IU 82 Illinois 79

Holy crapola!!! The Hoosiers absolutely had to find a way to win that game and they somehow pulled it off. They tried to give it away at times and if Pruitt was any better than a 14% shooter, they would have lost. IU made some great plays and some horrific plays, but in the end, the Hoosiers were able to make Orange pukes shut up. I absolutely love Bassett at the end of games. I was hoping he would get the ball and go to the FT line and he delivered. Ok, I need to catch my breath because I can't even remember most of this game. So, I'll go ahead and post this so you guys can add some comments if you wish. I'll be adding to this post and re-publishing in about an hour. ************* Ok, I'm back. That game about killed me. That is definitely the most excitable I have been during an IU game this year. I know we all wanted Gordon to go in there and light them up, but it sure got off to an ugly start for the Hoosiers. IU was down 4 at half and Gordon had just 1 point. Then, it briefly looked like IU was going to have a better 2nd half. Gordon hit a 3 just 10 seconds into the 2nd half and IU was only down by 1. But then in typical Hoosier fashion, they give up an 13-2 run and suddenly were down by 12 on the road again. For the longest time, it looked like this was going to be a loss. Occassionally, IU would get it down to 5, but the lead stayed in the 5-10 range for most of the 2nd half. Finally, Crawford hit a 3 and the lead was down to 2 with 6 minutes to go. But before Tom and I could even trade text messages of "Yes!" and "Let's Go!", IU had a series of 3 horrible plays and the lead was right back to 5 in the blink of an eye. This stretch included one of Ellis' 3 missed layups on the night. This one was wide open and then he was even right there for the tip-in and missed that too. The next big shot was by Stemler when he hit a 3 to cut the lead to just 1 with 3 minutes to go. This was a shocker because Stemler's first 3-pt attempt on the night was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. But once again, Stemler comes up with a big shot. A minute later, Gordon hits 2 big FTs to give IU their first lead since the early-going. Stemler then had a chance to be the hero, but he missed a 3 with just under a minute to play. It started looking bleak for IU when IU had a 3 point lead with only 30 seconds to play, but then Gordon shut those orange idiots up when he banked in a deep 3 to tie the game. I really don't give a shit that he didn't mean to bank it. It went in and it was HUGE. Illinois had a chance to win it in regulation when a cheap foul was called on Ellis. Jamarcus was behind Pruitt when Pruitt caught the ball and turned his shoulder into Ellis. Meanwhile, Stemler had cleanly grabbed the ball for what should have been a jump-ball. But they called the foul on Ellis to send Pruitt to the line for a 1-1. Fortunately, Pruitt is the biggest bricklayer that college basketball has ever seen. He makes Shaq look like he has a soft FT shooting touch. Needless to say, he missed. IU then ran some god-awful play with 3 seconds left and did not get a good look, so we went to overtime. At this point, I was feeling really good about IU's chances. Randle had fouled out and Frazier was injured. So, if IU couldn't muster up 5 minutes to pull off the win, then this team would be in a full-fledged tailspin. Well, they didn't manage to pull off the win in this OT but at least they forced it to a 2nd OT. IU started this OT horribly with a Gordon turnover, missed shot by DJ, missed shot by Gordon, and then 2 missed FTs by DJ. So, your two best players have come up empty on the first 4 possessions of OT. Enter Jordan Crawford. Every game, there is going to be some good and some bad with Jordan. Fortunately, there was more good tonight, especially in this OT when he hit back-to-back 3s to quickly give IU a 3-point lead after being down by 3. The second of his 3s came after Gordon dribbled the ball off his foot and it went right to Crawford for the open jumper. We'll take it. But then, IU had a very poor possession where they stood around and let the clock run down until Crawford forced up an ugly 3 and missed. And to add to it, Crawford then does not tightly guard McCamey who was on fire and he drains a 3 to tie it at 69 with 1 minute to go in OT. Jamarcus Ellis continued his tough night by missing 2 FTs (making IU 0-4 in OT) with 30 seconds to play and once again giving Illinois a chance to win it at the end. DJ does a nice job to block the jump shot by Brock and it looked like Bassett was going to be able to get the ball, but he ended up tapping the ball instead of grabbing it. The ball goes right to Pruitt under the basket who is then fouled by Gordon with 2 seconds to play this time. He did foul him, but again it was the type of play where officials often swallow their whistles. Nonetheless, it was good foul because it was a point-blank layup and Pruitt had already built half a house by now. The scary part was that Pruitt got 2 shots and I thought he was going to make one this time. Fortunately, we was dreadfully short on the first and then another solid brick on the second. Now, here's where IU got hozed. After the officials blew the whistle on IU twice in the closing seconds of regulation and OT, they then swallowed their whistle for IU. DJ got the rebound on Pruitt's second miss, turned to take one dribble and make a heave when Pruitt clearly fouls him. DJ should have had 3 FTs to win the game. Even though he missed 2 earlier in OT, I like his chances to make 1 out of 3. I was surprised when I saw the replay at how bad Pruitt really did foul him on that play. Had IU lost this game, that's a no-call that would haunt me for a long time. In the 2nd OT, Illinois scored first, but IU finally got on track with 5 straight points that included Ellis finally finding the range on a 1-footer and then a big 3 by Bassett. Bassett would own the 2nd OT with 11 points, including 8-8 from the FT line with 6 of those coming in the final minute to ice it for the Hoosiers. You have to like Bassett at the line at the end of close games. He has delivered for IU in those situations several times over the last 1 1/2 years. I also liked how he went to get the ball on the inbounds plays. Everyone else was just standing around, but Bassett wanted the ball. Of course, even when it is looking good for IU with a 5 point lead and less than a minute to play, it was still scary for IU a couple times. Illinois scores with 37 seconds to go to cut it to 3 and then Gordon gets called for a 10-second violation as he walked the ball up the floor. That was just flat stupid. He was doing this a lot at the end of the game and was barely getting it across on several other occassions. There's really no excuse for it because you know you have to cross before the shot clock reads "25". It's not like it's a referee that is silent-counting in his head and maybe he had a quick count. I saw Gordon mouth "bullshit" as he went to the huddle, but that one was just a dumb play on his part. And poor coaching by Sampson for not warning him after he had reached a 9-count a few times earlier in the game. The good news is that Gordon then played some great defense on the next possession and forced Illinois to dribble the ball off their leg and out of bounds back to IU. But even after 2 more FTs by Bassett to get it back to 5 with 10 seconds to go, it was still a little scary. Gordon played outstanding defense on McCamey and completely stuffed his first 3-point attempt, but McCamey grabbed it and then nailed a 3 with 6 seconds to go to cut it to 2. Bassett comes up big again and hits his final 2 FTs to seal a big victory for the Hoosiers! I'm not sure why I went into that much detail on a game that you probably all watched. Oh well. I think I will do a report card as well because this one had some guys all over the place. Chester Frazier: drop-out What a punk. That crap before the game where he slammed into Gordon during the handshake was total bullshit. He should get suspended for a game for pulling crap like that. It's one thing for pushing and shoving in the heat of battle, but it's completely differnt to pull a pre-meditated stunt like that. I give Gordon a lot of credit for keeping his cool. A lot of guys would have gotten into a fight right then and there or pulled a cheap shot against Frazier later in the game, but Gordon kept his cool. Bruce Weber: pathetic He's really just a pathetic figure now. Did you see the handshake at the end of the game with Sampson? Weber just extends this limp hand and then pulls away and turns around as soon as Sampson touches his hand. For the love of God man, at least man up and offer a real handshake. Kelvin Sampson: D I love the win and the Hoosiers needed a win any way they can get it, but the fact is that this team is not playing well right now. Sampson's offense is lacking and for whatever reason, he can't get these guys to play defense. The defense still really puzzles me because Sampson has a proven track record of his teams being tough defensively, but he can't get through to these guys. When they turn on the defensive intensity, they are really good, but they sure don't turn it on very often. As for offense, we know that Sampson's offensive scheme is nothing to brag about. But come on, you have Eric Gordon and DJ White. I would love to sit around and think of ways to get these guys the ball. When was the last time Eric Gordon had an open shot that was created from a well-designed play? I would be running Gordon through every screen you could imagine and have him going in and out, up and down, side to side, back-door, and anything else I could dream up. And DJ was 4-6 in a first half where IU only scored 25 points. How about getting him the ball some more?!? I was fine with IU coming out in the 2-3 zone because Illinois is a poor-shooting team and IU's man-to-man defense generally sucks. But it turns out that IU's 2-3 zone defense also sucks. Illinois was getting wide-open looks. If they play with intensity, their man-to-man can be really good and I thought it took Sampson too long to come out of the 2-3. I'd also like to see a little more fire out of him at times. There were times tonight where those officials deserved an earful but he generally just spreads his arms with his palms up with a look of "what the hell was that". Also with the players -- some of these guys need an ass-chewing from time to time, especially when you know they can play better defense. Well, the Hoosiers now play the 4 best teams in the Big Ten right in a row. It's time to get the job done. D.J. White: B Another pretty solid game for DJ. Just missed the double-double with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Had 2 nice blocked shots in the overtimes. Jamarcus Ellis: D+ Also just missed a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds. But it's his own damn fault because he could have had well over 10 points if he could have hit a frickin' layup or free throw! Lance Stemler: B- Missed a 3 badly, then made a big 3 with a couple minutes left, then missed a 3 with a minute left. But at least he hit one big one. Other than that, a couple hustle plays and a few fouls. Armon Bassett: A 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. But the main reason for the "A" was the 11 points in the 2nd OT that included 8-8 from the line. Well done, young man. Eric Gordon: B Kind of a high grade for 3-13 FGs and 7 turnovers, but obviously there was a lot more to this than just his stat line. As previously mentioned, he kept his cool when Frazier pulled that bullshit before the game. Think about it, if Gordon turns and takes a swing at him, he gets suspended for a few of the biggest games of the year and IU's Big Ten title hopes are done. So, I give him credit for just laughing off that punk-ass move by Frazier. Also, he stayed aggressive after a horrible 1-point first half. In the second half, he poured in 18 points that included that big 3 with less than 30 seconds in regulation. But the biggest thing was that he went to the line 10 times in the second half and made 9 of them. Other than the 10-second call, I liked it when he had the ball in his hands. Even though there were a few turnovers mixed in, I still felt like that put the Illinois defense on their heals. It was good to see Gordon respond in the second half and still lead the team with 19 points. Because the fact is that even if it is mixed in with 7 turnovers and 3-13 FGs, this team needs him to put up some points somehow, some way. And he was able to do that. They don't win if he gets shut down in the 2nd half. DeAndre Thomas: F Has become completely useless. Scares the shit out of me for next year. Jordan Crawford: A- Ok, so there was getting the behind-the-back dribble stolen and there was failing to guard McCamey tightly twice even though the dude was on fire, and there was not realizing the shot clock was going down. But there were also 4 HUGE 3-balls for Jordan that played a major factor in the outcome of this game. His 18 points in this game were all big ones. Mike White: C Out of favor with Sampson right now. Just not enough good things while he is on the court. Mike White and DeAndre have not been doing many positive things lately. Kyle Taber: A- I thought Taber played well. He had that nice offensive board and put-back to go a solid 1-1 from the field. I know it doesn't sound like much, but the fact that he made the layup gives him an edge over Mike White and DeAndre (and apparently Ellis after tonight). He also made a nice hi-lo pass down to DJ where DJ ended up getting fouled. And it just looks like he is going where he is supposed to and setting screens and playing solid defense. Right now, I think he is deserving of the minutes over Mike White and DeAndre. Overall Team Performance: B This defintely falls into the "I don't care how they did it, but they won" category. This was a must-win for IU and they pulled it off. A loss would have been devastating. That said, this team is still showing many weaknesses and doesn't seem to be improving at all. They have the best two players in the Big Ten and some pretty darn good role players in Bassett and Ellis, yet they definitely are not currently the best team in the conference. The good news is that they got the win to keep pace with PU and WI who already have 9 wins under their belt. Now, it's time to beat some good teams. Can they do it? We shall see. Fortunately, the next 4 games play out favorably as far as home & away games. The worst of the 4 teams is the lone road game and then they get WI, MSU, and PU at home. So, it will be interesting to say the least. I just laughed out loud at how agonizing it must be for Illinois fans that Eric Gordon banked in a 3 to send the game to OT. And that they had every chance to win this game and they couldn't do it. And the fact that this game basically equalled a national title game in their minds because they are so bad that they have absolutely nothing else to play for this year. I think we all know that these orange fools are the reason that there is a term "FIB". Go Hoosiers!