by Kyle Miller
It took me awhile to gather my thoughts on Indiana basketball after the Butler game, but here’s what I saw.
It certainly wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t pretty, poetic or even fun to watch, but Indiana’s win last night was its biggest in four years under Tom Crean.
Let’s be honest, upsetting Pittsburgh two years ago at Madison Square Garden was a fluke, and beating Illinois and Minnesota was encouraging, but both those teams immensely underachieved last year. Routing Evansville at the Ford Center was impressive, but not as impressive as the Butler win.
Indiana didn’t play well – especially in the first half. They shot 32 percent in the first half, 40 percent for the game, committed 16 turnovers and gave up 16 offense rebounds.
Christian Watford and Verdell Jones III combined to go 2-for-13 for a total of nine points and six turnovers – Yikes. That’s not strong considering those two players led IU in scoring last year.
Butler came in with nothing to lose and everything to gain. At 3-2 the Bulldogs scrapped, clawed and kept it close against the heavily favored Hoosiers. The Hoosiers looked as if they would pull away multiple times, but could never bury the Bulldogs. Butler was doing what all underdogs try to do – keep the game close, put pressure on the favored squad, and give themselves a chance at the end of the game.
Considering all that, the adversity, the poor shooting, the turnovers, IU did what haunted them the previous three years –closing the game. When things got tough, IU would quiver and self-implode, but Monday was different. They stepped to it.
They showed maturity, confidence and toughness. They finally showed they had some balls. It wasn’t how they played, but it was how they won. When you beat five straight teams by 20-plus points and then find yourself in a dogfight, it’s easy to panic, especially against a team you know you should beat.
Indiana persisted. They dove on loose balls. They found the open man. And they did it when everything wasn’t going exactly to the plan.
However…
IU’s performance still wasn’t good enough. After all, it was against a depleted Butler team still learning how to function without Shelvin Mack, Matt Howard, Shawn Vanzant and Zach Hahn, and it was even at Assembly Hall in front of a home crowed of 17,265 fans.
Whooping up on cupcakes like Savannah State, Stony Brook and Gardner Webb is all gravy, but that doesn’t put banners in the rafters. It’s nice that IU is once again beating these teams like a drum, but lets not jump to conclusions. The best win on IU’s schedule is beating Butler (3-3) at home.
Am I excited for what Indiana basketball has done thus far, you bet your mortgage I am, but I have to keep it realistic.
Indiana could be really good this year – really good. That’s why being satisfied now with a 6-0 record and getting three votes in the coaches poll isn’t good enough. Taking back the state isn’t even good enough. Good enough is Big Ten Championships, Final Four appearances and ultimately NCAA National Championships. That’s good enough.
I don’t expect them to turn into the ’76 Hoosiers overnight, but I do expect Hoosier fans to keep the big picture in mind. They aren’t “back” yet, they are leaps and bounds better, but they aren’t back – at least not yet.
I agree. I got thru watching it on the DVR. It was a messy game, but I think it was because Butler really put everything they had into it. Both teams were scrapping and sloppy. I seemed as IU missed a lot of easy shots / lay ups, but I think Butler was doing a better job contesting than the previous opponents. It really looks like Hulls, Sheehey, and Oladipo are growing in poise and confidence. I thought they each stepped up. Compared to other top 25/top 10 teams, IU does seem slow though, but they are playing under control for the most part so that is a positive. Zeller has really impressed me. I haven’t seen a big man play so well as a freshman for IU. His has good hands, feet, and control. He seems to be an extremely smart player and continually looks to be in the right place at the right time. I think a wake up call is coming fot IU, and I’m interested to see how the team will respond to it.
Zeller is really good. He’s not flashy, but he’s just a really good basketball player. He doesn’t turn the ball over (although I know he did have one pretty bad pass in that game) when he gets double teamed. He just makes everyone better on the floor, and I think that’s rare for a freshman. The game was really sloppy. I can’t say I completely remember how our turnovers occurred. However, some I remember happened due to their pressure and quick hands, which worries me because Kentucky, Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State are all going to pressure IU more intensly than Butler did. But hey, 6-0 is 6-0, but they definitely need to spruce up a bit as the competition gets amped up.
The Butler game was good in the sense that it simulated a Big Ten game both in intensity and in the level of coaching from the opposition. I have watched four of Butler’s six games and they have gotten better each game. After watching both Cody Zeller and Butler, it sure makes one feel a sigh of relief he didn’t go to Butler. They would be far ahead of where they are had he taken up residence on Indy’s near northside. One of the announcers (possibly Jimmy Jackson) said Butler wasn’t averaging a high offensive output but that it the case every year. They are a very defense oriented team by design. While not at the same level, talentwise, as Kentucky, Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan State they are better coached (yes even better than Matta and Izzo) and get more out of what they have. Butler is fairly young as are most of the previously mentioned teams but more mature in several ways.
All that said, IU did not play up to its potential offensively but really found out it had some guts and they had Cody Zeller too. IU could still be a somewhat successful team without Zeller but he makes a huge difference. Yes, IU will have to step it up in the next several weeks. Even though NC State will not be extemely talented, they will be playing at home and unlike Bloomington where the refs let both teams play the other night, you can expect a true bias on the part of the officials in favor of NC State. And they have the confidence of believing the ACC is better than the Big Ten and that Indiana has been down and not really very good. This is one of those games where IU needs to go out there and pop them in the mouth (metaphorically speaking) and really play well from the tip off. I often go off on Verdell Jones but he didn’t even play enough to get too much criticism. He did not contribute though. Watford still thinks he is a guard and is too slow to be putting the ball on the floor as often as he does. Above, Mike says IU seems slow but if they are it is hard to explain their ability to “run the floor” as TV announcers sometimes say. They get up and down the floor as well as almost any other team I have seen. I don’t think IU can have Derek Elston and Christian Watford to have many of these “no show” games like Sunday night. Those two don’t need to score a lot. They just need to rebound, play defense and get eight to ten points apiece. Most of IU’s players had subpar games Sunday except for Cody Zeller and Will Sheehey, a player I still think is IU’s best at this point. How you can keep Sheehey on the bench is hard to explain. If even one other player for IU had played at the level they previously had played, the game would not have been as close. Oladipo played with as much effort and enthusiasm as normal but was off offensively. You are right though, IU was not clicking on all cylinders and still found a way by scratching and clawing to get a win. Those types of games will be standard fare for the Big Ten but in the next couple of weeks, IU needs to get its head on straight and pick it up. If Indiana wins their next three games, then all bets are off. The playing field will have changed.
Has anybody mentioned Tom Pritchard? I usually groan when he enters the game, but he surely came through on a couple of good steals at a very necessary time in the game.