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(01/09/09 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Wednesday’s overtime loss to Michigan left a bitter taste in the mouths of even the mildest of Hoosier fans.Imagine how Tom Crean felt.“It’s an unbelievably tough pill to swallow right now,” Crean said as he swished the words around his mouth. “(The players) got to learn real quick that you just got to turn right back around. ... Learn from the film. See what it looks like when you’re doing well. See what it looks like when you’re not doing well.”One area of focus Crean has emphasized throughout the season, and that will likely be examined thoroughly before Saturday’s game against Illinois, is shot selection. The offense Crean likes to run centers around his players’ ability to drive-and-kick the ball out for open shots. He has said repeatedly he wants his team to share the ball and take good shots, something he admitted it hasn’t always done.But shot selection is a difficult thing to teach, and Crean has said there is a fine line to take into consideration. With his team facing unprecedented circumstances and having little room for error, shot selection has come to the forefront of Crean’s coaching focus.Prior to the season, Crean joked that if you saw a player being yanked from the game, it was likely because of a bad shot.But Crean was not in a joking mood following his team’s 72-66 loss to the Wolverines, the team’s fifth loss in a row, their longest losing streak since 2004. The first-year coach reiterated his team needed to improve. Although the Hoosiers’ official stats crew does not chart shot selection, the Indiana Daily Student took it upon itself to chart each of IU’s field goal attempts against Michigan and do some statistical analysis.After breaking down the court into 12 zones, the goal was to find out where the Hoosiers’ most efficient shots came from. According to research done by 82games.com, a Web site dedicated to charting NBA statistics, the most efficient shot a player can take from the floor is a 3-pointer from the corner.While the same might be true of the Hoosiers over the entire season, IU’s most economical shot Wednesday came when a 3-pointer was attempted from one of the wings. The Hoosiers shot 41.3 percent from the field against Michigan and only 33.3 percent from the 3-point line. But in terms of points per shot, the Hoosiers registered the most points (1.125 pps) when shooting from Zones 2 and 4.Other than Wing 3s, the team’s most efficient shots came from 2-point attempts in the low paint (1.11 pps) and baseline 2-pointers (1.09 pps).The majority of the Hoosiers’ scoring Wednesday came from the low paint (30.3 percent), but it was not far ahead of Wing 3’s (27.3 percent). IU shot only two more attempts from Zone 12 as it did Zones 2 and 4 combined. And while a shot near the basket is often referred to as a “high-percentage shot,” the chart shows the Hoosiers’ most efficient and economical shots Wednesday came from 3-pointers attempted on the wings.While the trends mentioned above are interesting, it is likely they would fluctuate from game to game. The Hoosiers failed to hit a single shot from Zones 1, 5, 7 and 9. Zones 7 and 9 can be explained by Michigan’s 1-3-1 defense, which limits penetration and mid-range jumpers. IU’s 0-2 effort from corner three-pointers is likely nothing more than an anomaly.
(01/08/09 9:07pm)
Wednesday's overtime loss to Michigan left a bitter taste in even the mildest of Hoosier fans' mouths.
(01/08/09 2:04am)
Another game, another heartbreaker for the Hoosiers.
(01/07/09 11:27pm)
For a blow-by-blow recap of tonight's live blog, follow the jump.
(01/06/09 8:15pm)
The first time I ever saw the Hoosiers practice was in high school. Assembly Hall tends to be pretty quiet when games aren't going on with the exception of basketballs being dribbled, sneakers squeaking and coaches barking orders. The bleachers were pushed up and extra hoops bordered the court for players to shoot on. It was a chance to observe players and coaches (then Mike Davis) in a different setting than you're normally accustomed to.
(01/05/09 10:30pm)
I'm not much of a morning person, which is why I've always been grateful most sporting events I cover are held following sunset.
(01/03/09 7:44pm)
IU coach Tom Crean and the Hoosiers were competitive but not victorious in their Big Ten season opener.
(12/30/08 7:20pm)
Kipp Schutz is going back to baseball.
(12/29/08 9:00pm)
Diverse as the Hoosiers struggles may be, turnovers continue to the team's most potent kryptonite.
(12/29/08 2:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Before Sunday’s game, most Hoosier fans likely couldn’t tell you where Lipscomb even was.But the team’s 74-69 upset victory against IU might have put them on the map.The school from Nashville, Tenn., was down by as many as 21 points in the first half before the Hoosiers (5-7) stumbled, tumbled and crumbled down the stretch.When the Hoosiers led 39-18 with six minutes left in the first half, IU coach Tom Crean’s team seemed poised to enter the Big Ten season with a .500 record.But then the Bisons broke out into a stampede, trampling the Hoosiers on their way to a 29-5 run to close the first half and open the second. Five minutes into the second period, Lipscomb tied the game at 50. The teams battled and exchanged the lead back and forth the rest of the game. But the Hoosiers went cold from the field – 36.0 percent in the second half – and lost the swagger they played with in the first.Meanwhile, the Bisons were just finding theirs. Lipscomb center Adnan Hodzic scored eight of his team’s final 12 points to lift his team to victory. The North Central (Indianapolis) graduate finished with a game-high 19 points.At a stout 6-foot-9 and 245 pounds, Hodzic overpowered freshman forward Tom Pritchard at times, forcing the big man into foul trouble in the first half. In the closing minutes, Hodzic crashed the boards relentlessly, scoring three baskets and converting both of his late free-throw attempts. “(This was) just a dogfight between two teams, no team gave up, it was fun,” Hodzic said after the game.Prior to Sunday, the Bisons had struggled through their first 10 games, losing to schools like Samford, Tennessee Tech and Elon.It seemed like the Hoosiers were set to add themselves to the list midway through the first, before Lipscomb staged their comeback.“When you’re that far down, you have to expand so much energy to come back,” Lipscomb coach Scott Sanderson said. “We had 27 minutes to come back from the middle part of the game. It was a great character win for our program, team and our university.”For the Hoosiers, the game also has an affect on the team and the University. After the game, Crean said the single most disappointing thing about Sunday’s loss was not sending IU athletics director Rick Greenspan out with a win.Greenspan, who resigned months ago but will officially leave office at the turn of the year, spoke with the team after the game.“I knew this was going to obviously be the last game of his tenure,” Crean said. “We wanted to send him off the right way, but we weren’t able to do that. He left our team with some incredible words.”Outside of Greenspan’s tainted departure, Crean said the most disappointing thing about Sunday’s loss was his team’s rebounding.The Hoosiers allowed Lipscomb to shoot 50.9 percent from the field for the game and were out-rebounded 35-25. A statistic Crean said, “You could hang your hat on.”The Hoosiers turned the ball over only 13 times, but failed to close out the Bisons when they had a chance. “We got to keep our foot on their necks,” freshman guard Verdell Jones said. “We have to keep them down.”Instead, the Hoosiers were outscored 40-25 in the second half.Junior guard Devan Dumes led IU in scoring with 18. Jones finished with 13 and Pritchard chipped in with 12.The Hoosiers resume action on Jan. 3 when they open the Big Ten season at Iowa. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
(12/29/08 2:36am)
Before Sunday's game, most Hoosier fans likely couldn't tell you where Lipscomb even was.
(12/28/08 8:52pm)
For a blow-by-blow recap of the game, follow the jump.
(12/25/08 5:52pm)
Growing up in Bloomington, I always thought Santa and Bob Knight had a lot in common.
(12/19/08 9:17pm)
Double overtime: The home team lost, but the hometown hero came through in the end.
(12/18/08 1:29am)
In an interview with the Indy Star, former IU guard Eric Gordon said drug use put a rift between the Hoosier players and derailed the team last season.
(12/16/08 7:59pm)
After transferring to UAB this summer, former IU guard Armon Bassett has decided to switch schools once again.
(12/15/08 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>LEXINGTON, Ky. – Devan Dumes knows “hate” is a strong word, which is why he chose his words carefully.The Hoosiers’ most experienced player was down. One of IU’s most bitter rivals had just finished torching the Hoosiers for 40 minutes, and the fire inside Dumes still had a few embers aglow.SLIDESHOW: Kentucky 72, IU 54All afternoon, Dumes and his teammates listened to 23,767 fans scream and cheer against them while they were roughed up on the court. The junior guard said the hostile environment did not intimidate the prepared team, but admitted the game did bring out extra emotions.The loss burns. Deeper than any of the Hoosiers’ other losses, Dumes said.“It does. It really does,” Dumes said. “I don’t want to say the hatred (Kentucky fans) have for us, but the smell they have for us and the boos ...” he said, before trailing off.What the Wildcats smelled was blood. In the first six minutes, Kentucky jumped out of the starting blocks and trampled the Hoosiers, opening with a 14-0 run. When IU coach Tom Crean called timeout, Dumes grabbed the ball with one hand and slapped it loudly with the other, openly venting his frustration. Two minutes later, Kentucky led 24-4. The blue mob was letting the crimson players hear it.“It hit deep,” Dumes said. The Hoosiers were no longer trying to execute on offense or get back on defense. They were just trying to survive, holding on for dear life.“I use the term a lot of the time, ‘when the bullets are flying,’” Crean explained. On Saturday, “the machine guns were flying, the tanks were out, there were a lot of things flying around,” he added. “(Kentucky was) playing great.” With the exception of senior forward Kyle Taber, Saturday marked the first time the Hoosier players and Crean had ever faced Kentucky in a rivalry game.Prior to Saturday’s border battle, Crean knew his team was going into a great college basketball atmosphere, but said the Hoosiers would have to play “pretty well” to make it a great game.Instead, Crean said “everything that could go wrong did.”The Hoosiers opened the game with one of the worst halves in school history. The team committed more turnovers (15) than they scored points (13). Thirteen points marks the fewest points IU has scored in a half since the team played UCLA in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2007.On the other side of the rivalry, the Wildcats hit nine of their first 10 shots, many of them highlight dunks.At halftime, the score read 36-13.“We just have to fight harder,” freshman guard Nick Williams said. “For the first eight to 10 minutes, they were tougher than us.”And Kentucky’s fans were right behind them. Each basket early in the first half seemed to make the Wildcat faithful that much louder, if not stronger.“It felt like the fans were right on us,” Williams said.Freshman guard Daniel Moore – who grew up in Indiana and played high school ball at Carmel – said the Hoosiers were more frustrated than they were nervous during Kentucky’s big run.“I’ve watched this (series) for a while,” Moore said. “It’s a tough one to lose, but all losses are tough, so it’s not like this one stands too much above the rest.”
(12/13/08 7:41pm)
After scoring only 13 points in the first half, the Hoosiers played better in the second, scoring 41 points, but never seriously jeopardizing the Wildcats' lead.
IU now drops to .500 (5-5) and has a nine-day break until they host Northeastern on Dec.
(12/12/08 4:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The times, they have a-changed for the Hoosiers. Aside from candy-striped pants and Branch McCracken Court, almost everything is different about the men’s basketball team since it last played its border rival, Kentucky. A little more than a year ago, Kelvin Sampson was still manning the reins. The Hoosiers were ranked No. 15 in the country and had an offense built around two future NBA players. Deafening chants of “Jor-dan’s bet-ter” rang throughout Assembly Hall as Jordan Crawford exploded for 20 points against his older brother Joe, leading the Hoosiers to a 70-51 victory. On Saturday, the Hoosiers face essentially the same Kentucky squad. The Wildcats, on the other hand, face an IU team that doesn’t return a single player who scored against Kentucky in last year’s rivalry matchup. But Saturday’s game (4 p.m., CBS) marks a new era in the IU-Kentucky series. For the first time, IU coach Tom Crean will lead the Hoosiers against one of their most bitter rivals. “One of the greatest thrills of being able to come (to Indiana) is being a college basketball fan for as long as I have been and knowing what Indiana basketball has been all about,” Crean said Thursday at a press conference. “Certainly, rivalries are a part of it. Indiana-Kentucky, Indiana-Purdue – those are some phenomenal rivalries, and those are exciting.” Crean guessed that the young players on his team might not grasp what the rivalry means between the two schools, with the exception of senior forward Kyle Taber and players who grew up in the state. “There’s no doubt at about 4:07 p.m., or whenever tip-off is, they’ll get a feel for it,” he said. Crean praised Kentucky’s second-year head coach Billy Gillispie, whom he has faced before. A little over nine months ago, Crean and Gillispie squared off in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, with Crean’s Marquette squad coming out on top, 74-66.On Thursday, Crean described Gillespie as a worthy adversary. “He gets his players to compete and to challenge the other team, and they are as well-prepared as I have faced,” he said. In addition to being well-prepared, the Wildcats have talent. Crean anointed Wildcats guard Jodie Meeks, averaging 22.9 ppg, as one of the best two guards in the country. In the post, Kentucky features sophomore big man Patrick Patterson. The 6-foot-9, 235-pound forward has six double-doubles through nine games and is averaging 18.2 points while shooting 72.5 percent from the field. After facing star big men like Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody and Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt, Crean said that Patterson still stands out amongst the trees. “He’s as tough as a post-up as I’ve seen on film,” he said. Crean said Patterson uses his body well and demands the ball in the post. “There is no way we can expect one guy to guard that good of a player,” he said. When watching Patterson on film Thursday, Crean said he was “amazed” at how well the Kentucky sophomore moves his feet on defense. “He guards like a guard,” he said. But despite their talent, the Wildcats have suffered their share of setbacks this season. After their well-publicized loss to Gardner-Webb in 2007, the Wildcats opened this season on the wrong end of another big upset: a 111-103 loss to Virginia Military Institute. But Kentucky has rebounded to win six of their last seven, and Crean said that when the Hoosiers enter Rupp Arena Saturday, they will be playing in one of the best venues in the college basketball landscape. “It promises to be a great atmosphere,” Crean said. “I don’t know if it’ll be an outstanding game; we’ll have to play pretty well to make it that way.”
(12/11/08 5:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Everyday, it seems, the Hoosiers face a new challenge.At halftime Wednesday, Tom Crean added one more to the staggering heap: come out with the best start to a second half as they’ve had all season.He described the team’s play following halftime as a “glaring” weakness, and with the Hoosiers coming off of a particularly sloppy first half, it wasn’t clear if they would be up to the challenge.But they quickly made believers out of Crean, stretching their lead to 10 in less than six minutes, helping the Hoosiers (5-4) finish off the Horned Frogs, 66-56.IU shot 56 percent after halftime and led by as many as 23 before TCU closed the game on a 15-2 run, leaving the end result looking much closer than the game actually was.Despite staying close in the first half, TCU coach Jim Christian said the Hoosiers out-competed his team in “every facet of the game.”The statistics backed Christian up: The Hoosiers were better than the Horned Frogs in shooting, rebounding, turnovers and assists.And while the Hoosiers finished below their season average of 20.3 turnovers per game, they were just barely under, committing 19. Crean called the number “disappointing.”“We’re finally going to have our (turnover) numbers down if the game could have ended after 38-and-a-half minutes,” Crean joked of the Horned Frogs’ late run. “Some of us thought the game did end after 38-and-a-half minutes.”Junior guard Devan Dumes led the Hoosiers with 20 points and freshman forward Tom Pritchard recorded his third double-double, finishing with 15 points and 11 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive end.Crean chalked up Pritchard’s performance to a “combination of rebounding his own misses” and being “aggressive.”In the first half, the Hoosiers were marred by turnovers and mental mistakes. They connected on just 33.3 percent of field goals and turned the ball over eight times.But two highlight 3-pointers bailed out IU’s stalling offense enough to give the Hoosiers a four-point lead headed into the half.The first bomb came at the hands of junior guard Devan Dumes, who converted a four-point play just over four minutes into the game to put the Hoosiers up 5-2.The second came at the halftime buzzer. With 10.6 seconds left, Crean whistled for a timeout to draw up a play. Freshman guard/forward Malik Story held his follow through after launching a 30-foot 3-pointer that swished through the net, igniting the Assembly Hall crowd. The Hoosiers began to distance themselves from the Horned Frogs in the second half. A basket by Pritchard with just over 14 minutes left put IU up by double figures for the first time at 39-29. As the second half stretched on, so did the Hoosiers’ lead. After struggling to get anything going in the first half, the Hoosiers couldn’t seem to do much wrong midway through the second. A 3-point play by Dumes with 5:26 left put the Hoosiers up 20.IU’s next game will be Crean’s first against a rival school as the Hoosiers’ head coach. The Hoosiers travel to Rupp Arena on Saturday to face their border rivals, the Kentucky Wildcats (6-3). The Wildcats have lost twice already this season in Lexington, Ky., including a season-opening loss to Virginia Military, 111-103. The Hoosiers are 23-28 all-time against Kentucky. Last season, IU defeated the Wildcats in Assembly Hall, 70-51, although the Hoosiers return no players who scored in the contest.