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(03/08/12 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WHO Penn State (12-19, 4-14)WHAT First-round game of the Big Ten TournamentWHEN About 2 p.m. todayWHERE Bankers Life FieldhouseHOW Big Ten Network (Gus Johnson, Shon Morris, Lisa Byington), IU Radio Network, live audio on IUHoosiers.comScouting Penn StateHead coach Patrick Chambers, first seasonLeading scorer Junior guard Tim Frazier, 18.6 ppgLeading rebounder Junior guard Tim Frazier, 4.8 rpgBest win against Purdue, 65-45Worst loss against Lafayette, 61-57What they do well Not sure if this counts, but Tim Frazier. Frazier is the second-leading scorer in the Big Ten as well as the conference’s assist leader, averaging 6.3 per game.What needs work Field goal percentage. The Nittany Lions’ 39.4 shooting percentage is the worst in the Big Ten and 328th among 344 Division I schools.Projected startersIndianaG Jordan Hulls 11.1 points per gameG Victor Oladipo 11.2F Will Sheehey 8.7F Christian Watford 11.8F Cody Zeller 15.4Penn StateG Jermaine Marshall 10.9 points per gameG Tim Frazier 18.6G Matt Glover 2.8F Ross Travis 4.4F Jon Graham 4.0My takeThis game is IU’s to lose. By defeating Purdue, the Hoosiers earned fifth place in the Big Ten and a matchup with the last place Nittany Lions in the first round of the conference tournament.IU has never won the Big Ten Tournament since its creation in 1998. The first step toward conquering that feat starts this afternoon against a transitioning Penn State squad that gave the Hoosiers a scare in January. Had it not been for IU junior guard Jordan Hulls and senior guard Matt Roth shooting a combined 12-15 from beyond the arc, the Hoosiers might have been given their worst loss of the season. Despite a halftime deficit in the second matchup, IU predictably cruised in Bloomington 73-54.This Penn State team reflects its new head coach, Pat Chambers. The Nittany Lions are scrappy, play with a lot of emotion and like being the aggressor. Coincidentally, they have committed the most fouls of any Big Ten team.But it all comes back to All-Big Ten selection Tim Frazier. The junior guard has scored 30 percent of Penn State’s average points per game this season and has scored in double figures in 21-straight games dating back to Dec. 7, 2011.Although IU has had a nasty habit of playing down to inferior opponents with losses against Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, a pro-IU crowd in attendance should help the Hoosiers cruise to a victory.
(03/07/12 4:04pm)
IU will be playing alongside Georgetown, UCLA and Georgia in the 2012 Legends Classic on November 19, 20 in the new Barclays Arena in Brooklyn. Per a release, tickets will go on sale in the near future.
(03/07/12 5:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In one of the most surprising regular seasons of all time, which of IU’s 24 wins sticks out the most? Below, five of those wins are ranked not by which were most important to the Hoosiers’ tournament résumé, but by which meant the most to the program and the season.1. University of Kentucky 12/10/2011This is how we knew this season would be different. It’s hard to believe IU would have gone on this magical run if Watford’s shot rimmed out. At the time, the Hoosiers were unranked and had a week to prepare for a Kentucky game that had a different feel to it because this time, there was actually a chance IU could upset the No. 1 team in the country.Sure enough, five Hoosiers scored in double figures while National Player of the Year candidate Anthony Davis was limited to just six points as IU handed the Wildcats their only loss of the regular season.2. At Purdue 2/4/2012On the surface, a 20th-ranked IU squad beating a mediocre Purdue team does not merit this No. 2 ranking. But this was about beating a team they are expected to beat.IU’s 78-61 win at Purdue was one of the major indicators that Hoosier basketball was back to normal. It was IU Coach Tom Crean’s first win against the Boilermakers, sealed a sweep of basketball programs in Indiana and proved the Hoosiers could win on the road in the Big Ten after dropping four straight conference road contests leading up to that point — IU’s first win in Mackey Arena since 2006.3. At North Carolina State University 11/30/2011Before IU beat any ranked team, before the NCAA Tournament was an inevitable reality, there was the victory at NC State. I didn’t fully understand the importance of this win until interviewing the IU seniors, who, in separate interviews, almost all agreed this win was when they knew this season would be different.The Wolfpack was IU’s first real test, as the Hoosiers faced a major conference school far from the confines of Assembly Hall. Down by five with 6:36 remaining in a tight game, IU fought back and hung onto a slim lead to close out the game — something Crean’s past three teams would not have been able to do.4. Michigan State University 2/28/2012This win proved there was still some fuel left in the tank.Did I say some fuel? I meant a lot more fuel.The high of the Purdue win was fading, and the Hoosiers had not recorded a win against a ranked opponent since beating Michigan on Jan. 5 — 15 games ago. I was skeptical the same team that beat Kentucky and OSU could appear.Well, the Hoosiers answered the call, snapping the then-No. 5 Spartans’ seven-game win streak, crushing Michigan State by 15 points. This team had not lost a step and was poised to make a run into March.5. Ohio State University 12/31/2011Was the monumental win against Kentucky a fluke?After a deflating loss at Michigan State, which gave IU it’s first loss of the season, the Hoosiers had to face then-No. 2 Ohio State on New Year’s Eve at home. The students would not be in Assembly Hall, and the Buckeyes looked to be one of the best teams in the country.Well, the Hoosiers proved they were for real with a 74-70 victory on top of a 17-point performance from junior guard Jordan Hulls. IU was just 14 games into its seasons and had already defeated the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation.
(03/05/12 4:04pm)
There can only be one. The Big Ten's Freshman of the Year will be announced tonight at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network. I think it will come down to IU's Cody Zeller and Michigan's Trey Burke. So who will it be? Look at the numbers and you decide:
(03/05/12 5:05am)
(03/05/12 4:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I flung open the Assembly Hall doors and ran inside.A stocked trophy case and wall of illustrated IU Athletics Hall of Fame inductees lay before me, but at that moment, they were secondary to what I heard going on inside.The sound of bouncing basketballs, whistles and barking head coaches grew louder as I approached a pair of closed, big, black doors.It was my first time in Bloomington, when I was on my campus visit during the winter of 2007.I had seen IU games on television, read about the mystique within this historic building, and now I was here, and right behind those doors was an actual Indiana basketball practice.I pulled on the doors. Locked.Determined, I ran up that crimson rubber ramp and was again denied, a lock and chains on the door mocking me.Again, the sounds of basketball history teased me, telling me that I’d need to enroll at IU in the fall to get into this Hallowed Hall of college hoops.There was a game being played in that arena Sunday — an 85-74 IU victory against Purdue — that seemed to be over all too quickly.For myself, five IU basketball players and the seniors in the stands, it was our last game as students in Assembly Hall.I tried to watch every play in slow motion, a desperate and fruitless attempt to make the game last longer. Every Matt Roth 3-pointer, Cody Zeller dunk and Jordan Hulls assist.I didn’t want it to end.But it did.The final buzzer sounded, and just like that, four years of Indiana basketball in Assembly Hall were gone, and I could never get them back.Sure, I hope to one day return to this magical place as an alumnus and watch basketball in its purest form from the “old people” sections of Assembly Hall.But who will stand with me? Who else will belt out the chorus of “Sweet Caroline” or shout “LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT!” as an opponent makes his way to a seat on the bench?“SIT DOWNNNN!”When I find my seat, Gumby won’t be to the left of me and Buzz Lightyear to the right.Not being able to be in the student section is one thing, but the reality that I won’t be at every home game next season is another.No more Martha the Mop Lady, no more Chuck Crabb letting me know, “It’s Indiana basketball time.” When U2’s “Where the Streets have No Name” comes on the radio or my iPod, it just won’t be the same. No more “William Tell Overture” played by the pure sound of the Big Red Basketball Band — something no set of speakers can replace.For many years, I’ll probably be watching the Hoosiers play while in my candy stripe pants from a couch at home.But it won’t be the same. You can’t just watch Indiana basketball. You have to experience it.I’ve been to other Big Ten venues, and there is something about Assembly Hall.After I’m done writing this column, I’m going to make the short walk from the Assembly Hall pressroom to Branch McCracken Court. I’ll probably walk up to one of the seats I once occupied as a student in the past three years and sit, look out onto the floor and replay all the memories I saw take place, like when Tijan Jobe was carried onto the court on a surfboard by his teammates freshman year at Hoosier Hysteria or when Maurice Creek’s teammates stared in horror as the freshman guard went down, grabbing his knee against Bryant my sophomore year.I’ll want to stay in that seat forever.But at some point, the lights in Assembly Hall will turn off, and I’ll have to make my way home.When the door closes behind me, it won’t be a lock and chains keeping me out this time. It’ll be the clock.— azaleon@indiana.edu
(03/05/12 4:54am)
Columnist Avi Zaleon shares his thoughts on which teams have the most to gain and the most to lose during the Big Ten Tournament.
(03/02/12 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Part IV of IVVerdell Jones III knew it all along.The victories, the return and the redemption — it would all happen at some point.“I saw the vision that Coach (Tom) Crean had,” he said. “I saw where this program could go from the time I was coming in. I saw us working hard every day, so I knew that it had to change. I knew that we were going to win sooner or later. There’s just no way if you work that hard every day and put in the sacrifices that we did, it would continue to be the same.”Jones III and the IU seniors have paid their dues. Now they’re seeing the results.No longer the doormat of the Big Ten and their rivals, the Hoosiers have defeated the top three teams in the conference this season, in addition to perennial rivals Kentucky, Illinois and Purdue.“The past three years, everybody took their jabs at us,” Jones said. “‘Indiana’s down, let’s kick ‘em while they’re down,’ and this year, we’re getting a little payback.”In their freshman year, these seniors were spanked by 18 points in Rupp Arena.The following season, John Wall and the ‘Cats put on a show for the crowd at Assembly Hall on their way to 17-point win.Kentucky wiped its feet on the Hoosiers in last year’s installment of the annual rivalry to the tune of a 19-point victory.Jones said he remembers the losses being worse than they were, but I’m sure the revenge was just that much sweeter.“It’s supposed to be the best team that Calipari’s had,” he said. “For us to beat them and compete with Ohio State and beat Michigan State, who’s supposed to be a Final Four team this year, it just feels good to finally beat the teams that we haven’t been able to beat.”Do not dare define this senior class by its struggles.True, this season is an incredible story because of the unprecedented improvement that has occurred. If the night is darkest just before the dawn, then the Hoosiers went to sleep in an underwater cave before rising to the morning sun.But what makes this group memorable is the winning this season.“I think the stories and experiences we went through are going to be there, but if I’m going to show film five, 10 years down the road, obviously I’m going to gravitate back to the things we’ve achieved this year,” senior guard Matt Roth said.The three seasons of losing add context to the Hoosiers’ magical run this year, but even without considering the bad times, this team has still been flat-out good.No other IU squad in the history of the program has beaten three top-5 teams in the regular season.Think about that. All the championships, Knight, McCracken, the All-Americans, nobody has ever accomplished that feat. And for this squad to do so as underdogs each time? Wow.Even with these signature victories, Jones said he still laments the losses, the ones against Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota that shouldn’t have happened.“We’ve worked too hard to lose games like we have,” he said. “I think the most sickening part is after we lose, you’re thinking back on the game, ‘Man, if I just did this, if I just did that,’ we could been 25-5 or whatever. The losses are more disheartening now than they have been before.”Winning might be the most addictive drug for the Hoosiers. For three years, IU could only get the occasional fix, the soft stuff that shouldn’t even give you that high, like wins at home against Minnesota and Iowa.But now they’ve moved on to the real bad stuff — Kentucky, Ohio State, Michigan State and one of the ultimate highs you have to go out of state for, the NCAA Tournament.“I think we’ll be fine,” Jones said of the Hoosiers’ inevitable NCAA Tournament berth. “We never expected this, so we have nothing to lose, really.”I’m tired of writing about the past, lamenting the losses and crying about spilled milk. That’s why Jones’ personal struggles and complicated relationship with fans and media isn’t mentioned after this period.It’s time to look forward and put the past where it belongs.Before you is a winning team on the brink of making a run in the NCAA Tournament. The five seniors built a foundation, but that foundation only gains meaning when the house built on it is as pristine as the foundation is strong.“If you’re part of the group that helps rebuild something like this,” Jones said, “you’ll be remembered forever.”
(03/02/12 5:00am)
Even though IU is now securely in the NCAA Tournament, there is still a
lot to play for Sunday. First and foremost, it is the chance to give
these five seniors a win in their last game at Assembly Hall.
(03/01/12 4:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Tom Crean was shorter than expected.That is what surprised senior forward Tom Pritchard the most on his first day at IU.Not the scandal that rocked the foundations of Indiana basketball to spawn an unprecedented rebuilding project. Not that the squad he would be playing on was bringing back a combined average of just 12.8 minutes and 1.6 points per game from the prior season in Kyle Taber and Brett Finklemeier.“I got (to IU), and he was a lot smaller than I had thought when I looked him up in videos and stuff,” Pritchard said. “That was probably the biggest surprise.”It was perhaps the greatest example of positive thinking — or perhaps blissful ignorance — I had ever heard.But that kind of mindset has helped Pritchard persevere through three years of basketball hell and come out clean on the other side.“I don’t read any newspaper articles or anything,” Pritchard said. “My mom reads that stuff all the time, and she tries to tell me, and I’m like, ‘I’m not having it.’”During Pritchard’s first three seasons, maybe this was for the best.A three-star recruit coming out of Westlake, Ohio, Pritchard was going to be the starting big man in Crean’s first season as IU head coach. Not one of the big men — the only big man. Granted, there was Taber, Tijan Jobe and Broderick Lewis, but trust me when I tell you Pritchard, undersized to combat other Big Ten centers, had virtually no depth behind him.After the 2008 Hoosier Hysteria, then-IDS columnist Zachary Osterman shared his forecast of the IU frontcourt after seeing the first practice.“The inside game could be a bit of an issue,” Osterman wrote in a column. “But I think we knew that already.”In his freshman year, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound bruiser got off to a promising start. Pritchard was the only Hoosier that year to start all 31 games. He averaged 9.7 points per game and was eighth in the Big Ten with 6.4 rebounds per game. That season, he recorded five double-doubles. They would be his last.Pritchard’s sophomore and junior campaigns saw dips in his minutes, points, blocks and rebounds. The calvary had arrived in Bloomington, and Pritchard was reduced to being defined by a single stat — the foul.In his sophomore year, Pritchard averaged the sixth-most minutes per game on the team but compiled the most fouls with 98. The next season, Pritchard again played the sixth-most minutes per game and still committed the most personal fouls.Through the losing, the criticism and the tough times, Pritchard has never stopped pushing through the adversity.“My parents were always there, win or lose,” he said. “They’ve really helped me through everything and teaching me to just keep working.”It wasn’t just Pritchard who was struggling.Guard Maurice Creek suffered a pair of season-ending injuries, guard Jeremiah Rivers — who transferred from Georgetown — did not pan out the way some had hoped and an underwhelming 2010 campaign caused grumbles from an impatient sect of the Hoosier fan base.Indiana’s coming back, they were told, but when? “I remember our freshman year not a lot of people were talking to us, not a lot of people were going to the games, but we still worked hard,” Pritchard said. “One of our things was trying to get every one back to IU.”It was always about persevering to break through a wall of doubt to reach an unknown reward for all the sacrifice.“There’s always a reason you go through adversity, and some days are worse than others, but at the end of the day, you knew that we were moving forward and making progress,” senior guard Matt Roth said.So when did the Hoosiers break through that wall? Many, including Pritchard, said they believe it came Nov. 30, 2011, when IU traveled to NC State and picked up the first ACC/Big Ten Challenge victory of the Crean era.“The road win at NC State, that felt awesome because we were down six or seven with eight minutes to go, and all of our seniors are thinking, ‘We’ve been here before, and we’ve never been able to make anything of it,’” Pritchard said, referring to the inability to close out games. “But we looked past that and told ourselves this was a new year, and all the guys this year really persevered, and we ended up winning that game.”Now this team and its deserving seniors have seen their hard work pay off in the form of one of the most surprising seasons in IU basketball history. Pritchard has become a fan favorite and has eased into his role as a reserve, utilizing his rebounding and defensive skills.But what if things were different? What if then-IU Coach Kelvin Sampson decided to put his cell phone back in his pocket and the subsequent collapse of the program never occurred?“That would have been the easy way,” senior guard Daniel Moore said. “It probably would have been easier and nicer, but I truly believe that the reason that we’re at where we are at right now is because of the hard times we’ve had over the last three years. What we were has made us who we are now.”
(02/29/12 5:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This time, they didn’t need a buzzer beater.The Hoosiers steamrolled No. 5 Michigan State by 15 points Tuesday, and the win proved something.It was a fleeting idea when senior guard Verdell Jones III slapped the floor as the Hoosiers started a defensive possession 3:30 into the game.It was becoming more evident when junior forward Christian Watford, who recorded a double-double, somehow banked a 3-pointer to put IU up 10 with 6:02 left.And it was all too clear when freshman forward Cody Zeller slammed a one-handed dunk over Spartans forward Derrick Nix with 3:17 to go in the game to give IU a 14-point lead and blow the roof off Assembly Hall.The Hoosiers still have some of that magic left.The Kentucky win made this an unforgettable season, but at the time, it didn’t make it a complete one.Victories like Tuesday’s affect the program on a larger scale — this is the first time an IU team has ever defeated three top-five teams in the regular season — but on a smaller scale, as well.This is the best the Hoosiers have looked all season.“I think we’re a different team all-around, period,” Jones said. “I think our mindset is on a whole different level right now. We got two great starts and played well at Minnesota, played well today, and I think our mindset is a lot different right now.”Watford said it was as complete a game as this team has played thus far.The defense, after allowing just 50 points to Minnesota on Sunday, limited Michigan State players not named Draymond Green to 10-of-34 from the field and recorded 10 steals. That’s 29.4 percent, for you folks playing along at home.IU outrebounded a Tom Izzo squad that pulls down the most rebounds in the Big Ten.Fueled by their spectacular defense, the Hoosiers set the tone for offense by attacking the basket early and finished with five players in double figures. IU Coach Tom Crean’s squad committed just nine turnovers and looked poised from the beginning.“When we beat top teams like that, we’re nasty, we’re scrappy, we’re fighting, and I just don’t think against Iowa we came out that way,” Jones said.It’s clear the magic is there in Assembly Hall. That’s where the three signature upsets took place.“How about that stadium tonight, dude?” a Michigan State student newspaper photographer said to his writer. “Crazy.”That’s pretty high praise coming from individuals who are consistently in one of the loudest student sections in the Big Ten with the Izzone.Following the game, Crean took the mic and gave four emphatic and deserved “thank you”’s to the crowd.“There’s no question that Indiana on the road is a very tough game on the road,” Izzo said. “You’ve got to play at the highest level.”Now there is no question that Assembly Hall is the hardest place to play in the country. Please, try to debate me. I’ll have a good time proving you wrong.But the Hoosiers have to take this magic wherever they go after the Big Ten Tournament.I don’t know how much is left of it. Maybe enough to take them to the Sweet Sixteen. It might be enough to only last one round.But I do know that three wins does not make a season.This was a monumental accomplishment that can’t completely define this season. “I think this team has a lot of basketball left in it,” Crean said. “My biggest thing is making sure we just continue to put them in an environment where they know they have to get better, not where we want them to get better.”If this team has any magic left in it, I can’t wait to see where it takes them.
(02/29/12 4:29am)
(02/29/12 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Daniel Moore obviously doesn’t get it.He’s the shortest man playing for the Hoosiers, not even measuring 6 feet tall. At 175 pounds, he is the lightest scholarship player on the team. Boston University, home of the Terriers, was the only Division I program that offered him a scholarship as he left Carmel High School.His style of play is about as sexy as an offensive line’s attempt at a swimsuit calendar. Moore prides himself on “being a pest on defense” and has never averaged more than 2.5 points per game in a season.Moore, a senior guard, clearly does not fit the mold of a prime-time, highlight reel Big Ten basketball player. Why didn’t he just quit while he had the chance?It’s because Moore continues to persist with a heart as big as a seven-footer.“I wasn’t the best player on my high-school team,” Moore admits. “There have always been guys that are better than me. My dad has always told me, ‘If you don’t play hard, and you don’t work hard, you’re just a short white guy that’s kind of fast.’ It’s true.“I’ve kind of carried that motto throughout my life and especially in basketball. If I don’t work hard, I am just an average guy who probably belongs in court three at the HPER.”Ever since high school, Moore has had to let his play disprove the assumptions that come with his build.Moore’s head basketball coach at Carmel, Mark Galloway, admits he underestimated Moore before the then-freshman picked up a basketball.“I didn’t think he was a basketball player,” said Galloway, who said he will be at Senior Night on Sunday. “I thought he was a soccer player or a wrestler.”True, Moore did earn first-team All-State in soccer. But during four years as Carmel’s point guard, he also collected Indiana All-Star, All-North Player of the Year, first-team All-State, first-team Academic All-State and Hamilton County Player of the Year honors.From the beginning, this Indiana kid accepted the role of David versus Goliath.“We did not hesitate to put him on Eric Gordon or Marquis Teague,” Galloway said. “We’d challenge him, and he would definitely want to guard those guys. He wanted to guard the best guys on the other team. He’s always had that toughness.“Even if the guard was like Gordon, bigger and more athletic, he would front him in the post. He wouldn’t let him catch the ball. He would take charges. It wasn’t surprising to see him get knocked down in the game and get right back up and want to come right back at the guy. He did not back down from anyone.”Moore, who walked on at IU, said this mentality has carried over into practices in college.“I do try to push guys in practice,” he said. “I’m not afraid to stick my nose in there, and I don’t care if you’re an All-American or whatever coming out of high school. We’re all on the same team, and if you’re on the other team, I’m going to try to win. I don’t care.”For Moore and these five seniors, the heart has always been there, but the wins have not. That will and desire flowed through the Hoosiers during their first season in 2008, when seven of their 25 losses were by six points or fewer. It was also there Dec. 10, 2011, when junior forward Christian Watford caused the fastest unintentional fire drill in Assembly Hall’s history.“We played as hard as we could freshman year and did all we could,” Moore said. “We could play our best game and still come up short sometimes. "It was frustrating, but hard work is definitely something that has been established throughout the four years here, but probably most because of how things were our freshman year.”Moore is now merely a blip on the radar.His playing time has decreased to an average of 5.3 minutes per game this season, compared to 17.2 in his freshman year, because of the talent that has since come to Bloomington.That’s Moore on paper. Off the stat sheet, he is a testament to the human spirit.Here is a man who wasn’t even taken for a basketball player when he arrived at Carmel, came to Bloomington as a walk-on and earned a scholarship just prior to his senior season.Every Hoosier should have a little Daniel Moore in them. No, not necessarily the attributes of a 5-foot-10-inch soccer player who’s “kind of fast” — but rather the toughness, grit, positive attitude and heart that takes a kid who dreams of playing IU basketball onto the bench with his own candy stripes and scholarship.“I think when you are that ‘small white kid,’ you’ve got to have that confidence,” Galloway said. “I’ve got a fourth-grader, and he loves Daniel. He’s been watching Daniel ever since he was born, and he knows Daniel Moore is going to compete and fight. He loves that.”Galloway knows it’s cliché, but Moore’s high-school coach can’t think of any way to explain how the scrappy point guard has come this far.“His heart. He plays with his heart,” Galloway said. “I don’t think that there is any challenge that is too big for him. I think he believed that Indiana could get back there, and I think he believed he could be a part of that.”
(02/28/12 4:02am)
There’s a face behind the 3-pointers.
It’s the face of an IU student who is from Illinois, but who found a new home. Senior guard Matt Roth has made Indiana his adopted home and developed a
pride for the state and its basketball as pure as any homegrown
Hoosier.
(02/28/12 3:56am)
MSU Coach Tom Izzo’s squad is getting hot at the right time, riding a seven-game winning streak into Bloomington.
(02/27/12 2:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU men’s basketball season has been a ball on a roulette wheel.Matters were no different in the Hoosiers’ 69-50 win Sunday in Minnesota.Senior guard Verdell Jones III dunked for the first time this season. Senior guard Matt Roth, who has the second-best 3-point percentage in the country, air-balled one from deep. Four Hoosiers scored in double figures — none named Cody Zeller.But the most pleasant surprise to come out of “The Barn” will also serve as one of the keys to IU’s success at this critical juncture in the season: its defense. Minnesota’s 50-point performance is its lowest total this season. That horrid score total is also the second-least amount of points a Tom Crean-led Indiana team has ever allowed against a Big Ten opponent. I think the Golden Gophers will be IU’s easiest test for the rest of the season. Even if the Hoosiers draw a bottom-tier opponent in the Big Ten tournament, Minnesota Coach Tubby Smith’s squad continues to circle the drain and played with a defeatist attitude. It has lost five straight games and six of its last seven.When the Hoosiers face Michigan State on Tuesday and Purdue on Sunday, they need to take with them their defensive effort, which recorded five blocks and limited Minnesota to 31-percent shooting from the field.The defense helps create the fast-break opportunities in which freshman forward Zeller shines. When the Hoosiers can get stops on defense, it raises their confidence and makes them feel more in control of the game.Defense made the difference Sunday.The last time these two squads faced off, Minnesota handed IU its lone home loss of the season. The Hoosiers shot 43.6 percent from the field in that game, just 0.2 percent worse than their performance Sunday. But the 0.2 percent difference was not the reason for a three-point loss versus a 19-point domination.Rather, the determining factor was an IU defense that allowed Minnesota to shoot 46.8 percent from the field in Bloomington but limited the Gophers to only nine made field goals per half at “The Barn.”This win ended the Hoosiers’ Big Ten road season on a high note and guarantees them at least a .500 record in conference play. It also gave them confidence after a deflating loss in Iowa.But more than anything, IU’s first win in Minnesota since 2008 gave the Hoosiers a blueprint for success.Anchored by solid defense, IU can continue to roll after winning five of its last six by being effective from the foul line — it shot 21-of-25 Sunday, getting solid contributions from its bench, which scored 19 points and had four players play at least 13 minutes — and by having players other than Zeller carry the scoring load.The Hoosiers are staring down games against the Big Ten’s best team, their in-state rival on Senior Night and then the first game of the conference tournament.On Sunday, a defensive team that could win all three of these games dominated in a game it wasn’t favored to win.
(02/25/12 8:54pm)
Last week I sent out a tweet about 2012 IU commit Ron Patterson (Broad Ripple) that ruffled some feathers:
(02/25/12 6:15pm)
Per IU Athletics:
(02/23/12 2:10pm)
(02/23/12 5:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The NFL Coach of the Year could only stay silent for so long.After spending all of IU’s 75-56 win against North Carolina Central sitting on the bench, fulfilling the duties of a manager, 49ers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh had to respond when his brother-in-law, IU Coach Tom Crean, was asked about Harbaugh’s role.“I was trying to contribute!” a booming voice yelled from the back of Assembly Hall’s press room.Sure enough, Harbaugh, clad in his signature NFL gameday attire — khaki pants with a black, long-sleeve 49ers shirt — had to reveal his position and answer for himself.“Oh, there he is, there he is,” Crean said among a sea of laughter. “I didn’t even know he was in here.”Harbaugh, who spoke to the Hoosiers before and after the game Wednesday, sat at the very end of IU’s bench, doing his best to fold up stools before and after timeouts — duties that were all Harbaugh’s idea.It was the most bizarre sight.The same man who marched up and down the sidelines of Candlestick Park in the NFC Championship game exactly a month ago, January 22, was now watching his brother-in-law do the same in Assembly Hall, as he played the role of assistant.“Well, I’ve never sat on the bench before, so I felt like I should be contributing in some way,” Harbaugh said.A former quarterback at the University of Michigan and then for the Colts, Harbaugh proved that competition knows no bounds. It was evident, even doing so little, that this coach and former player still wanted to win.“I think you bring up something like that,” Crean said in response to a question about Harbaugh folding the stools. “And it goes to show why he’s a very successful leader as a player and certainly now as a coach because there’s no job above him, there’s no job beneath him. It’s all about winning.”There must be something to it.As Crean pointed out in his postgame press conference, the last time Harbaugh and his brother, Ravens’ Head Coach John Harbaugh, spoke to the team was before the win at Purdue.IU sophomore guard Victor Oladipo said it was an “honor” to have the NFL Coach of the Year setting up stools during the huddle.“For him to speak to us and sit on our bench, I know he’s relatives with Coach Crean, but at the end of the day, he’s still who he is,” Oladipo, who scored 16 points, said. “For him to come in and talk to us and motivate us, it’s a blessing.”But there still lingered that whole Michigan connection. Espionage, perhaps?“No, he’s not a Michigan spy, trust me,” a joking Crean said, but he needed reassurance. “Are ya?”“Hell no!” Harbaugh once again shouted from the back.“Yeah, no worries there.”— azaleon@indiana.edu