Sunday, January 7, 2007

IU 73 MSU 51

Overall Team Performance: A Wow, what a performance by the Hoosiers! I think this was their best game of the year. MSU's defense was only giving up 55 points a game until today. I thought IU's offense finally had some rhythm and they really attacked the offensive glass. Even though MSU shot a good FG %, IU easily won the turnover battle and turned those turnovers into points. D.J. White: A- Do you think D.J. enjoyed getting the ball and not seeing The Chief behind him. Today, D.J. got the ball, made his move, and converted. Lance Stemler: B+ Stemler was ice cold from the arc, but he did a lot of other things well. He had a nice driving 3-point play and two tip-ins. Also, the one 3 he hit was a big one. After IU quickly built the lead to 15 in the 2nd half, MSU went on an 8-0 run to cut it to 7. But then Stemler hit a 3 to push it right back to 10 and never looked back. Roderick Wilmont: B Had a solid game. Armon Bassett: B Also a solid game. Earl Calloway: B+ As always with Earl, a couple bonehead plays, but overall he played really well. Did a nice job on Neitzel and did a nice job running the offense. Errek Suhr: A This is exactly what we want out of Suhr -- come in and give the team a spark. In his last 2 games, he had played 18 minutes and literally had zeroes in the box score. Today, he came in and was everywhere. Nicely done. Joey Shaw: C Really kind of struggled today. Mike White: A Finally saw some minutes today and he made the most of it. I really like this guy -- he is a boulder down there on the block. He even made some free throws today. Xavier Keeling: A- Known today as "Wheeling" to Verne Lundquist. Really does a nice job on defense by getting into the passing lanes, etc. Poll Results The final results are in on the Knight question -- everyone agrees he's a great coach, but 12 people think he's a great coach while being a tremendous asshole, while 10 people can look past his "assholedness" to appreciate the great coaching as a huge fan of The General. Judging strickly by votes, your starting 5 would be Calloway (12), Ratliffe or Bassett (6 each), Wilmont (8), Stemler (11), and D.J. (12). Also receiving votes were Shaw (3), and Bendeman (2). As for predicting the Hoosiers Big 10 record: 9 votes for 10-6 4 votes for 9-7 1 vote each for 12-4, 11-5, and 8-8 Against MSU, everyone predicted a tight game with 7 votes predicting a win and 3 a loss. As for the biggest factor in the OSU loss, 5 votes for bad defense, 4 votes for inferior talent, and 1 vote for bad officiating. Go Hoosiers!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You know the Hoosiers played well when Billy Packard is singing their praises. I was actually surprised by some of his comments, ie..."They are putting on a clinic today in all facets of the game." He also mentioned this is the best game he has watched an IU team play in a long time, in regards to all areas of the game. (Packard Good...Dickhead V. Bad)

Hopefully this is a sign of better days to come as the team grows into and gets more comfortable with Sampson's style/system.

Although this wasn't a powerhouse MSU team, they are still solid and IU was able to not only beat them, but blow them out. I LIKE IT!! GO HOOSIERS!!

Unknown said...

Oh ya, I almost forgot, can you imagine Mike White 50 lbs. heavier. I must have missed this before, but I didn't realize he lost 50 lbs. at Junior College.

The football team could use this guy as well.

Unknown said...

Good points Ben. I also noticed that Billy P gave the Hoosiers their props and did not mention RMK or Assembly Hall being renamed or any of that negative legacy crap.

Hey, DJ had some really nice blocks. He stuck one of them against the backboard. That was sweet.

TheCoach said...

Assembly Hall should be named after RMK. Long live the General!