IU vs. Ohio State

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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.

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!

IU vs. Penn St

Some people believe the Hoosiers could get their first Big Ten win today. We shall see.

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The Definition of CRAZY

WARNING: You will need sound for this video and it is NOT appropriate for children or most workplaces. If you are ever bored and need some entertainment, do a search on YouTube for Bob Knight. Trust me, there's hours of good material out there. But out of all the Bob Knight YouTube videos and past SportsCenter Top 10 Bob Knight moments, the video that I have included below is my all-time favorite. There are 2 main reasons that this video is my all-time favorite: 1) To my knowledge, this video never made it to the world wide web or anywhere in the public eye until it was posted on YouTube in October '07. However, thanks to a friend of the IU Hoops blog who is a friend of the camera-man who filmed The Bob Knight show, I have been studying a bootleg copy of this video for 10 years. I'm so happy this video is now out there for all to enjoy. 2) The second reason that this is my favorite video of Bobby is that this shows just how truly crazy this guy was/is. He was not prompted by anyone else, there was no reporter asking a dumb question, and to my knowledge there was not a referee in the room. Nope, this is just him talking and the crazy shit going on in his head. So with that intro, it's now time for you to watch the video. After you watch the video, continue to read on below the video as I have a full breakdown and analysis of the craziness. OK, so how many times did you watch it? I told ya.....he crazy. Now, there are some key moments in the video where you can tell he starts to lose it. And I'm not talking about hearing the frustration (or I should say disappointment) in his voice, I'm talking about some signs that this man is getting ready to have an outburst even though he is still relatively calm at that particular moment. The first one comes right about the 19 second mark into the video. You have to watch for it, but his right eye bugs out and takes a quick look to the right. At that moment, you can tell that something ain't quite right here. The next one is the exact same thing with the right eye but this one is more pronounced. This one takes place at the 28 second mark. Go ahead, watch it again and look for it. After this second bug-out of the right eye, you can really start to tell that something is brewing here. But before the outburst, I think there is one more very interesting moment. It is during the 35 through 39 second mark. During this 4-second span, his speech is almost starting to sound like the man is sad. Now, this is not an emotion that we have ever seen out of Bob Knight. Seriously, has anyone ever seen The General sad? Don't fret, my friends. Because good ole Bobby quickly snaps out of it and seamlessly goes right into that emotion that we all came to know and love out of him -- anger, sweet boorish anger. And again, the fact that it was unprovoked outrage and that it all went on in his own head while speaking on the talk show with his name on it..... that's why this is my favorite Bob Knight video clip of all time. Enjoy.

IU 53 Ohio State 77

Howdy folks. Sorry I haven't had much to say lately, but.... The Michigan game ripped my heart out. The Illinois game was just disgusting. Much like the Kentucky game, this one was over in the first few minutes. Then, when you lose Dumes, a bad offense becomes a horrible offense. I guess I wasn't surprised after that heart-breaking loss to Michigan. Tom Crean does a great job of keeping this young team upbeat, but he's not a miracle worker. There was a great take on the Illinois game from Inside the Hall: Did Illinois fans even enjoy that? Wasn’t that sort of like working out all summer, getting big, hoping to fight the bully that terrorized you last year only to see the bully come back to school in a wheelchair? I mean, you can punch the kid in the face if you want … but it’s not going to be nearly as satisfying. As for tonight's game, it was more of the same, just not quite as bad as the Illinois game. Actually, IU looked pretty good on the offensive end in the first few minutes -- Williams hit Pritchard on a high-low play and Williams also scored in the lane. Unfortunately, Ohio State was nailing 3s at the other end and OSU quickly built a 15-6 lead. IU responded with 4 straight points to cut it to 15-10, but that's when the wheels fell off. Ohio State then went on an 18-0 run to make it a 33-10 game mid-way through the 1st half and this ballgame was over. Amazingly, at the point where it was 27-10, OSU had not scored a 2-point basket. They started the game 8-9 from the arc and also converted on a traditional 3-point play to get to 27 points. From the point of the 23-point first half lead, IU actually played pretty good the rest of the half by outscoring OSU 18-11 to be down by 16 points at the half. In fact, Verdell had a 15-footer at the buzzer that would have made it a 14-point game. So, after Ohio State went 11-16 from the arc in the first half and had an 18-0 run, I was actually pleased with only being down by 16 at half. Then, the Hoosiers came out strong in the 2nd half and quickly got the lead down to 12 points. Not only that but I think IU had 3 straight possessions with the lead still at 12. It would have been very interesting if they could have gotten this game into single digits. Unfortunately, they could not convert on some pretty good looks. From that point on, the lead stayed in the mid-to-upper teens for most of the second half and this game became very uninteresting. In keeping with this year's theme, here are some of the positives from tonight's game or the last few games:

• Nick Williams - He was in foul trouble tonight (including an incredibly stupid 5th foul), but he has really taken his game to another level in Big Ten play. He has been doing a great job of playing in the high post and scoring from mid-range.

• Verdell Jones - Another guy that has stepped his game up another level. The biggest thing in my mind is that he has been smarter when driving the ball. Early in the year, he was going all the way and either getting his shot blocked or getting bumped enough to throw his shot off but not drawing a foul call. Now, he seems to be pulling up from mid-range or doing a better job of using his body to shield and still get the shot up.

• Tom Pritchard - I hope and pray that Christain Watford can come in and be a stud because I think that could make Pritchard that much better. Pritchard is a great garbage man around the bucket. If Watford can draw team's most athletic tall defender, then I think Pritchard could really do some nice work against opponents second-best post defender. IU also desperately needs a shot-blocker on the defensive end to help Pritchard out. But all things considered, Pritchard continues to impress me.

• Devan Dumes playing injured - I was happy to see him on the floor tonight after what looked to be a bad ankle injury on Saturday. He could have easily said he was not ready to go and rest until this weekend's game, but he clearly wanted to play. I like that. IU definitely needs him on the floor to at least be an offensive threat. Unfortunately, he continues to just be a millimeter away from making the big plays that this team so desparately needs.

• Matt Roth's blocked shot - This happened late in the game. Ohio State had a run-out and Roth was running on the opposite side of the floor and slightly behind the OSU player. This game was long over and I was definitely expecting Roth to just pull up and let the OSU player go. Then, I saw him start to speed up and I honestly said "NO" because I thought for sure he was just going to get posterized with a tomahawk dunk. But he went up and made a great blocked shot!

• Free Throws - A respectable 10-13 from the line tonight.

• Rebounding - You have to admire that this team has been outrebounding opponents even though they are so severely outmatched in every way.

So, those are some of the positives I see, but I also feel the need to point out some of the things that were really bad:

• Defending the 3 - Ohio State hit 8 of their first 9 and 11 of 16 in the first half. Illinois went 9-14 in the first half. So, in the last 2 games, IU's opponents have gone 20-30 from the arc in the first half. Wow. In fact, I thought IU was giving up a lot of good looks to Michigan in the first half as well, they just happened to miss almost all of them. I guess it shows you how powerful the 3-point shot is in college basketball. By the way, moving the line back by a foot was pretty much pointless. If they really wanted to make a change that would have any impact at all, they would have had to move it back at least 2 feet. Anyway, we are giving up way too many open looks from the arc.

• Malik Story - I am a big Malik Story fan, but he had a very rough game tonight. Just seemed like absolutely nothing went right for him.

• The lack of a 2nd half comeback - I really felt like there was an open door tonight for a comeback effort, but it didn't happen. I thought IU came out the first few minutes with some fire to cut it to 12. However, once they came up empty with several chances to get it to 10 or less, it really seemed to take the wind out of their sails and I didn't feel any sense of urgency. They shot just 9-30 from the field in the second half, including an impressive 0-9 from the arc.

Coming Up: Is there a winnable game in IU's near future???? When I look at the remaining schedule, I see four different segments. The first segment is the next 5 games where I think IU will find a way to win their first Big Ten game in one of them. (see poll question) The next 5 games are: vs. Penn State vs. Minnesota @ Northwestern vs. Ohio State vs. Iowa If they can't find a way to win one of those 5 games, then I surely don't think they will win one of the next 5 games, which are: @ Michigan State @ Minnesota vs. Illinois vs. Wisconsin @ Purdue After that, then maybe another brief window of opportunity with the next 2 games: vs. Northwestern @ Penn State Then, a rough finish with these 2 games: vs. Michigan State @ Wisconsin And then we SHOCK THE WORLD by winning the Big Ten Tournament. So, what are your thoughts about these young Hoosiers after competing in a couple Big Ten games and then getting blown out in a couple Big Ten games? Comments are always appreciated. Go Hoosiers!

IU @ Illinois

IU 66 Michigan 72

I can't do it. I just can't. I am so completely devastated right now. I am absolutely sick for these players. The first comment tonight came from Ben and it was so spot on, I had to copy onto the main page. Well said, Ben. Your words have allowed me to swallow back down the little bit of vomit that I have had in the back of my throat for the last 10 minutes. Ben's Comments: Here's the new plan...tivo all the games...wait to see if they win or lose. If they win, watch the game...if they lose, delete it. IU basketball is kind of like the economy...it ain't gettin' any better until late 2009/early 2010!! That's as optimistic as I can be right now. Lets just ride this mutha out! Benny P.

IU 60 Iowa 65

A pretty darn good effort. In fact, a very respectable effort for this young team to experience its first Big Ten game and to do so on the road. Unfortunately, I think there will be two common themes for this conference season -- one will be getting blown out of the gym and the other will be respectable efforts that come up short. The end result will be a lot of losses. But keeping with the goal of finding the positives this year, there actually were a lot of positives in this game. The Hoosiers started 4 freshman and a JuCo transfer and came out pretty strong. The game was tied at 15 midway through the first half. But then Iowa went on a 12-2 run to quickly build a double-digit lead and I figured this game was over. IU gave up 3 traditional 3-point plays in that stretch by committing dumb fouls and also missed two front-ends at their end. It looked like they were coming un-glued and getting to the point where Crean has nowhere to turn. However, our Hoosiers had a lot of fight in this game and came back strong in each half after looking like they had just been hit with the knock-out punch. After going down by 10 or 12 points with about 5 minutes to go in the first half, they made a run to get the lead down to 3 points with less than a minute to go in the half. Unfortunately, Iowa nailed a 3 at the buzzer and then came out in the second half with a traditional 3-point play. And in just 20 seconds of game-time across the two halves, Iowa turned that 3-point lead into a solid 9-point lead. Early in the second half, it again looked like Iowa was going to run away with this one. IU missed its first two FTs of the second half including another front-end and also missed two layups. I believe Iowa built a 13-point lead, but then IU started hitting some FTs and playing tough defense. Story hit his second 3-pointer of the game to get the lead back down to 7 points with 10 minutes to play and it was a ballgame again. Unfortunately, over the next several minutes, IU struggled to hit the big shots. Roth had a 3 in the air to cut the lead to 4 and Dumes had a 3 in the air to cut the lead to 5, but both missed. IU was making enough plays to hang around, but not the big ones to get over the hump. After the lead went back up to 10 points with 4 minutes to go, Nick Williams hit nice back-to-back buckets to cut it to 6 with 3 minutes to go. Then a nice pass from Jones to Pritchard for a layup cut it to 4 with 2 minutes to go. After a score by Iowa, Nick Williams answered again to get it back to 4 with a minute to go. Then, Williams got a steal and a timeout to give IU the ball back with 32 seconds. Roth got fouled and calmly went to the line and sank them both to cut the lead down to just 2 points with 22 seconds to go. Here is where IU needed a break. Jones played some tough full-court defense and forced the dribbler to sideline where he ran out of room right in front of the IU bench. In a bang-bang play, there was contact between Verdell and the dribbler and the ball went flying out of bounds. The call could have been a charge for the dribbler lowering his shoulder (which Dumes had just been called for on a questionable call only a minute earlier) or it could have been a foul on Verdell or it could have been called out of bounds to either team (it really was hard to tell). The officials ended up saying it went out on IU and gave the ball to Iowa. After watching the slo-mo on my Tivo, it did look like it went off of Verdell's foot. Unfortunately, that call was the last real chance for IU to steal this one and come out with a win. Iowa ended up with a clean inbounds, IU had to foul, Iowa sank them both to get the lead back to 4 with very little time left. Then Moore turned it over and the game was over. I watched most of this game never really thinking IU had a chance to win. The ebb and flow of the game was Iowa always in the lead somewhere between 3-13 points and you just sensed that IU would never be able to get over the hump. However, our Hoosiers made this one very interesting in the final 4 minutes when they cut the 10-point lead down to 2 points. And I am telling you that the call with 22 seconds could have gone either way. Man, that would have been fun to see them get that possession down by 2 points with a chance to tie or win the game. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. As Lee Corso says.....Indiana, not today. And as I always say after that.....shut the f*@# up Corso! Overall Team Performance: B Solid effort. They made it interesting. Won the rebound battle and only had 11 turnovers. Unfortunately, Tate absolutely ate up Pritchard and Taber and that was probably the biggest factor of this game. But you also have to give credit to Tate -- yes, IU made it fairly easy for him -- but this guy was 6-6 from the field and 10-11 from the line to finish with 22 points and 11 rebounds. IU's FT shooting was driving me a little crazy, but they started hitting them in the second half to go 17-22 (77%). However, I know for sure that they missed 3 front-ends so that is at least down to 17-25 (68%). I was impressed with Roth knocking down the pair of freebies to cut it to 2 points with 22 seconds to go. Tom Pritchard: C- He had his moments, but overall, he got his ass handed to him by Tate. Matt Roth: B- I mentioned the late FTs already - that was great. As for the rest of Roth's game, it's kind of tough for me. On the one hand, I like when he is out there because I feel like he is a pretty smart player who won't make the bonehead turnovers and is a threat to knock down the deep ball. On the other hand, he doesn't have much else to offer on the boards, defensive end, or making things happen. I still really like his shooting stroke. He was 1-4 from the arc tonight, but if IU is going to pull off a win or two in the Big Ten, it might be on a night where Roth pulls off a 6-7 night from downtown. Verdell Jones: B Sometimes he looks so incredibly weak when he goes into the lane. But on other times, he is able to make something happen. A lot of upside if he can develop. Nick Williams: A Williams really had some huge buckets today. And these were not cheap put-backs. These were 16-foot jumpers with a guy in his face. And he was the main fuel for the late run -- he had 3 field goals in the closing minutes. On a couple possessions, they went to him as the go-to guy and he delivered. He showed me enough today that I definitely think he needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end. Today he finished with 14 points on 7-11 FG shooting and 5 boards. Devan Dumes: B I feel like Dumes is so close to making the big plays to get this team to another level, but he just can't seem to get there. He'll hit a big 3 and then shoot another one on the next possession that would really propel the team, but then he misses. He will get a big steal, make a great move to get to the basket, but then miss the layup. He'll get the ball on a key possession and drive a little out of control and get called for a charge. But again, I just feel like he is on the verge of putting it all together. If he does, that could be a key factor in IU winning a couple of games. Daniel Moore: C At times, I think he makes more things happen at the point than Verdell does. But then there were times where Peterson would just take it right at him, overpower him, and get an easy bucket. I think I like Moore and Story coming off the bench together -- it really seems to give the team an energy boost and that is what you need from the bench. Malik Story: B I really, really like Story. But he must struggle to do things within the system or on the defensive end because it seems Crean has a fast trigger with sending him to the bench. Story continues to come in and hit big 3's. It seems I always remember the 3's that he hits because they always trigger an IU run or fuel an existing run. Kyle Taber: C+ Had 2 nice offensive rebounds and put-backs, but also got eaten up by Tate. Brett Finkelmeier: A- Crean put him in for a minute at the end of the 1st half for defense and he forced a double-dribble. Crean put him in for a few seconds at the end of the game to foul and he fouled. That's doing what you are asked to do. Nice job, ball-boy. Broderick Lewis: B Saw some action due to Pritchard, Taber, and Williams in foul trouble. Oh, and also due to the fact that Tijan Jobe can't fight his way out of a paper bag. Lewis didn't make the stat sheet other than 3 minutes played. Next Up: Home against Michigan on Wednesday at 5:30pm CT. Go Hoosiers!

IU at Iowa

Every year when we head into the Big Ten season, I always look at what record I think it would take for IU to make the Big Dance. Well, this year, it would take at least a 13-5 conference record and some success in the Big Ten Tourney. And for the first year ever, there really is no point in even thinking about that. Instead, the question around most IU websites today is whether our Hoosiers can win a single game. Unfortunately, I think it is a valid question and want to know what you think, so please see the poll question to the right. The good news is that this line of thinking reminded me of the following CLASSIC video clip. Enjoy. Go Hoosiers!