IU 77 Purdue 68

Awesome, we already have some great comments on this post, so be sure to check those out. I have to echo the comment of IU fan wearing red at Mackey Arena. I also loved the shot of Mackey right after IU had iced the game and they were all dejected. And finally, I liked the fact that Purdue packed fans into Mackey for this game -- it shows the rivalry is alive and well and its good to see the state of Indiana as a major factor in college basketball again with IU, PU, ND, & Butler all having good years. Lavin opened the IU/PU telecast by saying he means no disrespect to Duke/Carolina, but this is the heartland of basketball. My feeling after tonight's game is relief. Just a sense of relief because I know I would have been in a tailspin if they lost. It would have essentially handed the Big Ten title to Purdue and would have made the Sampson situation even more painful. I still think the Sampson thing is unfortunate. I really like the guy, but he screwed up. I'm now watching the game again and the 2nd half just started -- what a great start with back-to-back dunks by DJ and Taber. This game had some crazy stats. Purdue had 30 more FG attempts than IU. 30 more FG attempts is just crazy. IU did have 13 more FT attempts, but that's only the equivalent of 7 possessions. So, that's still basically 23 more shots at the goal. If you watched the game, which I'm sure you did, then you know a big part of that was the turnovers. IU turned it over 23 times and only forced PU into 5 turnovers. Purdue does play tough defense and forces a lot of turnovers, but many of these were just IU players making poor decisions and throwing balls out of bounds, etc. IU did win the rebounding battle 46-30. But that stat is also interesting becuase PU had 14 offensive rebounds and IU only had 9. So, the -18 on turnovers and -5 on offensive rebounds is how PU got 23 more shots at the goal. Fortunately, Purdue couldn't hit anything. That included their free throws. And IU was outstanding from the FT line at 30-34. I love that this team hits their free throws. Obviously, it was great to see DJ out there. He is awesome. 19 points and 15 rebounds on a bum knee. Bassett was key. He was 4-4 from the arc, pulled in 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Taber continues to impress me. He is solid. Tonight he even added a dunk and a jumper to finish a perfect 3-3 from the field. Also 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. But the best play by Taber was on an offensive rebound where he tapped it back to Gordon for an easy 28-footer and a 10-point lead. I know "easy 28-footer" sounds absurd and I am probably exaggerating the distance by a couple feet, but Gordon's 3s do often look completely effortless. See also Tom's comments on Taber. As you know, I don't ask a lot of Stemler -- hit the open 3s and make hustle plays. He had a 15-second spurt where he did both. Purdue had a 2 point lead and a fast break layup in the air, then Stemler came in with a nice blocked shot and then nailed a 3 at the other end to give IU the lead. I'm not positive, but I think this makes the 3rd game in a row that Stemler has gone 1-1 from the arc. Gordon certainly didn't have his best game, but this team needs him to score somehow and he was able to do that tonight. See Mick's comments on this. Jamarcus was able to edge out Gordon and Bassett in the turnover category. Ellis logged 6 while Gordon and Bassett each had 5. Ouch. As a team, IU had more turnovers in this game than they had in their previous 3 games combined. Even though Jamarcus had some horrible turnovers in this game, he still does a lot of great things for this team. And he has even come up with some big 3s in the last two games, including a nice one pretty late in the game tonight. Finally, I've been trying really hard over the past couple of years to not let the officiating get to me and also to not use bad officiating as an excuse for a loss (i.e. WI game). So, I'm going to take the opportunity after a win to point out how rediculously bad Big Ten officiating is. In tonight's game, there was absolutely no consistency in what was called a foul and what wasn't. There were times that this game looked like a football game. Of course, we beat them in football too, so it's all good. These last two victories where BIG ONES for IU. I guess now we wait on the Sampson news and hope to hell that this IU team stays focused as they travel to Northwestern on Saturday. GO HOOSIERS!