Did anyone get to watch the Senior Speeches? If so, please add some comments.
I'll add some quick comments about tonight's game for those who did not get to see it. Then, some time before the Big Ten Tourney, we will recap the regular season and take a look ahead to the Big Ten Tournament.
The most important thing is that IU took care of business tonight and finished in sole possession of 3rd place. They got to the magical 20-win mark and are now a lock for the Big Dance, regardless of what happens in the Big Ten Tourney. By the way, it looks like they will play the Illinois/Penn State winner on Friday night. Obviously, they split with Illinois, but I thought that Illinois made IU look ugly in both games, so it might be a tough match-up. Of course, if IU can get several players hitting 3-balls, they will be just fine.
Tonight, it was the 3-point shooting that catapulted the Hoosiers to an easy victory.
They went 17-32 from the arc as a team. In fact, for a while, it looked like Wilmont was only going to hold the school record for 3 days because Ratliff was on fire. Ratliff cost himself a shot at the record because he fouled out in only 14 minutes of play. But in those 14 minutes, he was 6-7 from the arc. This was really good to see after his horrible performance at NW.Another pleasant surprise was Stemler going 2-2 from the arc. Now, Stemler did not even see the floor until this game was blow-out city, but it was still really good to see him knock down a couple triples.
But the most promising sign for IU was the play of Earl Calloway. Earl started fast with the first bucket of the game, then followed with a couple nice driving hoops, and then he started knocking down the 3s as well. He went 3-5 from the arc. This is all well and good, but the best part was that he played great at the point with 11 assists and only 1 turnover. A very nice 15 point, 11 assist double-double on Senior Night.
But he wasn't the only Senior with a double-double. Good old Roderick Wilmont came through with another big-time performance. Rod started out a little bit icy and it looked like those that voted for 0-5 points in the poll question were looking pretty good. But then in typical Wilmont fashion, he hit back-to-back 3s late in the first half to give him 6 points. Then, he had a couple more misses and it sort of looked like he was the only Hoosier having a cold shooting night. But then he pulled off the back-to-back 3s again and followed that up with a dunk and a couple other buckets and before you knew it, he had gone from 6 points to 19 points and the game had been blown wide-open. He finished with a team-leading 21 points and 11 rebounds. I don't have stats in front of me, so this is just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if Wilmont now leads the team in double-doubles. That says a lot about Wilmont and it should be a little bit embarrassing for D.J. Anyway, can you say Big Ten Player of the Week? Wilmont averaged 26 points and 11.5 rebounds this week. Not too shabby.
Another nice surprise was the contribution from Mike White and Bendeman. Mike White finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds and also had 2 dunks. He just does a nice job of mixing it up and keeping rebounds alive. And Bendeman actually did a nice job going after some boards and finished with more rebounds than D.J.
Speaking of D.J., he had a nice game, but really more of a complimentary player. On the good side, he was 4-6 from the field and 4-4 from the line and had 4 blocks. But he only had 3 rebounds in 31 minutes of play. Bendeman had 4 rebounds in only 13 minutes. And Wilmont had 11 rebounds. I just think we'd all like to see D.J. be more aggressive by demanding the ball in the post and owning the glass. So, it's not that he had a bad game, but he certainly could have done a lot more than he did.
Bassett was solid again -- 8 points, 4 assists, 0 turnovers
Suhr got the start on Senior Night but didn't do a whole lot. He got to play quite a few minutes once the lead was around 20 and the crowd was going wild for him to shoot. Finally, he got to the foul line, hit both his FTs, and then Sampson took him out to a roaring ovation. Calloway and Wilmont followed one by one so that each of the Seniors had a nice ovation as they left the game.
What a great way to end the regular season!
Go Hoosiers!
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I always find a way to consider every game a big game, but I really do think this game is a HUGE game for the Hoosiers.
The one thing that IU can hang their hat on is that they do not have any bad losses....zero. All losses are on the road and are to teams that are at least on the bubble, with many of them already being safely tournament teams.
So, if the Hoosiers take care of business tonight, they are a lock for the Big Dance. A win tonight would get them to a 10-6 third-place finish in the Big Ten and 20 wins on the season. In addition, they would have big wins over Wisconsin and Southern Illinois and several other nice wins over potential tournament teams. And they would have zero bad losses on their resume.
However, should they lose tonight, I think people would look at their resume from a completely different angle -- they would point to the fact that IU has lost 5 of their last 8 including a home loss to Penn State and did not get to 20 wins. In addition, it would throw them back into the middle of the pack in the Big Ten where the other contenders have 20+ wins. It may very well mean some work would be necessary in the Big Ten Tourney to get into the Big Dance. IU's RPI should still be favorable, but I do think they would be squarely on the bubble if they would lose tonight.
Of course, all of this thinking about scenarios may be missing the point. Really, the bottom line is that IU needs to start playing better basketball. Because win or lose tonight, if IU doesn't start playing better, they are not going to be anybody in any postseason tournament.
If they can take care of business and win tonight (ugly or not), then they have 6 full days off before they would play Friday night in the Big Ten tournament. Those 6 days could prove to be beneficial, especially as it relates to Calloway's injury. And with a win tonight, I would certainly consider this a pretty darn good regular season, considering this year's team with a new coach and a new system.
Poll Results:
Percent chance that Penn State beats IU at Assembly Hall on Senior Night....I was a little bit surprised that 5 out of 11 voters said 0%. Yes, I understand that IU is undefeated at home and Penn State is winless on the road. But quite frankly, Penn State is playing better basketball than IU right now. IU has been horrendous ever since knocking off Wisconsin while Penn State has taken Ohio State to the wire twice (home and away) and they just beat Iowa. I certainly am not predicting a Penn State win tonight, but I definitely think there is a chance (my vote was 10%). There were a total of 4 votes for 10% and 1 each for 20% and 30%.
Can Wilmont follow up a great performance with at least an average showing or will he lay another egg?
3 voters said 0-5 points tonight
1 vote for 6-10 points
3 votes for 11-15 points
3 votes for 16-20 points
I personally think Wilmont will definitely get to double figures tonight. It might be on a 5-23 shooting night, but you know he is going to come out firing after the huge 31 point performance at NW. Add in that it is senior night, I just think he is going to get his shots tonight. So, let's just hope he catches fire again.
Should Suhr start tonight?
8 votes Yes and 2 votes No.
Go Hoosiers!
Posts
8 comments:
Jeff touched on it briefly, but a huge part of a win tonight is finishing undefeated at home. We need to get away from teams rolling in to Bloomington thinking they have a chance to win.
The Hoosiers can now finish in sole possession of 3rd place with a win tonight.
DJ is the MVP simply because we won many games that Wilmont was awful. Any time DJ has to sit we look like we don't even know what we're doing. I can't imagine how good this team would be if Ratliff and Wilmont were both consistently knocking down shots and we saw about 14 minutes of that last night. You can't under-estimate the importance of Calloway. With him back and Mike White playing well, we could beat anyone on a good night. I still want inside info. on why White is always in the doghouse!
Tom just directed me to a link for audio of the Senior Speeches. It's on indystar.com/Sports/Indiana U.
Just to clarify, the people who are voting for Wilmont as MVP-if we had to play in the tourney without 1 of the 2, you'd like our chances better without DJ?
Cook -- let the people have their opinion!
I also voted for D.J. because I agree that the team has looked god-awful anytime he's not in the game. However, I think it is a credit to Wilmont's season that it is a valid question to ask and I certainly see why he is getting votes. His numbers are just shy of D.J.'s, including rebounds. And I would argue that he has been a much bigger factor in many of their wins. He is the fuel that makes this team go. He has single-handedly led them to a few victories this year and he is the heart & soul of this team.
Sometimes MVP or Player of the Year arguments depend on how you look at it. Yes, if you look at a single tournament game and said you had to play without 1 of the 2, I think the answer is pretty easy that you need D.J. in the line-up. But if you look back at the season on a whole, the tangibles and intangibles that Wilmont has brought to the table has been pretty damn impressive.
I can't recall a single game where D.J. has "taken over" the game; whereas I can think of several times where Wilmont has done this.
Also, Wilmont is much better at celebrating than D.J.
So again, who would you miss the most? That's clearly D.J.
But who has added the most value to this year's team? That's a good question.
For some reason, they didn't even show the speeches on TV in Indiana.
Man, how times have changed in the cut-throat television business.
I did hear Earl's speech on the radio and it was really good. Great sense of humor. Sampson is a very good speaker as well. He just seems to handle everything with class...except the 1-3-1...that seems to puzzle him.
After the game, ESPN had IU on the bubble with Illinois. What's that about?
On the bubble? That's crazy. It does look like most sites have them safely in the dance now.
Even if they were to lose to Illinois on Friday night, they should still easily get in based on the following:
* Sole possession of 3rd place in a conference where the top two teams were in the Top 5 in the country all year long.
* Big Wins over Wisconsin and Southern Illinois. Several other good wins over other Big Ten teams.
* Zero bad losses. None. Not one. All losses were close games, on the road, and to teams that are bubble or better.
* Solid RPI.
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