Chicago Invitational Debacle

IU got their first true test on Friday night when Illinois State cut it to 2 in the 2nd half, but the Hoosiers responded well and ultimately won that game 70-57. That set-up tonight's championship game of the Chicago Invitational Challenge against Xavier. And I'm sure you know by now, tonight's result was not a good one as IU falls 80-65. Obviously, when you only shoot 1-15 from the arc, you are going to struggle. However, I still think the biggest problem tonight was again defense. If the Hoosiers were stronger defensively, you can possibly survive a poor shooting night from 3-point range. Tonight, they simply could not get stops when they needed them. Not only that, but they weren't even forcing tough shots, they were often giving up layups. The game started tight and you could tell that Xavier was going to be a formidable opponent. But then just about everything that could go wrong did actually go wrong for IU in the 1st half. Gordon picked up his 3rd foul and had to sit out the last 7 minutes of the half. Then, with 5 seconds to go in the half and IU down by 9, DJ has the ball in good position in the low post. He takes a dribble to back down his defender, the defender flops, and DJ gets whistled for his 3rd foul of the 1st half with only 2 seconds to go. Then, to add insult to injury, Xavier throws the ball the length of the floor, some jackass catches it and hits a 12-footer at the buzzer to make it 40-29 at half with Gordon and DJ both with 3 fouls. Ouch. But the disappointing thing about this game is that IU never even made a run in the 2nd half. This is college basketball where every team makes a run, but the game was never close again and IU just simply got their ass kicked. They played hard and the effort was there, but they just are not good enough defensively. To make a run, you have to make stops and they could not get a stop to save their life. They would play tough defense early in the shot clock, but then would have a break down, and Xavier was a good enough team to make the right passes and finish the plays. Even if the Hoosiers could get a stop every once in a while, their offense was just bad. Bassett's shot was way off tonight. He hit IU's only trey, but it took him 7 attempts. Gordon got 20 points, but that was only due to 12-12 from the line. He never got into a rhythm and never got anything going. DJ was the only guy that shot the ball well as he was 7-9 from the field, which begs the question as to why they don't go to DJ more and why DJ doesn't demand the ball more. Giving up 80 points in this type of a game is very concerning. This was a game that was mostly played in the half-court and was very hard fought. The fact that IU only scored 65 points is not what surprised or concerned me. But the fact that they gave up 80 is extremely troubling. I would have hoped that this IU team could have a cold outside shooting night, but still find a way to win a game like this by a score of something like 65-61. What might be even more concerning is that they played very hard tonight, so it's not an effort thing. I think it's going to take some time for all of these new guys to play well together on the defensive end and play Sampson's style of defense. Unfortunately, they don't have time because 3 of their next 4 games are against tough opponents in Georgia Tech, Southern Illinois, and Kentucky. So, if they don't get it figured out, they could be collared with another loss or two or three and suddenly our "special season" is starting to look very average. Very disappointing. They never even made a game out of it in the second half. Writing this crap is supposed to be therapeutic for me, but I still feel like I'm going to vomit, so I am going to stop now. I'd be interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts. My final thoughts are that I think the Chicago Invitational Challenge is a stupid tournament and Tom Earth remains the only good thing to ever come out of Chicago. Go Hoosiers.