IU 71 NW 66

* 20 WINS - After 3 straight 20 loss seasons, how sweet it is!

* Verdell Jones!  You have to be happy for the senior.  After missing two games with a shoulder injury, a vocal online minority chatted that this team was better with VJIII on the bench.  Hopefully those haters will shut up now and let this kid enjoy a well-deserved successful senior season. 

Ignoring Verdell's offensive flurry to close the game for a moment....I thought Verdell was fantastic even before that.  He was rebounding, getting steals, and making some great decisions and passes. 

But how about the key sequence to close out the game.  Shurna had just completed that circus 3-point play that was also Cody's 4th foul to tie the game at 63.  Gulp.  Verdell answered with one of his patented mid-ranged jumpers.  Up by 2.  Then, Verdell with a nice drive and scooping layup.  Up by 4.  The teams trade baskets as the clock drops below a minute.  With about 30 seconds left, Verdell hits the dagger with a toe-on-the-line two.  Up by 6.  Defensive stop.  Game over.

* At times, this game was not looking so good and it certainly would have been a tough loss to swallow.  In the end, they found a way to win and that's the important thing in the Big Ten.  IU found a way to win in a game where Shurna poured in 29, NW threw in some prayers at the shot-clock buzzer, IU shot only 2-13 from the arc, and Jordan Hulls was completely out of sorts.

* Cody had a strange game.  I thought he had some really bad plays.  A weak, but stupid foul in the first minute of the game.  Some ugly turnovers -- box shows 3 but I'm pretty sure he had 4.  Then, that one play where Shurna missed a runner and Cody and a NW player were really the only two in position to rebound.  But with the ball on the rim, Cody turned to run down the court.  The ball rolls off the rim to the NW player who is now all alone.  Cody was actually laughing afterward as if he knew he had just done something really stupid.  I think he thought the shot had gone in or was at least going to go in. 

Anyway, for those reasons, I didn't think it was Big Z's best game.  Now, here's what I LOVE about Cody -- 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 9-11 FG, 5-6 FT.  What if he actually had a good game!

* I really like the way Victor has been bringing it the last few games.  High energy and aggressive.  That's the way he has to play.  Even if it leads to a questionable play every now and then, it seems the positives far outweigh the negatives.  When he plays that way, he gets in the lane, he gets to the rim, his defensive energy is up, and he rebounds.  Tonight, he missed a few point-blank layups, but he kept after it and had a key fast-break layup and and another 3-point play down the stretch.  How about Vic's line tonight -- 12 pts, 6 rebs, 4 assts, 2 stls, 1 blk, 1 TO.

* Verdell's final line is also worth noting -- in just 18 minutes, 6 pts, 4 assts, 3 rebs, 2 stls, 1 blk, and 0 turnovers.

* FT Shooting -- the Hoosiers free throw shooting has been tremendous the last two games.  Tonight, after starting only 1-3 to start the game, they made 14-15 after that.

* Ed Hightower -- Somebody has to stop this man.  It's really become quite ridiculous.  How about that charge call tonight?  What was that?!?  He blows his whistle and then emphatically, and I mean emphatically, points at who knows what 5 or 6 times. It wasn't until he finally turned to the scorers table and put up 3 fingers that I knew it was a charge on the NW PG (#3) and not a block by Hulls.  Isn't that why we have 100-year old hand signals for officials to use?  And it wasn't close to that new half-circle under the bucket, so he wasn't pointing at that.  For a charge, you just need to get that hand behind your head.  Once you do that, everyone knows it's a charge and if you still want to emphatically point with your other arm, go ahead, I guess.  One tweet tonight compared Ed's charge call to Lesley Nielson calling strikes in The Naked Gun.  Spot on.

Hightower pulls that crap when the ball gets knocked out of bounds too.  Instead of just signaling whose ball it is, he emphatically and repeatedly points at the player that touched it.  The problem is that sometimes you think he's pointing in your team's direction.  Only to find out 17 seconds later that he finally points the other way. 

But, all things considered, Crazy Ed has given IU a fair share of calls over the years.  I think the irrational exuberance started when he began taking steroids to grow hair.  Anyway, if we start kicking refs out the Big Ten, TV Teddy is still easily on the top of that list.

* Eddie Johnson as a color commentator.....ummm, no.

* 3-game conference winning streak - longest of Crean era.

* Let's go get a win in Iowa City!

Go Hoosiers!