On this edition of CrimsonCast LIVE, Galen and Matt are joined by Kevin Bowen of the IDS, who shares his perspective on the recent loss to Iowa, the struggles that the team’s upperclassmen are having, and what the team needs to do in order to be successful at Minnesota this weekend. Also joining the show are several callers, with topics ranging from the types of questions that Tom Crean gets in press conferences to the issues of Hulls and Watford moving forward this season. Thanks for listening!
IU Basketball
SpreeCast – at Iowa postgame
Join us for our post-game spreecast after the Iowa game! Starts at 8 pm.
The Hoosier Hotline – 2/16/2012
Jimmy Cavanaugh and Tony Adragna are back with another edition of the Hoosier Hotline. The duo talks everything IU Basketball, including the Northwestern game, Verdell Jones, and Cody Zeller.
CrimsonCast Live 02.13.12
CrimsonCast Live is back for another week (and a day early, thanks to Valentine’s Day). This week’s topics focus on the next slate of games IU has in front of them, as Northwestern and Iowa loom in the next seven days. We also tackle “that conversation”, i.e., where Verdell Jones fits in a suddenly revitalized offense and defense. We also talk about IU’s potential in the Big Ten Tournament, and whether the 5 seed might not be preferable to the 4 seed at Conseco in March.
Special guest for this podcast is Mike Portscheller of Big Ten Geeks. This episode also features comments and commentary from Scott, Matt Blaszka, Chronic Hoosier, Mike Petry, and a late-in-the-game call from Tanner.
Pre-Game Meal: Northwestern
Opponent: Northwestern Wildcats(15-9,5-7)
Series History: IU leads 109-48
Last Meeting: The Wildcats edged IU in Bloomington 70-64 to sweep the season series for the first time in well probably ever.
Last IU Win: IU ended an 11 game losing streak to beat Northwestern 88-80 in overtime. The win closed out the regular season. Many hoped that this would lead to some momentum in the B1G Ten tournament, but alas, IU lost to Northwestern by 15 five days later.
VJIII’s absence is the Ewing Theory on Steroids
Assuming everyone is familiar with Bill Simmons’ Ewing theory of teams that play better without the “superstar” than they did with him. Though counter-intuitive, this actually makes sense. When the dominant personality on a team goes down, the entire team fills the vacuum and everyone plays above his previous expectations.
So what’s that have to do with Verdell Jones III? Well despite his numerous limitations, over the last four years it became quite clear that VJIII was probably the dominant personality on the squad. Unlike virtually every other player on the roster, Jones has never lacked the confidence or drive necessary to be a team leader. (EVEN WHEN ALL EVIDENCE SCREAMED HE SHOULD IN FACT NOT BE SO DAMN CONFIDENT) There’s a reason he took the initial inbound pass against Kentucky and dribbled up court, where he was likely the number one scoring option had he not noticed Christian Watford. There’s a reason why when the shot clock winds down, all too often the ball ends up in his hands. I should point out that despite my frequent defense of him, I don’t think he’s best suited for this role. If IU needs someone to get to the rim, I’d much rather it be Victor Oladipo or Will Sheehey. If IU needs someone to take a tough shot, I’d much rather have just about anyone aside from Tom Pritchard.
This is why Verdell’s “Ewing Theory” impact has been even greater than what you’d normally expect. In general, the injured athlete is in fact the best player on the team. The reason people forecast doom is because obviously a team will miss it’s leading scorer, or top post player. In this case however, Verdell was far from the best player. When other people had to fill the void, they were actually better than the original player. Hopefully, the two games without him won’t be forgotten as he gets back into the rotation and Verdell can continue to evolve into a talented role player which is the role that suits him best.
Stat to distract you from those awful Jared jewlery commercials: Since Bruce Weber whined about the discrepancy in foul shots last week, I thought I’d look at how meaningful the discrepancy was. Taking just the conference games, IU leads the B1G Ten in Free Throws Made(216) Attempted(285) and Percentage(75.8%.) The Hoosiers are averaging 21.9 FTA/Game so far while IU opponents are averaging 19.8 FTA/game. So Bruce can quit whining. But the dramatic difference is comparing this year to last year. Last year, IU went to the free throw line 300 times in 18 games for an average of about 16.7 attempts per game but opponents went to the line an astounding 472 times, and average of 26.3 times per game.
Scouting Future Opponents:
1. Iowa travels to Penn State on Thursday
2. North Carolina Central faces North Carolina A&T on Saturday
3. Minnesota faces THE Ohio State University on Tuesday
Prediction: The Bowling Ball with the Homer inscription will not pass muster as a Valentine’s Day gift, despite the obviously hysterical reference.
Northwestern strikes me as a less physical but more skilled Purdue team. IU will need to impose its’ physical strength much like it did against the Boilermakers. I think Northwestern makes IU sweat this out, but the Hoosiers pull away late in 2nd half and win 76-65.
A Year of Redemption
It’s not secret that no one expected IU to do THIS well this season. Realistic expectations put them just a bit over .500 and a bubble tourney team. Finishing in the top half of the Big Ten would be considered a success.
We all know that these expectations have changed. While sitting at 19-6 and 23rd in the country, it’s easy to see why this has been such a pleasing year for IU fans. At a glance, a team that hadn’t been ranked in three seasons cracking the top 10 earlier this year should create excitement in the fan base.
However, it’s not the wins themselves, but who the Hoosiers are beating that’s gotten fans excited.
Part of what made the early-Crean years so tough for the Hoosiers was not only the suffers they had, but the success other Indiana colleges had. Their biggest rival, Purdue, had a dynamic trio of stars. Notre Dame finished among the top of the Big East and had some of their most successful years. Plus, there’s Butler and their success. Heck, you could even throw in Kentucky, who’s IU’s biggest non-conference rival.
Let’s take a closer look at the records of the notable Indiana colleges and UK from the 2008-09 season through the 2010-11 seasons.
Indiana – 28-66
Purdue – 82-24, 2 Sweet 16 appearances
Butler – 87-21, 2 national title game appearance
Notre Dame – 71-34, 2 NCAA tournament appearance
Kentucky – 86-26, 1 Elite Eight appearance, 1 Final Four
The discrepancy is huge. While IU was nearly 40 games under .500, The Boilermakers, the Bulldogs, and the Wildcats all were nearly 60 games over .500. Their success came at the worst time possible for an IU fan.
Fast forward to this season. Notre Dame had lost key players to graduation and their star Tim Abromaitis to an injury. Purdue had just said good-bye to two-thirds of it’s Big Three. Butler said bye to it’s two stars in Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard. All the while, IU was only welcoming talent, most notably in the form of a 7-footer from Washington, Indiana. And while big things weren’t expected of IU this season, the changing of the guard would be nice.
However, as we know, IU wasn’t ok with just a mediocre season. They flew out of the gates and looked like a team no one thought they’d be. The first bit of redemption came when IU throttled an Evansville team that went .500 last year and made the CBI. It was a small step in the right direction, but there was more to come.
Next came the showdown in Assembly Hall against Butler, a team that had dominated the media in Indiana. IU blew them out of the gym from the get-go and offered another taste of redemption. Taking down the “Dawgs” only added to their swagger.
The biggest test came on December 10th when undefeated IU faced undefeated Kentucky. Perhaps the most frustrating team to watch during IU’s down years was Kentucky, who simply reloaded with talent each season. This season was no different as they came into IU with a far more talented unit.
Whether it be the years of sitting in the shadows or embracing the moment, but IU dominated the game, holding a double digit lead for most of the second half. However, as the old saying goes, every team has a run in them and Kentucky took the lead late. We all know what happened next as Christian Watford not only upset Kentucky, but put IU on the map again.
The Indiana Redemption Tour’s next stop was Indianapolis where they met Notre Dame. IU flexed their muscles inside as Zeller finished with 21 points and 8 boards as IU rolled through another Indiana school.
The tour was put on hold until last weekend, when the last stop of the season was made in West Lafayette. Purdue’s dominance over IU in recent years was incredibly frustrating and for the first time in many years, IU was in a good position to win the game.
And that they did.
Aided by great play from freshman Remy Abel and the slightly more experience Victor Oladipo, IU finished off Purdue and made it a perfect 5 for 5 in the Redemption Tour.
With one more game against Purdue to end the season, IU has one more chance to make a statement, but it couldn’t be any louder than the one they’ve made.
Indiana is back. All other Indiana schools have been warned.
After the Buzzer: Illinois
Final Score:
Indiana: 84
Illinois: 71
No doubt coming into Thursday night’s game the biggest story of the game was going to be: Was Cody Zeller going to be able to hand the 7’1″ athletic freak that is, Meyers Leonard? Early on, it looked as if Zeller and the Hoosiers were going to have their hands full all night with the big man with the backwards name. Leonard had 9 points in the first seven minutes of the game and looked determined as ever to take it right at the Big Ten’s best freshman big man. Just as he has done all season, Zeller didn’t get rattled or fazed of Leonard’s early success. He simply just let the game play out.
After a back and forth first half, the Hoosiers starting to attack into the teeth of the Fighting Illini’s defense. Eight minutes into the second half, Indiana was already able to force Illinois into 8 team fouls, three of them by Leonard. After Meyers picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench, the Hoosiers slowly started to pull away from this Fighting Illini squad. Depth is a key problem for Illinois and it started to show late in the second half.
Indiana proved to be too much for Illinois. The key stat in this game were free throws. The Hoosiers shot just as many free throws as they did field goals (42), which is ridiculous if you think about it. To shoot as many as they did and still knock them down at 83% is impressive.
The Hoosiers brought a balanced attack that was ultimately just too much to handle. Hulls, Watford, Oladipo, and Zeller all had at least 15 points. It is always a good sign when your starting lineup attributes that much to a game. The bench didn’t do bad but, simply put, Indiana didn’t need them to score because of how well the others were playing.
IU will get its first weekend free from any games for the first time since the middle of December. The team looks no where near gassed, but an off weekend can be key for the Hoosiers to rest up after a rough stretch of games that have occurred in the past month and a half. I can remember last year when Tom Crean celebrated in the lobby with us when the Hoosiers knocked off Illinois last year. Oh, how times have changed.
Team Grade: A
Looking Forward- Next week, the Hoosiers get the last of the “single-play” games they will play this year when Northwestern comes to Bloomington on Wednesday. The Wildcats struggled at first in conference but have turned things around and won three in a row. They will face Purdue on Sunday, if you are interested in seeing what kind of team they bring. They will come into Assembly hungry as ever, trying to get their first ever tournament appearance.
Hoosier Hotline – 2/8/2012
Tony Adragna and Jimmy Cavanaugh are back with the Hoosier Hotline, this time talking Indiana’s huge win at Purdue, and they look ahead to the Illinois contest. Aside from that, the duo talks about Indiana’s ranking in the Big Ten, and where they see the Hoosiers being seeded in the NCAA Tournament.
Pre-Game Meal: ILLINOIS
Opponent: Illinois Fighting Illini (16-7, 5-5)
Series Record: Tied 83-83
Last Meeting:3/5/11 The Illini thumped Indiana 72-48(and it wasn’t really that close,) to close out the regular season.
Last IU win: 1/27/11 A thrilling 52-49 victory which led to Hoosier students storming the court in celebration of IU’s first win over a ranked opponent in the Tom Crean era. Little did the students know there were going to be better reasons to storm the court in the next season.
A different team from last year: If IU thinks it will be able to just breeze through a 52-49 walk in the park like last year, it has another thing coming. This is a completely different Illinois team. The trio of Mike Davis, Mike Tisdale, and Demetri McCamey are gone. Their production has been mostly replaced by a new trio who is sure to be as big of a pain in the ass; DJ Richardson, Brandon Paul, and Meyers Leonard. All three were with the team last year, but have taken on much larger roles this season. Of the three, the 7’2″ Leonard’s ascent has been the most noticeable. He’s gone from averaging 2.1 points and 1.2 rebounds per game to 13.3 and 8. To put that in perspective, it’s almost as good as replacing Bobby Capobianco’s production with Cody Zeller’s. Wouldn’t that be something if a team could manage that.
Stat to win friends and influence people: The absolute takeaway from the Hoosiers win over Purdue was the defensive effort and execution fans have been clamoring for. IU held Purdue to .91 points per possession, almost .2 below their average. As a comparison, it was essentially like taking what IU has done on average all season and making it look like the Hoosiers did against Wisconsin. What made it more impressive in my mind was that the Hoosiers forced only 3 turnovers. IU simply limited the good shots for most of the game, and when Purdue missed, IU didn’t allow many offensive rebounds. If IU can play defense like that for the rest of the season, there are few teams who can match up to the Hoosiers firepower on offense.
Gratuitous Bruce Weber Cheap Shot: Unfortunately for Mr. Weber, his record is trending downward at the worst possible time. Weber is now in his 9th season as head coach of the Illini, he took over a loaded team from Bill Self and to his credit brought them to the doorstep of a National Championship in his 2nd year. You might remember Sean May and the Tarheels beating Illinois in this game, if you do, you’re a better fan than me. Since then his record has been mixed to say the least. He’s missed the tournament twice and last year’s run to the Sweet Sixteen with a senior laden squad was the only time he’s seen the 2nd weekend of the NCAA’s in the last 7 years. And as the seat is getting warmer, he also has to deal with a new Athletic Director. Mike Thomas, came over from the University of Cincinnati and immediately began cleaning house by replacing the enigma known as Ron Zook. Which leads me to….
Gratuitous Jack Trudeau cheap shot: You might remember the gratuitous cheap shots became an official headingafter Trudeau promised to “have his old buddy Zooker” run the score up on Kevin Wilson and the Hoosiers. Well he might have accomplished that, but apparantly Wilson gets the last laugh as both Trudeau and Zooker were let go within weeks of each other. Far be it from me to do something as classless as kicking a man when he’s lost his job. But that’s why I trust in my readers to do it for me.
Scouting Future Opponents:
Northwestern Hosts Iowa Thursday at 9.
North Carolina Central hosts Savannah State on Saturday.
Prediction: Much to my dismay, they won’t make Leonard Part 7. 
Though Meyers Leonard will pose an interesting and new challenge to IU’s talented freshman forward, the surrounding talent won’t be enough as Victor Oladipo continues his defensive renaissance in locking down Brandon Paul. IU wins 78-65.
Illinois Preview Podcast with Dan & Jim
Scott is joined by CrimsonCast fan Jim and special guest Dan, who was the last person to ever be the symbol of the University of Illinois, Chief Illiniwek.
They preview this Thursday’s game against Illinois, jinx the Illini’s game vs Northwestern, is Bruce Weber on the hot seat, talk about the state of the B1G and discuss urban legends from each team’s Assembly Hall.
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