IU vs. Kentucky

Place your pre-game, in-game, and post-game comments for the Kentucky game here. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to update this post until Sunday. But wait, I do at least have one little tidbit for you and it comes from flipsidesports.blogspot.com and talks about the commitment it takes to hate Kentucky: I would like to challenge all the Hoosier fans reading this article to look in the mirror every day and ask yourself, "What have I done to hate Kentucky today?" Hating Kentucky is like raising a child. It is immensely pleasing but it takes a lot of work. Your child can grow to be healthy and happy, but only with proper nourishment and guidance. Similarly, the Hoosiers can only win this game if you have hated Kentucky with all your heart and soul since the last game. Your family, your job, your friends, your mortgage….if you let any of these outside distractions affect the disgust you have for Lexington, then you are letting your university (and God, I may add) down. Don't let this happen. Go Hoosiers!

IU 66 TCU 56

A very impressive win, especially if they could take back the final 2 minutes where IU gave up a 15-2 run with 6 turnovers to end the game. But the 20 minutes prior (the last 1-2 minutes of the 1st half and the first 18 minutes of the 2nd half) was the best basketball this team has played all year.

After being down 23-22 with a minute or two to go in the first half, IU then outscored TCU 42-18 over the next 20 minutes. Impressive.

That deep 3 by Story at the halftime buzzer was outstanding. Stephen Bardo even said he shot that one from Kokomo. After a back and forth 1st half, that shot by Story gave IU a 4-point lead at halftime

Then, IU just came out in the 2nd half and dominated. Pritchard was playing great inside and Dumes got it going outside and the entire team was playing great defense and rebounding. And even though the team still finished with 19 turnovers, that was still good for a couple reasons -- (1) it's below 20 and well below their season average that had them 3rd worst in the nation heading into this game. (2) 6 of those turnovers came in the final 2:01. So, they only had 13 turnovers in the first 38 minutes while they built a 20+ point lead.

I actually thought it was interesting that Crean still had the starters in there with 2 minutes to play and a 22-point lead. But then I was thinking that he probably wanted to use this game as a confidence-booster that they beat TCU by 20+ and held them to under 50 points. Good thought, but it backfired. Nonetheless, it was still a very good performance for this young team.

Overall Team Performance: A-

When this game started, I was impressed by TCU's defensive intensity and I thought we were going to be in for a tough battle. I would not have been surprised at all if this was a game we would lose. Even after the first half, it looked like it would be a close game throughout, but they really came out and played great in the 2nd half. They hit their FTs (16-20), hit enough 3s (6-18), won the battle of the boards (31-25), and won the turnover battle (19-21). So, other than the final 2 minutes, it was a good night.

Tom Pritchard: A-

Started the game horribly with 2 early turnovers and 2 early shots that didn't catch rim, but really played well the rest of the game. Notched another double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. He was all over the offensive glass with 9 of those 11 rebounds coming on the offensive end. Interestingly, all 6 of his rebounds against Gonzaga were offensive, so 15 of his last 17 rebounds have come on the offensive end. Obviously, you would like to see more than 2 defensive rebounds in a 2-game span, but 15 on the offensive end is outstanding. And those offensive rebounds were huge in this game. He was either getting the put-back himself or in one case, he kicked it out to Dumes for a 3.

Kyle Taber: B+

Solid. Did his thing. IU did feed him in the post once and he put in a really nice jump hook. I'm not saying he should be "featured" in the offense, but he might need to look to score a little more. So far this year, he has shown some skills.

Daniel Moore: B+

Another 30 minutes for the walk-on freshman. I really like the way that he always seems to be in motion. You don't ever see him standing still. Again, when he is being asked to handle the ball as much as he is and having the ball in his hands at the end of the shot-clock, I can live with 4 turnovers. Especially when they are offset with 7 assists like he had tonight.

Even though he is not a threat to score, he is definitely the guy on this team that puts pressure on the defense and forces defenses to react. He had the assists on Story's buzzer shot, Pritchard's dunk, and Williams' dunk.

Nick Williams: A-

This is exactly what we need out of Nick Williams -- 11 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and a great dunk. He was active and did a little bit of everything. The dunk came in the 2nd half in a half-court set. Moore drove baseline while Williams found an open area in the lane. Moore fed him and he went up off of 2-feet and threw it down with 1-hand and some authority. It was great. If I am not mistaken, he is only the 3rd Hoosier to have a dunk this year -- several by Pritchard, 1 by Story on an all alone fast-break, and now this impressive dunk from Williams.

Devan Dumes: A-

This is also what we need out of Dumes. I just think if Dumes can score, this team gets elevated to another level. He poured in 20 tonight and really helped fuel that big 2nd half with some shots both inside and outside the arc. He also had 3 steals that led to some fast-break points.

Matt Roth: B-

Didn't quite have the shooting touch tonight. Not terrible as he was 1-3 from the arc and 2-6 from the field, but had some pretty good looks that I'd like to think he would usually knock down. His defense has a long way to go. He'll never be the quickest guy, but he still needs to get better on the defensive end.

Malik Story: B+

Not the best shooting night with 2-9 from the field, but I really like what he brings to the table. When he comes in the game, I feel like something good could happen on the offensive end of the floor. I like that he can shoot, he can drive, and he can pass.

Tijan Jobe: F

Tom Crean gave Jobe a 10-second test in tonight's game and Jobe failed it miserably. He came in the game and that Croatian guy drove right around him like he was standing still. Wait, it was not like he was standing still, he actually was standing still. You could hear the buzzer for a substition before the ball even went through the net.

Next up: Kentucky on Saturday at 3pm CT on CBS. Man, I sure do hate me some Kentucky. Those assfaces are 6-3 with losses to VMI (ouch!), North Carolina, and Miami (FL). Their biggest win was at West Virginia (54-43). See poll question.

IU 54 Gonzaga 70

I love this team and this coach. The future is extremely bright for Indiana basketball. If you didn't see the game, don't let the final score fool you. That was the largest lead of the entire game. This game was in single-digits throughout, including still a 9-point game with just 3 minutes to play. Similar to the Wake Forest game, this game was tied 10 minutes into the contest. Although I was pleased with that, I just figured it was just a matter of time before the blowout ensued. But that never happened and it was just a 5-point game at halftime. And it wasn't like IU was playing perfect just to stay close to the #5 team in the country. In fact, some of the statistics were atrocious at halftime including 6-25 (24%) field goal shooting and 13 turnovers. In addition, IU's two top scoring threats in Pritchard and Story were both saddled with 3 fouls. Then, the second half started and IU turned it over on their first 4 possessions and I think they had 7 turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half. This allowed Gonzaga to quickly build a 13-point lead and this game definitely looked headed for blowout city at this point. But our young Hoosiers kept fighting. Dumes hit a couple 3s to get the lead back into single digits. Then, for most of the 2nd half the lead stayed in the 7-11 point range. Story came off the bench in the 2nd half and hit some 3s and then both Roth and Taber hit 3s at the shot-clock buzzer to keep IU in striking distance. With just 5 minutes to go in this game, IU had a 3 in the air that would have cut the lead to just 4 points. That one didn't drop, but I am still amazed that they were even in a position like that. If that shot drops to cut it to 4 points with 5 minutes to play, they legitimately would have had a chance to knock off the #5 team in the country. Unfortunately, this was about the point where Gonzaga was able to build the lead back into double-digits and eventually IU was forced to go into fouling mode and ultimately lost by 16 points. I was getting pretty pumped up as IU was hitting some of those 3s in the 2nd half to stay close. The two by Roth and Taber at the shot-clock buzzer had me really fired up. By the way, Taber is now 2-2 from the arc in his career. There was also a fun moment after Story had just hit a 3 and then Jobe swatted a Heytvelt shot out of bounds. Jobe started waving his arms and the crowd was going wild. The best part for me was not that this team was fighting hard because they always do that. The best part for me was that they were fighting to win. It was really fun to watch and see it in their eyes. Again, this was the #5 team in the country and a team with 5 guys over 6'11" tall. Now they need to make sure they carry this forward and beat TCU next Wednesday. Overall Team Performance: A- Once again, the turnovers (23) killed them, especially at the start of both halves. And once again, they were so outmatched, it was ridiculous. But their relentless hustle, FT shooting, and timely 3-point shooting kept them within striking distance. Daniel Moore: C+ When talking about being overmatched, it was most evident when Moore would try to drive the lane and pretty much got his shot blocked every time. He either needs to work on some type of pull-up 8-foot teardrop shot or he needs to do a better job of drawing the contact so that he gets the whistle. Today, I personally thought he should have drawn the whistle a couple of times because there was definitely contact and then I got pretty upset when they whistled Moore for a foul on the other end when he barely bumped Heytvelt. Moore really struggled in the early going with 3 turnovers in the first 4 minutes, but then I thought he settled in and did a pretty good job of running the show. Hopefully Verdell will be back soon so that Moore does not have to play 35+ minutes a game. I am still impressed with how Moore is playing overall. In particular, I remember a couple great plays by him today. One was where there was a rebound being tipped and bounced around all over the place, then all of the sudden Moore comes streaking through traffice and out the other side with the ball to start a fast-break for IU. The other was diving into a pile on the floor, grabbing the ball, and getting the timeout. Devan Dumes: B This was more of what I was hoping to see out of Dumes. Even though he was only 4-14 from the field, he was 3-7 from the arc and all 3 were big ones. The first one was in the 1st half when Gonzaga went on a 6-0 run to take a 6-point lead and I thought they were getting ready to run away, but then Dumes hit a 3 to cut the lead back to just 3 points. His other two treys were in the 2nd half after Gonzaga quickly built a 13-point lead and his triples got the lead back into single digits. It was good to see him hit some big shots, now we just need it more consistently. Kyle Taber: B- Taber led the team with 7 rebounds and continues to do a great job with all of the hustle plays. His shot-clock buzzer 3-pointer was so pure that I will be interested to see if he starts launching some more. The main thing lowering his grade was 2 plays where he very lightly fouled a guy that was already scoring a very easy layup. In both cases, he should have just let the guy go. Nick Williams: C Didn't really do too much in this game. Tom Pritchard: C Pritchard was actually pretty horrible most of this game, but there definitely were a couple moments where he was outstanding with some nice post moves and a couple really nice blocked shots. Again, it was a tall (literally) task for Pritchard again and he was in foul trouble the entire game. Unfortunately, his 3rd foul in the 1st half was a stupid one that happened 35 feet from the basket. He is too valuable to have mental errors like that. Then, I thought he kind of got screwed on his 4th foul. After scoring, he was just turning to run to the other end when Heytvelt intentionally through his shoulder into him. Pritchard reacted with a small shove and got whistled for the foul. Tough break for IU on a play that probably could have been a no-call or if the refs would have caught the first guy. But again, Pritchard is too valuable to allow himself to get suckered into a cheap 4th foul like that. Pritchard had 7 turnovers -- I think 6 of those came in the opening minutes of each half. But all in all, he was still able to manage 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks in just 20 minutes of play. Matt Roth: C Once again, I don't like how deep every single one of his 3-point attempts are. In one case, IU had great ball movement to get him a wide-open shot and he had spotted up out at 25-feet. He could have just as easily spotted up 3 feet closer and still had an open look. The shot-clock buzzer is a different story and was a great shot, but every shot doesn't have to be so deep. I did think Roth did a pretty good job of helping out with the ball handling today. Tijan Jobe: C I thought Jobe was serviceable. I loved his attitude today. He pulled down a rebound with authority and was yelling. Then, he blocked that shot against Heytvelt and waved his arms in the air to get the crowd going. But other than those 2 plays, he didn't do anything else in 16 minutes of play. Oh wait, he actually scored 4 points for Gonzaga. On one, he was going for a rebound and tipped the ball in for Gonzaga. Then he also clearly goal-tended a shot that he actually deflected into the basket. I continue to be a big Jobe fan and may have to create a blog dedicated to TJ. Malik Story: B+ You have to continue to be impressed with Story. I really feel a big lift when he comes in the game. He was able to knock down a couple big 3s and he is also able to get into the lane and either score or draw a foul. I think he will continue to be a bigger and bigger part of the offense. Kipp Schutz: B Generally, I just skip over the guys that only play a minute or two. But I needed to throw this in here to mainly talk about the horrible officiating on a play Schutz was involved in. Schutz drove in on a fast-break, got fouled, got a shot up on the rim, and a Gonzaga player grabbed the net and pulled the rim down that then catapulted the ball into the air when he let go. The officials said that Schutz was in the act of shooting because they gave him 2 shots (IU was not in the bonus), but they missed the goal-tending call. I have no idea how 3 officials could miss the call because the ball was sitting on the front rim and then went flying 10 feet in the air when the Gonzaga player let go of the net. It's my belief that this cost IU the game and I will be writing a letter. Well, not really, but it still was amazingly bad officiating on that play. Coming Up: TCU next Wednesday. I just hope they can carry forward this effort and get a nice win against TCU because they then have Kentucky next weekend. Go Hoosiers!

IU 58 Wake Forest 83

I really thought I would be able to get in the proper mindset to take this season in stride, but I can't help it, I am still really pissed off right now. Definitely not pissed at how IU played, but I am pissed off that these players, us the fans, and the IU name has to go out there and get embarrassed. It just sucks. I'm pissed off that Wake Forest had their starters in with less than 4 minutes to go with a 27 point lead. IU did a damn fine job to shut down Teague (a freshman out of Indy and one of the best in the country) and hold him to 0 points in the first half. Then, he is still in there when the game is way out of reach and clearly just filling the stat sheet. I'm sorry, but in my world, there is no way in hell that he comes down the lane with 3:52 on the clock in a 27-point game for a high-flying dunk. I'm not looking to hurt anyone, but that's a hard foul waiting to happen in my world. Sorry, I just had to vent. That's just the way I feel and I can't help it that I still get fired up about this. Anyway, on to the game..... You really have to like how this Hoosier team came out and played. The very first road game for these guys and they head into a ranked ACC team's arena. I honestly thought this game would be blow-out city from the outset. I was thinking the game might open with something like 16-2, then be 39-11 at the 10 minute mark and 53-18 at half. That wasn't the case at all. This game was tied at 20-20 right around the 10 minute mark and I think that is incredibly impressive. The scary thing was that in those opening 10 minutes, Dumes had his head 10 feet up his ass with 4 turnovers and IU was 5-10 from the line. Unfortunately, the next 10 minutes were fatal as Wake outscored us 27-11 for a 47-31 halftime lead. Then, as the lead would slowly build in the second half, you could tell a little dejection was setting in for our young Hoosiers which is only natural. But this coaching staff is relentless with keeping the energy up and it showed tonight. This game never got above a 30-point lead, which shocked me especially with the Wake starters playing until 3 minutes to go in the game. To put things in perspective here, we had a walk-on freshman start and play 35 minutes in this game. And then, our first guy off the bench tonight just 2 minutes into the game was a guy from the baseball team who just happened to win a 3-point shooting contest. So, the goal of this year (and especially in games like this) is to try to find the positives. Actually, I think there were a lot of positives out of this game: * As mentioned above, this was the very first road game ever and it was going into a ranked ACC team's arena......were the Hoosiers intimidated? No. Outmatched? Yes. But intimidated? Absolutely not. I touched on it a little bit above, but I think IU actually had Teague rattled in the first half. It wasn't until this game was in blow-out mode and incredibly sloppy that you even heard Teague's name. Also, even after being "posterized" by several monster dunks, the IU players would scrape themselves up off the floor and go play hard at the other end -- no whining to the refs that there should have been a charge, no sulking that their backside will probably be on SportsCenter's top plays, they just kept playing hard. * They proved to themselves that they can hang with a ranked team on the road for 10 minutes. They are nowhere near being able to do it for 40 minutes, they just don't have the talent on the roster to do that. But 10 minutes is a pretty long stretch to play to an even 20-20 tie when you are so severely outmatched. * IU was only outrebounded 34-30 against a team that played 4 players over 6'11" and way, way, way more athletic. There were a couple possessions where IU was crashing the offensive glass and got 3 looks at the basket. * This game prepares them to SHOCK THE WORLD against Gonzaga this weekend at Lucas Oil Field. Just kidding. Unfortunately, we are so young and so overmatched that you can't even make crazy "shock the world" predictions. There is literally a 0.0% chance that we win that game. Let's move on the report card. Overall Team Performance: B It was a lot better than I expected. IU had 26 turnovers, but in all honesty, you have to expect the turnovers on a team that is so young and outmatched so severely in size, strength, and athleticism. I bet you that I use the word "outmatched" over 1,000 times this year on this blog. That's just going to be a fact of life and there isn't a whole helluva lot you can do about that. I think Crean is doing all he can by keeping the energy high, focusing on hustle, and mixing in the zone defense. The good thing on the turnover front was that IU hustled back after a lot of those turnovers and immediately intercepted a pass to get the ball right back. That must have happened close to 10 times. IU was able to force 24 turnovers total. Tom Pritchard: C- Pritchard was just outmatched tonight. Even if he would make a nice move around his defender, there was just another big athletic guy waiting on him. On a normal team, Pritch would have some help from another big guy down low. But when playing a team like Wake and now that other teams know that Pritchard has been our best player, it's going to get really tough on him. He only managed 1-7 from the field, but I still liked some of his moves and his aggressiveness. I think he had two missed dunks, but got fouled on one or maybe both of them. If he continues to improve, he will be tough for some Big Ten teams to handle. Malik Story: C- Story had a really good first half. He opened the game with a trey and did some really good things throughout the first half. But then he absolutely came unglued in the second half with a flurry of turnovers and a couple missed layups. I really like his overall game, but sometimes he gets going too fast. And he sucks on defense. Daniel Moore: B I was actually pretty impressed with Moore's overall performance. With Verdell Jones sitting this one out, Moore was forced into 35 minutes of action. Honestly, I thought we would see a pretty predictable pattern in Moore's play -- I figured he would play good against the likes of IUPUI, Chaminade, and Cornell and then I figured he would look like the ball-boy against the likes of Wake Forest. But he certainly held his own, especially in the first half. Yes, he had some blatant turnovers and yes he got his shot swatted a couple times, but I still thought he definitely made some plays and was able to break down Wake's defense at times. Also, keep in mind that he had the ball in his hands a ton of time in this game. So really, 4 turnovers is not all that bad in my mind. Nick Williams: A- His 3-point shot looked horrible (0-4), but Williams answered my call for him to hit the glass with 10 boards and just missed a double-double with 9 points. This team really needs him to help out on the glass. Also, after being plagued with the turnover bug (like the rest of the team), he only had 1 tonight. Devan Dumes: D Dumes is the guy on this team that drives me crazy. In the opening 10 minutes, he had 4 turnovers and two missed 3s. One of the 3s was a bad shot that was way too deep and the long rebound led to a dunk the other way. I think all 4 turnovers also lead to easy baskets. Again, this was all in the opening 10 minutes when IU played Wake to a 20-20 tie and had a couple leads during that time. If Dumes is playing better, IU actually could have opened a decent lead and made Wake start to sweat a little bit. I should note that Dumes did hit a 3 in that opening 10 minutes, so like I have previously said, there seems to be good, bad, good, bad with Dumes. Unfortunately, tonight was lopsided in the bad direction. I do have to admit that I kind of like the haircut and I think he looks like P Diddy or Puff Daddy or whatever his name his. Dumes finished 7 turnovers, 0 rebounds, and 0 steals in 30 minutes. Matt Roth: A- The box score I am looking at has him at 4-5 from the arc, but I am almost positive that I remember 2 misses. He definitely missed one and made one on a single possession. But I also thought after his first make, he missed one on the very next possession. I have no idea why I am going into this much detail on this.....who the hell cares.....regardless, Roth had a really good shooting night and a couple of steals, so that was good to see. Even though there are some limitations to his game, I like it when Roth is on the floor. I just feel like it gives them a true threat that has to be accounted for on the offensive end, especially from the outside. Dumes has yet to find his shooting touch, Williams and Story look like they will maybe hit the occasional 3, but Roth is a true threat with even a slight opening. I am not a big fan of some of the deep ones that he launches, but he has now hit a couple deep ones and that does provide some additional space for Pritchard to operate. Kipp Schutz: C+ Unbelievable that a guy from the baseball team that won a 3-point shooting contest was the first guy off the bench tonight. But he actually came in the game early and had a steal and a nice assist. But then later in the game, he had a couple turnovers, an ugly 3-point attempt, and 2 very ugly looking FTs. I hate the name Kipp. Tijan Jobe: C+ 2 rebounds in 8 minutes. Pro-rated to 40 minutes, that's 10 boards. I'll take it. And he pulled one of them down with authority. He had 2 turnovers though and clearly is not ready to have the ball in his hands on the offensive end. I am a big Tijan Jobe fan and will go apeshit when he gets his first dunk of the year. And if anyone is thinking about posting a comment that they don't think he will get a dunk this year, I will take that bet right now. The Chief will put it in the basket. Kyle Taber: B+ Taber was very active tonight. He kept a lot of balls alive again, but unfortunately, some of his "tap-backs" were retrieved by the more athletic Wake Forest team and led to some easy baskets. But I definitely like what Taber has to offer with his hustle. He had 3 steals tonight. However, it does make offense a struggle when Taber and Moore are both in the game because neither one is much of a threat. Coming Up: Gonzaga. Ouch. What a tough week. I may just try to get my Christmas shopping done this weekend. Tom Crean will have his work cut out for him to keep these guys holding their heads high and playing with energy. Go Hoosiers!