Recap and Report Card: Indiana 71 Ole Miss 89

Well, that was pretty much what I expected (prediction was a 67-83 loss).  However, what I didn't expect was the outstanding start by IU. 

The first half was a half of runs.  The first few minutes were played to a deadlock at 11-11 and I was pretty happy with that.  Then, the Hoosiers went on a 9-0 run to take a 20-11 lead just 6 minutes into the game.

But then Ole Miss went on a 14-0 run of their own to take the lead 25-20 midway through the 1st half.  During this run, the second team came in and looked horrible.  Hulls was out of sorts as were the rest of the subs and they completely lost any rhythm.  Midway through this Ole Miss run, Crean put the starters back in, but the mo-jo was lost.

Unfortunately, even after IU ended their scoring draught, the Ole Miss run extended to an overall 30-5 run over a 10-minute span to turn IU's 9-point lead into an Ole Miss 16-point lead at 41-25 with 4 minutes left in the half.

Then, some resiliency by the young Hoosiers as they go on an impressive 11-2 run of their own to cut the lead back down to just 7 with under 30 seconds to go in the half.  However, a few bad notes on this run.  First, this run could have cut the lead to 3 or 4 if they could hit some damn free throws (a major problem throughout the entire game).  Also during this stretch, Bobby Capobianco had a nice offensive rebound on one of those missed free throws and had a point-blank layup and missed it.  And finally, the Hoosiers could not close out the half on this run as they gave up an offensive rebound and put-back right at the buzzer.  So, the halftime score was 45-36. 

The second half started out promising with IU scoring the first 4 points of the frame and the lead was down to 5 less than one minute into the second half.  Then, after trading baskets, Ole Miss went on an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 13 points at a score of 55-42 with 15 minutes to go.

The lead seemed to stay right around the 10-13 point range for the next 8 minutes.  Missed FTs and lack of any type of resistance on the defensive end prevented the Hoosiers from making any dent in the lead during this stretch.

Then Devan Dumes actually had a nice stretch.  He hit a 3 to cut the lead from 14 to 11, then he got a steal that led to IU making 1 of 2 FTs to cut the lead to 10.  IU got the ball back and Rivers made an acrobatic layup and suddenly the Hoosiers had something cookin' by cutting the lead to just 8 points.  The score was 69-61 with 5:53 to go.

Then came the key play of the game.  Dumes got another steal and Dumes and Rivers had a 2-on-1 fast break.  The defender jumped to Dumes, so Dumes made the pass to Rivers for what would have been an easy layup to cut the lead down to just 6 points.  But Dumes and Rivers could not connect on the pass and the ball went off Rivers hands out of bounds.  I've already read some other articles/blogs that are referring to this as "an errant Dumes pass", but I thought the pass was on target and Rivers simply mis-handled it.  I don't recall for sure and I guess it doesn't matter because it turned really ugly after that point.

Next thing you know, Dumes is bricking 3s and Ole Miss is going down for layup after layup after layup after dunk after offensive rebound and layup and so on.  Next thing you know, you blink your eyes and the lead is up to 20 and this thing was over.  Final Score: 89-71.

Overall Team Performance:  C
A lot of games, all it takes is a bad performance in just one area and it will cost you the game.  Tonight, the Hoosiers had multiple areas that were horrible.  Take your pick:

• Defense - Tonight's defensive performance is what I like to call the o-lay defense.  It was pathetic.  There was no resistance what-so-ever by IU.  Giving up way too many layups, dunks, and wide-open looks.  And if Ole Miss would miss, they would get the offensive rebound and put-back.
• Free Throws - I really, really, really, really hope this team does not turn out to be as bad of a free throw shooting team as they showed tonight and in their last game because it drives me fucking crazy.  I have come a long, long way in keeping my temper in check when watching IU games, but I cannot stand to watch them go up there and repeatedly miss free throws.  Again, it was the entire team that was horrible tonight.  I could live with Pritchard struggling from the line, but your guards go up there and knock them down.  But this was the whole freakin' team.  The free throws looked promising in the two exhibition games and the opener, but this has been really bad the last two games.
• Turnovers - 21 total.  14 of them were in the 1st half, so it was at least good to see a respectable 7 in the second half. 
• Getting their shots blocked - Ole Miss had 12 blocks.  Not too surprised by this as the freshmen are used to making certain moves and scoring.  They just do it by instinct because they are so used to it, but this is another level that they are going to have to adjust to.

On the good side, I was certainly impressed with the hot start and jumping out to the 20-11 lead in the first 6 minutes of the game.  I was also impressed with the way the team faught back on multiple occassions.  At the end of the first half, they went on a run to get the lead down to single digits at halftime.  They came out strong in the second half to get the lead down by 5.  Then, after allowing the lead to swell back up to 15, they made a second half run where they had a golden opportunity to get it down to 6.  I guess all of that is meaningless when you still lose by 18, but at least they made some runs and didn't get completely blown out of the gym. 

Another bright spot was offensive rebounding.  Although the Hoosiers gave up a lot of offensive rebounds to Ole Miss, at least they crashed their own offensive glass and pulled down 24 offensive rebounds.

And finally, I thought they ran the break effectively.  In most cases, they were under control and converted on a lot of fast breaks.  In the first 2 minutes of the second half, the Creek and Jones combo converted on 3 fast break opportunities.

Christian Watford:  D+
Watford clearly struggled in this game.  But I use the word "struggled" because you had the feeling that he was just a little off and couldn't get into the flow of the game.  Nothing to worry about here, I expect him to bounce back soon....with soon being tomorrow.  He opened his career with two double-doubles, but he only got halfway there tonight with 5 points and 5 rebounds.  2-10 FGs, , 0-2 3PT, 1-3 FTs, and 3 turnovers.

Tom Pritchard:  B-
I thought Pritchard was pretty solid tonight with 8 points and 8 rebounds.  Pritch had a straight "B" going until he air-balled that free throw, so I had to add the minus to his grade.  Like the rest of the team, his defense could be more stout.

Maurice Creek:  B
The thing I liked most about Mo tonight was that he was extremely active and involved in the game.  Did he make some mistakes?  Yes.  Did he take some bad shots?  Yes.  That said, did he make some big shots?  Yes.  Did he end a couple IU scoring draughts?  Yes.  Did he have a couple steals and run the break?  Yes.  Led the team in scoring with 18 big ones.  I like Mo.  I just get the feeling that he is playing to win.

Jeremiah Rivers:  B+
The B+ does not indicate mistake-free basketball by Jeremiah because it was far from it.  However, the aggressive, explosive, acrobatic drives to the basket are exactly what we need from Rivers.  Taking it coast to coast is exactly what we need from Rivers.  And that's what he did tonight.  6-6 from the field so he was either finishing or getting fouled.  Now, what he does at FT line after drawing those fouls is a completely different story.  Good lord, son, you grew up with this game.  Watch some Steve Alford footage or something -- socks, shorts, 1-2-3, swish -- it's that simple.

But back to the good part of Jeremiah's game, I did really like how he drove to the basket and he needs to continue to do more of that.  The stat line was pretty darn good too -- 14 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers.

Verdell Jones III:  B+
Verdell looked like the Verdell that we saw at the end of last year.  A sneaky scorer.  I thought Verdell was effective at finishing on the break and playing his mid-range game in the half-court offense.  17 points on 8-15 shooting.  And then the free throws....just 1-4.  Combine that with Rivers and your two main ball-handlers were 3-10 from the stripe, that's not good.

Jordan Hulls:  D-
Oh man, I'm a big fan of Hulls, but that was rough.  I was having a hard time watching it.  When he first came in the game, it was a train wreck.  Unfortunately, he couldn't get a shot to fall either.  He'll settle down as we get further into the season, but it was a rough welcome to big-time college basketball.  0-3 from the field including 0-2 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, and 3 turnovers in 12 minutes.

Daniel Moore:  B
Came in and got a nice hustle offensive rebound.  And that was really it in just 4 minutes of playing time.

Bobby Capobianco:  D
Something tells me that Bobby is going to break out with a few buckets in a game soon.  But so far this year, he cannot buy a break in his limited playing time.  He's had a few shots that have been half-way down and then pop out.  He'll get it going soon though.

Derek Elston:  C
Elston came down to earth in this game after starting his career with two outstanding games.  Elston was still active and did a decent job on the glass with 5 rebounds in 17 minutes, but he couldn't get his shot to fall tonight and was just 1-6 from the field.

Devan Dumes:  C
Dumes had the one nice stretch that I mentioned above where he hit a 3 and then got 2 quick steals to fuel the late IU run, but he did not play well other than that.  Even at the end, with the game out of reach, he missed two 3s from the same spot in a single possession.  Just prior to that, he badly missed an ill-advised long 3 and finished 1-6 from the field.  But he was the sole bright spot from the FT line by going 2-2.

Tijan Jobe:  C
Just 6 minutes of playing time.  One authoritative rebound, but nothing else besides that.

Tom Crean:  C-
After IU did a great job to build an early 20-11 lead, Crean allowed Ole Miss to rattle off a 14-0 run before he took a timeout.  Unacceptable.  And especially unacceptable with such a young team.  I really think Crean should use timeouts throughout the games this year and not save them for the end of the game.  He needs to use them any time the other team is making run to try to change that momentum.  Young players are so much more susceptible to letting those things snowball.  If you get burned one game because it's close at the end and you don't have any timeouts left, so be it.  I'd rather have a possession at the end of a close game with a chance to win it and no timeouts, rather than being down by 15 at the end of the game because you allowed scoring runs earlier in the game without stopping the action with a timeout.

I did like the switch to some zone defenses.  That seemed to work for a little while at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half.

Next Up:  Boston U
When:  Tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm ET (5pm CT)
TV:  IU's website is not listing TV right now, but I am pretty sure it will be on ESPNU
Update:  Multiple sources are now reporting no TV for tomorrow's game.  Sons of bitches.  The crew is there, what's the deal with not showing the damn game?!?

It appears Boston has been competitive, but they have lost all 3 of their games by about 10 points:

• 73-82 loss to Iona
• 59-69 loss to George Washington
• 70-80 loss to Kansas State in tonight's Puerto Rico Tipoff

So, on the surface, it would seem like a pretty even matchup for the Hoosiers.

Prediction:  IU 69  Boston U 65
I think Watford is going to bounce back with a better performance and the Hoosiers will perform better at the charity stripe.  It won't be pretty, but the Hoosiers will win.

As for Sunday's game, it looks like it will either be Georgia Tech or George Mason.  Right now, the game is listed at either 10:30am ET (9:30am CT) or 12:30pm  ET (11:30am CT) on ESPNU.

Go Hoosiers!