IU 63 Minnesota 67

I'm short on time, so we're going to try bullet point format and no proof-reading (so sorry if the spelling and grammar is worse than usual). * Everything but the win. * I'm not into moral victories but this year is an exception. Even though it's still a loss, it's still a million times better to play a ranked team down to the wire rather than being down by 20 in the first 10 minutes of the game. * FTs were the biggest reason for the loss. Until Nick Williams hit two big free throws with 29 seconds to go, the Hoosiers were just 5-13 from the line in the second half up until that point. * Other reasons included IU allowing too many offensive rebounds and easy baskets in the 2nd half. * We got dunked on a lot. * 3-point shooting is a huge factor in college basketball. We need a game where we stay on fire for the whole game if we are going to pull off a victory. We built an 8-point lead when we started the game 5-5 from the arc, but went just 3-10 after that point. And 3-10 isn't horrible....the FT shooting was horrible. * I've also said before that IU might pull off a victory if Devan Dumes is on fire and goes something like 5-6 or 6-7 from 3-point range. Well, today, he had the ball in his hands with 10 seconds to go and down by 3 points. His current stats had him at 4-5 from the arc. Man, we really needed that 5-6, but unfortunately the tough attempt came up just short. That has been how this season has gone for Dumes -- he has been willing to take the big shots, but hasn't been able to knock them down. * Good to see Story play well today. He had been slumping and riding some pine, but had a great game today with 14 points and some huge baskets down the stretch. * Nick Williams had a really tough day from the field with an 0-7 day. Was glad to see him knock down his 2 FTs with 29 seconds to make it a 1-point game and keep our hopes alive. * The just-beyond-halfcourt-buzzer-beater by Verdell Jones was AWESOME! I just wish it would have been a game-winner. But it was still great to see the guys jog off the floor with huge smiles on their faces. They deserve a few of those moments. * I'm realizing as I type this that I really like the word "huge". * I liked Tijan Jobe out front on the 1-3-1 zone. You have to find something useful for him to do and that seemed to work pretty well. His tall with a huge wingspan and can actually move a little bit, so I thought that was a good move by Crean. Unfortunately, Jobe also showed why it is hard for Crean to put him on the floor when he pulled in a rebound on the run and took about 5 steps for a travel. On plays like that, he is literally equivalent to a grade-schooler. But I still love the big guy and loved it when he was waving his arms to the crowd after Minnesota threw one out of bounds with him at the point of the 1-3-1. * Broderick Lewis has been getting some minutes in the last few games and bringing some nice energy. * So far, so good with Fred Glass. A pretty good interview at halftime. I liked that he mentioned both the Rose Bowl and another NCAA banner in a short interview. Those have to be the goals or you have 0% chance of ever getting there. * I liked the t-shirt promotion. * IU is 5th in the nation in turnovers per game. I might be wrong, but I don't think that's a good category to be ranked high in. * IU had some really bad fouls in this game -- fouling 3-point shooters and soft fouls on inside layups. Next game is at Northwestern on Wednesday. I wish this was the Northwestern of old, but they have a couple really good players and a decent team. I don't have high hopes, but that's why they play the games. No blog post for Wednesday's game as I will be flying back from Boston as the game is going on, so I may not even watch it until Thursday. Go Hoosiers!