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(04/11/13 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>How can you have a greater influence in as short a time as sophomore forward Cody Zeller has at IU?Numbers-wise, Zeller will be remembered for his 1,157 career points, for starting in all of IU’s 72 games during the past two seasons and for leading the Hoosiers to a 56-16 record (77.8 winning percentage) from 2011.But these numbers can’t even begin to tell the tale of what he meant to IU and the Bloomington community.Any way you slice it, Zeller still is the glue that unites all of the parts of Indiana basketball’s past, present and future.In a time when Purdue was arguably as strong as they have ever been, and Butler was on its way to two national championship game appearances, Zeller was the guy who made it cool to be a Hoosier again by committing to IU on Nov. 11, 2010.When he finally stepped on the Assembly Hall floor, he made fans believe IU’s success in the past was not just a fading memory, but instead, a goal within reach.And now that his IU career finished, he will be remembered as the guy who changed the fate of the program.“It’s hard to describe it, and it’s hard to put into words,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “But what Cody has done in the short period of time that he’s been a part of Indiana basketball has been to help raise the level of everyone in this program, every coach, every manager, every player, every person associated with it, and that’s not an easy feat.”As the humble superstar has done throughout his career, he deflected the credit of bringing IU back to his teammates, coaches and support staff, even in his final press conference Wednesday.But Crean wouldn’t let the modest seven-footer have the final word on the matter.“I think what you have is that people were really looking forward to having an opportunity to play with Cody and to win with Cody, and that’s exactly what they did,” Crean said.“Anybody that comes in here now will be the beneficiary of how this program is so player-led by the work ethics and by the desires that they have. A guy like Cody was a huge, huge part of that.”Back in October, I spoke with Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo about the importance of Zeller for the Indiana program.Izzo compared Zeller’s relationship with Crean and the big man’s role in the resurgence of IU to the player-coach relationship he had with former Spartan star, Mateen Cleaves.“(Crean and Zeller) have been a good pair,” Izzo said. “(Crean) needed a star to come to his state like I needed Mateen Cleaves. They are joined at the hip. I think that is important.”Crean, who was there for two of Cleaves’s first three seasons said he agreed with Izzo and could see similarities because Zeller, like Cleaves, was in a situation where he could have gone to “hotter” programs.Instead, he decided to be the big difference in a program that already had some guys to build upon.“I hope that everybody really will continue to remember in the short term — I know that they will in the long term — that the things that Cody has done here in the two years that he has been here have been nothing short of phenomenal,” Crean said.For as long as Crean is at the head of the IU program, the memory and influence of Zeller — Crean’s first McDonald’s All-American at IU — will be felt.The best part is that Zeller did all of this with the utmost class that an athlete could possibly display.He was a role model on the court, in the classroom — he only has 35 credit hours remaining toward his degree from the Kelley School of Business — but most importantly, in the community, that could never get enough of him. “When you get somebody like him that has been raised the way that he has been raised by his parents, coached like he has been coached, especially by (Washington High School Coach) Gene Miller, impacted the teams, whether it was his summer teams or his high school teams, impacted his school and his community like he did, that’s storybook,” Crean said. “It really is. It’s amazing what he’s done.” Though it’s a sad day for Hoosier fans that must now say goodbye to the man who revived IU basketball, Bloomington can take solace in this.Zeller’s final chapter at IU has now been written, but like good books that withstand the test of time, the story of his impact on IU will last forever.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(04/10/13 2:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The first domino has fallen.In a press conference on Branch McCracken Court at Assembly Hall among media, his head coach and his academic adviser and “best friend,” Marni Mooney, junior guard Victor Oladipo announced Tuesday afternoon he will forego his senior season to enter the 2013 NBA Draft.“I will be growing and going on and entering the NBA draft,” Oladipo said. “It’s an honor to be an Indiana Hoosier. It means so much to me, and I will always be an Indiana Hoosier. You know, this is my home. I love this place.”The announcement effectively starts the time clock for another one of IU’s potential NBA prospects, sophomore forward Cody Zeller, to decide what the men’s basketball roster will look like in the 2013-14 season.But before we get caught up on next year, let’s realize what IU is losing with the departure of Oladipo.Oladipo leaves Indiana having played in 104 games (75 starts). He scored 1,117 points, shot 53.8 percent from the field, grabbed 538 rebounds, 175 assists, 56 blocks and 161 steals.He finished third all-time on the IU career steals list behind Dane Fife (180) and Steve Alford (178) — both of whom played four seasons for the Hoosiers.Aside from these statistically measurable contributions to the program, Oladipo’s parting, combined with the loss of senior guard Jordan Hulls to graduation, means that two out of the three guys that Crean pegged as “the 365-day club” will not be returning to guide the way of the incoming freshman class.Oladipo’s work ethic, infectious personality and leadership are things that aren’t easily replaced and will certainly be missed around Bloomington.“It’s just an incredible thing to watch somebody that is as good of a person, has the charisma, the personality, the integrity, the character to just come alive with this second-to-none work ethic that he has brought,” Crean said. “It has helped transform our team, and it has helped make everyone else in this program better.“Victor may not have been the point guard, per se, but when he was on the court, he impacted the game for everyone and helped make every one of his teammates better.”Although he said the decision was tough, Oladipo’s choice to leave Bloomington for the greener pastures of the NBA looks like the right decision at the right time for the junior from Upper Marlboro, Md.“I swayed back and forth, especially throughout the season,” Oladipo said. “I just felt this was best for my family. Coming here, like I said, and graduating in three years and getting such a great education that I have gotten here at Indiana University, I felt like I’m prepared for it.”His decision should not be looked down upon by optimistic Hoosier fans that were hoping for a last-minute change of heart that would bring Oladipo back for one more season to fill Assembly Hall with “Oh-la-dee-po” chants.Even with another year to progress under the tutelage of Crean and his staff, how much higher could Oladipo’s draft stock go?According to an NBA scout that I spoke with in February, Oladipo was already projected to be a lottery pick, if not a top-10 selection.And this was before his 19-point, nine-rebound and five-steal performance on the road against Michigan State to help lead the Hoosiers’ comeback to a 72-68 victory against the Spartans.“The feedback is very, very strong,” Crean said. “Without being extremely specific, it has not been anything less than being a lottery selection. That’s just too hard to pass up.”Too hard to pass up indeed.Now, the question is: will the NBA be too hard to pass up for Oladipo’s now-former teammate, Cody Zeller?— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(04/01/13 2:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU’s road wasn’t supposed to end like this.The journey that started with a preseason No. 1 ranking was supposed to be on the yellow brick road leading all the way to the wonderful land of the Final Four.The path wasn’t supposed to guide the Hoosiers right into an orange brick wall.But it did, and now the 2012-13 IU men’s basketball season is over.“We’ve had a heck of a ride with this group,” IU Coach Tom Crean said Thursday night. “It doesn’t feel like it tonight, won’t feel like that for a couple of days, maybe longer.”Thursday night’s game was a game of indecision for the Hoosiers.Instead of looking like the confident, fearless team that won an outright Big Ten title for the first time in 20 years, the Hoosiers looked like a completely different team — one we have never seen before.Because the game felt so one-sided and Syracuse was more dominant than any opponent IU has faced all season, playing the “blame game” is inevitable for fans and critics after a loss like this. Looking for people to blame is a natural way, and maybe the only way for people to cope with the type of emotional let-down felt Thursday night.It’s an unfortunate, knee-jerk response, but let’s face it, there is plenty of blame to go around.People want to blame Crean for not preparing his team to face Syracuse’s suffocating zone. Personally, I think they were prepared for it. There’s a difference between not being prepared for the zone and not executing against it.I believe IU’s problems stemmed from the latter more than the former.At times, the Hoosiers’ ball movement was spectacular against the zone, but when you can’t knock down open shots, great ball movement doesn’t matter.Missed shots aren’t Crean’s fault. He can’t get out there and shoot the ball himself. That responsibility falls on guys like senior guard Jordan Hulls, sophomore forward Cody Zeller and freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, who combined to shoot 3-of-19 from the field and only scored 10 points (all coming from Zeller).Realistically, if you want to blame Crean for anything, it has to be for sticking with Hulls and Ferrell too long, when the two shorter guards were clearly overmatched by Syracuse’s physicality and length.The only ball-handler outside of junior guard Victor Oladipo and junior forward Will Sheehey that showed any aggression against the zone was sophomore guard Remy Abell, who for some reason only played 10 minutes.When Temple’s Khalif Wyatt was lighting up IU’s defense in the round of 32, Crean was not afraid to play Abell in important minutes.But when Syracuse continued to force Ferrell into turnovers and consistently took advantage of Hulls’ and Ferrell’s inability to guard Orange players, Crean kept Abell up his sleeve.You can’t blame Crean for the Hoosiers’ execution, but you can blame him for not putting the right guys on the court.He stuck with a freshman guard who was overwhelmed from the tip-off and a senior guard who was playing with a separated shoulder, as reported by InsideTheHall.com.“I’m sure the strength and the size of the Syracuse guards had something to do with it,” Crean said. “It’s a matter of where you enter the ball from and we got tentative shooting the ball, which we didn’t need to do.”Regardless of who deserves the most blame — Zeller and senior forward Christian Watford didn’t play their best games either — nothing can change the fact IU failed to perform in Washington D.C.Maybe that’s what will hurt the IU players, coaches and fans the most in the up-coming basketball-less months that will feel like an eternity.In the most important game of the season, IU, as a team, played some of its worst basketball we have seen.The season might not have ended the way IU thought it would and the enormous expectations that were placed on this team were not realized. The Hoosiers would be the first people to admit this.But the reality of the NCAA tournament is a harsh, demoralizing feeling for 67 of the 68 teams that dare to dance.There can only be one national champion every year and as we found out Thursday night, this was not the Hoosiers’ year to be crowned.Although this season ends in a bitter disappointment that will linger in Bloomington for a long time, the beauty of sports is this is never the end result. Teams win and teams lose, but it’s the journey that makes us believe that anything could happen. “They have done things that have not been done at Indiana for a long, long time and they did it from scratch,” Crean said.For this reason, we must not remember the 2012-13 season for how it ended; we must remember this team for allowing us to be a part of the ride that took IU by storm.We must remember the three seniors, forward Derek Elston, Watford and Hulls, that dreamt about bringing IU basketball back — and then fulfilled that dream beyond most of our wildest hopes.Most importantly, we must remember this team for how special it was as a whole.“As you know, it’s been full of up’s and down’s but I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Watford said. “I love my teammates and I’m happy to be an Indiana Hoosier at the end of the day.”IU could not have asked for better representatives to embody the face of the University that loves basketball as much as humanly possible.This loss leaves Hoosiers around the country feeling disappointment and sadness, but when the dust clears and those feelings subside, we will remember this IU team for bringing something back to Bloomington that is even more important than banner number six.This team brought pride to every person that has ever considered himself or herself an Indiana Hoosier — win or lose.What more could you ask for?— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/29/13 5:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON, D.C. — IU’s road wasn’t supposed to end like this.The journey that started with a preseason No. 1 ranking was supposed to be on the yellow brick road leading all the way to the wonderful land of the Final Four.The path wasn’t supposed to guide IU right into an Orange brick wall.But it did, and now the 2012-13 IU men's basketball season is over.“We’ve had a heck of a ride with this group,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “It doesn’t feel like it tonight, and it won't feel like that for a couple of days, maybe longer.”The first half could not have gone much worse for the Hoosiers.IU started off aggressive, drawing three fouls in the first four minutes, but the problem was the shots were just not falling and the basketballs kept getting turned over.At times, the Hoosiers’ ball movement was spectacular against the zone, but when you can’t knock down open shots, great ball movement doesn’t matter.Through the first six minutes, IU did not connect on one field goal attempt as they went 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-3 from behind the arc before sophomore guard Remy Abell ended that drought with a driving layup to make it 11-5 Syracuse.Shockingly, the awful shooting was not even IU’s biggest problem. Sloppy play and turnovers killed the Hoosiers against Syracuse’s zone.Through the first 13 minutes of the game, the Hoosiers shot 3-of-12 from the field, 0-of-6 from behind the arc and turned the ball over 10 times.With 2:48 remaining in the first half, IU almost had as many turnovers – 12 – as they did points, 13.Leading the turnover parade was freshman guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell.All season, Ferrell has really never played like a freshman.The maturity that he has shown handling the offense has been beyond his years, but Syracuse made him look like an inexperienced freshman taking on a polished collegiate team.At the half, he had four turnovers, zero points and zero assists. He finished the game with zero points, one assist, one steal and four turnovers.Ferrell struggled mightily, but you can’t put all the blame on him.In the most important game of the season, IU played its worst half of basketball of the season – heading into the break down 34-22.“The first half is where it got away from us a little bit there,” IU Coach Tom Crean said.The first half left the Hoosiers crippled and they could never fully recover from it.But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t give it everything they could to fight back.A 5-0 run in the first 1:28 of the second half gave the IU fans hope.The Hoosiers even cut the lead down to six, 38-32, with 14:14 left.But over the next seven minutes, the Orange would go on a 14-5 run that doomed IU.The season might not have ended the way IU thought it would, and the enormous expectations that were placed on this team were not realized.The Hoosiers would be the first people to admit this.But the reality of the NCAA Tournament is a harsh, demoralizing feeling for 67 of the 68 teams that dare to dance.There can only be one national champion every year and as we found out Thursday night, this was not the Hoosiers’ year to be crowned.Although this season ends in a bitter disappointment that will linger in Bloomington for a long time, the beauty of sports is that this is never the end result.Teams win and teams lose, but it’s the journey that makes us believe that anything could happen.“They have done things that have not been done at Indiana for a long, long time, and they did it from scratch,” Crean said.For this reason, we must not remember the 2012-13 season for how it ended; we must remember the team for allowing us to be a part of the ride that took Indiana by storm.We must remember the three seniors, forward Derek Elston, forward Christian Watford and guard Jordan Hulls, that dreamt about bringing Indiana basketball back – and then fulfilled that dream beyond most of our wildest hopes.Most importantly, we must remember this team for how special they were as a whole.IU could not have asked for better representatives to embody the face of a university that loves basketball as much as humanly possible.This loss leaves Hoosiers around the country feeling disappointment and sadness, but when the dust clears and those feelings subside, we will remember this IU team for bringing something back to Bloomington that is even more important than banner No. 6.This team brought pride to every person that has ever considered his or herself an Indiana Hoosier – win or lose.What more could you ask for?
(03/28/13 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Indiana and Syracuse square off tonight in Washington, D.C., more than a trip to the Elite Eight will be on the line for the Hoosiers.Ever since IU’s journey ended last year in the Sweet 16, a national championship has been the main goal for the Hoosiers.Whether it is fair or not, when your expectations are targeting the ultimate prize, falling short of the goal would be an emotional let-down no matter what round it occurred in.But advancing further than the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2002 national runner-up season is the next step — a symbolic step — that represents the difference from last year to this season.To get to where IU wants to be, the Hoosiers must go further than where they were last season.The Elite Eight is that next step.“The vision of where you think you can go has to be greater than the reality of where you’re sitting,” Crean said about the team’s motivation after last season’s Sweet 16 loss. “That’s where your energy comes from, and if you’re doing that, then you’ve got a real great chance to keep moving forward.”Aside from what a win would mean for the current Hoosiers, this game is also symbolic because of the historic undertones that will undoubtedly surround the coverage of this game.If you haven’t already, prepare yourself to see Keith Smart’s shot that defeated Syracuse in the ’87 national championship game at least five times between now and the end of the game Thursday night.These two teams are forever tied to that moment.Similarly, the 2012-13 Hoosiers will be forever connected to the 1987 team — even if none of the players on this year’s roster were alive to watch the 1987 team play.Until an IU team wins banner number six, every team wearing the crimson and cream will be compared to ’87 just like the ’87 team was compared to the ’80-’81 team before it and the ’80-’81 team was paralleled with the ’75-’76 team.Getting to the level of the ’87 team is the driving force of the Hoosiers, no matter what it takes or how it happens.This is why you can look at it as a coincidence, or you can call it fate, that Indiana and Syracuse will meet up in the NCAA tournament for the first time since the Hoosiers defeated the Orange in the 1987 national championship.Whatever you call it, the reality is that the 2012-13 Hoosiers must now go through the same school and the same coach, Jim Boeheim, that the ’87 IU team vanquished to win the school’s last NCAA championship.A game that weighed heavily on Boeheim until he finally won a national championship in 2003.“When you lose a game like that, you really almost never get over it,” Boeheim said. “I got over it in 2003. That’s when I really ... I probably thought about it for those 26 years most of the time.” Sometimes it just seems like the sport gods enjoy the historical symmetry that a matchup like this creates.Remember when the Red Sox had to go through the Yankees to break the curse of the Bambino or when Peyton Manning and the Colts finally busted through the brick wall of the New England Patriots to finally bring the Lombardi trophy to Indianapolis?For one reason or another, historic story lines like IU-Syracuse sometimes align to ultimately create an even more meaningful and symbolic moment in the present.Now, it’s up to the Hoosiers to capture the moment by following in the footsteps of the ’87 team with a win against Syracuse.Prediction:Syracuse’s athleticism is what makes their defense — in particular their 2-3 zone — difficult to attack.Crean, who coached against Boeheim and Syracuse twice while at Marquette, said Syracuse’s zone defense is always great because of the players Boeheim recruits.“The challenge (of Syracuse’s zone) never ceases,” Crean said. “It’s always great because he recruits — in my mind so that defense he’s got great length, there is great foot speed, they cover ground in a short period of time, they move on the pass and not just the catch, there is shot blockers that come from the wings, the long-arm guards always create an issue.” Attacking the zone comes down to a couple key factors: ball movement, penetration and knocking down shots.This season, the Hoosiers are shooting 53 percent from the field against zone defenses, according to ESPN.When the Hoosiers have had the most success against a zone, it is because they are frequently reversing the ball around the perimeter and into the paint, which forces the defense to be constantly moving.If a defense is moving back and forth, they cannot get set, opening up lanes for slashers like Oladipo, Will Sheehey, Yogi Ferrell and Christian Watford.Once guys are able to get persistent penetration into the middle of the zone, defenders might begin to collapse and over-help too early and often, which can leave shooters open along the perimeter.Also, consistently working the ball into a skilled scoring post man like Cody Zeller can have the same effects on a defense.Working inside-out is one of the best ways to beat a zone, but only if shooters are making shots.Offensively, I see the Hoosiers having success against Syracuse’s zone if they come out with the aggressive mentality of “bombs away.”Look for shooters like Jordan Hulls, Watford, Sheehey or Oladipo to have good nights after a few days of practice.Defensively, IU needs to be as solid as they were in Dayton to limit Syracuse’s big four (C.J. Fair, Brandon Triche, James Southerland and Michael Carter-Williams), who all average in double figures.In what will probably turn into a defensive struggle, the Hoosiers need to make the Orange’s shooters inefficient to give IU a chance.At this point in the tournament, mental toughness is just as important as any of the X’s and O’s that go into a game, which is why IU has the advantage against the fifth-place team from the Big East.Hoosiers win in a nail-biter, 69 to 63, and advance to the Elite Eight. — mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/25/13 4:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>DAYTON, Ohio — Unbelievable.It’s the only way to describe the finish between IU and Temple that saw the Hoosiers close out the game on a 10-0 run to win 58-52.Scratch that.It’s the only way to describe the entire game between the Hoosiers and the Owls that was played before the eyes of 12,495 of the luckiest people in the country at the University of Dayton Arena.“I just told (Temple) that they were as tough a team as we had seen all year,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “It was an unbelievable honor to go battle with them.”In the first half, things were looking pretty grim for the Hoosiers.Senior guard Jordan Hulls went out with a shoulder injury.Sophomore forward Cody Zeller picked up two fouls and was forced to watch the remaining six minutes and 51 seconds of the half from the bench.Worst of all, IU could not stop Temple’s Khalif Wyatt, who put on one of the best shooting displays in the first half the Hoosiers have seen all season, with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting.Wyatt looked like a man possessed and nothing, or should I say no one, could stop him from scorching the nets in the first half except for the halftime whistle.“He did a phenomenal job of scoring the basketball, so I was just trying to limit his touches and make him not catch it,” junior guard Victor Oladipo said. “I think I did a pretty good job of that in the second half.”Then, halftime came and went.Hulls courageously came back out of the locker room and Zeller got back into the game.Things were supposed to suddenly change. IU was supposed to regain the lead and pull away.But they didn’t.The Hoosiers came out of halftime with the same sloppiness that plagued them in the first half, turning the ball over on their first two possessions.Things didn’t change quickly or easily, but the perseverance of IU began to show dividends, as the Hoosiers kept battling through the adversity.It was a fight between two teams that continued to throw punch after punch.Temple would not crumble under the pressure of having a 1-seed on the ropes. This is an Owls team that has beaten Villanova, Syracuse, Saint Louis, VCU and N.C. State — all of which are NCAA Tournament teams.The Owls weren’t just going to give the game to the Hoosiers.IU knew that they would have to take it from them — and they did.“I’m proud of their maturity because I don’t think an immature team has a chance to win this game,” Crean said. “So the maturity that they’ve gained is fantastic.”The biggest play of the game — senior forward Christian Watford’s block of Anthony Lee with 2:18 left and Temple leading 52-50 — was a defensive stand that would have made Colonel Mustard proud.As a driving Wyatt drew both Zeller and Oladipo, the Temple guard dished it to a cutting Lee, who had nothing but open air and a wide open basket in front of him.That is until Watford came out of nowhere from behind to soar in and save the day.“It was a big, big play,” Temple Coach Fran Dunphy said.Last year, Watford’s most memorable play was an offensive one. There’s no doubt his block of Lee is the biggest play that he has made this season.“My motivation is to play with these guys as long as possible, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes in order to keep playing,” Watford said. “I just want to play ’til we can’t play no more.”With the game on the line, the Hoosiers’ defense tightened up and the Owls didn’t score for the final three minutes and nine seconds, giving Oladipo the chance to hit the dagger 3-pointer with 15 seconds left that effectively put the game away for IU.Moving forward, IU might be down like they were against Temple, but there is never a doubt that creeps into the minds of these Hoosiers.“Our guys in the second half, they never wavered on the belief they could and would win the game,” Crean said. “We played defense the way we’re suppose to play it for the entire game.”IU is now Washington, D.C.- and Sweet 16-bound, an opportunity that would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the resilience that burns within each and every player that has put on the candy stripes this season.“Yeah, I don’t want it to end,” Crean said. “I really don’t. I love being around these guys. They’re as smart and cerebral and tough minded of any group I’ve ever been around.”You can believe that.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/24/13 3:05pm)
The most talented team doesn’t always win in the NCAA tournament – such as New
Mexico – but IU is focused on the mission and will be able to pull this
one out.
(03/23/13 2:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>DAYTON, Ohio - Welcome to the NCAA Tournament, Yogi Ferrell.You look like you’ve been here before.In a tournament debut to remember, the freshman guard from Indianapolis showed why the importance of having a good point guard in March is something that cannot be overstated.“I had so much energy,” Ferrell said. “I feel like to be watching this growing up to finally be playing my first game, I felt good out there.”More than any other time of the year, the point guard is the captain of the ship in the Big Dance.When he thrives, the ship gets into the port and the voyage can be successful.When he falters, icebergs in the form of turnovers and offensive inefficiency begin to pop up in a way that can threaten any team’s chances of going all the way.Against James Madison, none of those things happened with Ferrell, who was on from the word “go”.Not only did Ferrell score IU’s first nine points and the first 14 out of the team’s 16 points, he also collected six rebounds before the second media timeout at 11:33 in the first half.“You know I kind of felt like the lane was just wide open,” Ferrell said. “Even if I didn’t get the initial drive off the transition, I would kick it and they’d get it back to me and I’d drive. I felt like the lane was just open for me.”When Ferrell is playing and scoring at the level that he played at Friday evening – he finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, six assists and only one turnover – the pressure is suddenly taken off of the rest of the Hoosiers to score.His quickness off the dribble-drive forces other defenders to collapse into the lane in an effort to prevent him from getting to the basket.Drawing defenders into the lane creates wide-open looks around the perimeter for guys like senior guard Jordan Hulls, junior forward Will Sheehey and senior forward Christian Watford, who all flourished from behind the arc against JMU.“It’s huge,” Hulls said. “Especially with the start that he had, able to score and get in the lane and get easy buckets that way is huge for everyone else on the perimeter because he’s going to be able to find you.”Creating open shots for teammates is nice and all, but the end goal – putting the ball through the hoop – is the same no matter who is taking the shots.That’s why when teammates are missing shots, sometimes you just have to have a point guard that can do it himself.“Yogi has been on the attack all year,” Sheehey said. “If he gets an open lane, we want him to score and if it’s clogged up we want him to pass. I thought he did a great job making those reads tonight and he had eight rebounds as well, so when he gets those rebounds it starts our break.”When Yogi scores 14 points or more, the Hoosiers now 5-0 on the season.Five games is a modest win-loss total to judge the correlation of Ferrell’s high-scoring games, but it’s impressive if you consider when some of those games have occurred.His first 14-point game was in the championship of Legends Classic against Georgetown.Another one came on the College Gameday Saturday against then-No. 1 Michigan.And in perhaps his best performance of the season, Ferrell started off his NCAA Tournament career with a bang.The point is, in the biggest moments of the season, Ferrell has elevated his game, leaving the Hoosiers better off because of it.“I feel like this is going to (give me) great confidence,” Ferrell said. “When I went on that little run, Jordan just said ‘pick my spots and don’t force anything’, so I kind of took that and took what the defense gave me.”A confident “Yogi” is what the Hoosiers need because if teams continue to give him openings, the freshman has what it takes to lead IU all the way.
(03/22/13 2:18am)
Despite being undersized against the Hoosiers, the Dukes still pose a
threat to IU’s offensive efficiency because of their defensive
quickness.
(03/21/13 2:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana may not be playing in the Midwest region, but the goal remains the same as it was on day one for IU Coach Tom Crean’s crew.Get to Atlanta in any way possible.“There’s a lot of different roads and paths that you have to go through to get to your destination and goals, and this is just one of them,” Crean told the media Sunday after IU was selected as the No. 1 seed of the East.The Hoosiers have to feel like they have a major advantage going through the East region to get to the Final Four.In the first round, the Hoosiers should breeze by James Madison.After the round of 64, the Hoosiers will take on the winner of No. 8 N.C. State and No. 9 Temple.I’ve heard a lot of people projecting the No. 8 Wolfpack into the second round already, but I wouldn’t sleep on the No. 9 Owls, who have wins against Villanova, Syracuse, Saint Louis and VCU — all NCAA tournament teams.To this day, a lot of IU’s players and coaches still reference last season’s 86-75 win against N.C. State as a turning point that gave the Hoosiers the confidence to ultimately upset Kentucky only 10 days later.This year’s version of the Wolfpack features five players averaging in double-digit scoring, including C.J. Leslie with 14.9 PPG.But the real question facing N.C. State is: Can they defend?N.C. State ranks 112th in the nation, giving up 70.1 PPG to opponents.The Wolfpack’s deficiencies on defense should have the Hoosiers licking their chops in anticipation of an all-out offensive attack on the ACC’s fourth-place team.In what is sure to be a high-scoring game, whoever defends better will advance out of Dayton to Washington, D.C., for the Sweet 16 — advantage IU.Waiting for the Hoosiers in D.C. will probably be a team that will make IU fans flash back to Indiana’s last NCAA championship game in 1987.The No. 4 Syracuse Orange will have to go through No. 13 Montana and No. 5 UNLV to get to Washington, D.C., but if they do, Jim Boeheim’s team could test IU more than any other team before the Elite Eight.The Orange are famous for using the 2-3 zone defense that forces opponents into making perimeter shots while evacuating offensive big men out of the middle of the lane.At times this season when the Hoosiers have lacked offensive movement, IU has struggled against zones, but Crean said he believes his team’s mindset allows the team to continue to learn from its past flaws.“The trick is, ‘Can you keep getting better?’” Crean said. “It’s not like all of a sudden the things that we didn’t do well yesterday will just totally, magically be back to where they need to be, and it’s not like the things that we did do well will just be there if we don’t get better at it.”The Hoosiers’ final test before Atlanta gets a lot cloudier once you begin to project an Elite Eight matchup.Two teams that have beaten IU — No. 6 Butler and No. 7 Illinois — have a chance for another crack at the Hoosiers, but one of those teams would probably have to go through No. 2 Miami in the process.Butler would play Miami in the Sweet 16, and Illinois would play Miami in the round of 32, assuming they advance.Although a battle for Indiana basketball supremacy would be fun and nerve-racking for everyone in the country’s 19th state, I see the Hurricanes moving on to the Elite Eight for another ACC-Big Ten matchup.What a monumental game that could be.The Big Ten regular season champs against the ACC regular season and tournament champions.At that point, you have to throw the records out the window, because both teams will be immersed in the new energy level that comes with the new season of “win or go home.”“With the whole energy level of going to play somebody different in a different environment in a tournament like this, the unknown is a great force multiplier,” Crean said. “There’s no question about it, and I think they will feel that.”With all of the pre-season expectations to live up to, anything less than a Final Four bid would seem like a disappointing finish for the Hoosiers.But from how far this program has come under Crean in the last five years, IU fans should be able to just enjoy wherever this NCAA tournament journey will take them.All while keeping their eyes on the goal that has been set from day one: Atlanta or bust.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/21/13 2:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Do these brackets make anyone else feel queasy? All week, like the rest of America, I have been fulfilling my mid-March social responsibility of filling out NCAA tournament brackets, but the whole time it has been with this uneasy feeling that makes my insides hurt.This year’s brackets are harder to predict than North Korea’s wine-and-dine schedule and perhaps any of the other brackets from the last 20 years.Predicting the unpredictable leading up to the Final Four is as much about knowing matchups as it is about getting lucky, so here are the lenses that I looked through to forecast how each region will play out. The Midwest Region is the region of “the legendary coach.”Talk about a region stacked with three legendary tournament coaches: Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. One team is driven by the memory of one who has passed — the late, great former Saint Louis Coach Rick Majerus.If you put stock in coaching credentials when selecting brackets, like I do, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Izzo (35), Pitino (38) and Krzyzewski (79) all have more tournament wins than the other 13 coaches in the Midwest region combined (16).Even more shockingly, Izzo, Pitino and “Coach K” only have six more tournament losses than the other 13 coaches combined, while posting more Final Four trips (21) than the other coaches have wins.The easy choice is to trust that one of these three coaches will get to the Final Four again. The hard part is choosing which coach and team it will be.I like Louisville’s Russ Smith, Peyton Siva and Pitino’s Southern gentleman-style white suit to move on.As for things out in Los Angeles, the West Region transforms into the Wild West once it hits the Sweet 16. Coincidentally, that’s the exact same time I want to start pulling out my hair.New Mexico is the favorite “sleeper” to make it through the gauntlet to Atlanta, but they won’t be the quickest team in the West to use the phrase “nobody believed in us.”Gonzaga is more than a mid-major program at this point, earning its first No. 1 seed ever, but the Bulldogs have only advanced as far as the Elite Eight once (1999).Wisconsin could be the ultimate bracket buster of this region, but I’m not even confident about picking them against Mississippi. As a Wisconsin reporter told me at the Big Ten tournament, “the only way to beat Wisconsin is to beat them at their own game.” IU found out twice what happens if you stubbornly continue to force your style upon the Badgers — it doesn’t work.No. 12 Ole Miss is an agitator just like Wisconsin. The Rebels are capable of playing an ugly game to get a win behind lightning rod Marshall Henderson, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Wisconsin flops early. For the sake of Wisconsin advancing in my bracket, I see the Badgers bringing the same crispness they showed in Chicago to catapult themselves through the No. 5-No. 12 matchup and past Kansas State into the Sweet 16.These three teams make picking the West a crapshoot, and I haven’t even mentioned the Big Ten tournament champion No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes.Good luck predicting the West.From the West we head to the South region, where you should expect teams wearing blue to dominate, but I wouldn’t count on the “Big Blue” from Ann Arbor, Mich., for an extended run.Since 1979, No. 4 seeds have advanced to the championship game only twice (Syracuse in 1996 and Arizona in 1997) and have only made 12 Final Fours compared to 55 for No. 1 seeds and 30 for No. 2 seeds. No. 1 Kansas has a chance to make back-to-back Final Fours for the first time since 2002-03, but I’ll take Otto Porter and the still rising Georgetown Hoyas for a rematch of the Legends Classic with the No. 1 Hoosiers of the East region.Realistically, I see the East having the best chance of coming down to the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.If IU and the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes reach the Elite Eight, the best team from the best conference — the Big Ten — is 8-6 against current ACC teams all-time in the tournament but is only 1-4 in the last five matchups.I think IU has what it takes to get to Atlanta, but that’s not to say that a lot of stomachs won’t be turning throughout the journey.This tournament is going to be one that makes you watch between the cracks of the fingers covering your face because you can hardly watch your team on the verge of defeat, all while still holding on to hope that they will resurrect themselves in spectacular fashion.As wide-open as this tournament feels, remember that 67 teams suffer the same sad fate of stepping onto the floor of the “Big Dance” only to be left stag when the clock strikes midnight.Only one team can be Cinderella as the song “One Shining Moment” immortalizes the moment into NCAA history.Until then, keep plenty of chicken noodle soup on hand, because this tournament could make anyone who filled out a bracket feel sick.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/18/13 7:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The NCAA tournament is here.The question is: Are the Hoosiers ready to play their best basketball for it?“That’s an awful tough question when you get beat today like this, but if you asked me the question yesterday, I probably would have had a different answer,” said IU Coach Tom Crean after losing to Wisconsin 68-56 Saturday. “But we didn’t play as well today, so it’s just a matter of going and looking at the film, making the corrections that we need to make and moving forward.”After throttling Illinois with an all-out offense Friday, the Hoosiers could not generate enough offense to answer the runs of the pace-draining Badgers.As a result, IU has now fallen to 3-3 in its final six games and will be playing in the East region, first in Dayton, Ohio, and then possibly Washington, D.C.Throughout the season, the Hoosiers have looked as close to untouchable as a team playing in the Big Ten could look.They had their big, primetime moments against North Carolina, Georgetown, Michigan and Michigan State.But during the last three weeks, opponents look as if they have figured out how to stop the Big Red machine.So how much stock should be put into IU’s struggles over the last three weeks?“Not too much because we’ve played some really good games in there,” sophomore forward Cody Zeller said. “We just have to learn from our mistakes that we made in those losses. You know, make those corrections and start the new season next week.”The new season that Zeller is talking about — the NCAA Tournament — is always the season that great teams are judged by.Last year, Kentucky was upset in the SEC tournament by Vanderbilt before going on to win it all.Not many people are going to remember that 25-11 Commodores team.In 2009, the North Carolina Tar Heels lost to Florida State in the semifinals of the ACC Championships, but after the passage of time, they are remembered for their 89-72 beat-down of Michigan State in the national championship game. These recent examples prove that IU’s loss in the Big Ten Tournament isn’t the end of the world towards the overall goal of winning the NCAA Tournament, but you have to believe the team’s confidence won’t be as high entering the big dance as it would have been had they won the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.“I think our confidence will be better in my opinion,” freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said. “I felt like we’ve bounced back after losses very well, but that comes with the preparation and the practice that we do before our next game.”Out of all of the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the field, only the Hoosiers, Duke Blue Devils and Gonzaga Bulldogs have gone the entire season without back-to-back losses.The next week, it will be back to the drawing boards for the first game back after a loss. A No. 1 seed has never lost to a No. 16 seed, so odds are IU will finish the season without ever losing back-to-back games.But maybe that loss over the weekend in Chicago will prove to be the best thing that could have happened to IU before preparing to make a potential run into the history books. It is the last wake-up call before a loss means your season is over.In a season where “elite” teams have lost left and right, overconfidence could be a hazard in the win-or-go-home scenario that is March Madness.More than any other in recent memory, this season is about staying humble as a team.Instead of playing in the Midwest Region as the No. 1 overall seed, the Hoosiers will have to pack up their suitcases early to become road warriors if their road will lead to the Final Four in Atlanta.Nothing has come easy for Crean’s crew on their road back to national relevance and to the top of the Big Ten, so why should things start becoming easy now?“That’s okay, we’re better on the road,” said senior forward Christian Watford. “Look at our record. We wouldn’t want anything to be easy.”Ready or not, now is the time for the Hoosiers to show the blips on the schedule were nothing more than stepping-stones along the path to NCAA Tournament success.That journey begins Friday in Dayton.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/11/13 1:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Indiana Hoosiers are the outright champions of the Big Ten for the first time since the 1992-1993 season.For obvious reasons, this is the main thing that many IU fans will take away from Sunday’s thrilling 72-71 victory over Michigan.But as the Hoosiers now move into the postseason, there are a number of lessons that can be taken away from the final regular season game of the year.Here are a few of them.Cody Zeller is IU’s go-to-guyWhen the Hoosiers needed buckets in the worst way, Cody Zeller was the guy to deliver it for IU."The big fella" – as Victor Oladipo calls him – posted his 14th career double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds, but it was his six points in the game’s final 41 seconds that carried IU to a stunning victory over the Wolverines.“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Zeller said. “Good things happen when me and Christian (Watford) catch the ball in the post. That had been working earlier in the game, so our guards were just throwing it in and playing off me. I was just trying to make a play.”Zeller’s aggression in the closing stages of the game was the difference for the Hoosiers. After scoring only nine points in the first half on 4-of-9 shooting, Zeller righted the ship with 16 second-half points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field.“A guy like (Cody) that plays the way he does, he will be so much better for what he has dealt with at Indiana and the scrutiny he goes under and the way it gets handled sometimes,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “He brings it every day. I mean he brings it every day. He doesn’t always have a great day, but he brings it every day. And today was one of those great examples.”Not only was Zeller’s dominance down the stretch was an example of his reliability, it was also an illustration as to why he was voted as the preseason player of the year.“I’ve been saying all year long that he should be the player of the year,” junior guard Victor Oladipo said. “If you don’t give it to him, there’s something wrong with y’all.”Zeller quickly added, “if the team wins, everyone gets what they want individually. That’s what I’ve been saying all year.”Even if he is quick to redirect praise to his teammates, Zeller is IU’s best player and in crunch time of big games, like Sunday’s game against Michigan. The Hoosiers rely on him more than anyone else.Oladipo can do it allWhether it was his lock-down defense on Michigan’s Trey Burke or his knack for being in the right place at the right time – like under the basket to rebound and put-back a Watford air ball as the shot clock was winding down – Oladipo was everywhere.For the game, his stat line read 14 points, 13 rebounds (a career high), three assists, one block, one steal in 33 minutes of play, but Oladipo’s biggest contributions to IU’s success Sunday cannot be measured in these numbers alone.How can you accurately measure the value of a guy that always guards an opponent’s best scorer with a style of defense that is predicated on creating havoc?“I was just trying to get him tired, you know, slow him down a little bit,” Oladipo said. “I felt like picking him up full and denying his touches, you know kind of get him out of rhythm a little bit.”Burke may have finished the game with 20 points, but when Oladipo was on him, none of those were coming easy.In the end, the constant pressure Burke was facing may have worn him down just enough.“He’s a phenomenal player as you guys can tell,” Oladipo said. “He made tough shots, big shots. Maybe he didn’t have the legs to hit that free throw at the end, who knows. It was just a great overall victory.”Regardless of how IU’s victory came, Oladipo said winning an outright Big Ten title is the realization of the aspirations he had when committing to Indiana.“It’s a crazy feeling,” Oladipo said. “That was the reason why I came here, to be known as one of the greats. To be known as the reason why Indiana basketball came back and to actually be a part of that is an amazing feeling.”Free throws are crucialThe last minute of the game illustrates why you can never stress the importance of free throws enough.Starting with Glenn Robinson III’s two free throw attempts with 52 seconds remaining, Michigan went 1-of-4 from the charity stripe to close the game.After Robinson split his free throws to give Michigan a five-point advantage, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke would have chances at the line to put the game on ice.Instead, both Hardaway Jr. (70.8 percent free throw shooter entering Sunday) and Burke (79.4 percent from the line before Sunday) would miss the front ends of their one-and-one opportunities – giving the Hoosiers life.If Hardaway Jr. or Burke hit their free throws, there wasn’t much IU could have done to claw back, but the missed freebies allowed IU to keep the game within one possession before grabbing the lead for good.Now that we are in March, everything on the hardwood is magnified by ten, including late-game free throws that could put a game away.The Hoosiers benefited from Michigan’s shaky free throws, but IU should also learn from the Wolverines’ misfortune.From here-on-out, tournament basketball means that teams are facing do-or-die games every time they step out onto the court.If IU is going to make a deep run through both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, the Hoosiers cannot have breakdowns at the line like Michigan did on Sunday.IU might be down, but they are never outWith 52 seconds remaining, Robinson hit one-of-two free throws to give Michigan a five-point lead.At this point, IU could have panicked. They could have raced down the floor, only to put up a quick, poor quality shot.They could have, but they didn’t.Instead, the Hoosiers relied on the experience that they have gained in late-game situations to calmly fight back.“We’ve been in that position before and we know what it takes to win in times like that,” Oladipo said. “We practice moments to score, times to score all the time. We just realized that we were going to have to come together and execute at the end. We did a great job of that and then the big fella making big plays.”Feeding the ball to Zeller for IU’s final six points of the game wasn’t some brilliant, new revelation that came about, because the Hoosiers were feeling the heat – it was what they were doing well all day.“The best thing about the end of the game is that we continued to play the end of the game like we played the game,” Crean said. “We never got down.”“Nobody felt like we weren’t going to come down and make plays. They stayed committed to what was working. Nobody got into a ‘I got to win this myself’ and they knew that number 40 was impossible to guard tonight."On a night when the Hoosiers clinched a special honor for the program, Crean took a moment to reflect on just how special of a group this year’s team is.“I cherish every moment I’m with those guys,” Crean said. “I really do. It has nothing to do with how long they stay. Those are special guys.”Now, Crean’s special group will be put to the ultimate test of mental toughness and skill – tournament time.
(03/08/13 4:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Could Sunday’s game between No. 2 Indiana and No. 7 Michigan decide the Big Ten Player of the Year race between Victor Oladipo and Michigan’s Trey Burke?Burke certainly thinks so.“There’s some great players in this league, and I don’t want to sound like a guy who says ‘I should be player of the year,’” Burke said to Nick Baumgardner of annarbor.com. “But I definitely think I should be in consideration. I think it’ll just come down to Sunday, honestly.”Entering Sunday, here’s how Burke and Oladipo stack up statistically after 30 games apiece. (Big Ten Conference rankings in parentheses.)Oladipo: 27.7 minutes per game, 13.7 PPG (10th), 6.0 RPG (14th), 2.1 Assists per game, 2.3 steals per game (first), .083 blocks per game, 63.1 field goal percentage (first) and 49.1 three-point percentage (does not have enough attempts to qualify for conference rankings).Burke: 35.1 minutes per game (fourth), 19.1 PPG (second), 3.2 RPG, 6.9 assists per game (first), 1.6 steals per game (sixth), .037 blocks per game, 49.2 field goal percentage (11th) and 38.4 three-point percentage (11th).What makes both of these players special – outside of the box scores – is their ability to affect every aspect of the game in their own unique ways.For the 6-foot point guard from Michigan, the way in which he uses his body to create space amongst the trees while scoring is truly remarkable.Not only can he explode off of the ground like a jackrabbit, but once he’s in the air, Burke can contort his body in ways that would make Cirque du Soleil performers jealous.This ability is unmatched in the college game and it is part of the reason why he finishes so well at the rim.If there is one player in basketball who plays anything like Burke, it’s Derrick Rose because Rose utilizes the same type of body control that makes Burke an efficient finisher.The difference between Rose’s game in college and where Burke stands in his sophomore season at Michigan is Burke’s refined jump-shooting ability and consistency.In every Big Ten game this season, Burke has scored at least 15 points, including 26 points March 6, to help Michigan beat Purdue 80-76.“He is a tremendous player,” Tom Crean said after IU defeated Michigan 81-73 Feb. 2 at Assembly Hall. “I get it. I’ve had a lot of respect for him for a long time but now you get in the game with him and he just plays. He doesn’t say anything to him or talks to his team. He just plays. He’s outstanding.”For the junior from Upper Marlboro, Md., wearing the Crimson and Cream, it’s Oladipo’s quickness, efficiency and defensive play that has set him apart from the rest of Big Ten pack. Oladipo has always been an exciting player to watch, but now he has become a guy you can’t take your eyes off on both ends of the floor because he never takes a play off.His transformation into one of the most efficient players in the country was displayed when he scored a career-high 26 points on only 10 shots from the field during the Hoosiers’ win over Ohio State in February.“I’ve seen a lot of players,” Michigan coach John Beilein said after losing to the Hoosiers in February. “I don’t know if I have seen one quicker or faster, more athletic than Oladipo. It’s tough to stay in front of him.”Since the Big Ten started honoring the conference Player of the Year with an award in 1985, there have only been three seasons in which the conference gave out co-POY awards.The last time this happened was in 1999-2000 season when IU’s A.J. Guyton and Michigan State’s Morris Peterson shared the distinction.Can that happen this year?I would say that the possibility of it happening is perhaps greater than any year since 2000, but realistically, both Burke and Oladipo have the opportunity to make a statement that pushes them ahead in the final game of the year.That is why the outcome of Sunday’s game is huge. Aside from the impact on seeding for the Big Ten tournament, big performances can give one of these players an advantage in the minds of the voters.Think about it.Michigan was pretty much dead-and-buried after losing to Penn State last week, but then Trey Burke — in his signature moment of the season — carried the Wolverines on his back in a crucial victory against Michigan State that resurrected the Maize and Blue’s chances at sharing the Big Ten title.If it wasn’t for Burke’s 21 points and eight assists, and more importantly, his two steals in the final 30 seconds of the game that sealed the victory for Michigan, the Wolverines could have fallen into a fifth seed for the Big Ten tournament, forcing them to play in the opening round of the tournament next Thursday.Instead, Michigan’s stock is once again rising as they enter the final regular season contest of the season – largely thanks to Burke.For Oladipo and the Hoosiers, Sunday was supposed to be the icing on top of the outright Big Ten regular season title cake that could have been captured March 5, against the Buckeyes.Hoosier fans don’t need to be reminded of how that contest turned out, but now IU faces the potential predicament of a two-game losing streak to end the season if they lose to Michigan.To outsiders looking in, an IU loss will be perceived as the Big Red machine losing steam and Oladipo’s chances to win the POY award could be affected by the negativity surrounding IU’s first losing streak of the year.Of course, there is still a dark horse candidate out there in Ohio State’s Deshaun Thomas, who leads the conference with an average of 19.8 PPG, while bringing in 6.2 rebounds per game.But considering what’s at stake for Michigan and IU, the race for POY in the Big Ten could be decided by the victor on March 10.That afternoon will be a battle for all the marbles in Ann Arbor.Let the best man win.Prediction: Hoosiers narrowly avoid their first two-game losing streak of the season. IU wins 73-71.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/08/13 3:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Could Sunday’s game between No. 2 Indiana and No. 7 Michigan decide the Big Ten Player of the Year race between Victor Oladipo and Michigan’s Trey Burke?Burke certainly thinks so.“There’s some great players in this league, and I don’t want to sound like a guy who says ‘I should be player of the year,’” Burke said to Nick Baumgardner of annarbor.com. “But I definitely think I should be in consideration. I think it’ll just come down to Sunday, honestly.”Entering Sunday, here’s how Burke and Oladipo stack up statistically after 30 games apiece. (Big Ten Conference rankings in parentheses.)Oladipo: 27.7 minutes per game, 13.7 PPG (10th), 6.0 RPG (14th), 2.1 Assists per game, 2.3 steals per game (first), .083 blocks per game, 63.1 field goal percentage (first) and 49.1 three-point percentage (does not have enough attempts to qualify for conference rankings).Burke: 35.1 minutes per game (fourth), 19.1 PPG (second), 3.2 RPG, 6.9 assists per game (first), 1.6 steals per game (sixth), .037 blocks per game, 49.2 field goal percentage (11th) and 38.4 three-point percentage (11th).What makes both of these players special – outside of the box scores – is their ability to affect every aspect of the game in their own unique ways.For the 6-foot point guard from Michigan, the way in which he uses his body to create space amongst the trees while scoring is truly remarkable.Not only can he explode off of the ground like a jackrabbit, but once he’s in the air, Burke can contort his body in ways that would make Cirque du Soleil performers jealous.This ability is unmatched in the college game and it is part of the reason why he finishes so well at the rim.If there is one player in basketball who plays anything like Burke, it’s Derrick Rose because Rose utilizes the same type of body control that makes Burke an efficient finisher.The difference between Rose’s game in college and where Burke stands in his sophomore season at Michigan is Burke’s refined jump-shooting ability and consistency.In every Big Ten game this season, Burke has scored at least 15 points, including 26 points March 6, to help Michigan beat Purdue 80-76.“He is a tremendous player,” Tom Crean said after IU defeated Michigan 81-73 Feb. 2 at Assembly Hall. “I get it. I’ve had a lot of respect for him for a long time but now you get in the game with him and he just plays. He doesn’t say anything to him or talks to his team. He just plays. He’s outstanding.”For the junior from Upper Marlboro, Md., wearing the Crimson and Cream, it’s Oladipo’s quickness, efficiency and defensive play that has set him apart from the rest of Big Ten pack. Oladipo has always been an exciting player to watch, but now he has become a guy you can’t take your eyes off on both ends of the floor because he never takes a play off.His transformation into one of the most efficient players in the country was displayed when he scored a career-high 26 points on only 10 shots from the field during the Hoosiers’ win over Ohio State in February.“I’ve seen a lot of players,” Michigan coach John Beilein said after losing to the Hoosiers in February. “I don’t know if I have seen one quicker or faster, more athletic than Oladipo. It’s tough to stay in front of him.”Since the Big Ten started honoring the conference Player of the Year with an award in 1985, there have only been three seasons in which the conference gave out co-POY awards.The last time this happened was in 1999-2000 season when IU’s A.J. Guyton and Michigan State’s Morris Peterson shared the distinction.Can that happen this year?I would say that the possibility of it happening is perhaps greater than any year since 2000, but realistically, both Burke and Oladipo have the opportunity to make a statement that pushes them ahead in the final game of the year.That is why the outcome of Sunday’s game is huge. Aside from the impact on seeding for the Big Ten tournament, big performances can give one of these players an advantage in the minds of the voters.Think about it.Michigan was pretty much dead-and-buried after losing to Penn State last week, but then Trey Burke — in his signature moment of the season — carried the Wolverines on his back in a crucial victory against Michigan State that resurrected the Maize and Blue’s chances at sharing the Big Ten title.If it wasn’t for Burke’s 21 points and eight assists, and more importantly, his two steals in the final 30 seconds of the game that sealed the victory for Michigan, the Wolverines could have fallen into a fifth seed for the Big Ten tournament, forcing them to play in the opening round of the tournament next Thursday.Instead, Michigan’s stock is once again rising as they enter the final regular season contest of the season – largely thanks to Burke.For Oladipo and the Hoosiers, Sunday was supposed to be the icing on top of the outright Big Ten regular season title cake that could have been captured March 5, against the Buckeyes.Hoosier fans don’t need to be reminded of how that contest turned out, but now IU faces the potential predicament of a two-game losing streak to end the season if they lose to Michigan.To outsiders looking in, an IU loss will be perceived as the Big Red machine losing steam and Oladipo’s chances to win the POY award could be affected by the negativity surrounding IU’s first losing streak of the year.Of course, there is still a dark horse candidate out there in Ohio State’s Deshaun Thomas, who leads the conference with an average of 19.8 PPG, while bringing in 6.2 rebounds per game.But considering what’s at stake for Michigan and IU, the race for POY in the Big Ten could be decided by the victor on March 10.That afternoon will be a battle for all the marbles in Ann Arbor.Let the best man win.Prediction: Hoosiers narrowly avoid their first two-game losing streak of the season. IU wins 73-71.
(03/06/13 6:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nobody said the road back to the top of the Big Ten was going to be easy.Tuesday night, nothing came easy for the Hoosiers on a night that could not have been scripted better by a Hollywood director.The night was tabbed as a last hurrah, one final bow for the seniors and the last chance to make Bloomington the center of the basketball universe.Not many people wanted to talk about the actual matchup on the floor, but it was the result of the game, a 67-58 Ohio State win, that would put a damper on the night.Bloomington was bedlam, but the Buckeyes were IU’s kryptonite.“I know we might not have had the night we wanted, but we still have a share of the big ten championship now,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “We are all disappointed in the results tonight, but we are not disappointed about how we got to this point.”It was a night to honor the seniors on the court, but in a way it was also a night to honor those in the stands too.Those seniors in the stands that bought season tickets as freshmen when Jordan Hulls, Derek Elston and Christian Watford were growing up before our eyes and the rest of the fans that always believed that IU could return to the top of the Big Ten.Not many basketball environments feature an alumni section – a lot of who might be senior citizens – that is just as loud as the student section.Trust me, when the students were away for winter break the same buzz still filled the air of Assembly Hall.After the numbers are calculated from Tuesday, IU will officially earn the mark of largest average home attendance in the Big Ten for the season. They led the conference entering senior night averaging 17,409 in 18 home games.Fans make college basketball great, but Hoosier fans made this college basketball season special.If you want to talk about a home court advantage in college basketball, you have to start with Assembly Hall, where the Hoosiers have now posted a 35-and-3 record in the last two seasons.All season, IU has fed off of the crowd to fuel their defensive intensity. It was when Hulls hit his first three at 12:34, Assembly Hall went to another level. Every one stood up cheering louder than any point earlier.In typical IU fashion, the Hoosiers fed off the crowd’s energy on the next defensive possession, forcing OSU into a shot clock violation.It’s that type of home court advantage that Tom Crean was talking about when he said before the game in his prerecorded “pep talk” to the IU faithful that “there is absolutely no way that we make it here without you, everyone of you.”Before we let Tuesday night’s disappointment cloud our memory of what happened at Assembly Hall, let’s remember some of the great moments that are now embedded into the walls of the Hall with all of the other historic Hoosier moments.Who could forget when Sage Steele hosted Hysteria, the rout against North Carolina or the College GameDay Saturday that saw IU take down No. 1 Michigan.Hoosier fans left nothing in the tank Tuesday night, filling Assembly Hall with more explosive energy than a bomb wrapped in dynamite.For that IU fans, should be proud of themselves.They, like the players on the court, gave it their all.As this season at Assembly Hall closes and Branch McCracken Court bids farewell to the likes of Elston, Watford and Hulls, let the record show that IU’s rise back to the top is not done yet.The result was not how the seniors wanted to go out, but for a group that has been through more than perhaps any other class in IU history, their drive to improve will only be fueled more.
(03/05/13 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Could you ask for a more fitting way to send off a senior class that persevered through a 22-41 record in their first two seasons than a chance to lead the IU program to its first outright Big Ten championship since 1992-93?When the Hoosiers’ senior class, now composed of Derek Elston, Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford, began their careers at IU four long years ago, few people could imagine an end like this.Elston, Hulls, Watford and even Maurice Creek were supposed to lay the foundation. They weren’t supposed to build the palace and claim the metaphorical penthouse labeled “the class that brought IU back.”They are moving closer to that goal, and it wouldn’t have happened without Coach Tom Crean and his coaching staff piecing together other high-quality, winning players to pair with this hungry senior group.The value of putting winners together should not be underestimated, because it takes a certain type of person to sacrifice individual glory for team achievements.“There’s no question that they felt great last night when they knew the scores of the two games,” Crean said. “But in true fashion of them, and the way that they’ve been, we were 20 minutes into practice and they just moved right on ... It’s all about Ohio State.”The Hoosiers’ success come from the way their focused, competitive drives fit together, bit by bit, like a stained glass window.Rosters full of talent sometimes have problems with team chemistry, but not IU, because of the high character and leadership that defines each player on the roster — from top to bottom.As the biggest IU basketball fan I know said, “IU got the right guys, with the right coach, at the right University, at the right time.” They are a team, not a group of individuals, and that is why this group is on the verge of a Big Ten championship, as well as becoming one of the most-loved IU basketball teams of all time.It’s a team full of role models that makes you ask, “How can you not root for a group of guys who embody everything Coach Crean was talking about in his ‘It’s Indiana’ introduction speech five years ago?”Bloomington needed this team, which is why watching this season’s final game at Assembly Hall is going to be like watching your child’s car pull out of the driveway for the last time on the way to college.Even if you know there are bigger and better things waiting ahead, it’s hard, even heartbreaking, to say goodbye to something that has brought you so much pride and happiness.It’s hard to say goodbye to the people who make this team special.Obviously, we know Tuesday will be the last time we will see Hulls, Watford and Elston playing on Branch McCracken court, but who else will be playing their final game at Assembly Hall?Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller are the two names that come to mind right away.Throughout the season, Oladipo has exploded into a top-10 prospect on many NBA scouts’ lists. At the moment, Oladipo is projected to be an NBA lottery pick, which might be too much for the junior to turn down.As for Zeller, conventional wisdom says the preseason player of the year, who was considered a top-10 pick before the season, used this year to get better before making a jump to the NBA after his sophomore season.Time will tell if these non-seniors will leave, but it’s a possibility.With that in mind, there will not be a dry eye or a clear voice left in Assembly Hall by midnight Wednesday.It will be the last time IU fans get to see this extraordinary group together.No more “Wat-Shots” or three-balls from Elston or Hulls.As Watford’s mother, Belinda Watford, said, it’s going to be a happy and sad moment for everyone there — parents, players and fans.What makes the emotional overload worth bearing is the fact that the stage on which the Hoosiers can accomplish something great could not get any bigger.The road to this point could not have been any harder.And most importantly, the seniors who stuck through thick and thin could not be more deserving of the moment they believed in.Time passes and things change, but moments like tonight will last forever.Prediction:Ohio State is not a team that will roll over during another team’s senior night, which is why the Hoosiers need to avoid getting too hyped up before this game.The Buckeyes are a strong defensive team that can get a lot of consecutive stops that are catalysts for large offensive runs.If IU comes out sharp, the Hoosiers should be able to repeat what they did on the road in Columbus, Ohio, last month, but that’s no guarantee.The Hoosiers’ defense can be just as stingy as OSU’s, but the biggest difference is IU’s scoring depth.After Deshaun Thomas, the Buckeyes don’t have consistent scoring threats that can generate the high offensive outputs. Lenzelle Smith Jr. (10.3 points per game) is the only OSU player averaging in double figures besides Thomas.Riding the wave of the emotionally charged Assembly Hall crowd, IU will force the Buckeyes players not named Deshaun to win the game.In the end, the magnitude of the night, the significance of a victory and the pride of a senior class will be too much for Ohio State to handle.IU wins 87-73.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/04/13 4:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Growing up in Birmingham, Ala., Christian Watford did not know much about the tradition of IU basketball.Sure, he had seen Bob Knight and the candy-striped Hoosiers on television, but the only crimson in his closet was from his favorite college football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, not from IU.That would soon change as Watford began to get recruited by IU’s new head coach Tom Crean.For a kid who had never been away from home or away from his family, the thought of leaving the only home he had ever known for IU was tough, but it was easier with Assistant Coach Bennie Seltzer there to help him.“I felt like he was going to take me under his wing,” Watford said. “You know, have somebody that genuinely cared about me as a person, not just as a basketball player. Anytime you can find a situation like that, it’s tough to put down.”With great relationships built with the coaching staff and the opportunity to play right off the bat, Watford committed to IU, and his aspiration of bringing back one of the country’s most prestigious programs was born.For the last four years, Watford has stayed true to that vision, bringing the Hoosiers as close to realizing that dream as ever before.Because of his dedication to the program, a flare for the spectacular and a work ethic that has helped his game progress each year, Watford is now as embedded into the lore of IU basketball as any other player before him.The road to becoming one of the greatest Hoosiers of all-time was not an easy one, but it was a journey of faith and strength.‘The first two years took forever’While the Hoosiers were struggling through a 10-21 record in Watford’s freshman season, he was adjusting to a new life 462 miles away from his close-knit family.The transition away from home had its ups and downs, but nothing was more foreign to Watford than his first IU winter.“I wanted to go home any and every chance I could get,” Watford said. “Go outside and you see snow, I wanted to go back inside and get back into bed.”Getting used to the new climate took some time, but luckily for Watford, his transition to the college basketball game was as smooth as his trademark jump shot.After starting all of IU’s 31 games as a freshman, Watford was selected by the conference’s coaches to the Big Ten All-Freshman team, while also being named the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year by The Sporting News and FoxSports.com.Not only did he lead all Big Ten freshmen in scoring, but he also ranked third on the Hoosiers with 12 points per game, while also leading IU in rebounding with six boards a game.Personally, he was enjoying success, but the failures of the team put a strain on everyone in the program.“Every practice just seemed like it was lasting forever,” Watford said. “It seemed like we weren’t getting any better.”In his sophomore season, the 6-foot-9-inch forward took the next developmental step by blossoming into one of the Big Ten’s best scoring threats — leading IU with an average of 16 points per game.Although the young core of the team was improving daily, the Hoosiers’ record still did not reflect the growth.During Watford’s first two seasons, the Hoosiers posted a 22-41 record.“Man, when we were young, we were young and naïve and we really didn’t know how much work you had to put in,” Watford said. “We thought we were playing hard, but we weren’t playing hard. It was tough.”Through all of the hardships of the first two years, Watford said he thought about transferring, but it was never a serious consideration.“Well, it definitely comes into your mind, but you don’t want to be one of those guys when the goings gets tough, you tuck tail and run,” Watford said. “I ain’t never been like that and I wasn’t about to leave because a losing season or anything like that.”“You got to know that you are here for a reason, and you got to stick it out.”The shot that changed it allWatford’s faith in the program would pay off in a big way shortly into his junior season.For IU fans too young to remember Keith Smart’s game-winning shot against Syracuse to clinch the 1987 NCAA championship, there is no bigger shot in Hoosier history than the “Wat-Shot.”The shot, which was immortalized by ESPN’s ESPY awards as the best moment of 2012, sent Bloomington into a riot that announced, loud and clear, the return of IU basketball after the program’s darkest years.With 5.6 seconds left in a game against No. 1 Kentucky on Dec. 10, 2011, and the Hoosiers trailing 72-70, Watford in-bounded the ball to a streaking senior guard Verdell Jones III. Jones III drove hard through midcourt to the left of the lane, forcing a Kentucky defender into the lane to cut him off.In an instant, Jones III dumped the ball back to a trailing Watford, who was alone with a wide-open look from the left wing behind the arc.As Watford fired the shot, ESPN announcer Dan Shulman yelled the four words — “Watford for the win!” — that every IU fan repeats in a pickup games at the HPER, at the office when firing a paper ball into the trash or anytime they are imagining themselves beating Kentucky with a buzzer-beater.Watford was in the right place at the right time, and he made his shot count.Earlier this season, IU Coach Tom Crean said the shot exemplified Watford’s strongest skill on the court — being a trailer on a fast break.“He’s the best trailer that I’ve ever coached, no question about it,” Crean said. “For a guy that gets the defensive rebounds that he gets and to be able to get into that trail position for people to play through him, it’s really important, and it’s going to carry some weight for him at the next level.”As chaos filled Assembly Hall, one of the most endearing images from that night was the sight of Watford sifting through the swarm of Hoosier fans to find his parents for a loving embrace.“My family has always been my backbone,” Watford said. “When you do something miraculous like that, you definitely want to share it with them.“I was just hugging them and (my mother) was crying with tears of joy, so I mean anytime you can go through that and experience that with your family, it’s a wonderful thing.”Watford’s father, Ernest Watford, said being able to watch that shot and the aftermath in person was a surreal moment for the entire Watford family.“It was a joy to my wife and myself,” Ernest said. “I thought it was the big time resurgence that we needed for this program to move forward.”For Hoosier fans who lived through that game, the spot on the floor where he shot from will forever be known as “Watford’s spot.”But herein lies the struggle for any player who makes such a memorable and culturally significant play.Like an artist attempting to avoid becoming a one-hit wonder, Watford doesn’t want that moment to be the only thing that people think of when discussing his legacy.“It’s a big stepping-stone, but you definitely don’t want to be defined by it as a player,” Watford said. “You don’t want to be that guy that only just hit that shot.” ‘Now, it’s going by really fast’Ever since that landmark moment, Watford and the rest of the Hoosiers have been on a year-and-a-half-long whirlwind that began during last year’s 27-9 season.During the last two seasons, nobody in the Big Ten has a better record than the Hoosiers (54-13) and Watford has been glue holding it all together.After suffering through two excruciatingly painful seasons of growth, Watford has matured into one of IU’s best all-around players.Every season at IU, Watford has increased his 3-point field goal percentage (he’s currently second in the Big Ten at 48.5 percent), while also improving his defense to be able to guard anyone on the court, including point guards and centers.“The versatility that we always envisioned him having as a player I think he is really getting,” Crean said.Watford said the biggest difference in his game from freshman year to senior year is his mindset, which has been focused on achieving consistency.“You just want to be a player that can do everything and come out and play every night,” Watford said. “I don’t want to say that I took nights off, but there were definitely times where, you know, I didn’t rebound the ball as well as I could have or stuff like that.”On such a talented team, Watford has stood out statistically all season.He ranks third in scoring (12.7 points per game), second in rebounding (6.4 rebounds per game), second on the team in three-pointers made (49) and first in free throw percentage (81.7 percent).“I’ve never been a part of a team with so much talent and you know people got to change for the better of the program,” Watford said. “In order to win, that’s the main key.”For this senior class, winning means everything because they were around when IU couldn’t win anything.Watford and the two other members of this year’s senior class, Derek Elston and Jordan Hulls, will forever be connected to the revival under Crean.Winning the outright Big Ten championship on Senior Night would be fitting for the class that brought IU basketball back.“That’s what we set out to work for and you know we feel like we have accomplished that,” Watford said. “We haven’t won anything yet at this point, but we definitely feel like we are heading in the right direction.” One Last TimeAs all good things do, Watford’s career at Assembly Hall is about to end.“It’s going to be bittersweet,” Watford said, pausing to think about the moment. “Well, it’s going to be bitter, it ain’t going to be sweet. Anytime you leave an environment like this, it’s definitely tough to move on.”On Tuesday night against Ohio State, Watford will walk onto the court with the majority of his Hoosier legacy solidified amongst IU’s all-time greats.Watford ranks 11th on IU’s all-time scoring list with 1,655 points entering his final game at Assembly Hall, sitting only 46 points behind Brian Evans (1,701) for tenth all time.The senior who has started 123 out of 125 possible games will finish the season as both the Big Ten’s active leading scorer and active leading rebounder (737).But to Watford, these numbers, statistics and rankings don’t mean as much to him as finishing the job he started four years ago: The goal of bringing more banners to Bloomington.“I want to be remembered as a competitor and a person that brought IU back and came back a winner,” Watford said. “It definitely will help if we go win a national championship and a Big Ten championship.”Regardless of how her son’s career at IU ends, Watford’s mother, Belinda Watford, said the past four years have been an amazing experience for their entire family and it is something they would not trade for the world.“It’s a happy/sad moment for us because we have really become a part of this family,” Belinda said. “Just to be a part of this legacy, just to be a part of the IU Hoosiers is so awesome. We will always, always bleed this red because it’s awesome.”Wherever Watford lands after graduation, whether it’s in the NBA or a foreign basketball league, he said his faith will carry him through.But for one more night, Watford will suit up in those candy-striped pants to play one more game in the place he now calls home.“It’s just hard to believe that it’s really about to come to an end, but you can’t do nothing but go forward and attack what’s out there for you,” Watford said.“Anytime you are leaving home, you feel like it’s just something that you can’t live without, but you know, I’ll move forward and pursue something else in life.”— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(03/01/13 3:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If Indiana’s upcoming opponents want a blueprint on how to beat the number one team in the nation, they should look at how Minnesota neutralized Christian Watford.Tuesday’s 77-73 loss to Minnesota is hardly the end of the world for the Hoosiers, but it was a game that illustrated how important Watford’s newfound consistency has been to IU’s success this season.The red-flag raising stat from Tuesday’s game, points in the paint, can be traced back to fouling in the first half that limited Watford’s minutes and production.For the game, IU allowed Minnesota to score 40 points in the paint, including 21 second-chance points.A lot of Minnesota’s success came at the hands of Trevor Mbakwe, who finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds, because he was more aggressive in the first half than anyone else on the floor.Mbakwe challenged Watford in the post, drawing two fouls against Watford in the first 8:54 of the game that forced the Birmingham, Ala., native to watch the remaining 11 minutes of the first half from the bench.As the Hoosiers have shown opponents all season, aggressive play around the basket leads to fouls being called, which could take a player completely out of the flow of a game, leaving his team crippled.More than any other player on IU’s roster, Watford needs to get going in the first half. When he is passive early in the game, he struggles to make an impact, which hurt the Hoosiers against Minnesota.Here’s the senior’s stat line from the first half: 6 minutes, two fouls, 0 points (0-of-2 from the field) and 0 rebounds.Watford constantly talks about the importance of being aggressive from the tip-off, but because of foul trouble, he couldn’t assert himself into game in the same way that he has been throughout the Big Ten season.I don’t want to say that IU was crippled after Watford went into foul trouble — they had plenty of time and opportunities to recover — but without Watford on the floor, the Hoosiers were left scrambling for scoring and defensive size to match Minnesota’s down low.Think about these two facts.Tuesday night marked the first time that Watford, who finished with eight points, did not score in double figures since IU lost to Butler in overtime 88-86 on Dec. 15.It also marked only the second game this season where Watford failed to collect at least three rebounds.Did Watford’s performance cost the Hoosiers a chance to beat Minnesota?Certainly not — he was not the only IU player that put on a less-than stellar performance in “the Barn”.Cody Zeller (9 points) and Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell (10 points) combined to shoot just 4 of 19 from the field, and the bench only combined to score five points outside of Will Sheehey’s eight points.But against Iowa, the Hoosiers need a bounce-back game from Watford because he will be responsible for shutting down the Hawkeyes’ second leading scorer and best rebounder, Aaron White.White, a 6-foot-8 sophomore from Strongsville, Ohio, is ranked 12th in the Big Ten in both points per game (13.6) and rebounds per game (6.6) because he is one of the most effective players in the Big Ten at using his body.In 28 games, White has attempted 204 free throws, which is more than any player in the Big Ten including Zeller, who is second with 199 free throw attempts.Like Mbakwe on Tuesday, White is going to test Watford’s defense to see if he can rack up fouls on the Hoosiers’ grizzled veteran, so it is crucial that Watford provides tough resistance without fouling White.Post defense and rebounding have been two of the most improved aspects of Watford’s game this season, partially because he put on more muscle and is stronger, so his struggle against Minnesota might have been an anomaly.But if I was a head coach preparing to face the Hoosiers, as Iowa’s Fran McCaffrey is now doing, I would use Minnesota’s formula against Watford to my advantage.Watford’s consistency is one of the most important foundational blocks that IU’s team is built upon this season.Eliminating that consistency is like removing one of the bottom pieces in Jenga.Once you take it away, everything else in place could come crashing down.Prediction:Losing at Minnesota is not devastating to IU’s chances at winning the Big Ten or securing a No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament, but compounding that with a loss at home to a desperate Iowa team would be.All season long, the Hoosiers have not lost back-to-back games and I don’t expect that to start now. In the three games IU has played after a loss, the Hoosiers have beaten their opponents by an average of 20 points.Iowa is the third-highest scoring team in the Big Ten (71.3 PPG), but they are still a young team that has struggled on the road (Hawkeyes are 2-and-7 on the road).Behind rebound games from Zeller, Ferrell and Watford, the Hoosiers will beat the Hawkeyes to secure IU’s 25th win of the season.Hoosiers win 84-71.— mdnorman@indiana.edu
(02/27/13 5:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If you had to pick one reason why the No. 1 Indiana men’s basketball team lost 77-73 to Minnesota, you should begin with Trevor Mbawke.The sixth year senior from St. Paul, Minnesota started the night like a man who wouldn’t be denied.Mbakwe scored Minnesota’s first six points and 12 out of the Gophers’ first 18 points by starting 5-of-5 from the field in the first ten minutes.If it wasn’t for hot three-point shooting from Jordan Hulls and a 10-0 run with Mbawke on the bench in the first half, the first half could have gotten away from IU because the Hoosiers couldn’t match Mbakwe’s intensity.“He was just a beast out there,” Minnesota guard Austin Hollins said. “On the boards, he was unstoppable. In the paint, he was scoring, he was playing defense, he was doing what it took to win the game. I think he put us on our back and carried the team.”When Mbakwe was carrying the Gophers on his back in the early minutes, the Hoosiers stayed in the game by posting 12 of their first 20 points of the game from behind the arc.In the first half alone, IU was 5-of-12 from behind the arc. Minnesota, meanwhile, struggled to hit any open looks from three-point land, finishing the half 1-of-7.For the game, the Hoosiers (9-of-23) out-shot their opponent (4-of-20) from behind the arc, but what killed IU was the fact that Minnesota’s missed three-pointers turned into long offensive rebounds that extended possessions for the Gophers.Here’s where Mbakwe was the difference.Throughout the game, Mbakwe’s offensive rebounding devastated IU chances because his six offensive boards led to second-chance opportunities that gave Minnesota confidence.As the rest of the Golden Gophers began to see how much energy the grizzled veteran was expending while battling for rebounds, they fed off it and took their game to another level.In all, the Gophers scored 21 second-chance points off of 23 offensive rebounds – the most offensive rebounds the Hoosiers have allowed an opponent since allowing 19 offensive boards to Butler.Entering Tuesday night’s game, Mbawke was leading the Big Ten by averaging 8.5 rebounds per game, including a Big Ten-best 3.2 offensive rebounds per game.With 21 points and 12 rebounds, the 6-foot-8, 245 pound forward posted his Big Ten leading 9th double-double of the season and the 32nd double-double of his career.“That’s a grown man that’s one of the best rebounders in the country,” Crean said.As the game went on, you could see that Mbakwe’s presence on the glass affected Christian Watford and Cody Zeller.Watford, who entered averaging 6.6 rebounds per game, was shut down by the duoof Mbakwe and Rodney Williams all night. By the end, Watford could only record two rebounds – one of which came with the game out of reach with only 3 seconds remaining.Watford’s improvement to become a consistent rebounder has been one of the biggest differences for the Hoosiers this season. Against Mbawke and Minnesota, the senior looked more like the younger Watford that was more passive on the glass.As for Zeller, the sophomore’s only two points of the first half came the free throw line (0-for-4 from the field) as he struggled to get anything going with two turnovers, two fouls and only two first half rebounds.He would finish the game with only nine points and seven rebounds.“You got to make (Zeller) play both ends of the court,” Minnesota Coach Tubby Smith said. “Trevor playing the way he did early on helped.”This was a game that the Hoosiers wanted to win, but on the other hand, this was a game that Minnesota needed to win as the Big Ten regular season closes out.After the game, IU Assistant Coach Steve McClain said that the Hoosiers knew that they were going to be facing a desperate team. He was right. The Golden Gophers played with urgency, but no body played with more desperation than Trevor Mbakwe.