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!