NW Game & More

Earlier in the year, I was preaching stuff like "a win is a win" and "as long as they put it in the W column", etc. I've also been saying to this point that I think this team will improve throughout the year....well, I'm not sure I believe all that anymore. This team seems to be getting worse. Picture this. Assume you have no knowledge of Sunday's game and outcome. If I told you that IU is playing NW at home, NW would not have a single rebound in the first 9 minutes of the game, Eric Gordon would have 17 points at halftime, DJ White would have 12 pts and 7 boards at halftime, IU would have an 11 rebound edge at halftime, what would you guess the score would be? I don't know about you guys, but I would guess at least a 15 point lead. But no, not this team. This team finds a way to dominate a game but only hold a 3-point lead at halftime. For whatever reason, this team cannot pull away. They do not have that killer instinct. I can't figure this team out. Or maybe I have figured this team out and I just don't want to admit it. Here's what I think I have figured out: 1. This team just isn't all that great. They are a talented team. They are a good team. But they are not a great team. At least, they sure as shit are not playing that way right now. 2. Defense. They're not improving. This is why they can't pull away. This is why NW is down by 2 with a 3-pointer in the air to take the lead at Assembly Hall with only 9 minutes to go in the game. This is why they appear to dominate the 1st half but only end up leading by 3 points at halftime. 3. IU's role players are not getting it done right now. I had a feeling that NW's back-door cuts would make IU look silly. There were times that the back-door cut and lay-in happened so fast that the IU defender did not even know there was a score by the time they found there man again. Seriously, the NW player would back-door Gordon, Ellis, or Bassett so bad that he would lay it in and start running down the floor before IU even knew what happened. And if it wasn't the back-door cut, it was wide-open 3s. It's no coincidence that a bad-shooting NW team finally finds the range against IU. You know Sampson prides himself and his teams with tough man-to-man defense, but he eventually had to go to a 2-3 zone because this team cannot play man-to-man defense. It was the 2-3 zone that finally made the difference and allowed IU to win.

Now, let's take a closer look at the role players. Gordon and DJ were outstanding against NW, but the role players were atrocious. Gordon had 29 pts on 6-10 3PT FGs and added 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. As for DJ, just another monster game with 26 points and 13 rebounds. But would did the other guys do?

In fact, what have the role players done in the last 2 games? Keep in mind that these are the guys that are getting WIDE OPEN looks because of all the attention that Gordon and DJ are getting.

Looking at 3-point shooting the last 2 games.....Bassett was 1-8 against NW and 0-5 against WI, Stemler was 1-4 against NW and 1-6 against WI, Ratliff was 1-6 against NW and 0-1 against WI. THAT'S A COMBINED 4-30 IN THE LAST 2 GAMES!

That's just not getting it done. Again, these are the guys that are getting the WIDE OPEN looks. Sampson's lack of offense actually starts to look pretty good if these guys simply knock down those open shots. Bassett and Stemler have at least mixed in some hot streaks. In fact, Bassett is still shooting 47.5% from the arc even after going 1 for his last 13. Stemler is starting to worry me again because his misses have been really bad and he only shoots when he is extremely wide open. Even so, he's still shooting 36% from the arc.

Ratliff needs his own paragraph to describe how bad he has been. He is now 4-24 from the arc on the year. Ouch! Also, he has managed to commit 21 fouls in a total of 102 minutes on the year. That's 21 fouls in the equivalent of 2 1/2 games. Bassett has 22 fouls in 481 minutes of play. This team needs Ratliff to step it up. Last year, he averaged 9.3 points and shot 41% from the arc. It can be a huge lift for a team for a guy to come off the bench and knock down a couple 3s every game. At this point, it looks hopeless for Ratliff, but maybe he can find a way to get on track.

So, you think Sampson is happy with how Mike White and DeAndre have been playing? Kyle Taber started against NW and played 24 minutes. Mike White did not play at all. DeAndre played 2 minutes and missed another point-blank layup.

Even though Jordan Crawford can be frustrating at times, at least he usually generates some kind of production. But Crawford hurt his ankle against NW and only played 2 minutes. Not sure how bad the injury is.

My point is that some of these guys need to step it up and we need some consistency. Hopefully, Bassett can break out of his current cold spell because I think he is key. And Stemler has to hit his shots because he is going to continue to get good looks.

Again, I go back to the fact that these are the wide open shots. Teams are simply not going to let Gordon get open looks. But the shots that these guys are getting are usually a result of the offense actually working or the result of a good extra pass to the open shooter. But it's all for not if they miss the open shots.

As for Gordon, he was awesome in this game. However, he now needs to do it against tougher opponents and tougher defenses. He has absolutely dominated lesser opponents, but he has struggled against good teams and tough defenses. He needs to be unstoppable. When the jumper is going and he is driving under control and going to the FT line, he is truly unstoppable. However, against the tougher defenses, he has generally been frustrated and frustrating to watch with lots of turnovers.

Now would be a great time for Gordon to have a great game against a tough defense. It's going to be incredibly tough for Gordon at Illinois, but I would love nothing more for him to have a big game in an IU victory.

This game at Illinois really worries me. This road game at Illinois will play tougher for IU than it will for any other Big Ten team. IU really struggles to score against Illinois and they barely beat Illinois without Chester Frazier in Bloomington.

What the hell is going on with Purdue? I had them pegged as the team to beat next year or the year after, but they are getting it done this year. I just looked at Illinois' schedule and found they had held their previous two opponents to 51 points and 37 points, but Purdue just went in there and put up 83 points in Champaign.

By the way, lowly Illinois beat Northwestern 70-37. Northwestern scored 37 points against us in the 1st half and kept the game within one possession until about 8 minutes to go. We really do suck. This is incredibly frustrating, but the more I look at all of this, we really aren't that good.

But that doesn't mean I won't stick up for our beloved Hoosiers anytime and anywhere. And that includes the polls. I have no problem with our 13/14 ranking. But I do have a problem with Michigan State still being ranked higher than us. I understand that we really haven't beat anyone, but you also have to look at who you have lost to. IU has 3 losses and they are to this week's #8, #13, and #19 team in the nation. Michigan State has only 1 win over RPI Top 25 and that was Texas. They lost to UCLA earlier in the year, but now they have lost to both Iowa and Penn State. Those are 2 really bad losses when IU has no bad losses. Anyway, it's not really worth analyzing at this point in the year, but I just did it anyway.

You guys remember Bob Knight? He resigned today from Texas Tech. Good ole Patrick is taking over immediately. This is actually kind of exciting because I do actually think Bobby mellowed quite a bit over the years. But Pat has that crazy irrational intensity that could lead to some good blow-ups. In fact, he already had one earlier this year, so I'm anxious to see what he will pull as the head man.

I suppose I should put out a prediction for the game at Illinois on Thursday. The defense is going to be very tight and intense on Gordon. I'm hoping he can get to the foul line. A lot depends on how the officials call the game. If the officials let them play in this one, that place is going to be loud and the Illinois defense is going to be all over IU. That could lead to a low-scoring ugly game. I'm hoping that this is one of those games where IU's talent can get them over the top.

IU wins 60-59.

What's your prediction?