IU starts out with Hardy guarding Augustine and he scores 6 of UI's first 8 pts. Hmmm... think Weber saw that one coming.
Real smart starting 4 freshman. 0-4 and 3 turnovers in the first 5 minutes. This would have been the perfect game to start Tapak and Kline alongside Vaden, White and Strickland. In a hostile environment against a team with 2 big guys... they needed the older leadership to get going. Instead after being down 0-8, Davis brought in Tapak and Ewing to go with Vaden, White and Strick. Too late! Tone was already set.
Kellogg seemed surprised that Illinois was going inside so much... huh??? I thought they weren't going inside enough. Illinois kept shooting 3s... and missing them. 1-9 in the first half. That let IU back in the game.
Great one on one play from Vaden to close out the half... he beat his man on the drive and when Nick Smith came over to help he hit DJ for a 12 footer to beat the halftime buzzer. I give the IU guys credit, they kept playing hard to get back into the game at the half after being down 20-3.
I loved Clark commenting about how IU's schedule was so tough, then when they showed the SOS at 34, he commented "How could that be? Didn't they take into account their pre-B10 schedule?" Yeah they did Clark... Western Illinois, Indiana State, Furman, Oral Roberts, Ball State, Missouri, etc...
Clark has lost it... "Lets look at how Indiana changed their defense to a trapping zone midway through the first half" As we watch a highlight of Donald Perry chasing Luther Head all over the court. Yup, sure looked like a zone defense to me... shaking my head!
26 - 20 at the half
Hmmm... UI comes out and outscores IU 13-2. Let's see, Weber makes adjustments... Davis adjusts his sweater vest.
IU did do a good job of milking the shot clock on every possession so that Illinois wouldn't score a lot. It worked, we held them to 60 pts... unfortunately it also led to a ton of forced shots and IU only scored 47 pts.
Amazing how a good defense just absolutely shuts down this offense. Well not that amazing... we've seen it happen for 5 years now.
And Bracey not playing didn't make a difference at all. Other than we shot less 3 pointers.
Fortunately Illinois missed 12 of their 16 3-point shots... or it would have been even uglier.
Illinois 60 - IU 47 - Boxscore
Check out the Assist to Turnover Ratio... IU 7 assists and 14 turnovers. UI 15 assists and 12 turnovers.
Check out the Free Throw attempts... IU 9-11... shot them well, just weren't aggressive going to the basket. UI 18-20... shot them well and went to the bucket aggressively.
I loved the Postgame Interview with Don. "Congratulations Coach... your team fought well today."
Yippee... we fought well!!!!
Nice diversion in the Star... let's rehash the golden years of Knight's undefeated 76 team and compare them to the Illini so we don't all get angry at what Mike has done to the IU program.
IU has shot to protect '76 team's distinction - Indy Star
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Oh, and please, PLEASE find the quote from the post-game press conference regarding the reason why Davis started those freshman. He said something to the effect that he wanted to give them the chance to play against the best team in the country.
(Because, of course, IU makes such a giant sucking sound that the freshman should at least get some time with a DECENT team...gah...)
Outstanding Anna! None of the online sources had any Davis quotes last night. I'll be looking tonight!
Anna seems like a big fan. Who is Anna?
Cool beans! I am a virtual rock star! ;)
Actually, I am a Hoosier fan by allegiance, but I don't follow any sport very much. (I just happened to catch the quote on the news, because it piqued my interest. Seeing Davis at a press conference is like watching a used car salesman send a lemon off for a new paint job - I can't wait to see how he'll try to sell it.)
I have a two degrees from IU, but I never went to a basketball game here until after I graduated the first time. I also work for IU. So, that's why the interest.
But more importantly, I'm a Steve fan - because I can't get it together enough to get my blog going! Go Steve! Give me hope!
Sounds like Steve is admired fondly. I suppose the two of you should meet up for a game and chat. Maybe Steve will let you be a contributing editor of the blog.
Actually, my husband and I have already met Steve for a few games...in fact, I even got him to sign a few autographs at my last birthday party! (Of course, that's not really fair, since we were Steve's friends before he got famous. :) )
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