IU suffered its first loss of the season in the Big Ten opener at Michigan State which exposed a few of IU's strengths and weaknesses. Here were three things that we learned from Wednesday night.
1. Welcome to the Big Ten Cody Zeller
The guy who has been IU's best player this season was contained and contained well in his first ever Big Ten game. Zeller had career-lows in points (4), rebounds (3) and failed to attempt a free-throw.
Many expected the Spartans to test a combination of Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix on Zeller. But really, it was Payne that did all of the work as he rendered Zeller completely ineffective in the post by denying entry passes and getting the freshman in foul trouble.
It was an early wakeup call to IU fans that Zeller is still a freshman adjusting to playing with guys that can actually body up with him. It doesn't get any easier for Zeller, who will see a healthy dose of All-Everything big man Jared Sullinger when IU takes on No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday night.
2. Will Sheehey is pretty valuable
While IU had periods where it looked invincible from the field, there were also several dry spells in which a guy like Sheehey was needed to spark the offense. The Hoosiers got some nice three balls by Matt Roth and some solid interior defense from Tom Pritchard, but IU only had 10 bench points.
Sheehey could've also freed up Zeller with his ability to create his own shot. IU is calling it a day-to-day injury but if Sheehey is to miss significant time in the course of the Big Ten, it would be a huge blow to the Hoosiers.
Freshman guard Remy Abell, the guy who many figured would get minutes in Sheehey's absence, was a non-factor in very limited time.
If IU is going to make that next push in the Big Ten, they'll need to get significantly better scoring contributions off the Sheehey-less bench.
3. Don't crown them yet
Yes, it was IU's best start since the undefeated 1975-76 season. Yes, IU was all the way up to No. 13 in the AP poll for the first time since February of 2008. Yes, IU fans had all the reason to finally be excited about this program again.
But lets pump the breaks a little bit.
Winning on the road in the Big Ten is still a bugaboo that the Hoosiers did not overcome in their 12-0 start. Not to say that was a must-win game for IU, but in order to hang with the big boys, you've got to beat the big boys.
This team did go on an impressive 22-2 run after being down 18 in the first half that showed more poise than any team we've seen in the Crean era. If this is last year, maybe IU treads water in the second half and fails to make it a ballgame.
But this is still a very young season and NCAA Tournament berths are not clinched in December. If the Hoosiers are to break their tournament-less drought, they will need to answer some serious questions that plagued them Wednesday night.
