IU 81 Penn St 65

Well, I guess you would say it was a typical game for the Hoosiers -- not exactly a stellar performance, but they did enough to win the game. This game was tied at 54 midway through the 2nd half, but then IU went on a 27-6 run to put this one away. Watching it, you did kind of feel like it was a matter of time before the Hoosiers would pull away. But you have to give Penn St some credit, they came into Assembly Hall without their best player and made it tough on IU. As opposed to the Minnesota game, I didn't feel like IU played horribly while Penn St was hanging around. It was more that Penn St was playing out of their mind. They had guys draining 3s in this game that were shooting 15% and 20% from the arc for the year. I thought Jamarcus Ellis was the difference-maker in this game. He was the one that would break the zone with either a nice skip pass, or getting into the lane to draw the defense and then kick, or getting the ball down to DJ, or faking a pass one way to get the zone to move and then throwing a quick pass the other way for an open shot. I really liked the way he attacked the zone. In addition, Sampson put Ellis on Cornley in the 2nd half. I thought this was a curious move because Cornley is a beast. Jamarcus certainly did not shut Cornley down, but he did make him work extremely hard for everything he got. Ellis was all over him. DJ came alive in the 2nd half and played very well. He did miss a double-double but 22 points and 7 rebounds is still solid. I think IU really needs to focus on getting him the ball more. I thought Gordon had a very good game. He had a well-rounded game by pulling down some rebounds, making some nice passes, and playing tough defense. He still had a couple out of control plays, but overall, I thought he was a little more under control today. Of course, he seems to play well when the competition is a step down. Now, I'd like to see him step up against some of those teams that play tough defense because he certainly has the talent to do so. Bassett came up big by knocking down 5-6 from the arc and Stemler was solid. Stemler hit his only 3-point attempt and I think he has now hit something like 9 of his last 14. That was basically the 5 that played the entire second half. So, I think I'll stop there and get my butt over to Kristin and Troy's house for the Packer game. Oh, by the way, the important thing is that the Hoosiers keep on winning, especially in a week where something like 15 teams in the Top 25 suffered a loss. Go Hoosiers!