That's the Game: Maryland

There’s that Indiana offense we’d been missing in Big Ten play!  And then some!  The #23 Hoosiers whomped the #13 Maryland Terps 89-70.  Of course, this makes the Big Ten all the more confusing (and fun), but the Hoosiers now find themselves tied with Wisconsin atop the conference.

Indiana jumped out to a quick lead, in large part thanks to Collin Hartman, who had seven points in the first two minutes of the game.  Maryland would work their way back to tie the game at 26 with about seven minutes to go in the half, but they would go into the half trailing the Hoosiers by three.  That, however, was the closest the Terps would come the rest of the night, as the Hoosiers sprinted ahead to start the second half and never looked back.  Indiana hit 9-11 second-half threes (that’s almost 82%!), cementing the biggest victory of the season so far for Tom Crean and the Hoosiers.

The Good (and boy was it good):

• Play of the Starters.  Man were they electric!  They did pretty much whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it.  Yogi Ferrell led all scorers with 24 points, James Blackmon Jr. poured in 22 of his own to go with five rebounds, Troy Williams had 16 points and seven rebounds, and Collin Hartman scored a career-high 15 points.  Rob Johnson scored only seven points, but also had six boards.  This group also played almost 18 minutes together, an oddity for an Indiana team that likes to play fast.

• Collin Hartman.  I want t pull Hartman out for some special attention.  I’m sure when he committed to Indiana he never imagined playing center, but that’s where he finds himself a third of the way through Big Ten play.  And he’s succeeding!  Take last night.  He scored 15 points on only four field goals, going perfect from the field with only a lone missed free throw.  He also had an assist, three blocks, and a steal.  He’s actually a matchup nightmare for many opposing teams, as their big men have to try to honor him at the perimeter (he’s 15-30 from there on the season, 6-10 during conference play).  And on the defensive end, where he’s always going to be undersized?  Hartman is thriving there too.  In the last two games he’s helped to hold five different big men to eight total points and 10 total rebounds, and that’s with Marylnad’s Jon Graham having six of each.  In conference play, he’s surprisingly one of the top-10 blockers in the Big Ten… at 6’7”.  To say Hartman is playing well is an understatement, and his work earned him “Coll-in Hart-man” chants from the Assembly Hall faithful on two occasions, something I never imagined would happen coming into the season.

• The Shooting.  All of It.  By Everyone.  The Hoosiers shot 60% from the field, 68% from deep, and 78% from the line.  Ferrell was on fire (and that may be an understatement as well), hitting 7-8 from the perimeter.  Many of those were contested, too.  Hartman hit all three of his deep shots, Blackmon Jr. was 3-5, Max Hoetzel was perfect in his one attempt, and Johnson was 1-3.  That’s 15 made three-pointers on the night against the best perimeter defense in the conference and one of the best in the country.  I don’t care much about what your defense is like, if you come out and shoot like the Hoosiers did last night, you can beat just abut anybody.

• Ferrell’s Leadership.  A lot will be said about Ferrell’s shooting, but his leadership was just as important.  He had five assists and not a single turnover in 37 minutes played.  He spent the night making Maryland freshman Melo Trimble look like the freshman he is, something most opponents have not been able to do.  He also frustrated some of the bigger Terps on defense, preventing the ball from even entering the post.  Ferrell is a level head who really knows his team and does exactly what’s needed for his team to win.  And really, that’s what you really want most out of your veteran point guard.

• Defensive Free Throw Rate.  Unlike most of the teams that Maryland has faced, the Hoosiers were able to keep the Terps off the free throw line.  Before the game, I had this as the determining factor for Indiana to win.  Maryland is one of the best teams in the country at getting to the line, while the Hoosiers are one of the best in the country at keeping opponents off the line, so something had to give.  And it wasn’t the Hoosiers.  Of particular importance was keeping Trimble off the line, as he came into the contest shooting an average of seven free throws per game.  Against Indiana?  He took only one free throw, and missed it.  As a whole, the Terps were 6-12 from the line, which is really low both in number taken and number made.  In fact, Indiana hit more free throws (14) than the Terps attempted, which was a huge part of Hoosiers’ success.

• All Gas, No Brakes.  Unlike the last few games, Indiana started both halves well.  Also unlike many of the Big Ten games, the Hoosiers never really let up and didn’t let their opponent go on big runs (like what happened at Illinois).  Once the second half started, Maryland was never really in the game.  Now, as an Indiana fan I’ll be completely honest and say that I wasn’t comfortable until the lead was 19 with about a minute and a half to go (and the student section was singing a particularly synchronized rendition of “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey-ey Goodbye”), but the Hoosiers showed the killer instinct they’d lacked much of the season, a welcome change this far into the conference season.

The Not-So-Good (what little there was of it):

• Defending the perimeter.  The only thing I could remotely come up with as a negative from the game was the fact that Indiana gave up entirely too many threes, several of them largely open.  The big problem was sticking with freshman Jared Nickens, who is the designated sharpshooter, the guy who has taken about four times as many threes as he has twos.  He hit 4-7 from deep, helping the Terps go 10-20 for 50% from the perimeter.  This is way above their average of 37%, and is also far beyond the Indiana defensive average of 30%.  But a solid job defending the post and the defensive ability to force Maryland to settle for midrange jumpers (matched with IU making 15 threes of their own) helped to mitigate the effects of the Terps’ good shooting.

The Final Word:

Huge.  That sums up the results of this game, one which was admittedly not a must-win for the Hoosiers (which I would not have guessed even just two weeks ago).  Indiana now sits at the top of the Big Ten after being picked to finish around ninth or tenth in the preseason.  The problems of the offseason are now a distant memory.  The projections had IU starting conference play at 2-4 at best, possibly even 1-5, but here the Hosiers are at 5-1, with the lone loss coming to Michigan State at the Breslin Center (a place where Indiana has even worse luck than in Champaign).  But the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Hoosiers for a while, with trips to Ohio State and Purdue, hosting Rutgers, traveling to Wisconsin, hosting Michigan, and returning a trip to Maryland.  Indiana is currently projected to go 2-4 over this stretch (wins over Rutgers and Michigan), so let’s see if they can continue to buck expectations and shock the conference and the country.

**Noteworthy News**

With 24 points, Yogi Ferrell surged ahead of Daryl Thomas, Bobby “Slick” Leonard, Joe Cooke, Vernon Payne, and Marshal Strickland to join Victor Oladipo in a tie at 38^th in career points at 1,117.  With seven made three-pointers, he also now moves into 10^th place in career threes (153), and is now chasing Christian Watford at ninth with 164.  Five assists on the night also moved him into 11^th in career assists (367), surpassing Jordan Hulls, and he can move into the top 10 by joining Steve Alford at 385.

Up Next:

As mentioned, the Hoosiers travel to Columbus for a rematch with the Buckeyes, who Indiana defeated by a score of 69-66 just 13 days ago.  Columbus is always a tough place to play (as is any other road venue in the Big Ten).  The Hoosiers have won their three times since the 2001-2002 season, which is better than several other venues (think Michigan State and Illinois), but many of the losses came by somewhere around 20 points while only three of the losses were decided by single-digits.  This game will be played at 1:30pm on Sunday January 25, and will be shown nationally on CBS.

That's the Game: Illinois

The Hoosiers held on during a wacky game to win 80-74 at Illinois, just the second time in 13 tries that Indiana has been able to do that.  This was a game of runs for both teams, with fans unable to get comfortable no matter the score.  This was also a sharpshooting exercise, with a combined 23 made three-pointers with four different players making at least three shots from deep.  But when it was all said and done, Indiana walked out of Champaign with a road victory in conference play, something which is much easier said than done.

Now, about those runs I mentioned.  The Illini started the game on a 14-3 run by some out-of-his-mind shooting by Kendrick Nunn (3-3 from deep on the first three possessions), but the Hoosiers countered with a 14-2 run of their own, with Rob Johnson, Yogi Ferrell, and Nick Zeisloft hitting threes (two of them in the case of Zeisloft), to take the lead 17-16.  The Hoosiers would then outscore the Illini 17-7 to take a 34-23 lead before Illinois scored 11 straight to tie the game.  A couple Troy Williams dunks ended the half on a high note for the Hoosiers, going into the locker room with a 38-34 lead.

But those runs didn’t stop at halftime, no sir.  To turn the tables from the start of the game, Indiana got off to a 13-6 start to lead 50-40.  Then Hoosier fans everywhere began to panic as the Illini went on a 21-2 run to take a nine point lead with about 10 minutes remaining.  Recently, this has been a recipe for disaster for Indiana, a young team on the road in a tough environment.  But not today.  Instead, the Hoosiers ended the game with a 28-13 run (including 13-2 in the final three minutes), doing just enough to seal the game.

Six total players (three for each team) reached double-digit scoring, led by Nunn for Illinois with 24 points on 6-10 shooting from beyond the arc.  Williams and James Blackmon Jr. for Indiana both scored 21 points, Williams going 8-10 from the field and Blackmon Jr. hitting 4-6 from deep.  In a bit of a surprise, sixth-man Ahmad Starks poured in 19 points for the Illini, hitting 5-8 three-pointers and 4-4 from the line (as a reference, he was 3-21 from deep in Big Ten play coming into this game).  Malcolm Hill, the Illinois leading scorer in the absence of Rayvonte Rice, hit just shy of his average at 12 points, and Zeisloft had an important 10 points for the Hoosiers on 3-5 shooting from the perimeter.

The Good:

• The Play of Williams and Blackmon Jr.  When these two guys are on, great things happen for the Hoosiers.  Williams was a single rebounds away from a double-double, and also had a couple of steals.  But his athleticism is what really sets him apart, and was particularly evident on his putback tip-in which gave the Hoosiers the lead for good.  Williams attacking the rim does great things, not the least of which involves keeping the floor well-spaced for the dish.  Blackmon Jr., on the other hand, was deadly from the perimeter.  He was much better at choosing his shots (and not taking contested ones early in the shot clock), and he even had an assist on the fast break (something we have not seen happen much) which resulted in a three-point play the old-fashion way for Max Hoetzel.  Blackmon Jr. ended with seven rebounds, two assists, and a steal to go with his 21 points.

• Yogi Ferrell’s Leadership.  For the second straight game, Ferrell was held to only seven points in the game.  Last year, that would have been insurmountable for a Hoosier team that was completely reliant upon his scoring.  This year, however, that pressure has been lifted thanks to an influx (or the development) of scorers.  Instead, Ferrell was able to contribute with nine assists, just one shy of his career single-game best.  Those assists helped to score 24 points, with a particularly important one coming with just over a minute left when he stole the ball and passed it ahead to Blackmon Jr. for the layup to go ahead three.  Pair all of this with just a single turnover (the team only had nine on the game), and Ferrell was just as critical to the Hoosiers’ winning effort as were Williams and Blackmon Jr.

• The Physicality of Collin Hartman.  Just when you think he can’t be any more impressive, Collin Hartman goes and changes your mind.  His final stat line of six points, one rebound, and one assist may not wow anybody, but his defensive effort certainly has to.  He was given the assignment of guarding 6’11” Nnanna Egwu by virtue of being the biggest Hoosier out there.  This same Collin Hartman, who is more of a small forward than he even is a power forward (let alone a center), wasn’t even a big man on his high school team.  Yet here he finds himself the starting center for Indiana in Big Ten play, forced to play way out of his position, particularly on defense.  And how did he respond?  By helping to hold Egwu to zero points and two rebounds and forcing two turnovers before the Illini big man fouled out with just over two minutes to play.  Several of those fouls came when Hartman positioned himself perfectly on the rebound and forced Egwu to either attempt to go over him (and get called for over-the-back) or to shove him out of the way in frustration.  So despite what the stat book says, Hartman was huge for the Hoosiers.

• Bench Play.  Many members of the Indiana bench came ready to play as well, led by Zeisloft, Hoetzel, and Emmitt Holt.  As mentioned, Zeisloft shot the ball well right when the Hoosiers needed it most.  But he also did not turn the ball over once in 19 minutes of play and played solid, physical defense, even recording a block at the end of the game.  Hoetzel contributed six points in five minutes of play, but also got a nice steal in the first half.  He played with great intensity, and was perfect shooting (1-1 from deep, 1-1 for two, and 1-1 from the line).  Holt scored four points and had a block, but also played critical minutes against Egwu as well.  The one negative thing which could be said about Holt in this outing is that he missed a couple of bunnies, including what should have been an automatic putback dunk with the Hoosiers down four in the final six minutes.  But he is learning and developing, and his positive contributions far outweigh the negatives.

• Defensive Rebounding.  While the Indiana offensive rebounding effort was about average for this season, it was the defensive rebounding which stood out.  The Hoosiers held the Illini to rebounding only 14.8% of their misses (meaning Indiana got the rebound on 85% of the Illinois missed shots).  This is a full 13% lower for Illinois’ offensive rebounding, and it was 19% lower than IU’s season average for opponent offensive rebounding.  This is huge for an Indiana team which is going to be undersized for the foreseeable future.

• All Things Free Throw.  The Hoosiers have been great this season at keeping opposing teams off the free throw line, and that continued against the Illini, who attempted only 12 freebies on the game.  This gives them a free throw rate of 21.8% (free throw attempts divided by field goal attempts), a solid 10% lower than their season average.  This was important because the Illini do not miss the free throws that they do earn (they hit 10 out of 12 today).  On the other end, the Hoosiers shot 20 free throws, hitting 15 of them (for the record, that’s more than Illinois attempted).  Their free throw rate of 35.7% was actually just below the Hoosier average, however, it was seven percent above what the Illini were allowing coming into the game, a definite win for Indiana.

The Not-So-Good:

• Guarding the Three.  Whether this was just a fluke shooting performance by Illinois (who was hitting deep and contested shots) or was indicative of a defensive flaw for the Hoosiers, the Illini went off today, hitting 12-27 from deep.  Nunn was particularly deadly, but Indiana should have expected him to shoot well (he was hitting above 40% from the perimeter coming into the game).  Instead, they left him relatively open on all of the Illini’s first three possessions.  But to be fair, Nunn was feeling it and sometimes there’s nothing that can be done.  The other Illini who as feeling it was Starks, who hit 5-8 from the perimeter.  This was far and away an outlying performance, as Starks was only hitting 14% during Big Ten play and 26% on the season.  Sometimes you just have to accept that a guy will go off randomly (or the blind squirrel finds the nut).  Either way, this type of defensive performance from the Hoosiers needs to be a rarity if they hope to stay toward the top of the Big Ten.

• Offensive Lulls.  At this point, this is getting a bit nitpicky to find things that were really wrong during this game.  But we have seen this season that no lead is safe with these Hoosiers, who can’t quite figure out how to stomp on opponents’ throats once they get their foot into place.  Where this team differs from last year, however, is that they have thus far done a good job of closing out tough games, even after starting slow and/or giving up a double-digit lead (or two, or three).  The fact that the Hoosiers have been able to close out multiple such games on the road in the Big Ten is a huge improvement.

The Final Word:

Exciting.  Any time you watch a game where both teams are giving up double-digit leads (multiple times), exciting is a good description (along with mind-blowing and frustrating).  But for stretches the Hoosiers played some of their best basketball of the season.  They never let the score get into their heads and just played the way they needed to.  Once again, however, the Hoosiers got off to a ridiculously slow start, even if they were able to overcome it.  As long as they can maintain this level of composure, it is not too much of a concern.  But when games like the visit to Michigan State come around and they start playing like chickens with their heads cut off, things get very ugly very fast.  For now, Hoosier fans should just sit back, relax (well, after forgetting how the Colts played today), and be excited that Indiana has stolen not one but two Big Ten road victories early in conference play.

**Noteworthy News**

With nine assists, Yogi Ferrell moved into 12^th all-time at IU in career assists with 362.  He needs four to move into 11^th with Jordan Hulls, but then needs another 19 to crack the top 10 (to tie Steve Alford at 385).  He also hit a three-pointer, keeping his strike alive at 49 straight game, which is the second-longest active streak in the country.  He also only needs four more made threes to move into the top 10 for career (tie Roderick Wilmont at 150).

Up Next:

The Hoosiers host conference-leading Maryland on Thursday January 22.  This is one of those ridiculously late games, with tip scheduled for 9pm, and it will be aired on ESPNU.  This is a huge game for the Hoosiers, who trail the Terps by just half a game.  Indiana will once again be the underdog (as has happened in all but one Big Ten game so far), but this is becoming familiar territory for the Hoosiers.  A win (especially minus Mosquera-Perea) could really boost the confidence of this young team.

That's the Game: Georgetown

The Hoosiers dropped a nail-biter to the Georgetown Hoyas, 91-87 in overtime.  Indiana was paced by Yogi Ferrell with 27 points, Troy Williams with 23 points, and James Blackmon Jr. with 22 points.  For those of you scoring at home, that’s 72 out of IU’s 87 points, also known as 83% of the scoring.  On the other end, D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera had a game-high 29 points, Aaron Bowen (who was averaging seven points per game) had 22 points, Joshua Smith had 14 (12 of them coming in the second half and overtime), and Jabril Trawick scored 12.

The Hoosiers held a 40-30 edge at the half, fueled by a combined 6-9 shooting from Ferrell and Blackmon Jr. to go with 21 rebounds and a 9-11 performance from the line.  They then went through an offensive dry spell to go along with a complete stop in forcing Hoya turnovers (they forced seven in the first half but only two in the second and another two in overtime) and continued trouble turning the ball over. But enter Ferrell, who had two clutch threes to tie the game, including one with eight seconds to go.  On the ensuing defensive possession, Hanner Mosquera-Perea blocked a layup attempt by LJ Peak and Collin Hartman grabbed the rebound to seal overtime.  The extra period was much the same as the second half, with Georgetown’s interior physicality causing problems for the Hoosiers as the Hoyas burst out to an early seven point lead and never looked back.

The Good:

• The Dominant Trio.  While they may not have been flawless, Ferrell, Williams, and Blackmon Jr. pretty much played the way stars are supposed to.  Ferrell may or may not have ice in his veins, hitting contested shots with seconds to go in the game.  To go with his 27 points, he had three rebounds, an assist, and a steal, and was perfect from the free throw line.  He was the floor general Indiana needs, even though he did have four turnovers.  He (and Blackmon Jr.) played a team-high 41 minutes, every one of which were needed for Indiana to stay in the game.

         Williams put in another brilliant performance overall, perhaps in an attempt to atone for a lackluster one the last time the Hoosiers played in Madison Square Garden against Louisville.  He ended with 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and 7-8 from the free throw line in a career high 33 minutes.  An example of his impressive play came in a key stretch in the last seven minutes of the second half, as Georgetown took its first lead since the beginning of the game.  With the Hoosiers down four, Williams hit a layup, a jumper, got an offensive rebound, hit a free throw, assisted Blackmon Jr. on a three, got a highlight-reel-worthy put-back of a Mosquera-Perea missed layup, got a steal (which he quickly passed off to Blackmon Jr., who missed the transition three), assisted Ferrell on a three, and got a layup to give the Hoosiers a three point lead with four minutes to play.  Again for those scoring at home, that’s a direct or indirect role in scoring 15 straight points in the span of about three minutes when Indiana desperately needed it.  This is the Troy Williams the Hoosiers will need come Big Ten play, and the last few games he has proved himself capable.

         Blackmon Jr. finally woke up after a rough shooting stretch that really started with the Louisville game.  Including that game, he had a total of three made deep shots in four games.  But he is a freshman and a slump was always going to happen sooner or later.  Against Georgetown, Blackmon Jr. was able to shoot his way out of the slump, hitting six of his 12 attempts.  He also pulled down seven rebounds, had an assist, two steals, and only one foul and one turnover.  These last two are particularly impressive for a freshman, and to put them into perspective, he is in the top 50 in the country (out of 2165 eligible players) in not committing fouls and is also in the top 200 in not turning the ball over.  Blackmon Jr. has been a key piece for the Hoosiers this season, so here’s to hoping that playing Louisville, Butler, and Georgetown at the end of the non-conference prepare him enough to face the Big Ten.

• Three-point Shooting.  This has been touched a bit in the previous section, but the Hoosiers shot well from deep, even if they didn’t shoot well from two-point range.  They hit 13-31 three-pointers, however 11 of those came from Ferrell and Blackmon Jr. with the remaining two coming from Johnson.  This is a team which, lacking much true inside presence, will live or die by its three-point shooting.  In regulation, the team lived by it, but in overtime they died by it, going 0-5 from deep.  Indiana is built around its ability to run its offense, and games like this really highlight that.

• Rebounding.  Surprisingly, the Hoosiers outrebounded the significantly taller Hoyas 40-35 (each with 12 on the offensive end).  And when I say that Georgetown was bigger, I’m not exaggerating, with the Hoosiers giving up inches and pounds at every single position, especially in the post.  I mean, at one point in the first half 6’7” 215 pound Collin Hartman was guarding 6’10” 350 pound center Joshua Smith.  Indiana’s ability to outrebound such a bigger, physical team will be key in Big Ten play, as the Hoosiers are shorter than every conference foe with the exception of Michigan State.

• Ball Movement (minus turnovers).  Set aside the 17 turnovers for the Hoosiers, we’ll get to those later.  The improvement this team has shown in moving the ball is incredible.  An example of this came as Ferrell passed to a cutting Hartman, who wrapped around the coming defender to dish to a cutting Williams for the slam.  It’s this willingness to make the extra pass, to find the open man which has made this team so much fun to watch and will be critical to the Hoosiers conference success.

• Grit/Maturity.  There is no statistic which will back me up or help me explain this, but Indiana showed so much more maturity than last year.  The Hoosiers of last year, they wouldn’t have made it into overtime, would have given up when Georgetown started to make its run.  This year’s version of the Hoosiers showed poise and continued to push on both ends of the court.  They didn’t let their heads hand down and they didn’t lose focus.  They just played the way they were supposed to, even if it is a young team.  With KenPom predicting 10 of the next 18 games being decided by five or fewer points, this toughness could be the difference between a tough win and a tough loss, particularly on the road in the Big Ten.

The Not-So-Good:

• Play of Mosquera-Perea.  Indiana needed Mosquera-Perea to play like a grown man going up against the grown man of Joshua Smith (a really big grown man at that).  Instead Indiana mostly got a rendition of the Invisible Man, with Mosquera-Perea contributing a total of two points in 29 minutes.  He did somehow get his hands on six boards after having a single one for much of the game, and he did have three blocks, including a key one on Georgetown’s final possession of regulation to send the game to overtime.  But when the Hoosiers needed him to be able to play significant minutes against Joshua Smith he just couldn’t do it, and even when he was in he didn’t show the polish he has in the last few games.  The plus side for Mosquera-Perea is that he won’t face anyone quite that massive through the rest of the regular season (the truly big men of the Big Ten are Amir Williams of OSU at 6’11” 250 pounds, Nnanna Egwu of Illinois at 6’11” 250 pounds, AJ Hammons and Isaac Haas of Purdue at 7’0” 261 pounds and 7’2” 297 pounds respectively, Frank Kaminsky of Wisconsin at 7’0” 242 pounds, Alex Olah of Northwestern at 7’0” 270 pounds, and Adam Woodbury of Iowa at 7’1” 245 pounds).  This is not to say that it gets easier for Mosquera-Perea, because it doesn’t (just look at Kaminsky and Haas in particular).  But at least he’s not going up against the Hulk again.

• The Bench (for the most part).  If Mosquera-Perea was the Invisible Man, I’m not even sure what that would make the Indiana bench, who accounted for two points, seven rebounds, six assists, three turnovers, a steal, and 0-6 shooting from the field in 54 combined minutes (compared to 171 combined minutes for the five starters).  Really, there were only two bright spots for the Hoosier bench, with freshman Max Hoetzel recording three rebounds against taller opponents and sophomore Hartman overall playing well.  An example of Collin Hartman doing Collin-Hartman things came in the first half when he became the de facto center (not his natural position!) guarding Joshua Smith.  In that first defensive possession for Hartman, he drew an offensive foul from Smith, his third of the half with seven minutes to go.  That sort of play shows just how far Hartman has come in about nine months since tearing his ACL, fearlessly matching up with a guy three inches and 135 pounds bigger than himself.  Aside from Hartman and to a lesser degree Hoetzel, the Indiana bench did nothing in this game, a worry going into Big Ten play.

• Post Defense (for the most part).  This goes along with the previous two points, but with no Mosquera-Perea and no bench, there was really nobody left to guard the post.  Georgetown scored 54 points in the paint, including 10 second-chance points.  Hoyas were able to drive and pass into the paint with little resistance, and the need at times to double and even triple-team Smith left players open elsewhere on the court.  There were a couple of times in the post when the double-teaming of Smith allowed a third Hoosier to come in and swipe the ball, but those instances were few and far between.

• Turnovers and Empty Possessions.  I don’t know if there’s something about Madison Square Garden in particular that causes the Hoosiers to turn it over more than usual, but the only two games where they have had turnover trouble have been played there.  It could also be something about the opponents being the two best teams the Hoosiers have faced, but they did not have the same trouble against Butler, SMU, or Pitt.  This is a young team, so turnovers are going to happen.  But unfortunately four of the miscues came from Ferrell and another three from Williams.  Both of these players have done a decent job on the season in holding onto the ball (although each has his fair share of face-palming errors), so this could be a bit of an aberration.  We’ll see once we get into conference play.

• The Officiating (Not making excuses, but would like to point some things out).  I try not to bring out “the refs sucked” argument much, but the second half seemed particularly rough for the Hoosiers.  I’m not talking about the missed call or two (because those tend to go both ways).  No, the difference in the ways fouls were called drastically changed what Indiana was able to do on the defensive end.  For example, there was an instance of Williams being shoved out of bounds on a layup attempt (even if it was clean above the belt, Smith shoved with his lower body) with no foul called, but on the other end Robinson was not even allowed to cover the cutter (with no noticeable extra contact) and had two consecutive fouls called.  There were also several times when Smith was allowed to camp out in the paint, sometimes even staying ten seconds in the lane.  This made him much more difficult to guard (which is why the three-second rule was created) because it was easier for him to get the ball near the rim.  Now again, I’m not saying that the refs changed the outcome of the game, and I’m not using this as an excuse for why the Hoosiers lost (that would be the turnovers, poor bench play, and lack of any interior presence).  But the officiating was no help to the Hoosiers in this game, although it should be a valuable experience going into Big Ten play.

Final Word:

Well, actually final words: disappointing and hopeful.  This was a winnable game for the Hoosiers, as evidenced by their 12-point lead early in the second half.  Indiana outshot and outrebounded the Hoyas, but turnovers and absence of any sort of interior strength negated that.  This win would have been the icing on the cake in the non-conference, as wins against SMU, Pitt, and Butler already give them a decent resume.  It also would have looked very good to the selection committee come March.  But this is also not a loss which will really hurt them, and could actually help them in the long run.  Indiana showed a physicality it had previously lacked and they outrebounded a bigger team.  They also shot well against the length, even as they did have trouble holding onto the ball.  With some improvement there and especially in the post, this team could find itself in the top five in the Big Ten and in the NCAA Tourney, which would be more than was expected of them going into the season.

**Noteworthy News**

With 27 points, Ferrell now has 1,047 in his career, moving him two spots on the Hoosier all-time list to 45^th.  He needs 26 to join Rick Calloway at 44^th.  Ferrell also has 334 assists in his career, keeping him at 15^th at IU, needing one to move into 14^th with Butch Carter and 21 to join Chris Reynolds and Isiah Thomas at 12^th.

Up Next:

The Hoosiers travel to Nebraska to take on the Cornhuskers in the first game of the Big Ten schedule on New Year’s Eve at 5:30pm.  It will be shown on the Big Ten Network and of course will play on the IU Radio Network.  This being the first conference contest, I will do a preview post in the next few days.

That's the Game: Butler

The Hoosiers pulled it off, beating the Butler Bulldogs 82-73 (blowing my prediction way out of the water).  They showed solid dominance to start the game, getting out to a 10-point lead before allowing Butler to tie the game going into half.  The second half started much the same as the first ended, with Butler building a lead on its momentum before IU dominated down the stretch to win the game.  The MVPs would have to go to Troy Williams and Yogi Ferrell in this one, with Best Supporting Actors going to Collin Hartman and Hanner Mosquera-Perea.

Half Number One:

Aside from a massive brain fart for the last about three minutes of the half, the word to describe the Hoosiers was aggressive.  They outrebounded the Bulldogs 25-18, including having an 11-4 edge on offensive boards.  Williams was flat out brilliant in the half, compiling 12 points, three boards, an assist, and a steal on 4-8 shooting (he should have had a block, but for some reason the refs couldn’t tell that it was obviously not a goaltend).  The one complaint on Williams is he is still choosing to take jumpers early in the shot clock when it’s not necessary.  Stan Robinson and Hartman were also aggressive off the bench with four points each.  Mosquera-Perea contributed solid minutes with six points, five rebounds, and three blocks.

The other Hoosiers (especially the starters), however, mostly struggled in the first half, with Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr., and Rob Johnson combining for five points (Ferrell had 0).  Ferrell was limited in his minutes, as he had two fouls in the first five minutes.

On the other end of the court, Butler was able to do whatever it wanted in the paint, scoring their first 31 points (out of 38 in the half) either in the paint or at the free throw line.  On that note, Indiana just didn’t have an answer for Kellen Dunham (especially late), as he led all scorers with 18, including 9-9 from the line, shooting as many free throws on his own as the entire Indiana team did in the half.  Dunham aside, however, Indiana held its own on defense, not giving up offensive rebounds even as they did allow too many drives.

Now, about that brain fart.  The Hoosiers mostly dominated the Bulldogs for 17 minutes in the first half.  But it only took three minutes of really bad play to wipe that away.  The Hoosiers didn’t make one field goal during that stretch, hitting only a single free throw.  At the same time Dunham figured out how to play offense again, bringing Butler from down 10 to tied at the half.  This was where the calm, cool, collected veteran play of Ferrell would have been much appreciated, as a major problem was young guys trying to play too fast.

Half Number Two (Second Verse…Not Quite the Same as the First):

The second half started (with the exception of Hartman and Nick Zeisloft starting in place of Blackmon Jr. and Johnson) much the same as the first half ended, with Butler very much in control of things.  About six minutes into the half, the Bulldogs had pulled out to a six-point lead at 47-53 on a combo of putbacks and a three from Dunham (who was lost on the perimeter by Blackmon Jr., who tried to chase him around a screen).  For the Hoosiers up until that point in the half were fueled offensively by Williams with some assistance from Mosquera-Perea with a nice tip-in and freshman Max Hoetzel, who had a very nice-looking drive from the perimeter over a taller player.

Then the sleeping giant (and by that I mean the shortest player on the Indiana roster) woke up.  Ferrell, who had zero points in the first half while riding the pine with foul trouble, exploded.  He scored IU’s next 10 points, including two three-pointers, to tie the score at 57 all.  Throw in some creative putback scoring from Hartman, an impressive and-1 transition drive from Balckmon Jr., and some more Ferrell/Williams magic, and the Hoosiers turned a six-point deficit to a five-point lead in the span of about five game minutes.  Indiana would not trail for the remainder of the game.  When it was all said and done, Williams would lead the team with 22 points and 11 rebounds while Ferrell would throw in another 20 (remember, ZERO points at the half!), and Mosquera-Perea and Hartman would contribute eight each.

Now, this isn't to say that Indiana played any prettier in the second half than it did in the first.  The Bulldogs were still able to drive at will, with the big difference being that they were missing more of their bunnies.  Giving up offensive rebounds was an issue in the second half, with Butler grabbing six of them in the first eight minutes of the half, including a putback by former Hoosier Austin Etherington, his only points of the game.  Indiana was able to mostly contain Dunham after the first few minutes of the half, allowing him to score only five points in the second half, none of which came from the free throw line.  This was especially crucial in the final minutes of the game, which, interestingly enough, was exactly when Ferrell (who is at least six-inches shorter) started guarding him.  Ferrell is just ridiculously aggressive and physical on defense, and he stuck to Dunham like glue, making it difficult for Dunham to even get his hands on the ball.

The Good:

• The play of Williams and Ferrell.  I’ve already talked a lot about these two, so I’ll once again try to keep it brief.  Williams played the way many fans were expecting him to, explosive and right on the edge of being out of control.  That was the difference in the Williams against Butler and the Williams against Louisville: the latter was completely out of control.  He was able to rein it in slightly today while still playing athletically.  If this Troy Williams shows up on a daily basis, this Hoosiers team looks radically different, looks much more like the NCAA tournament team the Hoosier fans want them to be.  Ferrell, on the other hand, looked uncharacteristically bad in the first half, hampered by early foul trouble.  But the Hoosiers needed a leader in the second half and Ferrell has shown time and again that he is the leader of this team.  He figured out his offense at the same time as he was preventing Butler’s best player from finding his own.  That is exactly the Yogi Ferrell that this team needs.

• The play of Hartman and Mosquera-Perea.  Both of their efforts were overshadowed by the play of Williams and Ferrell, but both were critical to Indiana’s success.  Hartman is showing game after game that he is the guy who is willing and able to do all of the little things that turns a moderately talented player into a physical, never-back-down player.  Hartman is always going to have to work harder than others because he isn’t the most natural athlete (when compared to guys like Williams and Mosquera-Perea).  But through hard work and a nose for the ball, Hartman is able to get his hands on some offensive boards for putbacks while also maintaining solid defensive pressure.  His efforts got a bit of a nod in the second half, when he started in place of Blackmon Jr.  Mosquera-Perea also put together a very nice line with eight points, nine rebounds and four blocks in a team-high 30 minutes.  He was doing a better job at boxing out and a much better job of staying in position (as evidenced by the blocks).  Many of the putbacks Butler was able to get came when Mosquera-Perea contested the initial shot and nobody else came to help block out.  As long as this Mosquera-Perea is the one to show up on game days, this Hoosier team is going to be fine most nights.

• The turnovers (or lack thereof).  The Hoosiers turned the ball over 11 times, which, while it may seem a little high, was actually only 14% of their possessions.  This is especially impressive considering Butler came into the game forcing opponents to cough it up on around a quarter of the possessions.  To further put this rate into perspective, there are only five teams in the country who average fewer turnovers than that, including names like Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Illinois.  The Hoosiers are now averaging turnovers on 16.7% of their possessions, good for 33^rd in the country.  If you take out the anomaly of the Louisville game, that percentage drops to 15.7%, which would put them in the top 15 nationally.  Either way, this is a huge improvement for a team that had a turnover rate of 22% last season.

• Rebounding (overall).  The Hoosiers, for what seems like the first time of the season, was able to control the glass on both ends of the court.  They pulled down close to their season average with 34% of their misses while holding Butler to 25% of their own misses.  This Bulldog team was averaging more than 10% better than that coming into the game and the Hoosiers have been known to give up offensive rebounds.  This was a huge step in the right direction for Indiana, with Williams grabbing 11 rebounds, Mosquera-Perea with nine, and Blackmon Jr. with eight.  The Hoosiers were just overall the more aggressive team, something which hasn’t been the case all the time this season.

• Offensive ball movement.  Man, does this ball move fast.  Indiana managed to push the pace enough to reach 76 possessions, in some part due to the high level of ball movement.  It just never stops, even after opponents make shots, with one Hoosier or another running to inbound the ball.  They had 11 assists on 30 made shots, with Williams and Ferrell each having three.  This is the highlight of this year’s version of the Hoosiers, the ability to move the ball quickly and accurately, and the more they are able to do this, the more opposing defenses are going to struggle.

The Not-so-good (comparatively):

• The play of Blackmon Jr. and Johnson.  The two dynamic freshmen were probably due to have truly freshman performances, especially Blackmon Jr. who has been nothing short of amazing so far this season.  Outside of the context of how well they’ve played this season, Blackmon Jr. and Johnson did not play poorly for freshmen, with the former having eight boards and the latter having two steals.  But compared to the level at which these two have been playing this season, this was a rough performance.  I also expect this to be the anomaly, with the majority of their games being along the lines of double-digit point totals along with Blackmon Jr. pulling down rebounds and Johnson dishing out assists.

• Defense against the drive.  The Butler Bulldogs were able to drive wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.  Hell, there were times it seemed like a car could drive through the lane, that’s how open it was.  It would be easy to blame this on the interior defense, as this area has been iffy for the Hoosiers this season.  But in reality, the fault lies equally with the perimeter defenders as with the post guys.  These drivers were able to beat their men off the dribble, putting more pressure on the big guys to step up without also sagging off of their own player to help out.  This may be a bit of an issue for the Hoosiers all season, which is not unusual for a young team.  Ferrell will remain an integral part of the defensive effort, likely drawing the assignment of the opponent’s best player (unless that player happens to be over say 6’8”), and part of the growing process for the younger guys will be to learn from him both in practice and in games.

• The big brain fart.  For the most part, this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things.  Any team is going to have times when it’s run on, times where shots aren’t falling and the other team can’t seem to miss.  This is what happened late in the first half and early in the second half for the Hoosiers.  There was suddenly a lid on the basket and everything was just bouncing out.  Match that with Kellan Dunham taking the lid off of the Butler basket and it’s a recipe for a run.  What’s really important is how the team responds, and in this case both Ferrell and Williams decided to put the team on their backs and not allow them to lose.  As long as the Hoosiers can withstand these little brain farts (which are gonna happen to a young team) they’re going to be able to at least hang with most teams they play.

The Final Word:

Overall, the Hoosiers were far from pretty, but they did enough to beat a very good Butler team in a place (Bankers Life Fieldhouse) where the Bulldogs don’t lose.  In doing so, Indiana gained its second win over a top-25 team this season, the same as the rest of the Big Ten combined.  The offense continued to function, as it’s wont to do, and the defense struggled a bit, as it’s wont to do.  This likely isn’t going to change anytime soon, so Hoosier fans might as well get used to it.  But as ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan claimed after the game, this makes Indiana the most watchable team in the country.  The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can have fun watching IU’s offense pull off ridiculous feats without putting your head in your hands as soon as there’s a boneheaded play on defense.

This type of game was exactly what the Hoosiers needed as they approach the start of Big Ten play, a gritty, tough-it-out, physical game against a very good team.  Now we just have to wait to see where that puts them (I’m not even going to try to guess what conference play is going to look like, with the Big Ten collectively having losses to New Jersey Institute of Technology, Eastern Michigan, Saint Peter’s, St. Francis, Central Michigan, Incarnate Word, North Florida, Eastern Washington, and Texas Southern, who have an average KenPom rating of 167… after beating a Big Ten team).

**Noteworthy News**

With 20 points, Yogi Ferrell eclipsed the 1,000 point mark, becoming the 48^th Indiana Hoosier to do so and the seventh of the Tom Crean Era.  He has 1,003 points in his career, putting him in 48^th on the all-time scoring list.  He needs five to reach Jared Jeffries at 1,008 and another 22 to reach Butch Joyner at 1,030.

With three assists, Ferrell brings his career total to 329, putting him three assists away from Brian Evans in 15^th place and seven away from Butch Carter in 14^th.

Up Next:

The Hoosiers will eat their final helping of cupcake on the season, hosting the Privateers of New Orleans on Monday Dec. 22 at 7pm on BTNPlus (which requires a subscription).  The Privateers are 3-4 on the season, with two of the three wins coming against non-DI teams.  The only things they are doing remotely well so far are getting to the free throw line (a rate of 52% which is good for 11^th best in the country) and hitting those free throws (making 74% of their freebies).  They are actually shorter than Indiana, and have just as little by the way of experience.  As a team, New Orleans does not shoot the ball well overall, although they have had some success from deep, they turn the ball over on almost a quarter of their possessions, they are even worse than the Hoosiers at forcing turnovers on the defensive end, they struggle to prevent other teams from shooting well, and they send teams to the free throw line at a ridiculously high rate.  KenPom ranks the Privateers 304^th in the country and also predicts Indiana to win by a score of 89-67 with a 96% chance of a Hoosier victory.  Based on today’s game, I would be tempted to push the differential even higher, closer to 96-65, however this Indiana team has shown the annoying habit at times of playing down to the level of competition.  This is also the final remaining opportunity to really give some younger guys (read Emmitt Holt and Max Hoetzel) some key minutes.  So I’m going to put the score at 93-75 to compensate for that.  Here’s to hoping that the Hoosiers don’t look past the Privateers to Georgetown and the Big Ten schedule and thereby add New Orleans to the list of head-scratching Big Ten losses.