Indiana 68 Maryland 80

Son of a bitch!  This game was 61-58 with 5 minutes to go, but then IU allowed a 9-0 run over the next 3 minutes and at 70-58, this ballgame was over.

They so desperately need to find a way to win a game like this.

Thoughts?

UPDATED with GAME NOTES:

• Rivers hurt and taken to the locker room after a spectacular layup and then falling on his back just a couple minutes into the game.


• Hulls – I like that he doesn’t hesitate to shoot, I was afraid he might be the type that you have to beg to shoot. But he has a quick release and isn’t afraid to put it up when he’s open.

• Liked the story about Crean’s 5-minute drill with one 3-point shooter, one rebounder, and one ball and the shooter has to try to make as many 3s possible in 5 mins. Steve Novak has the record with 72. Hulls recently hit 71. You get to pick your rebounder and Hulls picked Jeff Watkinson, the strength coach. I’m not sure what that says about the rest of the team when you pick the strength coach to be your rebounder.

• Hulls – back to back possessions, he tried to take a charge with no call. After the second one, Maryland scored a layup and Ed Hightower blew his whistle and then appeared to come over and lecture Jordan Hulls while he was still laying on the ground. It appeared he was telling him he was too far under the basket, but he was emphatic about it. Very strange. It was also odd that this appeared to be the sole purpose for the whistle which happened to be at the 11:55 mark so it led to a TV timeout. But I don’t think I have ever seen a whistle blown so that the referee can come lecture a player on a rule. Hulls wasn’t even complaining or anything. Only Ed Hightower. Not even the old bald Ed Hightower would have done that. Only the Ed Hightower with hair.

• ESPN just revisited “The Shot”. Man, that was sweet.

• Great no look through the teeth of the defense pass by Hulls to Watford who converts for a traditional 3-point play

• IU 21-20, 10:00, very good start

• Rivers back after being out with the injury for about 8 minutes.

• Watford pulls up from 14 feet and kisses it off the glass. The lost art of the bank shot, gotta love it. IU up 23-20, 8:45

• We are now seeing a version of the lineup that I was wanting to see – Pritchard goes out and Elston comes in for a lineup of Rivers, Jones, Dumes, Watford, and Elston. I completely agree with this lineup because I think it puts our top talent on the floor and I haven’t seen a Maryland big man that is simply overpowering us, so why not go with Elston and Watford without a true center.

• Dumes hits a 3 and IU leads 26-21 with 7:45 to go in half

• IU 28-21 with 6 minutes to go in first half

• Elston struggling with 0-5 on 2 recent offensive trips, including 2 shots that did not hit rim followed by 3 missed putbacks. Of course, he did Moses Malone his offensive rebounding stats with all those misses to himself. If Jobe were in the game instead of Elston, these same two possessions probably would have been 0-1 (Jobe doesn’t rebound) and 1 turnover (Jobe has bad hands). Nonetheless, it would still be 0 points on these two possessions. I love Jobe, I just want to see him shatter a backboard.

• IU still leads 28-21 with 5 minutes to go in the first half. Knowing what happens at the end of the game, I just calculated that IU will get outscored 49-30 over the next 22 minutes of the game. The next 19 minutes will be somewhat even with Maryland having a 40-30 advantage before the deadly 9-0 run over 3 minutes starting with 5 minutes to go in the game. I may have to analyze possession-by-possession what went wrong in those 3 minutes. We’ll see how late it is when I get to that point.

• Wow! Jeremiah Rivers just had an INCREDIBLE 5-second stretch. At the 2:14 mark, he had a sweet left-handed swat out of bounds on a Maryland fast break, then he stole the inbounds at the 2:12 mark, and then went flying down the floor dribbling with his left hand and outrunning the defender to go in for the left-handed DUNK at the 2:09 mark. We want more, Jeremiah, we want more! That was awesome. IU up 33-30 and the white out crowd is LOUD!

• Now Jeremiah just threw up an airball from 16 feet. Just drive and dunk over everyone, Jeremiah. I would like to say that I officially forgive the airball because that block, steal, dunk sequence was as exciting of a sequence since Eric Gordon donned the cream and crimson.

• Unfortunately, the Hoosiers give up a 5-0 run to be losing at half 35-33. Outside of the Rivers sequence, IU really stunk up the joint in the final 5 minutes of the half.

• Yikes, they just flashed a stat at the start of the 2nd half – in the last 7:45 of the 1st half, IU missed 14 of 16 shots and had 5 turnovers. No wonder their 7 point lead turned into a 2-point halftime deficit.

• Since I mentioned Elston’s putback struggles earlier, I feel obligated the mention the very nice offensive rebound and putback he just had. Md up 37-35 with 17:00 to go.

• So, I have been watching the defense very closely and rewinding anytime IU gives up easy baskets and it is the switching that is killing them in tonight’s game. In previous games, I think the biggest factor was not stopping the dribble, which resulted in bigs having to help and then the whole defense breaking down. Tonight, they are miscommunicating or someone is just making the wrong read on switches. It’s hard to tell who is wrong on these, but to this point in the game, I have seen Creek and Elston involved in 3 of these switching problems. I also noticed Pritchard, Watford, Rivers, and Jones one time each.

• In a very weird way, it might be a good thing that we are starting to be able to actually identify the defensive problems. In the first 5 games, the defense was so bad that I couldn’t tell what the hell they were thinking or even trying to do even if I would rewind it and watch it over. So, maybe it’s a sign that they are improving that you can actually see where the breakdown occurred.

• Verdell Jones shots just don’t seem to be falling. Man, we need those shots in a game like this.

• Maryland up 41-35 at first TV timeout of second half. That’s a 20-7 run going back to the first half. Maybe the last 5 minutes of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second half is where IU truly lost this game.

• Christian Watford just drained a fade-away 15-foot bank shot in the face of a double-team. That’s what I am talking about. If he has that shot in the bag, use it! Especially until he gets stronger and can take it harder to the rack. That was his second shot of the night that has made my jaw drop. I’m a sucka for the bank shot. Glad to see Watford playing well against good competition.

• Watford with a nice swat at the other end.

• Elston airballs a 3. That’s his 3rd shot of the night without any iron.

• Daniel Moore with a nice pass to Verdell Jones who drains the 15-footer. That update was solely for TheCoach since I know he is a big fan of both players. Md 43-39 with 14:30 to go.

• Whoa, another Watford swat leads to Jones to Moore this time and Moore hits the layup with the foul! That update was NOT for TheCoach, that was just damn exciting. The crowd is going nuts as Moore is at the line with a chance to cut the lead to 1…..and the little fucker missed it. That’s ok, just d-up now and keep this momentum going! (Editor’s Note – Just because I know the outcome of the game, this is not fake enthusiasm. I am seriously fired up right now. I guess I better vote “delusional” on the poll question.

• On big momentum plays, especially ones that are traditional 3-point play opportunities because you have the whistle at the end to stop play, I always like to rewind and see the reactions of the players. The obvious reason is just to see the team pumped up when things are going well and they just had a big play. But it also tells me if the players are in this thing as a team and not just caring about their own numbers, etc. On this play, you could see 3 players besides Moore and Elston, Jones, and Watford all gave a fist pump on the basket. On another angle, you could see the bench and Creek and Pritchard were both up off the bench cheering. Good to see. Maybe I will vote “hopeful” on the poll question.

• Do you think IU would use a Tom Earth big head if I sent them one?

• Assignment: Healy, any Healy, can you do some research online to see where you get big heads made?

• Man, Dumes not hitting either. If Jones and Dumes were making shots that they are capable of making, the Hoosiers could have a nice lead right now.

• Creek jumper ties it at 43 with 13:30 to go, IU on 6-0 run.

• Ugh….we saw good Jeremiah earlier and now we see bad Jeremiah. With a chance to take the lead, Rivers tried to throw a lob to Pritchard but instead hurled it off the rim or backboard for a turnover. Then, after a Maryland basket, Rivers drives the lane and wings a pass in the general direction of Tom Crean. Two costly turnovers after IU had just tied the game.

• There’s a nothing but the absolute bottom of the net 3 by Dumes. Md 47-46, 12:15.

• My TV sucks so bad that they just flashed Dumes’ FG shooting and I can’t read it. Going to bestbuy.com, click, click, cc#, and click. New TV is on its way…..I wish.

• They just showed Fuzzy Zoeller. If Gavin is at this game, it is a guarantee that he’s stalking Fuzzy.

• Creek for 3 to give IU the lead at 49-48 with 11:30 to go. Double-figures again for Creek.

• Ooh, I like that….Maryland running on a fast break and Pritchard does not just give up the dunk. Instead, he gave a hard, but clean foul. If we are going to have guys with the size of Jobe and Muniru, there should be a rule that there will be no dunks by the opposing team while they are in the game.

• Tied at 54 with 8:45 to go.

• Rivers misses front end of 1-1 but gets his own rebound, only to see Elston get fouled and he misses the front-end. You just can’t come out of a possession like that with 0 points.

• Now a 5-0 run by Maryland and as Chris has already mentioned in the Comments, Creek and Watford are sitting at the scorers table while Crean is waiting for the TV timeout. I’ve already gone on record saying that I think Crean needs to use his timeouts whenever the moment calls for it. If you have to play-on at the end, so be it, but don’t let a game get away because you are saving your timeouts or waiting for a TV timeout. Foolishness.

• Just to further point out how young and how big of a rebuilding effort this is, we now get Creek and Watford back into the game, but suddenly you look out on the floor and your lineup includes 3 freshmen and a walk-on sophomore.
And here’s how we lost the game…..

• Let’s set the stage, it’s Maryland’s lead with a score of 61-58 with 5:12 to go after 2 made FTs by Dumes. IU now has Rivers, Creek, Jones, Watford, and Pritchard in the game.

• MD possession: Daniel Moore overplays the passing lane and gets beat on a cut into the lane for an easy 8-footer for Maryland. Md 63-58, 4:55.

• IU possession: Dumes shoots a 3 that barely touches iron, Md rebound, Creek fouls.

• MD possession: misses front-end of 1-1, but offensive rebound. Rivers gets beat back-door for an easy Maryland layup. The concerning thing here was that the Maryland play was designed to back-screen Rivers and the screen wasn’t even set and Rivers still got beat horribly. Md 65-58, 4:15.

• IU possession: IU timeout. After timeout, Jones travels. TV timeout.

• MD possession: IU plays good defense, Maryland forces up a 3 late in shot-clock and misses. IU rebounds.

• IU possession: Creek goes aggressively to the basket on fast break, Maryland player attempts to take charge and there is clearly contact as Creek wildly throws it off the glass. Ed Hightower is literally on top of the play and no call. It was not a flop, there was clearly contact and Creek ran the guy over, the only question was whether it was a charge or a block. But it can’t be a no-call and I do think it should have been a block and Creek heading to the FT line. I remember when Ed used to like IU (read as “was scared of Bob Knight”). Maryland retrieves loose ball and calls timeout.

• Interesting and depressing stat from ESPN during the timeout – IU had 11 seasons with 10 or more losses in 29 seasons under Bob Knight. They have had 8 seasons with 10 or more losses in the 9 seasons since his departure. I’ll go ahead and go out on a branch as thick as my house and say that will be 9 out of the last 10 seasons after this season is all said and done, or should I say after December is all said and done. This seems like an ideal spot for my “I fucking hate Kelvin Sampson” quote.

• MD possession: Watford gets posted-up, a nice jump hook by Millbourne. Not a whole lot IU could do on that one. Md 67-58, 2:47.

• IU possession: Creek misses a 3. Good look, but he couldn’t get it to go down. This was followed by a funny-if-u-r-not-an-IU-fan moment where Watford, Pritchard, and Jones all fell over themselves into a heap.

• MD possession: This time, a variation on the play that Rivers just got beat on. Watford is guarding the wing and Maryland sets a back screen. The Maryland wing players does a great job reading the screen and cuts high into the lane rather than going behind the screen baseline (like they did against Rivers). Watford got picked off by the back-screen, Pritchard attempted to help late and fouled the guy and he scored. FT good and that’s your dagger. Md 70-58, 2:08.

So, looking at that stretch in summary, the defense just isn’t where it needs to be right now. This team has shown signs of improvements since Puerto Rico, but I certainly don’t expect them to pull off any upsets in the next two games.

Well, I think I will finish this post with the way I started it....Son of a Bitch.