#8 IU 99 Chattanooga 79

If you didn't watch this game live or track it on the internet, don't be fooled by the final score. The Hoosiers got everything they could handle from Chattanooga. The Mocs opened the game with a quick 7-2 lead. IU slowly started to play better and took an 11 point lead around the mid-point of the 1st half. At this point, I was feeling pretty good and thought the Hoosiers would continue to build this lead and put the game away. But then Chattanooga completely out-played IU the rest of the half. It included a 12-0 run and shockingly IU found themselves trailing 50-46 at half. Yes, that's right, they gave up 50 points in the first half to Chattanooga.

Sampson's halftime speech must have been a good one as the Hoosiers came out strong in the second half. The crowd started buzzing when a dunk by D.J. made it 50-48. And then the crowd and the IU players went absolutely wild when Bassett dished to Gordon on a fast break for a monster tomahawk jam. He threw this thing down with some serious power and the crowd went crazy. That made the score 50-50 and forced a time-out.

IU took the lead but the game stayed under 10 points until about 9 minutes to go in the game. At that point, Gordon hit a 3 to give IU a 12 point lead and the Hoosiers finally blew this one open.

Let's not kid ourselves, this game was practically won by Eric Gordon himself. And it's not because he set an IU freshman debut record with 33 points (of course, that helped quite a bit). But it was his defense on the their point guard that really set the tone. He is a very good on-the-ball defender and he barely let their point guard get off any shots in the 2nd half after he lit us up in the 1st half. I think these quotes from Chattanooga's coach tell the story (from iuhoosiers.cstv.com)

"He scored 33, but I thought he was the difference in the game defensively. They came out in the second half and put Gordon on our point guard and he did a great job. Talk about size on the point. He was very physical and did a great job defensively." On the different pace between the first and second halves: "We played at the pace we wanted to in the first half. I really feel like the difference in the game was Gordon defensively and the way he man-handled our point guards in the second half. We couldn't get off the ball screen. We couldn't get off the plays. He was very physical. He's got great size. He's got great speed. He was dominating defensively, which disrupted everything that we wanted offensively. That young man changed the complexion of the game. That's why he's a pretty special player."

Overall Team Performance: C-

The defense in the 1st half was a joke. Absolutely horrible. Probably the biggest problem is the team defense -- how guys are switching or jumping out on screens, when to help, when not to help, etc. I think this will come over time as the newcomers play and practice more in Sampson's system, but they have a LONG way to go right now. Even the guys that have been there like D.J., Stemler, and Bassett looked lost at times. So, I think a lot of that has to do with not being confident in what their teammates are doing. Again, I think Sampson will get them there, but it will cost them some losses if they don't get there in the next couple of weeks.

Even though the most glaring issue appears to be the team defense, some of these guys are horrible individual defenders as well. I would give Jordan Crawford an F on his defense tonight. He was completely lost every time down the floor.

The other disappointing thing was the rebounding. IU got beat on the boards 34-32. IU's big men did not get it done on the glass. D.J. only had 4 boards, Stemler had 0 in 16 minutes, and DeAndre only had 3 and 2 of those were offensive on his own misses. What's even worse is that D.J., Stemler, and DeAndre only had 3 defensive rebounds combined. So, it's bad enough that the team defense is horrible, but when they did finally get a stop, they didn't get the rebound. Part of that is that there were a lot of 3s and a lot of long rebounds. The good news is that our guards did an excellent job clearing the defensive boards as Bassett, Ellis, and Gordon combined for 20 defensive rebounds! Even so, there were a lot of rebounds that our big guys should have brought in and they didn't.

My other concern was that IU looked tired. They didn't look like they were in game shape. I would have thought the Bahamas trip on top of the two exhibition games would have had them ready, but I guess nothing prepares you for the games that count.

Offensively, the team looked great. They went 14-25 from the arc and 23-31 from the line. They pass the ball well and were definitely knocking down the jumpers.

The important thing is that the first game is under their belt and it's in the W column.

Eric Gordon: A+

What a debut. 33 points on 9-15 FG, 7-11 3PT, & 8-10 FT. He added 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a block. After 15 points in the 1st half and his team still losing, he took over in the 2nd half with 18 points and some tough defense. He did it all. On of his 3s, he went between the legs with the dribble and then drained a 24-footer. And I already told you about the dunk that changed the momentum of the game.

The only small negative would be that he sometimes loses control of the dribble when he goes into explosive mode. If you haven't seen him play yet, you'll know what I mean by explosive mode once you see him. Generally, on his 3s, he kind of lulls the defender, squares his body, and nails it. But when he decides to take it to the hole, he explodes. And if he keeps control, he is going to go right by the first 4 guys and over the 5th guy.

I think Sampson made a great move by putting Gordon on the point guard in the second half. With his size, strength, and quickness, he can shut a guy down. But he certainly wasn't immune to some of the team defense and off-the-ball problems. He also had his share of being a step late.

But overall, he was outstanding.

D.J. White: B-

Kind of a strange up-and-down game for D.J. I think he will really find his stride in conference play when it is more of a half-court game. He was effective when he got the ball on the block tonight and went 5-7 from the field. But he just didn't get that many touches in the post. I think IU needs to do a better job of getting it to him because he has proven that he can score on the block. Unfortunately, he could have had a few more attempts but he fumbled a couple of balls for turnovers (3). He had 2 blocks, but it is the 4 rebounds that I found disappointing.

D.J. needs to own the glass this year. He should be shooting for a double-double every time out. He did hit 7-10 FTs, so that was good to see. I'm not worried about D.J., I just don't think the 100-point games are where he shines.

Scary moment in the 2nd half when D.J. went up for a block and got his legs taken out. He landed hard on his shoulder and his forehead bounced off the floor. At first, I was scared it was going to be a broken arm or separated shoulder, but it ended up just being a cut above his eye. He walked off the floor bleeding, but later returned to the bench with some stitches a bandage above his eye. With the game comfortably in hand, he did not re-enter the game.

Lance Stemler: D-

It seems that IU fans have a "fall guy" every year and I was really hoping Stemler would have a good game tonight so we could avoid this. But I just took a glance at the box score and it is brutal: 16 minutes, 0 points, 0-2 FG, 0-1 3PT, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover, and 3 fouls. So why not an F? I do recall a couple nice hustle plays early in the game. I'm keeping the faith. Lance is going to come up big for this team a couple times this year. He WILL hit a big 3 at some crucial moments.

Armon Bassett: A-

IU's starting backcourt was pretty special tonight. You're willing to look the other way on 4 turnovers when you see 20 points (8-10 FG, 4-5 3PT), 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. His shot really does look greatly improved and a couple of his 3-balls came at some key points when this game was still close. His defense also looked terrible at times, but he looked like he may have still been slightly hobbled by that ankle sprain.

Jamarcus Ellis: A-

Led the team in rebounding (9) and assists (6). He does all the little things that are going to help this team win games. You can also tell that Jamarcus and DeAndre have played together a lot because Ellis found the big fella with some nice passes on several occasions. Ellis also seems to have a lot of emotion, but what I like is that he seems to celebrate more when his teammates do something big. Even though he plays with a lot of emotion, he also seems to be the guy that comes over to a teammate to calm them down if they are upset by a call or something.

DeAndre Thomas: B

Definitely going to play a big role on this team. It's nice to be able to bring him in and still have an inside offensive threat while D.J. is on the bench. And when D.J. and DeAndre are both on the floor, they can be a tough combination. DeAndre missed some easy ones, but he also converted some tough ones. The most important thing is that he comes in and he is active down low. He only had 4 fouls, which now makes my prediction of a season-long average of 5 fouls per game impossible.

Jordan Crawford: C+

The box score looks pretty good with 13 points (4-7 FG, 2-4 3PT, 3-4 FT), 3 assists, and 0 turnovers. However, I really can't get over how bad his defense was. This is where you miss Ratliff. I never thought Ratliff's defense was spectacular, but his defense is about 50 times better than Crawford's right now.

By the way, there were some interesting internet rumors about Ratliff earlier today -- the Herald Times blog (aka "The Hoosier Scoop") posted the rumor that Ratliff was being kicked off the team for failing a drug test. They clearly called it out as nothing more than a rumor, but they posted it nonetheless. Apparently, some of the fuel of the rumor had to do with Ratliff not being at the 2nd exhibition game. Later today, the same blog posted that the rumor had been dispelled and that IU Public Relations stated that Ratliff is still on the team and that he is only academically ineligible for the first 9 games.

Brandon McGee and Eli Holman only played the final 3 minutes and did not do anything.

Kelvin Sampson: B

I thought he could have used some time-outs when the tide was turning against the Hoosiers in the 1st half. Basketball is such a momentum game that I think you need to use your time-outs to break that momentum. Sampson usually does this, but he didn't seem to do it tonight. Also, I thought Crawford was bad enough defensively that he should have been pulled from the game a couple of times. My guess is that Sampson knows he is going to play a big role on this team so he wants him to play as much as possible. Like I said earlier, the move to put Gordon on their point guard seemed to work very well and the halftime speech must have been a good one. After giving up 50 in the first half, the IU defense held them to 29 in the 2nd half.

Referees: D-

The officiating wasn't actually that bad, but it's how Steve Welmer makes the call on a ball that goes out of bounds that drives me completely crazy. Instead of just pointing in the direction of the team that gets the ball, he feels the need to first point 3 times at the guy that last touched it. And then he points out how and where it touched him. Do we really need all that? Do I really care that the ball grazed #42's ass-cheek? No, I just want to know whose ball it is!!!

Jeff's Prediction: B+

Prediction: IU 99 Chattanooga 68. Actual: IU 99 Chattanooga 79. Pretty impressive to nail IU's score on the head, but I clearly underestimated how bad IU's defense is.

Bottom Line: If Sampson can get this team playing defense and rebounding, it will be a special season. He's got a lot of work to do with these guys on the defensive end. Sampson's strengths are defense and rebounding, so I am still confident that this is going to be a very good year.

Next Game: Sunday vs. Longwood at 11am CT on the Big Ten Network.

Go Hoosiers!