Game Notes: Indiana 69 USC Upstate 61

Here are tonight's Game Notes for IU vs. USC Upstate.

A few notes before the actual game notes:

• Tonight's beverage = Diet A&W Cream Soda.  Wow, that's about 67 steps down from Friday night's Three Floyds Alpha King Ale, but I guess that's the difference between a Friday night game and a Monday night game.
• I fear the above beverage choice may impact the idea of these Game Notes being an unedited, unfiltered streaming flow of partial consciousness, but I will try not to let that happen.  I mean, I will make damn fucking sure that won't happen.

On to the action.....

• Ummmm....my eyes have to be failing me.....am I really seeing the end of a women's basketball game instead of the start of the IU game?!?!?  And this is a blow-out too, it's not even a close game.  The BTN never ceases to amaze me.  Don't get me wrong, I like the BTN for airing all the IU games and getting to see Big Ten coverage that you normally wouldn't see, but man, they really do a shitty job.  It's like a third world network.  New nickname is the TWN.
• Ok, here we go, the IU game with only 21 seconds missed.....not so bad, but still makes me angry.
• Wow, that's one big German.
• Oh good, Laskowski again, my fav.
• Ugh, the first thing we see is Creek missing both free throws.  Come on, rook!
• .....and we're losing to USC Upstate.....flashbacks of last year.....hurry, make it stop.
• Pleasant surprise....Pritchard hits both freebies.  2-2, 19:00
• Great pass by Rivers to Creek for two, but then horrible pass and turnover by Rivers after Watford had a nice steal at the other end.  Rivers TO leads to Upstate 3-pointer.  Upstate 5-4, 18:18.
• Doc Rivers in the house....looks good in the IU hat.
• If I didn't know that Doc was Jeremiah's dad, I would say that Jeremiah Rivers is the most athletic white guy to play for IU in a long time.
• Good lord, those 2 FTs did not look like a professional basketball player's son -- Rivers almost airballed the first and then threw up a horrible brick on the second. 
• IU now 2-6 from the line with Pritchard making the only 2.....What The Finkelmeier is going on here!
• 2nd quick foul on Pritchard against the big German....and here comes Tijan Jobe....that will be interesting against the big German.  Upstate 9-4, 16:20.
• 1st TV Timeout -- we look HORRIBLE.  Losing 9-4, 15:24.  Upstate currently on a 7-0 run.  Watford has had his shot blocked twice and missed a 3, Jones had his shot blocked and a turnover, Rivers a turnover and 2 awful FTs, Creek 2 missed FTs, and Pritchard 2 quick fouls.  Not too fucking good out of your starters.
• Jones, a nice steal out of the timeout.
• Dumes -- never shy about getting his first shot in the air, but this was a good one in the lane and ends the Upstate scoring run.  I was really hoping I wouldn't have to use the phrase "Upstate scoring run" tonight, but let's see if the Hoosiers can now get on a run of their own....
• Jobe with some good solid defensive -- disruptive, but not fouling.
• Verdell just literally threw a bounce pass at Jobe's ankles in traffic.  Went out of bounds and still IU's ball, but that's just a horrible pass by VJIII.
• Hulls -- first offensive possession, hits a 3 at the shot-clock buzzer.  Nicely done!  Also, have to give credit to Dumes -- the ball was swung to Dumes at the top of the key with 3-4 seconds to shoot and he could have shot a contested 3, but he made the extra pass to a wide-open Hulls who calmly knocked it down.  9-9, 13:13.
• And Derek Elston continues to be IU's all-time leader in 3-point percentage! (3-3 for his career)  IU 12-9, 12:54.  IU on an 8-0 run.
• 2nd foul on the big ugly German
• Creek -- nice offensive rebound and left-handed put-back
• Watford - a couple nice rebounds in the last minute, including this latest one on the offensive end and draws a foul.  And he continues with his hot hand at the line by hitting both.  IU 16-9, 10:44.  12-0 run now, including the last 10 points by freshmen.
• Upstate 3-ball ends the run.
• I will never call Hulls by the name "Jordy".  Never.
• Rivers redeems himself by hitting 2 at the line.  IU now 6-10 from the stripe.  IU 18-12, 9:15.
• Jones finally in the scoring column with a nice drive and bank-shot.
• .....and Rivers just threw it to nobody.  I mean there was nobody even in the area.  It would have been called intentional grounding in football.
• I don't like how they are letting Upstate hang around right now....just a 5-point lead and Upstate has the ball.
• Pritch - turnover followed by quickly committing his 3rd foul with 6:49 to go in the half....dumbass.
• Jones misses front-end of 1-1....dumbass.
• The lead is down to 2 and now we get called for a 5-second violation against the full court pressure....dumbasses.  Really ugly since the 12-0 run.  Upstate just missed a 3 that could have taken the lead.  They missed, but still....
• Matt Roth into the game.  I like this substitution.  Everything is just ugly right now, but maybe Roth can knock down one or two shots to get things back on track.
• Creek hits 2 FTs.  IU 8-13 from line. IU up 22-18 with 5:35 to go.
• Big ugly German with a nice jump hook to cut it to 2, but then makes a big ugly foul on the other end. 
• Roth hits both FTs.  After a rough start from the line, IU now 10-15.  Still not great, especially since it includes a missed front-end, but getting to be respectable after a slow start.
• Upstate 3 makes it just a 1 point game.  Now an Elston charge gives the ball to Upstate with a chance to take the lead.  Crean takes a timeout.
• Sorry, this post is really boring because this game sucks.
• Jones with a drive, a bucket, and a chance at a 3-point play.  Tries to get the crowd going, but you really need to make more than 1 play in the last 8 minutes to get the crowd going.  And you really need to hit your FT to finish off the play.  Jones gets his own rebound, but misses that too.  Missed opportunities.  Not good.
• Wow, Upstate has 14 turnovers and there is still 2 minutes to go in the half.  Yet, we are only beating them by 3 points.  Pathetic.  I fucking hate Kelvin Sampson.
• There we go, that was the first thing that resembled a true offensive play that unfolded as it was designed and it worked.  Rivers to Elston in the high post, Elston with a nice high-low feed down to Watford and Watford nicely converts.  IU 28-23, 1:50.
• Jones with steal and takes it coast to coast!  IU 30-23, 1:05.  Crowd now into it and IU defense has a little more energy. 
• IU calls timeout with 15 seconds to go.  Crean calls Watford's number and Watford delivers with a nice turn-around shot in the post.
• Halftime:  IU 32  USC Upstate 25
• Enjoyed the halftime interview with Doc Rivers.  Sounds like Doc is a big fan of Crean and strongly encouraged Jeremiah to go to IU once he mentioned that he was thinking about it.  As for Jeremiah, we are seeing flashes every once in a while, but not consistently.  I think he needs to really be trying to get into the lane -- from there, he can finish with his size and jumping ability or he can draw defenders in and then kick to open shooters.  Not seeing nearly enough of that type of thing.  Also, not quite seeing what I was expecting out of him on the defensive end.  So far, I haven't really seen anything special on that end of the floor, but sometimes that can be a reflection of the overall team defense, which has been poor.
• No Capo or Bawa in the first half.
• Got outrebounded 18-16 in the first half.  Inexcusable.
• Interesting.  Elston and Dumes start the second half instead of Pritchard and Creek.  That puts Elston on big ugly German and big ugly German misses a shot on opening possession.
• Jones with a nice drive and bucket, so VJIII now leads the Hoosiers with 8 points.  Good start to second half.  IU 34-25, 19:24.
• Ok, here's exactly what we had hoped to see out of Rivers.  Big ugly German had just gotten an offensive rebound off a bricked FT (absolutely nothing Elston could do about it), Rivers strips him, grabs the ball, quickly heads the other way and feeds Jones on the wing for an easy lay-in.  Jones has 10 and IU has their first double-digit lead of the ballgame.  IU 36-25, 18:50.
• Watford draws 4th foul on big ugly German
• Watford hits both FTs.  This kid could score A LOT of points in his IU career if he keeps getting to the line and hitting FTs like this.  IU 38-27, 17:17.
• Ok, here's what we've been waiting for -- Jones defensive rebound, pushes it up to the floor, finds Watford on the baseline for a DUNK.  That's what Crean says he wants to do more, but it hasn't seemed like IU has been trying to force the pace as much tonight as compared to Friday night's game.
• Speaking of dunks, I have added an "unofficial dunk tracker" over on the right-hand side of the blog.  I will do my best to keep it as updated as I can.  I sure do love  the "dunk shot".
• So, why the hell do you need to wait until halftime to make adjustments????  How about some 1st TV timeout adjustments instead of waiting until halftime.  It's pretty clear that Crean told Rivers and Jones to be more aggressive, push the ball, get into the lane, and make things happen.  The last play was another good example of things we just weren't seeing in the first half -- Rivers drove hard into the lane, then kicked to Jones who also drove hard into the lane, then kicked to a wide-open Creek who knocked down the triple.  But why did we have to wait until halftime to get this point across?  Sorry, didn't mean to complain after IU just opened up their biggest lead of the game.  IU 45-31, 15:32.
• We have our first Bobby Capobianco sighting.
• Elston 1-2 FTs.  IU now 13-20.
• Elston with an acrobatic lay-in.  Elston having another nice game.
• Sweet!  Hulls into Elston, who turns and throws cross-court to Mo Creek for another pure 3-ball.  IU 53-35, 13:04.
• Elston finally misses a 3, but still turns it into a positive play by getting his own rebound and putting it back in with the left hand to avoid big ugly German.  IU 55-38, 10:45.
• Elston above the rim with a beautiful follow.  Actually, that had to be goal-tending and Elston even put his arms in the air and shrugged his shoulders on his way down the floor because they didn't call it.  Regardless, a very nice athletic play and I think it will be added to the dunk tracker.  I'm not sure if it was a dunk or not because he really babied it and pulled off a bit as it looked like he knew he was goal-tending.  However, I think his hand touched the rim as he softly laid it in, so I guess that would be a dunk?  That's 7 points for Elston in the last 3 or 4 minutes.
• Elston strips big ugly German.
• Elston comes out and gets a big ovation from the crowd.
• Oooh, Dumes got fouled and it looked like he wanted to let the elbows start flying again.  Looked like Dumes gave him a little forearm and the Upstate player reacted and got T'd up.
• Hulls makes 1-2 technical free throws and Dumes misses front-end, so the Hoosiers left 3 points at the line on that trip, but still lead by 20 with 9 minutes to go.
• And it's our first Bawa sighting.
• Bawa - nice offensive rebound, but got stuffed on his put-back attempt (not by big ugly German) for a jump-ball.
• Was that a replay?  Bawa, another offensive rebound, but this time his put-back was swatted away by big ugly German.
• IU Gorilla on the floor with the cheerleaders for the 8-minute timeout ("the flags").  That jerk, I can't believe I didn't think of that gimmick.
• Watford with a put-back of his own miss.  He has to be approaching another double-double.  Thank you, Gus Johnson, who just said Watford has 14 & 9 right now.
• Dumes getting a lot of 2nd half playing time even though he looks like shit.  On cue, he comes out.
• First sighting of Daniel Moore.
• Elston back in and immediately committed a turnover -- he definitely looked overexcited to see if he could keep his hot hand going.
• Really sloppy again right now.  Rather than building on that 20-point lead, they have let it get back down to 13 points with a little over 5 minutes to go.
• Creek side-steps big ugly German, flips it up with english off the glass and in.  Fouls out big ugly German.  Students chant "right-left-right" as big ugly German walks toward bench.  Big ugly German milks it a little bit and refuses to sit down.  Finally, he takes the final 3 steps to the bench to the chant of "right-left-right".  He sits down and claps to the crowd with a smile on his face.  I kind of feel bad for calling him ugly now, but hey, I just call 'em like I see 'em.  Creek does not convert 3-point play.
• Moore 1-2 from the line.  I've lost track of overall FTs, but it's been a bad stretch as of late.
• Watford missed both FTs after making his first 9 FTs of the year.
• Not good, this is down to a 10 point game with 3 minutes to go.  These guys needed to get their heads out of their collective asses and finish this game off.
• Down to 8 with 2:20 to go.
• "Ohhh!" says Gus Johnson after Watford nails a 3 at the shot-clock buzzer!  IU ran the clock all the way down, Rivers was trying to drive with under 10 to shoot but was cut-off and kicked to Watford with a mediocre-at-best pass, Watford had to tip the pass to himself and gather it in, then he squared up and nailed it.  In fact, they could have called a foul as he was knocked to the floor on the shot.  Regardless, that was a big-time shot!  This game should have been over several minutes ago, but after Upstate clawed all the way back into this one to cut it to 8, that shot may have been the dagger.
• Now Watford blocks a shot at the other end and gathers it in.  Another double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
• By the way, IU has been horrible the whole game against the full court press.  Not that they have had a ton of turnovers against it, but they have made it harder than it needs to be.  They have struggled to get the ball in-bounds almost every time because they don't have any good plays and the guards are not breaking hard to get open or coming to get the ball.
• Jones makes 1-2 FTs.
• Upstate scores quickly and it's still just an 8 point lead with 33 seconds to go.
• After IU breaks the pressure, Upstate decides not to foul.  Heck, with the way we were shooting FTs down the stretch, I probably would have tried to foul at least one more time.
• Final Score:  IU 69  USC Upstate 61
• The end.