IU 69 Northwestern 65

Hmmm....where to begin? Well, you're always happy when IU wins, but the happiness must be buried down pretty deep after this game because I wouldn't describe the feeling after the buzzer as a feeling of happiness. Mick, Tom, Sean, and I looked at each other and it was more mixed feelings of shock, anger, relief, despair, hopelessness, and disbelief. The only thread of happiness stems from the fact that they had to win that game to stay tourney-bound. But even that fact doesn't bring a great deal of happiness because they are playing so horribly right now that they won't beat anybody in the post-season. We have not played a single good game since beating Wisconsin (and that was a while ago). All we can hope for is that they win on Saturday and then hopefully find a way to break out of this funk. If you're looking for other positives -- at least we're not Iowa -- they had a must-win game against Penn State tonight and lost. I tell you what, even though IU's game against Penn State is at home, the Hoosiers better be ready because Penn State is playing good ball right now. The other positive is that even though we looked horrible doing it, we did break a 3-game losing streak at Northwestern. Of course, tonight was practically a home game. Generally, when we go to these games in Evanston, I would call it about 60% NW fans and 40% IU fans. But tonight, there was the usual number of IU fans but nobody there for NW, so that 60/40 probably flipped in IU's favor. So, at the very least, this was almost like a neutral site game. If some of you did not get a chance to see the game, we started off with a nice 9-2 lead at the first timeout. At this point, we were thinking that this was going to be a nice easy win. Northwestern looked bad even for Northwestern standards. Ratliff got off to a good start by hitting a pair of 3s. Unfortunately, right after the second 3 went in, he must have been bumped or something because his head went 7 miles up his ass and stayed there for the rest of the game. After this time-out, NW went to a 1-3-1 zone. It seemed to give us some trouble, but then there was another time-out and we figured they would come back out and attack the zone. Instead, they came out and had 2 guards stand near half-court and lob the ball back and forth for 30 seconds. Next thing you know, NW has slowly gone on a 20-11 run over 12 minutes and take the lead at 22-20. Then, NW gave IU a big break by missing a wide-open layup and some FTs and the score stayed at or around 22-20 with 4 minutes to go in the half. IU managed to close out the half on a Wilmont 6-0 run. Wilmont hit a 3 with less than a minute, then grabbed the rebound on a NW miss with 8 or 9 seconds, dribbled across half-court with a nice behind-the-back move and then banked in a straight-on 3-pointer. This gave IU a 32-28 halftime lead and fortunately for IU, Wilmont was just getting started. Note -- I just read the recap of the game and Wilmont actuall hit 3 treys in the final 90 seconds of the half. At halftime, we were happy that Wilmont's 6-0 run gave the Hoosiers the lead, but VERY frustrated with the way the were handling NW's 1-3-1 defense. NW had 3 guys out on the ball and a little guy down low on D.J. However, we only managed to get D.J. one touch as part of the normal offense. He got a couple others on offensive rebounds. Being fans of Sampson, we were confident that he would make the adjustment to attack the 1-3-1, but they came out in the 2nd half and still just played lob-pass keep away with the 2 guards standing 35 feet from the basket. Wilmont continued his hot shooting and IU would build 7 or 9 point leads, but then we would let NW cut it right back down to 3 or 4. Finally, with less than 3 minutes to play, IU pushed the lead to 11 on a D.J. 3-point play. It was the first time IU had pushed the lead over 10 points and with less than 3 minutes to go, it looked the Hoosiers had finally busted this one open. But then everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. IU had 3 straight turnovers that led to easy NW layups and the lead was down to 5 immediately. Then came the free throw struggles -- Shaw missed a front-end, then Bassett made two, then Suhr missed a front-end. NW cut it to two with 14 seconds to go. IU finally does a nice job of breaking the press and get it to Ratliff who is wide-open for a dunk or easy layup with about 11 seconds. All he has to do is take a couple dribbles, go in for the easy dunk, and the clock is running with about 8 seconds left and a 4-point lead. Instead, he just stands there and waits for someone to come foul him, which NW quickly does with 10 seconds to go. So, instead of a 4-point lead and a running 8 second clock, we now have a 2-point lead and a stopped 10 second clock. Of course, he misses the first and I am now thinking that they are actually going to LOSE THE GAME! Fortunately, he made the second and IU played nice defense on NW's 3-point attempt to tie. I guess it's a million times better than a loss, but is sure was ugly. I think we have to do a report card on this one because there was a wide variety of performances. Overall Team Performance: D- This goes against my rule of not grading below a C- for any win, but I think anyone who watched the game will agree with me on this one. Again, this is a bad NW team even by NW standards and we nearly handed the game to them. Kelvin Sampson: F I like you, coach. But the main reason that this was a close game was because you got out-coached. I would even hesitate to call it out-coached, it was more of an all-out failure for Sampson to react, adjust, and coach his team. If Penn State does any film study, they should be playing a lot of 1-3-1 on Saturday. A.J. Ratliff: F- Cook already commented that this should be an F- and I am not going to argue with him. Seeing a game live, you can pick up even more things than you can on TV. Of course, Ratliff was bad enough tonight that Cook obviously didn't have any problem picking it up on TV. But anyway, seeing the game live, you can just see that Ratliff was playing horrible defense, not finding open men, making horrible decisions, and missing his last 8 shots of the game. Honestly, I can't describe how horrible he looked. It had Sean wishing he was graduating this year. Absolutely pathetic. Roderick Wilmont: A+ Not necessarily an A+ to mean perfection, but an A+ for a couple other reasons. First and foremost, he single-handedly carried this team to victory tonight. If Wilmont would have been off tonight, IU would have easily lost by double-digits. Second reason for the A+, check out his stat line -- 31 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 blocked shot. He set a school record with 9 triples and was 9-13 from 3-point land and 11-17 overall from the field. And finally, watching the game live and watching some of the little things....Wilmont does a lot of those things. Maybe he was more active tonight because he was scoring a lot, but I just like the fact that Wilmont is out there always trying to make something happen and trying to win. By contrast, Ratliff looks like he is just going through the motions. Lance Stemler: C- I think we have to accept the fact that Mike White has better range than Stemler. Casper made a layup, but missed two more threes badly. He was active and decent in some other areas, but he needs to find that jump shot if IU is going to make any run in the Big Ten Tourney or the Big Dance. D.J. White: C Got some things going in the 2nd half, but was a non-factor in the first half. Part of the blame with the limited touches has to fall on D.J. because he does not post strong enough and demand the ball. But then again, tonight really proved that this team does not have any good passers. We were joking at the game that our only play that worked tonight was the 2 guards to play catch for a while, then get it to Wilmont on the wing and he will force up a 3. Fortunately, Wilmont was hitting them because there were no actual offensive plays or any attempt to get the ball to D.J. Armon Bassett: B+ Had his share of mistakes, but he was the only one that penetrated and probed the defense and he was usually the one getting the ball to Wilmont. Finished with 9 assists so that was good to see. He also hit both his free throws in between Shaw and Suhr missing critical front-ends. Suhr: D A little white dude needs to hit free throws at the end of a game. He almost air-balled. He did chase down an offensive rebound. Shaw: C+ Defense is horrible and all he does is foul. He was in foul trouble and Calloway was hurting, so Sampson was kind of forced to keep Ratliff in the game even though he spent the game trying to get a good look at his pancreas. Calloway: C- If only grading on-the-court results, Calloway would probably be in the D/D- range because he did not look good. Unfortunately, it was very clear that he is in a lot of pain and was nowhere near 100%. I'm concerned that we won't be able to get much out of Earl the rest of the year. Poll Results: * All 10 voters correctly predicted the win....LUCKY! * If win last 2 & B10 Tourney, majority think a 3 or 4 seed * If win last 2 & lose 1st game of B10 Tourney, majority think 6 or 7 seed * If split last 2 & lose 1st game of B10 Tourney, majority think 8 or 9 seed, but 2 voters don't think they'll be dancing. * If they would have lost their last two and 1st game of B10 Tourney, majority think they would not be dancing. * Favorite A.J. was a tie between Guyton and Moye. Ratliff received 0 votes and after tonight, he is an embarrassment to the IU A.J.'s * Favorite Earl -- Calloway edged out Jason Lee's My Name Is Earl character. Go Hoosiers! ************************************************************************************** Members of the IU Hoops Blog take matters into their own hands tonight as Jeff, Mick, Sean, and Tom are heading into Evanston to personally see that the Hoosiers come out victorious. If they do not, I will be the one on SportsCenter taking some swings at Bendeman (because a loss would most likely be his fault).

Polls & Post-Season Outlook

Well, at this point, tracking the polls seems to be a waste of time. That said, I am going to waste some time talking about it. After a lackluster home win against Minnesota and a road loss at Michigan State, the Hoosiers actually moved up 4 spots to # 35 in the AP Poll. After getting battered in the AP Poll last week, I guess I'm not too surprised to see a "correction". It's kind of like the stock market. However, the Hoosiers completely disappeared from the Coach's Poll -- didn't receive a single vote. That puts at least 47 teams in front of them in that poll. Ouch! Now, the reason that tracking the polls is a complete waste of time is because they are just voting for the Top 25. So, the fact that IU didn't receive a single vote in the Coach's Poll seems to make sense. I think if the pollsters were actually ranking 47 teams, IU would certainly be in that mix. So, unless you are just outside the Top 25, it doesn't really make sense to track the "also receiving votes" category too closely. The good news is that the RPI seems to be getting more and more credit each year for being a good indicator of a team's true status. The good news is that IU is still ranked # 24 in the Sportsline RPI. The other good news is that if IU takes care of business against NW & Penn State, then they still finish 10-6 in the Big Ten, get to 20 wins, get the # 3 seed for the Big Ten Tourney, and would be a lock for the Big Dance. When looking at IU's post-season resume, the good news is that they have 0 bad losses -- all losses have been on the road and have been to tourney or bubble teams. They have the big win against Wisconsin and the Southern Illinois win is looking really good. So, if they can avoid the "bad loss" by winning a pair this week, they should be in really good shape. Tom just sent me the latest bracketology stuff, here it is: Bracketology has IU as a #10 seed right now. I was watching ESPN over the weekend and they said that Joe Lunardi has projected the teams in the field with almost 99% accuracy. He has only missed something like 5 teams in the past 6 years. IU has to win their next games to not have all the pressure on the BT Tourney. Indiana: The Hoosiers haven't had a significant win in almost three weeks. They should sweep their closing week, however. Why seeded here? IU has lost four of six. May change because: Northwestern and Penn State may be just what the doctor ordered. Good Wins RPI 1-25: Southern Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin RPI 26-50: Purdue, Illinois Bad Losses RPI 101-200: None RPI 201+: None

IU 58 Michigan State 66

Well, I guess there's really no point to even say anything about last night's game. So, I'm just posting some poll questions and hoping they find a way to win at Northwestern. By the way, Tom's visionary capabilities are for crap. *********************************************************************************** I've got a lot to say about tonight's game, but I just can't stomach it right now. *********************************************************************************** For the first time this year, the voters on the IU Hoops Blog are predicting the Hoosiers to lose (8 out of 12 votes). And rightfully so, all of the evidence points to yet another struggle on the road. Michigan State has been red hot as of late. Not only did they beat #1 Wisconsin, but they also beat Iowa 81-49 and Michigan 59-44. Add in the fact that the Hoosiers have been atrocious on the road and really have not played well in their last 5 games. Even the home wins against Illinois and Minnesota were "iffy" at best. And don't forget that IU's senior point guard has been injured and questionable for the game. And finally, Andy is 95% certain of an IU loss and Ben has already called Andy out on his voodoo. However, even with all that said, there is some reason for hope and here are a few reasons why: (1) IU's recent struggles have come after they knocked off Wisconsin. Let's hope MSU suffers the same fate after their big win over Wisconsin. (2) Many teams have been streaky this year, but MSU takes the cake. In the Big Ten, they lost their first 2, won their next 4, lost their next 4, and have currently won their last 3. After IU, they finish at Michigan and at Wisconsin, so maybe we can start their 3 game losing streak to finish the season. If you have ever done those sequence problems on a standardized test, then losing 3 is the next logical step. (3) IU's most complete game of the year was their 73-51 win over MSU. Yes, it was at Assembly Hall and this game is at the Breslin Center, but I think we matchup well with them and have their number. (4) I believe in the power of positive thinking. (5) I believe in Tom's visionary power. Tom told me today that he had a very vivid vision of this game. It was almost as if he was listening to the radio call. He said they kept referring to IU's tall white guy as "Haston", but Tom could only assume they meant Stemler. Anyway, this "Haston" as they called him ended up hitting a 3 at the buzzer to propel IU to a 59-58 victory. So, I think Stemler's little jumper at the end of the Minnesota game has busted him out of his slump and I look for him to hit the buzzer-beating game-winner. Now for my prediction....no surprise here....I'm picking the Hoosiers to win 59-58!!!!! As for the results of the other poll questions, 4 voters think the key to IU pulling off the upset is 3-point shooting, 3 voters say stop Neitzel and you have a chance, 3 voters believe rebounding will be the key, and 2 voters think IU needs a great game out of D.J. Predicting Neitzel's points -- 6 votes for 16-20, 3 votes for 9-15, and 3 votes for 21-25. Predicting D.J.'s points -- 6 votes for 16-20, 3 votes for 9-15, and 2 votes for 21-25. It's a Saturday night game, so grab a cold one and enjoy. You're going to remember this one for the rest of your life! Go Hoosiers!

IU 71 Minnesota 59

Well, they got the "W" and that is the most important thing. If that Minnesota idiot would have hit that shot at the end, I would have nailed the score with my 71-61 prediction, but 2 points off is not bad. However, if you did not see the game, don't let the final score fool you. It was about mid-way through the 2nd half when the most haunting 3 letters for a Hoosier fan entered my brain.....N-I-T. Fortunately, the Hoosiers played well in the final 6 minutes or so to pull out the victory. This game SHOULD have been over in the 1st half. IU quickly jumped out to a 13 point lead, but then IU started their foul frenzy. Minnesota couldn't hit anything from the field in the 1st half, but we bailed them out by sending them to the line 15 times in the first half. It didn't help that we went 2-6 from the stripe in the 1st half either. All those trips to the foul line allowed Minnesota to slowly cut the lead to 5 points with 30 seconds to go in the 1st half. Fortunately, Wilmont hit a tough 3 at the buzzer to give IU an 8 point lead at half. So, even though it wasn't pretty, I was feeling pretty comfortable with an 8 point halftime lead. Then, in the 2nd half, IU stopped fouling as much, but Minnesota got hot and IU went cold. IU's offense looked pretty good all night but they did have a stretch where they just went ice cold -- getting good looks, just not knocking them down. About mid-way through the 2nd half, Minnesota had cut the lead to 2 points and then had 4 or 5 possessions to either tie or take the lead. Fortunately, they never did. Finally, the turning point came when Wilmont hit his first free throw and missed the second. D.J. made a nice play to tap the miss out and IU gathered the loose ball. Eventually, on that possession, Wilmont drove, dished to Shaw, and Shaw knocked down a 3. So, it was a 4-point possession to push the lead to 6 and I think IU continued that run to make it an 8-0 run and a 10-point lead. It pretty much stayed right around 10 for the rest of the game. It was good to see that they didn't panic when Minnesota cut it down to 2 and they were able to finish strong and come away with the win. But as an overall performance, it was not good, especially on the defensive end. They definitely miss Calloway. Hopefully, Calloway can come back for MSU on Saturday because he did a nice job of chasing Neitzel in the first meeting. Stemler continued to struggle. He missed two more threes tonight and was 0-3 until he finally hit a mid-range jumper with 8 seconds left. Who knows, maybe that little jumper with 8 seconds left is what he needed. Let's hope so. D.J. played pretty well. He was 6-14 from the field and missed a lot of shots that he usually makes. He also had to sit for a good chunk of time in the first half because he picked up 2 fouls. But all in all, he played pretty well and had some key rebounds and a few nice blocked shots. 40 Cent got the start and also played pretty well. He had a turnover and was only "25 Cent" at the line (1-4), but he mixes things up in there and had a great O-rebound and put-back. And yes, there was a Ben Allen sighting. Tom did comment that Ben Allen would score tonight, but he wasn't sure whether or not it would be on the court. Well Tom, he came through on the court with a pair of nice post moves. He was 2-2 from the field and had a blocked shot. Also, in talking to Tom after the game, he said those FGs were Bendemans first FGs of the Big Ten season. Wow! I knew it wasn't going well for the Aussie, but I didn't realize he hadn't even scored a FG in conference play. By the way, although Bendeman avoided the big screw-up tonight, he did manage to pull down 0 rebounds in 13 minutes of play. Speaking of Tom, the IU Hoops Blog would like to welcome the newest Little Hoosier to the Hoosier family. Gabriella Nicole Earth was born this past Sunday. Congratulations to the Earth family! We are calling her "Good Luck Gabriella" as she is now 1-0 as a Little Hoosier fan (and she has never seen the Cubs or Bears lose -- all in due time, little one). Wilmont, Ratliffe, and Bassett were all solid. I got my wish with D.J. and Wilmont both putting up 14 shots. Wilmont was only 5-14, but he was 3-5 from the arc and each of them came at key moments. I was actually hoping for a little bit better with D.J. and Wilmont getting their shots, but I still think it puts pressure on the defense and sets up better looks for the other players. In the end, those two still combined for 33 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Shaw had a nice game. He made his typical entrance into the game by committing a foul before you even realized he was in the game. He hit that key 3-pointer that I mentioned earlier and also knocked down all 4 of his free throws. This was a dream officiating crew for Suhr. I think one official actually whistled a charge when a cheerleader fell over. These refs were calling everything a charge. Suhr drew 3 of him by himself and I think IU drew 6 total. Suhr also had a nice bucket, so it was a pretty good game by him. Looking ahead, it is a big game against Michigan State this Saturday. I think it would be a huge lift for this team if they could go in there and get a win. Let's hope for a let-down out of MSU after their big win over Wisconsin last night. It would really help if Calloway could even play limited minutes so that he could help chase Neitzel. Of course, you have to get a hand up against the shooter and I don't know how bad his shoulder is. It sounded like it was a game-time decision tonight, so maybe a few more days of rest and he will be ready to go. One concern with the road struggles is that there is now a mental aspect to it. Let's say they have a small lead in the 2nd half, then MSU goes on a little run, it will start to have that "here we go again" feeling. Again, I think that is a situation where an individual player has to step up and take over. It's great to have a solid all-around team effort, but there are times when you need one of your best players to take over and get the team over the hump. And Sampson has to find a way....not sure how, but he has to find a way to get this team to win away from Assembly Hall. I think IU should maybe try their 1-3-1 again for a stretch. I can't remember what game they went to the 1-3-1, but it seemed to work pretty well. Anyway, I'm glad to have that losing taste out of my mouth. Now we just need to go get a big one on the road! Go Hoosiers! ******************************************************************************* Pre-game Comments: The only thing I have to say before this game is this -- I don't care how they do it, they just need to put this one in the W column. Sure, it would be nice to play well and get some swagger back, but they just need to win. Then, they can move forward and figure out how to win a frickin' road game. It pains me to give Kentucky credit for anything, but there was actually a clever sign at the Kentucky game the other night. I am going to steal the phrase and change the team name to give it some IU flavor, but here it is: Tim Hardaway hates Purdue. Anyway, I thought that was pretty damn funny. Here are the final poll results: All 7 voters are predicting an IU win with 1 vote for a 20+ victory, 4 votes for 10-19 points, and 2 votes for 9 or less. 4 of 7 voters are not at all worried about the Big Dance and still think IU is a lock. I personally think those 4 people are crazy. The Hoosiers are not playing good basketball right now, they have some injuries, and I am not sure if they could beat Northwestern High School if the game was played in Tiger Gymnasium. Therefore, I see both the MSU and NW road games as questionable. And if they only win 2 of the next 4, then I think they need at least a game in the Big Ten tournament. So yes, I am a little worried. But only a little worried because I am predicting that they will win 3 of 4, get to 20 wins, be the 3 seed in the Big Ten tourney, and be safely in the Big Dance. But I do think that just a single game could play a huge difference as to whether the Hoosiers are a lock or on the bubble. To continue with the voting results, there were 2 votes for "a little worried" and 1 vote for "very worried". All 7 voters agree that the AP Poll was a little tough on the Hoosiers this week by dropping them all the way down to # 39. I personally think that is an overreaction and IU's full body of work still deserves a better ranking than that (even though it has been rough going as of late). 2 voters thought they still deserve the # 20-25 range, 2 votes for # 26-30, and 3 votes for # 31-35. I do like that any RPI ratings or other computer ratings still have the Hoosiers right around # 20 - 22. The word on the street is that RPI is certainly not the only factor in the selection and seeding process, but it is certainly one of the factors. Go Hoosiers!

Time to Panic?

Well, I don't think it's time to panic just yet, but the Hoosiers certainly can't afford a misstep. There are 5 teams that are 1 game back of IU in the loss column and only 1 of those teams has fewer overall wins than IU. So, if IU would drop back to that pack, it could be trouble. However, even after this tough stretch, they are still in sole possession of 3rd place. So, they could guarantee third by themselves if they could get hot and run the table. Or they could even guarantee themselves a tie for 3rd by winning three of their last four. When looking at the schedule, you would hope the home games against Minnesota and Penn State would be wins. Then, if you are going to win one on the road, at Northwestern would be the place to do it. But several of us on this blog have witnessed them lose in Evanston on more than one occassion. The other game is at Michigan State and they will certainly need to play better if they want any chance of winning that one. So, 3 of 4 is certainly doable and that would also get the Hoosiers some other key regular seasons numbers -- 3rd place (at least tied) in the Big Ten behind two Top 5 teams (actually they are ranked #1 & #2 right now). And it would also get them to 20 wins. Now if they would only win 2 of their last 4, then they would likely fall into the log-jam in the middle of the Big Ten. That could even mean a Thursday game in the Big Ten tournament and that game may even be a must-win to get into the Big Dance. I don't even like to think about the "bubble" word, so they just need to take care of Minnesota on Wednesday and then find a way to win a road game. A win at Michigan State would be huge for the overall confidence of this team. The Hoosiers got absolutely hammered in the polls today -- dropped 15 spots in the AP poll down to # 39 and they dropped 13 spots in the ESPN poll to # 32. Sportline RPI still has them at # 20, so that's good. Even though they lost 2 games this week and have lost 4 of 7, I do have to say that I was a little surprised at how far they dropped. The big question is why can't this team win on the road? Well, I obviously don't know -- my stance heading into the Michigan game was that they needed to force a low-scoring ugly game to win. Well, that was definitely an ugly game and the Hoosiers still couldn't find a way to win. I think that is why this game was so frustrating. Against Purdue, their two best players had great games....that's going to be tough to beat on the road. But Michigan played horribly and let IU hang around the whole game. When a team opens the door like that on the road, you have to take advantage. I do have a few theories as to why they are not getting it done on the road. A couple are pretty obvious, but one of these theories may not be as obvious. First, the obvious ones: 1. Defense -- Clearly the 81 points by Purdue and Iowa were less than desirable defensive results. But even with Michigan only scoring 58 points, I just don't feel like their defense has been as intense as it has been at times earlier in the year. On the road, you're defense has to be smothering and you have to force turnovers. 2. Rebounding -- Just like the defense, they just haven't been rebounding the ball as well as they were earlier in the year. I think part of that is the struggles out of the # 4 spot and the fact that D.J. can't be overly aggressive on the boards because of a fear of foul trouble. Now that I mention it, I think D.J.'s defense has also been mediocre -- it's a tough spot for D.J. because he knows that he has to be on the floor for this team to have a chance. Ok, here's the not-so-obvious one: 3. They need a go-to player on the perimeter. Well, maybe it's not that it is not obvious, maybe it's that they just don't have that player. Still with me? Anyway, their best player is D.J., but D.J. is a post player. It's tougher for a post player to take charge of a game because sometimes it's just tough for them to touch the ball. And when they do get the ball, they often face double-teams. However, a perimeter player can get the ball and go one-on-one to get their shot. A couple Hoosiers have shown flashes of being able to do this -- Bassett and Wilmont. I really like Bassett's willingness and desire to be this guy at the end of the game. However, he's still a freshman and hasn't been able to always deliver. He certainly didn't against Michigan with a 1-9 shooting night, including the miss at the end that would have tied it. On several occassions this year, Wilmont has stepped up and hit the big shots at key points throughout the game, but he doesn't seem to be the one taking the shots at the end of the game. Personally, in situations like the Michigan game where you have to have a 3, I'd like to see a play run for Wilmont. He seems to be the player on the team that has been able to hit the toughest treys with defenders in his face. Another key stat -- in IU's two road wins this year, Wilmont logged 23 points and 25 points in those games. I like the fact that the Hoosiers are balanced and that different guys can step up on any given night. But at the same time, I think you still want your best players to always be putting pressure on the defense. I would like to see D.J. and Wilmont each get 10-plus shots every game. Especially on the road -- sure, it's nice for Mike White and Suhr to step up and play well. But most likely, if 40 Cent and Suhr are leading in scoring, you aren't going to beat anyone on the road. However, if your two best players have good games and then you get good contributions from role players to boot, you have a shot at beating somebody. I haven't wavered all year for my backing of Wilmont and I still stand behind the idea that this team goes on its big runs when Wilmont is firing away. In Rod we Trust. Go Hoosiers!

Michigan 58 IU 55

No comment.

Purdue 81 IU 68

I just don't understand how their can be a 38 point difference based on where they are playing the game. You get beat by double-digits by a team that you just beat by 25 points a few weeks ago. I just don't understand it. One thing is for sure -- the Hoosiers better figure out a way to play better on the road. This is now back to back games where they have given up 81 points -- ouch! And if they don't find a way to play better on the road, then they damn well better keep their perfect record at home and we will have to keep our fingers crossed for how they fair at neutral sites. Of course, Teague was absolutely on fire and it is definitely tough to win any time someone catches fire like that. But the point is that IU needed to make it tougher on him. Even after he got hot, he was still getting open looks. It wasn't like he was hitting incredibly tough shots, he was just getting open and knocking them down. When a player gets hot like that, you have to do everything possible to shut him down and make the other players beat you. Switch everything if you have to, just don't let him get open. Landry also had a good game. I thought D.J. and Landry were a wash in the 1st half, but Landry had the edge in the 2nd half. For a while, I thought D.J. was just playing bad defense (and maybe he was), but then 40-Cent came in the game for a couple minutes and Landry made him look foolish on 3 straight possessions, so I eased my stance on D.J.'s defense. The D.J./Landry match-up was simply two very good players going at it -- both were definitely better on the offensive end though. The point is that Landry is very good and is likely going to get his points. It was letting Teague go off that absolutely killed the Hoosiers. By the way, Painter is (and always will be) a total tool. He is an absolute toolbox. I think he is inbred. Hey, nobody ever said that I take losing well. But that is beside the point, he really does look like he is inbred. And I am not talking cousin/cousin inbreeding or half-brother/half-sister inbreeding. Nope, he appears to be straight-up brother/sister inbred. Yep, he refers to his parents as Uncle Daddy and Aunt Mommy. On IU's side of the ball, D.J. was great in the first half but didn't do much in the 2nd half. Bassett and Wilmont were very aggressive driving the ball, but they were really struggling to finish. Several times, it seemed they would get through the teeth of the defense with some nice moves and find themselves at the rim for an easy layup, but then they would miss the easy part. I still liked the aggressiveness though. Bassett pretty much took control of the IU offense in the 2nd half and made some great plays to get IU a brief lead. But then IU turned it over on back-to-back possessions, followed quickly by a Landry 3-point play and a Teague 3-pointer which led to a 15-4 Purdue run and the game was pretty much over at that point. As bad as Stemler (aka Casper) has been playing, they certainly missed him tonight. Apparently he has a sprained ankle, which likely means he will miss the Michigan game as well since it is only about a day away. 40-Cent and Zeke were both atrocious tonight and it appears Sampson has completely given up on Bendeman (rightfully so). The only other option was the 4-guard line-up. I'm now easing on the Stemler criticism because it would have been nice to see him in there tonight -- he definitely can add some value even when his jumper is off. It's just frustrating to see a clean-cut white kid square up to the basket, follow-through, and miss by 3 feet. Clean-cut white kids are supposed to shoot 70% from the arc. Anyway, hopefully he heals up and plays well in the stretch run. Other injury news -- Calloway hurt his shoulder tonight -- no idea how serious it is. Damn! It has been over an hour since the game ended and my head is still red hot. It is literally hot to the touch. I try not to have outbursts with the kids around, but when I hold it all inside, it makes my brain juice boil. I hate losing. Painter's chubby inbred face makes me sick. I'd rather be forced to look at Gene Keady's hideous wife (who by the way is really Gene's twin brother with a sex change). Well, the Hoosiers haven't lost two in a row all year. They have a tough task ahead of them to keep it that way. Now they just have a little over a day before they play at Michigan and they may be short-handed. It's time to dig deep and find a way to win and I think it needs to be one of those ugly wins. Again, they've given up 81 points in each of their last two road games. That just can't happen. Even giving up 70 points is too many to win on the road. I think they need to force an ugly game in the low 60s to come out with a win. Another loss could be a big blow. Suddenly, they would be right back with the middle of the pack and a lot of those other teams have more overall wins. IU would still be at the top of the middle-pack and still have a great RPI, but it would still make me a little nervous. I felt strongly about my 62-60 prediction for an IU win. I am hoping that I just had the wrong game, so here we go with the prediction for the Michigan game: IU 62 Michigan 60 Go Hoosiers! (please!) ************************************************************************************ Pre-game Comments: I can't say that I have a whole lot of confidence in the Hoosiers on the road. However, this is a team that we absolutely demolished at Assembly Hall. I think it will be much tougher in this go-around, but I am still predicting that IU will prevail in a tight one. IU 62 Purdue 60 Final Poll Results 12 out of 17 voters predict an IU victory. In addition, 12 out of 17 voters predict a 5-point game or less. Final votes: 2 votes for win by 15-plus 3 votes for win by 6-14 7 votes for win by 5 or less 5 votes for lose by 5 or less Who should be getting the minutes at the 4-spot? 10 votes went to "40 cent". Apparently, Hoosier fans like to have another banger in there to mix things up. 2 votes went to Stemler 2 votes went to Wilmont and a 4-guard line-up 1 vote for Zeke As far the question on a nickname for Stemler....I really hopes he starts playing well and we can come up with a more honorable nickname. This nickname question only came about because he has been playing at such low level. Anyway, here were the results: 6 - Casper 3 - Captain Albino 2 - Landeman 2 - Stemleman 1 - Stemleville When he was playing well, Ben referred to him as Stiffler. I like that nickname best, but this nickname had to include the Mandeman/Lindeville type options.

IU 65 Illinois 61

Man, that was an intense game. For me, it was intense because I felt like it was a must-win for the Hoosiers. Coming off a road loss and 2 games on the road next week, they absolutely had to have this one at home. When they were down 3 late in the game, I wasn't feeling too good. The important thing is that they found a way to win and they remain undefeated at home.

Bassett was the CBS player of the game and was very deserving. He constantly looks to penetrate and puts pressure on the defense. That was a huge bucket late in the game (too bad he missed the free throw).

As Tom already noted in his comments, Stemler was absolutely horrible. That guy has sunk to new lows. So much so that Andy has invited him to the exclusive club of getting a nickname based on poor play (see poll question). Stemler's poor play also prompted another poll question and that's who should be getting the minutes at the 4-spot? Today, Zeke (Xavier Keeling) got the start. Zeke played ok (hit all 4 of his FTs), but was shaky with the ball and didn't have a single rebound. Mike White played a few minutes but didn't do a whole lot. Stemler came in and played like he had oven mitts on both hands -- he couldn't handle the ball, he couldn't hit wide-open shots, and he missed yet another front-end at the line.

I don't know what it is but Illinois seems to bring out the worst in us, so I am really happy that we managed a win. Wilmont was solid again with 17 points, 6 boards, and 2 steals. However, with about a minute to go, he missed the layup on a 2-on-1 fast-break that would have given IU the lead. Fortunately, that didn't matter in the end, but that is a situation where you have to come away with points.

D.J. was OK today. He finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks. I really like his turn-around jump-shot and think he needs to use that more, even when the double-team comes at him. Whenever he tries to bull his way to the hoop, he looks awkward and usually misses the shot. Stick with the turn-around jumper as the bread & butter move. If the defense overplays it, then go to the other moves.

Calloway had his typical game of some great plays and some horrible plays. I actually thought he got hosed on a couple of the traveling calls. He did hit the 2 big FTs at the end of the game and has surprisingly become the team's best FT shooter.

Everyone else was pretty much a non-factor, including Ratliff.

It's 2 on the road in the coming week. Hopefully, they can find a way to play better on the road and pull out a couple victories. One thing is pretty much guaranteed....it won't be easy.

Go Hoosiers!


***********************
Pre-game Comments:

Hopefully, IU is fully prepared to seek revenge on Illinois today. I have a feeling that the "rebounding bubble" was welded on to the hoops all week. The Hoosiers have been very good at home this year and I see that trend continuing with a big 76-62 victory today.

Here are the Final Poll Results for this week:

Predicting today's game:
7 votes for win by 14-20
2 votes for win by 7-13
2 votes for win by 6 or less
1 vote for they'll lose

Of the remaining 4 road games, how many will IU win?
8 votes for 3 games
4 votes for 2 games
1 vote for 0 games

I have to admit that these results surprised me a little bit. 8 votes for winning 3 of their last 4 road games when they have only won 2 road games all year. And those 2 wins have been against UConn who has fallen off the face of the earth and a bad Penn State team. Let's just say that I would be very happy if a majority of the voters were right on this won and the Hoosiers won 3 of those games.

And finally, looking back at the biggest factor in the loss at Iowa....
5 votes for rebounding
2 votes for officiating
1 vote for D.J.'s bad game
1 vote for the FT differential
1 vote for Haluska

Go Hoosiers!

Iowa 81 IU 75

Well, you're just not going to win on the road in the Big Ten with D.J. playing poorly and getting your ass handed to you on the glass. IU gave up way, way too many offensive rebounds and they continued they're trend of sending the other team to the free throw line time after time after time. Add in the fact that I think we missed all of our front ends today and the free throw line is just killing them. Overall, a really piss-poor performance. Poll Results: The main factor in beating Wisconsin was IU's toughness (4 votes), Ratliff (3 votes), IU's zone defense (2 votes), rebounding (1 vote). Man, today really killed the joy of the Wisconsin victory. All 11 voters incorrectly predicted an IU win against Iowa today. 6 out of 10 were able to watch the IU/Wisconsin game live, while 2 recorded it and 2 tracked on the internet.

Gordon Scores 43 in Easy Win

Now we know why Bruce Weber is still crying about Eric Gordon.

Holy crap. He is really, really good. I try not to ever get too excited about recruits, especially while this year's team has a good season going, but it's impossible not to get excited about Gordon in an IU uniform after watching tonight's game.

43 points on 17-25 from the field, 5-9 from the arc, and 4-4 from the line. And he made it look easy. It's not like he is a ball-hog or that the team even looks for him every time down the court. He shoots such a high percentage that he doesn't need a ton of shots to get his points.

He has incredible range on his jumper and does a really nice job of squaring up to the basket. But the thing that impressed me most was his exploviseness. He puts it in another gear and can cover a lot of ground in very few dribbles. One time he received a pass in stride at half-court, he took two dribbles to get all the way to the rim and convert a 3-point play. Another time, he got a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast in 4 dribbles and finished with an acrobatic layup over one of Jordan's sons (who play like their mother, by the way). It was really impressive how he could get to the basket and finish.

And to top it all off, he had a steal and a big-time reverse dunk before exiting the game with his team up 30-some points.

Just an unbelievable offensive player. I believe he is now averaging over 34 points per game and he is shooting an amazing 60 percent from the field.

On the defensive end, it looked like he pretty much stood in the corner of a 2-3 zone. He showed a couple signs of being able to get after it on defense, but I don't think they ask him to play a lot of defense. I have full confidence that Sampson will whip him into shape on the defensive end. And that may even lead into even more production on offense.

I'm trying not to let myself get too excited about this, but it's scary how good he is. I'm pretty sure he will be one-and-done at IU, but he will definitely be an impact player immediately.

I do have to chuckle when I think about the Illinois fans that watched that game tonight. They will be crying themselves to sleep tonight. As Jack Handy once said, "it takes a big man to cry, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man."