Sports

Kentucky E(Rupp)tion

LEXINGTON, Ky – IU coach Tom Crean can prepare his young Hoosiers to the best of his abilities and have them ready for anything. But as IU has found out this season, you can’t prepare for height. Or athleticism. Kentucky jumped out to a 32-6 run and never looked back, crushing the Hoosiers 72-54. IU, now 5-5, never brought the game to single digits after Kentucky’s, now 7-3, initial spurt and could only muster 13 first-half points – its fewest total since its second-round NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA in 2007.

Loss in border battle burns deep

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 54

Hoosiers tossed out of Rupp by Wildcats, lose 72-54

LEXINGTON, KY — Kentucky started the game on a 22-4 run and never looked back, crushing the IU men's basketball team 72-54. As they have all season long, IU grappled with turnovers. In all, the Hoosiers turned the ball over 15 times in the first half and were unable to recover from the run Kentucky generated from the mistakes.IU  never brought the Wildcats' lead within single digits after their initial run.The rout is IU's second in as many road games this season. The Hoosiers lost to then-No. 15 Wake Forest 83-58 on Dec. 3 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

IU crosses border for 1st rivalry game of season

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.

Solo senior organizes club sport

Imagine the IU basketball team or football team without Tom Crean or Bill Lynch. Imagine no head coach to guide a team through its ups and downs.

Hoosiers look to move win streak to 6

Last season, playing on the road plagued the IU women’s basketball team, which only won five games. This year, the Hoosiers have already won four road games in a row and are looking to extend their total winning streak to six games. The Hoosiers compete against West Virginia at 2 p.m. Saturday in Morgantown, W. Va. After posting a 25-8 record last year and an NCAA Tournament berth, the Mountaineers came in 7-1.

RUNNING THE FLOOR: Regional showdown, possible throwdown

This one means a little bit more. Games like these always do. Players and coaches yarn on about how truthfully, every game is the same, none is taken more seriously than another, etc. But IU-Kentucky isn’t just a rivalry – it’s a tradition. Need proof? Turn CBS on at 4 p.m. Saturday and see if you don’t hear everything you need to hear from what Tom Crean called “one of the great atmospheres in the country.”Games like this are circled in red. Games like this are the reason Tom Crean left a successful, well-built program at Marquette for a team in tatters. Games like this define seasons – and often careers.

Different game, different Story

On a team that IU coach Tom Crean calls “thin,” Malik Story has been a valuable commodity. Coming off the bench or starting, playing power forward or point guard – wherever Crean has been lacking, he’s turned to Story to fill the gap. No wonder Story has an open mind on what his role is for the Hoosiers. “(I do) whatever needs to be done,” he said. “Pass the ball, score the ball, whatever needs to be done.” While the whole season is a learning experience, perhaps no Hoosier has had to learn as much or adjust to as many different roles as Story. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound freshman came to Bloomington as a guard. He quickly learned he would need to fill the position of power forward, due to the lack of size on the squad.

Hoosiers leapfrog TCU

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.

STRAIGHT BIDNESS: Injury prone

Alumni game brings in stars from the past

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RUNNING THE FLOOR: Brief return to normal

It had been months, but it really seemed more like years. This hall – as it’s purported – wasn’t close to capacity, but when those flags hit the parque surface, the floor rumbled like it hadn’t since that dead winter of nine months ago.

Men's basketball pulls it out in 2nd half

Maybe it was freshman Malik Story’s buzzer-beating 3 to end the first half. Maybe it was learning from their last two games against highly ranked opponents.  Whatever the reason, the Hoosiers uncharacteristically came out in the second half on fire, turning a four-point halftime lead into a second half laughter against TCU. “The first four minutes of the second half were really crucial in burying a team,” said freshman forward Tom Pritchard. “That’s what we had to do, and we did it.” In their four losses this season, the Hoosiers have been the ones buried and playing flat in the second half – they were outscored 167-109 in those games. But Wednesday night was a different story.

IU vs. TCU Live Chat

Join basketball reporters Matt Dollinger and Tom Kirby along with columnist Zachary Osterman as they live blog the Hoosiers showdown with the TCU Horned Frogs. Basketblog

Men's basketball team welcomes Frogs tonight

Fresh off games against two nationally ranked opponents and on the cusp of a nationally televised game against rival Kentucky, the Hoosiers’ seemingly easier contest tonight against TCU could be considered a dangerous game for the typical IU basketball team. But as IU men’s basketball coach Tom Crean has reiterated throughout the season, this year’s team is anything but typical.BLOG: Basketblog

Hoosiers’ win-streak grows to 5

For most of the first half, the Butler Bulldogs were a pest the Hoosiers couldn’t get rid of. The eventually overmatched Bulldogs (3-5) stayed within single digits until 3:35 left in the first half when senior Amber Jackson’s layup put the Hoosiers (6-2) up by 10. The Hoosiers then went on a 14-1 run to end the half. They led at halftime 39-20, and went on to win their fifth in a row defeating Butler 63-41. “This was a team effort, team win and it’s really exciting to see our team play together,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “We put in subs today, and you really couldn’t tell the starters from the subs because everyone really contributed.”

How he should be remembered

Thanks, Rick Greenspan. I know many Hoosier fans count down the days until the current director of athletics is relieved of his duties by Indianapolis attorney Fred Glass in January due to the turbulent events of the Greenspan era. I, too, am looking forward to Greenspan’s departure, but he should be thanked for the improvements he made to IU athletics.

Horned Frogs will have upset on their minds

Hoosier fans’ emotions have run the gamut with this young team, haven’t they? So far, we’ve seen blowouts both ways, good performances, bad performances, close wins that should have been larger and lots and lots of turnovers. Tonight, there’s a definite chance we’ll be adding “home loss” to that list.

Turn(over) for the worse: IU struggles to limit mistakes

Many of the turnovers IU has committed this season have been self-inflicted. As one Basketblog reader quipped last week, the Hoosiers just can’t seem to stop shooting themselves in the thigh. Of the 330 Division I men’s basketball teams, the Hoosiers rank No. 327 in turnovers per game at 20.3. In turnover margin, the Hoosiers are No. 276. Through eight games, the Hoosiers have turned the ball over more than their opponents in all but one of the contests. On Nov. 26 against Chaminade, a D-II school, IU committed a season-low 11 turnovers. But when they haven’t been playing the Silverswords, the 4-4 Hoosiers have struggled immensely to take care of the ball. IU coach Tom Crean’s young squad has committed 20 turnovers or more in six games this season. Last year, the Hoosiers turned the ball over 20 times or more only twice. Last year’s Crean-led Golden Eagles at Marquette accomplished the “feat” only once.