Wednesday, January 28, 2009
IU 75 NW 77
Another heart-breaker.
I'll be looking for some comments from you guys because I just got in from Boston and only saw the last 3 minutes of the game.
I turned it on and IU was only down 1 but then quickly went down by 6 points and looked like they were done. But I started going crazy after Jones and Roth hit those 3s to tie it up.
But then the inexperience of the team showed up again. On the defensive end, it almost looked like Dumes intentionally fouled that guy. Since I only saw these final few minutes, I actually thought that IU must have had a foul to give. But they didn't, so I don't really know what Dumes was doing on that play.
Then on the offensive end, you can't really blame Verdell for that one. It looked like IU ran two screens but NW switched and had both covered well. But then Pritchard was the only guy that tried to come to the ball. Story, Dumes, and Roth just stood there. That just can't happen. On an inbounds, you run your intial play, but if that doesn't work and you have a 3-count in your head, you have to break hard toward the ball and get yourself open. Since Pritchard was the only one that even attempted to do this, Verdell had no choice but to try to squeeze it in to Pritchard. And if I'm not mistaken, IU didn't have any time-outs, so Verdell was really screwed on that play. To me, that one falls on Story, Roth, and Dumes.
I keep thinking that IU will pull off a win on a hot shooting night from the arc. Well, they got that tonight and still lost. They went 12-23 from downtown and still lost. The problem....NW also went 12-23, so IU didn't even manage to get an advantage on a night with 12 made 3-pointers and 52.2%. Their 3-point defense has been a problem all year.
Judging by the box score, it looks like the turnovers (22) had to hurt them.
On a positive note, 17-19 from the line is outstanding.
If you haven't noticed, Dumes tends to be my fall guy and I am usually pretty hard on him. Well, tonight will be no different. I know it's hard to do when a guy pours in 26 points on 9-16 FG/6-10 3-pt/2-2 FT, but he has to get it done in the clutch. With just under a minute to go, he split two defenders, almost lost the dribble but managed to get it back, then made another nice double-clutching move past the last defender to leave himself with a fairly straight-forward layup and he missed it. Now it wasn't an easy point-blank layup and it was a double-clutch but he had really done all the hard stuff and then just had to get it up on the square and drop it in. He just couldn't finish it. And then he had the foul on the defensive end with 7 seconds to go and the guy was dribbling 30-feet from the basket. He must have played tremendous the entire rest of the game, but once again, he did not come through in the final minute.
Overall, as a team, I have been impressed with the fight and the energy that they continue to play with. Especially since their Big Ten season has pretty much consisted of either heart-breaking losses or demoralizing blow-out defeats. I just hope they can bounce back from this one and continue to improve. You could see the dejection on Verdell Jones' face and it kills me.
Lord, help our Hoosiers.
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3 comments:
cook:
good points. it was a really ugly game TO's all over by both teams and really bad ones. most people seem really hard on dumes, but i'm going to say again that it's b/c he's our "go-to guard." you always expect a lot out of that guy, and he's really not good enough to be that guy! next year his role goes down, and he'll be much more comfortable!
Thanks for keeping up the blog Jeff during a tough season. We still read even though we don't always comment.
This may be idiotic, but is it possible that Crean called for a foul at the end of the game. He wanted a win, he wanted it in regulation and he wanted his team to have the ball with a chance to win at the end of the game. So, he tells them to foul. Worst case, they are down by two and a three wins it (and they were hitting their threes). What do they have to lose at this point? I don't know if this is the case, but the foul just seemed too intentional and the coaches didn't exactly react with exasperation.
Did you see Crean applauding the team's effort right after the buzzer sounded? I hope he can continue to keep this team together. They have been funto watch the last couple of games. They might be able to pick up a couple of wins yet. Thankfully, they play Wisconsin twice. What is wrong with the Badgers this year?
I'm still struggling with something I heard on the radio Wednesday morning that shook the foundation of everything I felt was true in life, "Northwestern is heavily favored tonight as Indiana rolls into town." Ouch!
I agree with Andy on thanking Jeff for the continued blogging. I've been quiet on the comments this year, but it's hard to find things to say that haven't been said already, and there have been few games that I've been able to watch in their entirety this season. Needless to say I haven't made them a priority like I typically would.
Tom and I passed on going to the NW game this year, but one of the guys from work did go. I was happy to hear that the IU crowd was still strong even in the down year. If the foul was intentional, and the way the TV commentators didn't seem suprised by it you have to wonder, why wouldn't you foul about 5-10 seconds earlier?
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