IU 65 Iowa 43

Yes, that's right, IU gave up only 43 points. I know Iowa is deliberate on offense and they had a lot of unforced turnovers tonight; however, 43 points is still a great defensive effort for this IU team. Overall Team Performance: A- There were times in the first half that I was frustrated because they were letting Iowa hang around. However, DeAndre hit a shot at the halftime buzzer to give IU their first double-digit lead of the night. The Hoosiers never looked back and held Iowa to 17 points in the 2nd half. Yes, they held the whole Iowa team to 17 points for the entire 2nd half. If you recall the game in Iowa City, Justin Johnson scored 19 points in the final 1:55 of that game. Offensively, IU was OK and it still wasn't exactly an overall team performance that makes you say "wow", but if they can start playing better defensively, this team will be tough. DeAndre Thomas: C+ DeAndre had 1 assist to 4 turnovers, but the one assist was an absolute beauty. Out of a timeout, they got the ball to DeAndre at the top of the key, he dribbled once to his left, then did a reverse pivot with a dribble back to his left, and then dished a one-handed bounce pass to a back-cutting Eric Gordon for the tomahawk dunk. DeAndre also had the aforementioned halftime buzzer shot that was nice. Other then those 2 plays, DeAndre did not do much else. By the way, DeAndre got the start tonight and Mike White only played in the mop-up minutes. Not sure why. D.J. White: A- Not really a dazzling box score with only 4 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, and 0 blocks. But I don't really grade on stats. I still thought DJ was solid tonight with 19 points on 8-13 shooting. And even though I hate the way IU hedges ball screens, I thought DJ did a great job of it tonight. Armon Bassett: A I think this team is 10 times better when Bassett is in the game vs. when Crawford is in the game. Armon looked really good tonight. He went another 2-2 from the arc, which makes 7-8 in his last 2 games. He also had a great hustle play where he ran down a loose ball in the corner and then passed to DJ for a big dunk. Also had 3 assists and 0 turnovers. Jamarcus Ellis: B- Jamarcus was out of control quite a bit tonight. It looked like he was trying to do too much at times. But, as usual, he still finishes with a pretty good stat line of 12 points, team-leading 8 rebounds, team-leading 4 assists, 2 steals, and 4 turnovers. Eric Gordon: A Even though he was 0-3 from the arc and only had 17 points, I thought this was one of Gordon's better all-around games. He was under control and had several drives with beautiful finishes that included 3 finger-rolls and 2 tomahawk dunks. And don't let the 0-3 from the arc fool you, he did hit 2 shots from the corner with only a toe on the line, so he did still nail some jumpers and finished 7-11 from the field overall. Gordon also added 3 assists and I think all 3 were to DJ, which is good to see those 2 starting to get on the same page. I remember earlier this year, Gordon kept whizzing fast-balls past DJ's ear. The really impressive part of Gordon's game was his defense. It wasn't perfect defense, but it was pretty darn good. He had 3 blocked shots and 4 steals and a few more defensive efforts that led directly to turnovers. Jordan Crawford: D- Horrible defense, horrible shot selection, and 4 turnovers. A.J. Ratliff: F 6 minutes, 2 fouls, 0-2 from the arc. Useless. One of his missed 3s was a poor shot with 19 seconds in the half when IU could have held for the last shot. Fortunately, I think Iowa ended up missing a FT and then DeAndre scored at the buzzer, so it didn't cost IU but it was still a dumb shot. It is very clear that Sampson has not been happy what he has seen out of Ratliff. Lance Stemler: C Stemler's role is hustle plays and hit the open 3. Tonight, hustle plays.....check. Hit open 3s.....[sound of crickets]. After being hot from the arc in recent games, Stemler was 0-3 tonight and 2 of the misses were very bad. Everyone just cross their fingers and hope & pray that we are not headed into one of those ice-cold spells. I don't think that will be the case, but you never know. Well, it hasn't been dominant, but 17-1 and 6-0 in the Big Ten is very impressive any way you slice it. Go Hoosiers!