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(02/02/13 1:00am)
Friday afternoon, the media had a chance to talk to Jay Bilas, one of the members of the ESPN College GameDay crew that will be in Assembly Hall Saturday morning to broadcast live from Bloomington. Among other things, Bilas talked about the key matchups for Saturday night's game as well as the importance of College GameDay returning to Bloomington once again.
(02/01/13 2:56pm)
On Thursday, three members of the IU men's basketball team were named to midseason watch lists as semi-finalists for both the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Wayman Tisdale Award.
(02/01/13 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>All season, IU men’s basketball players and coaches have preached taking the season one game at a time, no matter the opponent, no matter the location, no matter the rankings or the standings.To them, Saturday’s game may just be a matchup with the No. 1 Michigan Wolverines, taking place 9 p.m. in Assembly Hall.But to the students who will spend all day bundled up in layers of cream and crimson waiting for the best seats to catch a glimpse of Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps in the morning and watch the basketball game in the evening, and to the Bloomington residents who have watched IU crawl all the way back from obscurity in the college basketball world, Saturday may mean a little more.ESPN College GameDay is finally here.As the crew from Bristol, Conn., pays Hoosier Nation a visit Saturday, IU Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said he hopes that everyone involved with bringing the program back to national prominence gets to enjoy everything the day brings.“I would hope the community, the students, all the people that were here when we were first getting started with this, I hope they feel the satisfaction of all the hard work and support and energy that they provide for the program,” Buckley said.“This is kind of the culmination of that. Obviously with a day like this, you want to be at your best and playing your hardest, and hopefully they get a chance to enjoy the whole situation.”To complete the atmosphere of ESPN College GameDay in Bloomington come two of the top three teams in the country. When the schedules were released in August, both IU and Michigan sat in the top five in the NCAA, with Indiana taking hold of the top spot until mid-December. Now, after shuffling around during the heart of the college basketball schedule, Michigan comes into Bloomington with a hold on the top spot in the country.At No. 1 and No. 3, Saturday’s matchup will be the highest pair of teams to ever play in Assembly Hall in its history as the Hoosiers attempt to take down their second top-ranked foe at home in two seasons.Although Buckley said that to him and the players, Michigan is simply the next team on the schedule, he said the community couldn’t have asked for a more perfect storm to roll into Bloomington for a primetime game on Saturday.“It was one of those things where we looked at building the program to a certain point, and hopefully having a great situation with them here,” Buckley said. “It’s probably worked out a lot better than a lot of people may have thought with having the No. 1 and No. 3 here."It’s one of those scenarios you hoped would play out that way.”Two weeks ago, IU and the rest of the country had a chance to watch ESPN College GameDay from just a couple miles up the road in Indianapolis where Butler hosted Gonzaga at Hinkle Fieldhouse in one of the storied buzzer-beater games of the season.Sophomore guard Remy Abell said having the GamedDay crew stationed twice in Indiana just shows how important basketball is to Hoosiers around the state, and said Saturday surely won’t disappoint.“Michigan is coming in here, and they’re a very good team,” Abell said. “They’re coming to Assembly Hall. College GameDay is coming to Assembly Hall. Great announcers. ESPN, Dick Vitale, the whole crew is coming, and it’s going to be fun.”At the same time, though, Abell said he knows the team can’t get carried away in the hype surrounding the top-ranked teams or the festivities inside Assembly Hall prior to the game.The sophomore had the fortune of playing in several big games on Branch McCracken Court last season, including IU’s win over top-ranked Kentucky, but he said everything surrounding Saturday will be even harder to handle, especially for IU’s freshmen class.“You’ve just got to tell them to stay focused on what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re trying to get done,” Abell said. “There’s going to be some adversity, but we’ve got to stay together as a unit, stay together as a team.”Buckley echoed Abell’s hopes, saying the Hoosiers have to stay focused on the task at hand on the court, rather than the excitement surrounding it. “If the racecar driver focuses on the wall, he runs into it, so we don’t want to be focusing on the wall. We want to be focusing on the track,” Buckley said. “Our preparation is key, just like it is all the time. This atmosphere shouldn’t be any different for us that it has been the entire year.“We know we’re in a Big Ten race, and we’re going to play one of the better teams, not only in our league, but in the country, and we’ve got to be prepared.”
(01/31/13 7:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Out of the gate Wednesday night, it looked as though having a raucous home crowd and packed “Paint Crew” student section could be enough to keep the Purdue Boilermakers neck-and-neck with the No. 3 team in the country.But early foul trouble from two of Purdue’s key starters gave the IU men’s basketball team a window of opportunity to blow open the rivalry game.The Hoosiers took full advantage late in the first half, taking control of the rivals’ first matchup of the season, serving Purdue their worst home loss in the series 97-60 Wednesday night at Mackey Arena.In the game’s early minutes, both teams stayed within a single possession, but even down just one point, 16-15, with 11:42 remaining in the first half, the Boilermakers already were in a bit of a hole. Starters A.J. Hammons and D.J. Byrd had already racked up two personal fouls each, but Purdue Coach Matt Painter continued to keep his stars in the game.The Hoosiers began to pull away, building a double-digit lead over the next 2.5 minutes, but just minutes later, with IU up 34-25, Hammons received his third personal foul. Painter had no choice but to sit his starting center, and from there, IU finished the half on a 13-2 run in the final 4:18 with Hammons on the bench.IU Coach Tom Crean said it was huge for his team to really pressure the Boilermakers with Hammons on the bench.“He’s going to be very good, there’s no doubt about that,” Crean said. “Our guys never took their foot off the gas pedal, so to speak, and I think that’s really, really important for us as a team to take the next step.”Hammons, Byrd and the rest of the Purdue lineup racked up 11 fouls in the first 20 minutes, sending IU to the line for 17 free throws. Unlike some games earlier in the season, the Hoosiers took advantage of their chances from the charity stripe, missing just one attempt to help pad a 40.6 percent shooting half from the field.Aided by a strong half at the line, the Hoosiers went into the locker room up 47-27.But Hammons came out in the second half looking to will his team back, scoring eight of his team’s first 12 points of the half.Hammons also had a shot to bring his team back as Zeller was called for his second and third fouls with just 15:34 and had to take a seat on the bench with foul trouble of his own.But the Hoosiers matched Hammons and the Boilers step-for-step, as the IU lead continued to grow into the 30’s.The Paint Crew grew quieter as the half drew on, as Hammons and the Boilermakers couldn’t muster a comeback. With 10 minutes remaining in one of the biggest rivalry games of the college basketball season, Purdue fans began to file out in masses.Purdue’s freshman center finished with a game-high 30 points – half of Purdue’s points on the evening – but after the game, he said plainly that he wasn’t satisfied with his performance.“I didn’t play well because we lost,” Hammons said.Zeller posted a game-high 13 points in the first half and led the Hoosiers with 19 points and 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double in conference play this season.Senior forward Christian Watford followed with 17 points, including shooting 4-of-5 from behind the arc, as all of IU’s starting five reached double digits.After the game, though, Crean said that Wednesday’s win, IU’s largest margin of victory ever in West Lafayette, went beyond more than just the numbers.“I think they just played with a resolve,” Crean said. “You’ve got to be on top of your game. It’s not just the offensive and defensive execution.“It’s the attitude. It’s the energy. It’s the mental toughness, and our guys had that.”
(01/30/13 5:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For more than 100 years, the best college basketball players in Bloomington and West Lafayette have faced off in an annual rivalry that IU Associate Head Coach Steve McClain called one of the best in sports.“I don’t know how many you can find where it’s truly the biggest game,” McClain said. “I think every level has something like that, but when you think of this state, it’s about one game.”But from 2009 to 2011, Purdue got the best of IU, winning five straight matchups while the Hoosiers worked to rebuild the once-storied program.After a sweep of the series last year, the No. 3 Hoosiers will face a much younger Purdue team tonight in West Lafayette, with the Boilermakers starting three freshman after the heart of the program, including Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore, graduated during the past two years.McClain said Purdue’s freshmen have stepped up as the season has progressed, taking on a much larger role and leading the Boilermakers to a 4-3 record in conference play after starting the season on a 4-6 skid.“I think when you look at them, there’s no question they’re playing a lot of young guys, and their vets, (D.J.) Byrd and (Terone) Johnson, also are really stepping up and playing well for them right now,” McClain said. “You can tell they’re getting games under their belt and getting better every time they play. There’s no question when you look at their last five or six games, you see a team that’s getting better every time they walk on the court.”For the Hoosiers, the coaching staff decided to bring in a couple IU basketball legends, Joe Hillman and Brian Evans, to talk with the players Tuesday afternoon and explain, among other things, just what it’s like to play against a rival like Purdue, especially in Mackey Arena.“Those guys have obviously been there and done that,” junior forward Will Sheehey said. “They’re obviously a huge part of the tradition and whatnot. They have the wisdom. They’ve been there.“We have our game plan, and the coaches do too, but that’s just icing on the cake for guys like that to come in and talk to us.”But when the players take the court at 8:30 p.m. to face the Hoosiers’ biggest rival for the first time this season, senior guard Jordan Hulls said past experience or words of wisdom from Hillman and Evans can only take IU so far.He and his teammates have to execute the game plan and stay within themselves, Hulls said, and not get too caught up in what will be a raucous Boilermaker crowd.“We’ve just got to stick together,” Hulls said. “You know it’s going to be a crazy environment. It always is between us two. It’s a big game for us. You’ve got to let them know that it’s going to be a very physical, hard-fought battle.“It’s a rivalry game, so you can just throw everything out the window with what people may say. It’s going to be a hard-fought game. You’ve got to bring it no matter who you’re playing.”
(01/28/13 4:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Junior guard Victor Oladipo has had a coming-out season of sorts, making his way into the national media spotlight. Yet even two weeks ago, Oladipo’s name was absent from the John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list.From start to finish, on either end of the floor, while throwing down dunks and pick-pocketing the Michigan State Spartans to a season-high 21 points and career-highs of six steals and three blocks in a 75-70 IU victory, the Upper Marlboro, Md., native made his case as one of the best players in the country as of late.Oladipo’s teammates have recognized his progression throughout the season, and IU Coach Tom Crean said after Sunday’s victory that his numbers, compared to this time during last season’s conference play, are night and day.Senior forward Christian Watford said Oladipo has always had the same energy and drive since he was a freshman, but now the Hoosiers are sensing the way he impacts the game at both ends of the floor.“That’s just Victor now,” Watford said. “It’s definitely a part of our offense now. We feel like we’re a great team when Victor does do this. He brings a lot of energy. Not only that, he gets us open by the way he attacks the basket.He did a great job tonight.”Oladipo said he’s also recognized improvement in his game, adding that coming in as a freshman, he had all the desire, but lacked the tools to affect his team like he wished he could.Now, he said, he has to bring it every game.“My freshman year it was kind of like I wanted to, but I wasn’t capable,” Oladipo said. “I started growing my sophomore year, and now junior year, I have to bring it every night on both ends of the floor so my team can win, and I have to keep doing that every night.”Just nine seconds into Sunday’s game against the No. 13 Spartans, the IU faithful could tell Oladipo had, indeed, “brought it.” Oladipo intercepted a pass from Branden Dawson, taking it the length of the court and finishing with his signature one-handed slam.But his precision in reading his opponents’ eyes created more than just breakaway dunks for his own highlight reel. After intercepting a Keith Appling pass midway through the first half, Oladipo almost instantaneously dished the ball off to open freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell. Ferrell wove through the Spartan defense for a layup to cap a 15-6 IU run that put the Hoosiers ahead 28-19, the largest IU lead of the afternoon.In all, Oladipo’s six steals created 10 points for IU’s offense, which was able to function at a much quicker pace than in previous conference games.Crean said Oladipo’s performance in practice on Friday while preparing to face Michigan State was possibly the best he’s seen from his junior guard since Oladipo stepped on campus more than two years ago.But Oladipo’s performance against Michigan State was not the product of just one solid practice, Crean said. He noted Oladipo’s instinct to be in the right place at the right time has come from the extra time Oladipo puts in every day.“From the start of this game, he had a knowledge base that he put into his game on how he was going to defend them,” Crean said. “He’s getting a knowledge base to go with those instincts and his talent and his athleticism, and the more he does that, the better he’s going to be. “Guys like that learn that your instincts like that can’t get better without that knowledge. They can get to a point, but the more you add that knowledge ... that’s part of the game, and that’s part of taking the next step.”
(01/25/13 5:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Playing in what IU Coach Tom Crean has called the “best conference in the country” numerous times this season certainly has its benefits.In preparation for the NCAA tournament this March, the Hoosiers will have played at least nine different teams who were ranked at some point during the 2012-13 campaign.But now, with just 12 games left in regular conference season play, the Hoosiers will play seven games against opponents currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25. It’s a tough road for a team that at the beginning of the season sat atop the rankings in the country and one many thought could secure the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament come March.For Crean and his players, though, this road begins 1 p.m. Sunday in Assembly Hall as the No. 7 Hoosiers take on No. 13 Michigan State in the teams’ first battle of the season.The Spartans come to Bloomington with the best record in the conference at 6-1, a half-game ahead of the second-place Hoosiers (5-1). Like IU, the rest of Michigan State’s conference schedule contains more than half of the teams that are currently ranked.With a win Sunday, IU could hold a share of the conference lead with Michigan, if the Wolverines can beat Illinois when the teams play Sunday.If the Hoosiers and Wolverines were to win their mid-week games next week, both teams could play Feb. 2 for the outright conference lead as ESPN College Gameday comes to Bloomington.Crean said his players always emphasize the importance of only looking at the next game ahead, but after Wednesday’s contest against Penn State, even he could not help but recognize the uphill battle his players will face this week, starting with the Spartans.“We got a hard stretch coming up,” Crean said. “The next week is three games. It’s Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday and every game is going to be an absolute battle.”Sunday’s game marks a seven-day stretch where the Hoosiers will play three games, including Sunday against Michigan State, followed by a matchup with in-state rival Purdue Wednesday before taking on Michigan the following weekend.Crean said, though, that even though the latter half of IU’s Big Ten schedule is as tough as it is, the key to the rest of his team’s season is to stay focused on every team one at a time, no matter where they stand in the conference rankings.“It sounds very cliché-ish and corny, but you want to be on a one-game winning streak constantly,” Crean said. “These guys do an excellent job looking at each game. They’ve never played with the intention of the next game being on their mind, other than the game that they’re in. “Sometimes when you’re older and sometimes when you have a lot of expectations on you and you play in a league like this, you can look at the schedule and lose sight. Those teams get beat. You can’t get too high. You can’t get too low. You’ve got to take each game for what it is: the most important game.”
(01/24/13 5:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Until late in the second half Wednesday night, the IU men’s basketball team was shooting at a higher percentage in contested 3-point shots than on free throws.Though they finished just marginally better from the charity stripe, the 3-point shot sparked the Hoosiers, en route to a 72-49 defeat of Penn State Wednesday night in Assembly Hall.After a layup from senior forward Christian Watford to start the Hoosiers off, freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell hit a deep 3-pointer. Ferrell followed that up with another bucket to begin his run to a career-high 15 points of the night.Junior guard Victor Oladipo said after the game that he has seen Ferrell blossom as a confident shooter since the start of the season, and that Wednesday night he was not afraid to pull the trigger.“He can shoot,” Oladipo said. “It was all in his head at first, but he’s finally realizing that he can shoot the ball.”After the quick seven points spearheaded by Ferrell, the Hoosiers struggled for much of the rest of the half on offense, scoring just 26 points in the final 15:21 of the first half.But with 3:29 left in the half and the Nittany Lions still within nine points, junior forward Will Sheehey came alive from beyond the arc to spur the Hoosiers coming into halftime.Sheehey hit two consecutive 3-pointers in 1:06 as IU’s lead grew into double digits, where it would remain for the remainder of the game.After Sheehey scored just six points Sunday against Northwestern, which followed two scoreless outings against Minnesota and Wisconsin, Oladipo said seeing his teammate finally catch fire was just the spark the Hoosiers needed.“It’s big for our team,” Oladipo said. “Him coming off the bench and having games like that and impacting them on both sides of the floor is big for us going along.”Out of the gates in the second half, Sheehey’s spark from beyond the arc seemed to carry over to the rest of his teammates, as the Hoosiers hit six-straight shots from long range to help distance themselves from the Nittany Lions.Ferrell and senior guard Jordan Hulls hit back-to-back threes to begin the half for IU, and with just 1:05 off the clock in the second half, Penn State Coach Patrick Chambers was forced to call a timeout.The Hoosiers would hit four more 3-pointers in a row — another from Ferrell, along with one each from Sheehey, Oladipo and Watford.In contrast, though, IU struggled just a few feet in front of the 3-point line, where the Hoosiers shot just 21-of-37 (56.8 percent) on free throws Wednesday.The Nittany Lions racked up 29 personal fouls as a team, but the Hoosiers could not take advantage of their opportunities from the charity stripe, shooting only marginally better than their 55-percent mark from beyond the arc.Oladipo led the Hoosiers with 19 points and was the only Hoosier able to hit more than 50 percent of his 3-point shots as well as from the free throw attempts, shooting 100 and 75 percent, respectively.Ferrell followed with 15 points, shooting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, and Sheehey took a flawless night from distance, going 3-of-3 on 3-pointers to produce 12 points of his own.IU Coach Tom Crean said his top-three scorers Wednesday night weren’t just a product of getting in a rhythm as a team, though. He said his players who shot the ball the best against Penn State have spent extra time working on their shots out of practice, and it’s starting to show.“The guys that are making shots are spending the most extra time on their shooting,” Crean said. “I mean, it’s no accident. We spend a very good amount of time shooting the ball in our practice, but that’s never going to be enough if you’re going to be a great shooter.”
(01/23/13 5:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the teams’ first meeting of the season in University Park, Pa., the IU men’s basketball team kept Penn State to its second-lowest scoring total of the season, pulling off a 74-51 victory. All the while, the Hoosiers limited the team’s two active leading scorers, guards D.J. Newbill and Jermaine Marshall, to a combined 19 points.Since that evening more than two weeks ago, the duo has caught fire, each posting one game with at least 27 points as the Nittany Lions continue to search for their first conference win of the season.IU Assistant Coach Kenny Johnson said the Hoosiers were proud of stopping Newbill and Marshall the first time around, but in the last four games, the pair have looked even more aggressive. Johnson said they may be more difficult to stop tonight in Assembly Hall as the teams play their second matchup of the season.“Each game has a different flow to it,” he said. “They’ve had better games. Over the course of the season, sometimes one of them has a really big game while the other one is more of a facilitator.“I think they’re coming in now with more of an aggressive approach. I think they recognize now that for their team to be successful as they want to be, they’re going to have to be aggressive.”Both players have combined to average more than 30 points since the start of Big Ten play. In conference games, Marshall averages 16.3 points per game and Newbill 14.5. For the season, the two are now the second-leading scoring tandem in the conference with a combined 30.5 points per game, behind only Michigan’s Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., who sit at 34.4.In the first game against IU, though, Johnson said freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell was a key factor in holding both players to less-than-average outings.“Yogi is a very good defensive player,” Johnson said. “He has an ability to pick up and understand what our philosophy is on defense and his ability to dive into the scouting report and hopefully take away his opponents strengths or limit them.“He shows maturity beyond his years in his willingness to take on, certain nights, the best player, honestly, on the team and really trying to dive in and take him away or limit him.”Junior guard Victor Oladipo said his younger counterpart has been key in stopping some of the best scorers the Hoosiers have faced this season.But he also said that just as Ferrell has gotten more used to the flow and speed of the Big Ten game since the second conference game of his career against Penn State, both Nittany Lion guards have improved, as well. Holding both guards to mediocre games once again, even in Assembly Hall, will prove a tough task, he said.“They’re just staying with the attack,” Oladipo said. “They understand they have to have great games for their team to win. They’re to go out there to do whatever it takes to win, whether they score 30 or make big stops.“They’ll do whatever it takes.”
(01/22/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>EVANSTON, Ill.— As the IU men’s basketball team ventured into the Big Ten portion of its 2012-13 schedule, the Hoosiers had been tested very little late in games this season.With the exception of the two games IU took into overtime on neutral courts — producing a win against Georgetown in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a loss to Butler in Indianapolis — the Hoosiers had largely dominated their opponents early in the season, winning 10 of their other 11 nonconference games by at least 20 points.But Big Ten foes have produced a different beast entirely.The Hoosiers have scored early and often in the first half, averaging more than 38 points in the game’s first 20 minutes.However, in the second half of Big Ten games, IU is averaging just 33 points, and it has been in these final 20 minutes where teams have been able to creep back to steal wins, climb within a possession or simply make the game closer than many thought it would get.Sunday, though, when the Northwestern Wildcats clawed their way back to within five points several times, the Hoosiers did not appear to panic. They did not commit turnovers or miss late free throws that had plagued them in the past few games.“We just had to keep playing,” sophomore forward Cody Zeller said. “We were kind of in a slump there for a while where we couldn’t get anything going, but we’ve got a lot of guys who can score in a lot of different ways and a lot of veterans who kept their composure. It was good to see that as they made a few big plays down the stretch.”IU finished the first half with a 14-point lead, up 31-17. As the minutes went by in the second half, the lead teetered around 14. Up to 16. Down to 11. Up to 16 again.Then, just as Minnesota and Wisconsin had been able to do, the Wildcats reeled off a string of buckets as the IU offense stagnated.Northwestern went on an 8-0 run from 9:50 to 6:48, including a 3-pointer from Wildcat Jared Swopshire and bookended by a free throw from Reggie Hearn to cut the IU lead to 47-42.The Hoosiers would not allow the scoring margin to come any closer.IU fought back with its own 7-1 run as Zeller layed in two buckets close to the basket and junior guard Victor Oladipo nailed a 3-pointer to cap it off.IU Coach Tom Crean said he was glad to see his players fight back when the Wildcats were closing in.“We made some mistakes in the second half with a very hard team to play against,” Crean said. “Not only did we defend pretty well — not as great in the second half — but when the bell needed to be answered, we came down and scored three-straight buckets.”Northwestern would come within five points twice more, and they had to begin fouling IU players in hopes of pulling off the upset. They looked to an unlikely Hoosier who they hoped would miss shots at the line.Northwestern Coach Bill Carmody said he told his players to foul senior guard Jordan Hulls.Hulls had missed three-straight free throws earlier in the game, just as he did against Minnesota down the stretch the week before. Carmody said that most of IU’s roster is good from the line, but he saw Hulls possibly struggling and thought he would try to expose him again.But like the rest of his teammates Sunday, when it mattered most, Hulls pulled through, making all four of his attempts from the charity stripe in the final minute.Hulls said he is still rattled a bit when he misses multiple shots in a row, but he dared any team to foul him later on this season when the game is on the line.“I’m getting better when I just miss one, but when I miss three, it’s still kind of tough on me,” Hulls said. “That’s fine, put me on the line.”
(01/16/13 5:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>During the Tom Crean era in Bloomington, the IU men’s basketball team has surpassed several hurdles, but Hoosier fans may have to wait another year before IU can take down Wisconsin with Crean at the helm.After never truly getting into an offensive rhythm, save an 18-point first half performance from sophomore forward Cody Zeller, the No. 2 Hoosiers could not surmount a second-half comeback after falling behind by double digits, losing 64-59 to the Badgers Tuesday night at Assembly Hall.Coming into Tuesday’s matchup with Wisconsin, the Hoosiers had been held to less than 70 points just twice this season, both times resulting in wins against Georgia and Iowa.But in nine of the last 10 meetings between the Hoosiers and the Badgers, IU had reached the 70-point threshold just once, a Big Ten tournament loss last season 79-71.“They’re going to try to play a game in the 50s, and that’s just the way it is,” Crean said. “We didn’t want to play that way. I’m not as concerned about what we scored. I’m more concerned that when we missed shots that we still didn’t have that ‘we’re getting it done."Junior guard Victor Oladipo put the Hoosiers on the board quick, though, with a 3-pointer from the top of the key in IU’s first possession.From there, the Badgers were able to stifle most of IU’s offensive production in the first half, keeping the team to just 32 points as well as just three on the fast break.The lone bright spot for the Hoosiers in the first 20 minutes came from Zeller, who went on two scoring runs, of eight and six points, respectively, to help keep the Hoosiers in the thick of things. Along with senior forward Christian Watford’s 3-pointer with 20.8 seconds left in the half, the Hoosiers went into the break with a 32-31 lead.But in the second half, it appeared that Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan had found a way to neutralize Zeller by eliminating him as an open option for that extra pass which burned the Badgers in the first half. Zeller managed just five points in the final 20 minutes to finish with a game-high of 23.And without much scoring late from Zeller, the IU offense struggled.“You get momentum going, and it’s amazing what can happen,” Crean said. “They played really hard, and they got the momentum. We didn’t make shots like we do, and it affected us, because they you’ve got to go down and play 35 seconds of defense.”The Hoosiers fell behind by as many as 10 points in the second half as Wisconsin built up a lead during a 2:54 stint midway through the period. As IU failed to score, the Badgers rattled off nine-consecutive points to go up 47-39.The Wisconsin lead would reach its peak at 51-41 to cap a 13-2 Badger run, but the game seemed to turn from there for a moment. The Hoosiers, as a team, seemed to find their offensive touch for the first time all game. Watford and Oladipo hit back-to-back buckets, with a steal from Zeller in between, and IU was back within a couple possessions.The game stalled for more than two-and-a-half minutes as several loose-ball and foul calls failed to go IU’s way, but with three-consecutive Hoosier free throws and a 3-pointer from freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, IU was back within one, 52-51.But the IU offense could not keep the momentum going. The Hoosiers would make just one field goal after Ferrell’s three with 4:43 left, and down the stretch, Wisconsin again pulled farther ahead with a string of six free throws to end the game and give IU it’s 11th-straight loss to the Badgers.“We missed a lot of shots,” Crean said. “We missed 34 shots. A lot of things have got to go right for you when you miss 34 shots.”
(01/15/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the last of the unbeaten teams in the college basketball world fell this past weekend, there now remain only two teams with flawless conference records in the Big Ten, arguably the toughest conference in the NCAA.They will face off today at Assembly Hall, but only one out of Indiana and Wisconsin will come away with sole possession of the conference lead.The Hoosiers enter Tuesday’s matchup as the No. 2 team in the nation after rising three spots from last week’s poll. IU’s only blemish this season came during a neutral-site matchup with Butler exactly one month ago as the Bulldogs prevailed in overtime, 88-86.Wisconsin comes in unranked after starting the season No. 23 in the preseason AP Poll. However, some could argue that with losses by Michigan and Minnesota, along with IU’s rough second half against the Golden Gophers, the Badgers may be the hottest team in the Big Ten. The Badgers, the team with the least recent loss in the conference, last lost Dec. 8, 2012, to now-No. 25 Marquette. Since then, Wisconsin won each of their last three non-conference games by double digits before wins against Penn State, Nebraska and a blowout win against then-No. 12 Illinois.Senior guard Jordan Hulls said he thinks Wisconsin has hit its stride, and grabbing a win against the Badgers, even at home, will be a tough task.“I think they’re playing really well as a team,” Hulls said. “We know what they’re capable of on both ends of the floor, running their stuff and doing what they want and playing at their own pace.“That’s something obviously we don’t want them to do, but they’re a great team, and we’ll manage it.”Not only has Wisconsin won six straight games this season, but they have IU’s number in head-to-head games the teams have played, whether at neutral sites, at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., or at home in Bloomington.The Hoosiers are winless against Wisconsin in 10-straight games, dating back to 2007, but Hulls said he and his teammates don’t take into account how IU teams of the past have struggled against the Badgers.“It’s a new year, so that’s just the way we’re attacking it,” Hulls said. “We don’t like to lose, obviously, but it’s a new year, and we’re just going to stay focused on that.”Breaking that streak would give the Hoosiers at least a game up on all their conference opponents, including Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State, all teams the Hoosiers still have two games against to finish out the regular season.Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said his players have to keep their minds focused on beating Wisconsin, not on rankings, conference standings or past losses.“If you don’t come to play every night, irregardless of who the other team is, you can get beat in the Big Ten. It’s that kind of league,” Buckley said. “It’s still early in the conference season. You don’t want to get too high after a win. You don’t want to get too low after a loss, because you don’t want one loss to turn into two, so you’ve got to make sure you maintain that focus and stay in the moment.”
(01/14/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Even with 2:11 remaining, the Hoosiers were up by 11.After leading with 23 points at the end of the first half, the No. 5 IU men’s basketball team watched its lead get cut in half by a No. 8 Minnesota team determined to battle back after being almost defeated 20 minutes into Saturday’s game at Assembly Hall.IU turned the ball over eight times in a span of 14:13 during the second half. The Hoosiers scored just three buckets and made 19 of 28 free throws after a Trevor Mbakwe foul with 12:09 left put the Hoosiers in the bonus for the remainder of the game.But, despite the mistakes, they were still ahead by double digits for much of the half.IU’s lead would evaporate quickly, though.Minnesota attacked IU with a full-court press, pushing the Hoosiers close to the baseline corners and either forcing an errant pass or causing IU to step out of bounds. The Golden Gophers rattled off three consecutive 3-point baskets to cut the IU lead to just six points with 40 seconds remaining. On the following possession, the Hoosiers could not get off a shot, turning the ball over on an errant in-bounds pass from Christian Watford.With 19 seconds left, junior guard Victor Oladipo nearly gave Minnesota another 3-point play, fouling Minnesota’s Andre Hollins in the act of shooting a 3-pointer — a mistake Oladipo had made twice earlier in the half.“I was making dumb, little mistakes towards the end of the game,” Oladipo said. “I shouldn’t be doing that. I’m a junior now, and I’m a leader, and I can’t be making dumb mistakes like that.“To be honest, I felt like I almost blew the game away.”After Hollins made 2-of-3 from the line, Minnesota was within one possession of the Hoosiers for the first time since the 11:03 mark in the first half.The Hoosiers in-bounded the ball to senior guard Jordan Hulls, who was quickly fouled by Mbakwe.Hulls, who had a free-throw career of 87.8 percent coming into Saturday’s game and is one of the best shooters from the charity stripe in Hoosier history, missed the shot.And, then, he missed again.“We’ve got to hit those,” Hulls said. “It’s going to get us, if we don’t hit our free throws. Just a lack of focus, I guess.”Despite his “lack of focus,” Oladipo’s “dumb, little mistakes” and the string of late turnovers and poor shooting, the Hoosiers still came away victorious at 88-81.Several players said post-game the Hoosiers did not come out with the same energy level on the court that had allowed the them to close the first 20 minutes on a 36-14 run.“We just have to do a better job of playing the full game,” Hulls said. “We played real well in the first half, and then they came back. We knew they were going to come back and put up a fight. They’re a good basketball team. The second half — we can’t accept that. We know we have to play a lot better.”In the first half, the Hoosiers proved very efficient with the ball in their hands, dishing out 13 assists with just four turnovers. Whether it was the extra pass on the perimeter to find the open man beyond the arc or a no-look dish from freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell in transition, IU had been able to catch the Golden Gophers off-balance.Ferrell said, though, the team’s second-half performance wasn’t reflective of better play from Minnesota. The Hoosiers just weren’t capitalizing.“I think it was just more on us,” Ferrell said. “They did a great job pressing, but I feel like it was more on us.We got complacent, especially on our jump shots and our transition defense. It just comes from within. We’ve got to bring our teammates together. That’s how we can have the same burst we had in the first half.”A previous IU team may have lost Saturday’s game.Last year, after leading Nebraska by as many as 13 in the second half amid a two-game losing streak that began with a home loss to Minnesota, the Hoosiers faltered down the stretch. They gave up the lead they had held for 31:31 to lose by one in the final nine seconds of the game.Even this season, IU led Butler by seven points with nine minutes remaining in the second half, and the Hoosiers battled to move the game into overtime before losing a four-point lead in the extra period.Oladipo said, with this win, he and his teammates can relish the fact they were able to work through adversity. Conference wins, he said, will always be hard to come by.“I feel good, but, at the same time, I know there’s a lot of stuff we need to work on,” Oladipo said. “There are big games down the road. We have to watch this tape and see what happened in the second half — what we did wrong — and correct it. There’s really good teams that are coming up, and we need to be ready for them.”
(01/12/13 2:44am)
Tomorrow at noon in Assembly Hall, the No. 5 IU men's basketball team will take on No. 8 Minnesota in the first matchup of two top 10 teams in Bloomington since Feb. 19, 2000.
(01/11/13 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In conference play last season, the IU men’s basketball team thrived in Bloomington, securing an 8-1 record on Branch McCracken Court against Big Ten opponents.However, the Hoosiers failed to defend their home court against Minnesota.As the No. 8 Golden Gophers come into Assembly Hall on Saturday to face IU Coach Tom Crean’s No. 5 squad, defense may determine whether or not the Hoosiers can exact revenge against the only team able to beat IU at home last year in the regular season.Crean said his Hoosiers are well-prepared for Minnesota’s defense in their first top-10 matchup of the season.Playing the first two games of the conference season on the road, as well as a neutral court game against the No. 14 Butler Bulldogs, exposed the Hoosiers to the physical game of uncalled fouls they will see in the future this season during conference play, Crean said.“When you prepare for the Big Ten, you’re going to deal with a lot of fouling,” Crean said. “You’re going to deal with a lot of fouls that aren’t called because they aren’t going to call them at all.”“That’s the way Butler makes you play. They’re going to put so much pressure, in my mind, on the referees in the game to make calls, and we didn’t handle that well.“But, like Tim Buckley said, we win that game, maybe we don’t understand how important it is to play through those things.” Crean said, as they battled against those rough conference defenses of Iowa and Penn State, the Hoosiers responded, holding both teams to a combined 32 percent field-goal percentage.He said preparing for a defense like Minnesota’s comes down to more than just in-game experience.“The best way we can deal with it is to put hand pads and body pads and slam up into guys when they’re going to the basket and hold guys on cuts, and you start to prepare for it,” Crean said. “I think that’s one of the reasons you see the low-scoring affairs you have. We don’t really want to play that way. We want to get out and play and spread the court and be active and get the game going up in transition.”On Saturday, banging against pads and fighting through several bodies to get to the hoop will become a reality for the Hoosiers, who are against one of the biggest lineups in the Big Ten.Minnesota comes to Bloomington with six players standing 6 feet 8 inches or taller.In particular, sophomore center Elliott Eliason (6 feet 11 inches, 260 pounds) and sophomore forward Maurice Walker (6 feet 10 inches, 289 pounds) pose a big presence inside the paint.Both players have averaged less than four rebounds and four points per game so far this season, but, with sophomore forward Cody Zeller and the rest of IU’s inside game, they take up a lot of space in the paint. This may make it more difficult for IU players like junior guard Victor Oaldipo, who thrive in the fast break, to get to the basket with the ease they have been used to this season.Graduate student forward Trevor Mbakwe may not be as tall or as big as either of the two sophomores, but he has made a larger impact on both ends of the floor this season.Currently, Mbakwe leads the Big Ten in pulling down offensive rebounds with three rebounds per game, headlining a Minnesota squad that also paces the Big Ten as a team in that category.Mbakwe also sits at eighth in the conference in defensive rebounds per game (4.9), putting him in second in the Big Ten for total rebound average.He is also one of three Golden Gophers in the top 15 of the Big Ten in blocked shots.Crean noted his preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Zeller has received criticism for not playing up to expectations so far this season. The same pressure to perform at a high level will be present when he plays against Minnesota’s potent team Saturday.Crean said he thinks Zeller is on track for a player in the middle of his second season of college basketball.“He’s doing a lot more than most people could ever imagine doing with his size,” Crean said. “When you look at the athleticism, when you look at the quick twitch, when you look at his ability to go from point A to point B, when you look at the beating and the pounding he takes every game and the effort he puts forth defensively and offensively, Cody’s just scratching the surface.“It’s so easy to forget that he’s 19 years of age. It’s so easy to forget this is just his 15th game of his second season.”
(01/08/13 5:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After the team’s Big Ten opener on the road where the Hoosiers struggled to break away from the Iowa Hawkeyes, the IU men’s basketball team utilized a fast first half start to defeat Penn State in University Park, Pa., Monday night 74-51 to begin conference play 2-0.Even though the pace of play slowed the rest of the game after the Hoosiers stormed out to a 31-13 lead midway through the first half, the early hot hands of two seniors gave IU a lead the Nittany Lions simply couldn’t overcome.Senior forward Christian Watford scored the team’s first five points, including a bucket down low during the Hoosiers’ first possession. The next time down the court, Watford hit a 3-pointer from the left wing that began a 13-0 IU run after the team fell behind early 3-2.Watford finished the half with 13 points after scoring just 10 points during the entire game last season when the Hoosiers visited Penn State.Senior guard Jordan Hulls broke out of the slump he fell into in Iowa City, Iowa, New Years Eve, where he failed to score a single point, shooting 0-for-10 from the field. Hulls scored 10 points in the first 20 minutes Monday, including going 2-for-3 from beyond the arc.The Hoosiers secured an 18-point lead midway through the half, but Penn State showed a brief sign of fight, going on a 6-0 run in less than a minute to cut IU’s lead to just 12 with 7:04 left in the half, but the Hoosiers bumped it right back up to finish the half up 44-27.But during the second half, neither team looked very sharp as the early turnovers piled up.IU turned the ball over four times in the first 1:45 and scored only four free throws until a layup from junior guard Victor Oladipo with 13:34 left broke a Hoosier scoring drought from the floor.IU Coach Tom Crean said he felt like his players stormed out of the gates a little quick to start the second half, but the Hoosiers’ defense kept the Nittany Lions at bay.“We were going so fast, and we weren’t trusting some of the things,” Crean said. “It was our passing. We just had a couple of mistakes, but the thing I liked is that we weren’t letting them score either.“These guys really did a great job of coming in and getting a road win and making defense a forefront of everything they did.”The Nittany Lions struggled with four turnovers of their own in the first 1:28 of the second half and scored just four points during IU’s drought. As both teams struggled on offense, the Hoosiers were able to maintain a lead that hovered around 20 points through the second half.IU’s lead would stay around there the rest of the game, as both teams recovered their touch from the floor, and the Hoosiers finished the game with their largest lead of the contest at 23 points.Watford led the team with 16 points after he slowed down from his quick five points early in the game. Sophomore forward Cody Zeller followed with 15 points while leading the Hoosiers with four steals and two blocks.Hulls followed his strong first half with just four more points in the final 20 minutes to score 14, shooting 4-for-6 from the field.Crean said even though his players struggled a bit in the second half after IU’s quick first-half start, he liked the leadership he saw on the court.“This was the best they talked all year,” Crean said. “They talked as well in the second half as they did in the first half. They could even be a little more demanding on each other.“It’s a game of reacting, it’s a game of awareness. That’s showing a maturity that we haven’t always had.”
(01/07/13 4:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU men’s basketball team has had its fair share of injuries early this season, with the season-ending loss of sophomore guard Austin Etherington as well as games from junior guard Maurice Creek and senior forward Derek Elston. However, the Penn State Nittany Lions, IU’s opponent tonight, may arguably have it worse.Just one season after he led the team with 18.8 points per game and scored a place on the All-Big Ten Second Team and conference All-Defensive Team, senior guard Tim Frazier had been averaging 21.7 points to lead the Nittany Lions through their first three games. However, on Nov. 18, 2012, the preseason All-Big Ten selection suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon in the team’s 85-60 loss to Akron in the Puerto Rico Tipoff and was declared out for the season. Although he is eligible to apply for a medical redshirt, IU Coach Tom Crean said Frazier’s teammates will miss his offensive presence.“They miss Tim Frazier, but every game they are that much more comfortable with one another, and you can see that,” Crean said.So far, Penn State ranks last in the Big Ten in scoring margin (-1.2) as they prepare to take on the nation’s most lethal scoring offense in the country — the Hoosiers — tonight in University Park, Pa.Through 14 games, IU has averaged 87.9 points to lead the Big Ten and the country, while Penn State has averaged 64.3 points per game, second-to-last in the conference. The Hoosiers rank second in the league in both field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, while the Nittany Lions sit last and second-to-last, respectively.Crean said two Penn State guards, though, have picked up some slack left by Frazier’s absence. “(Jermaine) Marshall and (D.J.) Newbill are handling the ball,” Crean said. “They are taking most of their shots. Their teammates feed off of them. They are really dangerous when they’re in the same action, whether they are on the same side, which they seem to be a lot. “They both have things that they really, really do well. They have strengths that you really have to go into and try to attack those.”Newbill, a sophomore, is averaging 15.5 points through 13 games this season, good enough for seventh in the conference. Junior Marshall sits just one spot behind in the league rankings at 14.9 points.From there, however, the Nittany Lions have only three more players who average more than five points per game and no others in double figures, while the Hoosiers have put their top-five scorers in the top 30 of the conference to front the team’s balanced scoring attack.Crean said that even though Penn State’s offense drops off after Newbill and Marshall, the Hoosiers have to make certain they don’t overlook the Nittany Lions and play hard to prevent the two guards from keeping their team in the game.“They’re a physical, tough and demanding team, and we are going to have our work cut out for us,” Crean said. “They are a team that relies on pace and wants to play a certain way, so we have to go in there and make the game go our way as far as pace goes.”
(01/01/13 1:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IOWA CITY, Iowa-As the IU men’s basketball team opened its conference slate Monday evening in Carver-Hawkeye Arena against Iowa, IU Coach Tom Crean’s players had to not only adjust to Big Ten talent, but Big Ten home crowds as well.In the team’s first true road game of the season, the Hoosiers had to battle through the raucous Hawkeye crowd that filled every seat in the arena. They had to make late-game free throws with the game on the line and the fans jumping around yelling and screaming, a part of the game the Hoosiers haven’t had to factor in yet this season.Despite a late Iowa surge in the second half, the Hoosiers were able to fend off the Hawkeyes and their fans, pulling out the victory 69-65 to begin the conference season with a win.Leading up to Monday’s game, though, IU had struggled against the Hawkeyes, dropping five of the teams’ last six matchups, spanning three seasons. The lone win came last season when IU hosted Iowa and won an offensive battle 103-89.The Hoosiers had last won in Iowa City in 2008. Junior guard Victor Oladipo said that the team knew coming in that they were going to have to battle hard and turn that trend around.“They’ve been kind of punking us the last couple years, especially here,” Oladipo said. “They’ve been out-rebounding us and just out-playing us, and I think this year, it was just kind of a mentality that we were going to come in here and take the first punch. We were going to play hard, and I think we did a phenomenal job tonight.”During the Crean era, the Hoosiers have struggled on the road in the Big Ten, and even last season, as the team broke into the rankings and the national spotlight, Crean’s squad went just 3-6 on the road in conference play.Oladipo said that starting off the conference season with a win, especially on the road, was a big accomplishment, and teammate sophomore forward Cody Zeller agreed.But he may have had it a little easier than the rest of the Hoosiers.Zeller said that his family, which includes his dad’s 11 brothers and sisters, held a reunion last night in the area in hopes that several of them could come to Monday’s game.He said his uncle bought close to 50 tickets for the Zeller clan, and it was great to have them amongst the Iowa fans, but he relishes getting to play in front of loud away crowds.“I love playing in big crowds, whether they’re cheering for you or against you,” Zeller said. “It get’s your adrenaline flowing. You want to play on the biggest stages. It’s a lot of fun.”Junior forward Will Sheehey, on the other hand, did not have a large block of fans cheering him on Monday.In fact, as the “Sheehey sucks” chants exploded from the Iowa student section midway through the second half, it appeared that Sheehey may have been the most hated man in Iowa City Monday afternoon.They began as he pleaded with the referees for a couple calls that didn’t fall IU’s way, and after that, the heckling began.“They were classy,” Sheehey said.He added that the boos and the derogatory chants are all apart of the Big Ten atmosphere.“Our fans would do the same thing, our fans would do the same thing, and to think that any team in the Big Ten’s fans wouldn’t be just as involved in rallying on their team, that’s just the way it works,” Sheehey said.
(12/31/12 2:02am)
On the eve of the New Year, the IU men's basketball team will commence the conference portion of its schedule this season tomorrow as the Hoosiers travel to Iowa City, Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes.
(12/29/12 1:20pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior guard Jordan Hulls said that when he grew up playing basketball in Bloomington, he learned to be a pass-first guard.But Friday night at Assembly Hall, as the Hoosiers took down Jacksonville 93-59 in IU’s final non-conference game of the season, those on hand were able to witness the fruits of what Hulls said his teammates have been challenging him to do his entire career: be more aggressive.Hulls took nine shots – all 3-pointers – during Friday night’s win, and in the first half, they seemed to come at crucial times when the Hoosiers needed a boost.IU was held scoreless in the first three minutes of the game, allowing the Dolphins to jump out to an early 5-0 lead as the Hoosiers missed their first four shots of the game – including two Hulls’ 3-pointers.As a team, IU would take 18 3-point shots in the first half, eventually making eight of them, but even for Hulls, they weren’t quite falling early.“It’s what they were giving us,” Hulls said. “We would have liked to get inside more, and we may have took too many shots on the outside, but it’s not like they were bad shots. They were open.”With 16:48 left, Hulls hit his first of the night to put the Hoosiers on the board. But even as the Hoosiers began to take form, Jacksonville kept the game close, though, with the help of three early buckets from beyond the arc and five total in the first half.Hulls would match that number himself.His second three of the half sparked a 9-2 IU run where the Hoosiers first brought their lead into double digits midway through the half. The Dolphins came back with a brief counter, but Hulls knocked down three 3-pointers in the span of 43 seconds towards the end of the half to account for nine-straight IU points and lengthen the team’s lead to 15 at halftime, 48-33.Hulls began the second half in similar fashion, knocking down another 3-pointer for the team’s first basket of the period. With that bucket, he finished with 20 points on a 6-for-9 shooting night from beyond the arc.And although Hulls did admit to taking his teammates’ wishes of seeing more aggressive play from their senior guard to heart, he and junior guard Victor Oladipo, who also connected on two early 3-pointers for the Hoosiers, said the credit goes to their fellow starting guard, freshman Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell.The freshman was often the man dishing the ball out to Hulls, Oladipo and the rest of his teammates as they connected from long range Friday. Ferrell finished with 10 assists to set a career-high as a Hoosier.“Not only has he gotten bigger – a little bit taller, but not really – but he’s gotten better as a player,” Oladipo said. “He gets better in games, and he gets better as days go on. It doesn’t cease to amaze me when he has nine or 10 assists. That’s just the player he is.“For someone so short, I don’t know how he sees the court, but he does a great job of it.”Hulls added that whenever he’s heading down court, he often tries to head towards the outskirts of the 3-point line, and he knows if he’s open from long range, Ferrell will likely find him.“I love it,” Hulls said. “He’s a great passer, and he finds guys right when they need the ball, so when I’m running the floor, I try to run to a corner and try to run off some screens, and he’s doing a great job of not turning the ball over and getting those assists and finding people at the right time and making the right plays.”And Ferrell did just that. To go along with his 10 assists, the freshman didn’t record a single turnover Friday night to go along with six points, two steals and two rebounds.Sophomore forward Cody Zeller followed Hulls with 16 points. Oladipo and junior forward Will Sheehey each added 14, and senior forward Christian Watford scored 11 as the fifth Hoosier in double figures Friday.Oladipo said that after the team’s loss to Butler on Dec. 15, he’s seen the Hoosiers become a lot strong on the defensive end with better communication, and that has been the reason for the stronger offensive performances like the one his teammates put on against Jacksonville.“We came together and realized what we had to do to improve,” Oladipo said. “I think we’re ready going into the Big Ten. We have leaders who have been through it, and we have young guys who are getting mentally prepared for it.“I’m looking forward to it.”