IU - Charlotte Postgame

IU went to Charlotte seeking revenge for last year's loss in the Hall at the buzzer.

IU started out with a one track mind... go inside to Marco 4 out of the first 5 possessions... and the 49ers said no way as they zoned IU and double teamed Marco leading to a blocked shot, a missed 10 footer, and 2 turnovers. Charlotte went big to IU's small and took the ball inside against IU getting 4 inside points and a 3 from the outside when IU doubled down. Vaden countered the big man guarding him by taking him outside and hitting a 3. Charlotte 7 - IU 3 at the first timeout.

DJ came in at the 12:00 minute mark with Killingsworth and immediately the 49ers got an offensive rebound on a free throw that led to a 3 pointer. Not what you want to see with IU's 2 big guys in there together. I was interested to see how Davis played the 2 together on the offensive end. Sure enough IU went to a 2 man game with Killingsworth outside feeding White inside. The guards just spread around the 3 pt line as window dressing. 1st possession White missed a 10 footer, 2nd possession Killer took a 3 and 3rd and 4th possessions White missed 10 footers. And the 49ers got 3 offensive rebounds in the 4 minutes they were in together.

At the 8 minute mark, both Marco and White sat and IU hit 3 straight 3 pointers to regain the lead 21-18. Then IU went to a 1-3-1 zone and Charlotte scored an easy bucket bringing IU back to man to man. Meanwhile IU hit 4 more 3s going 9-12. The 49ers fueled the run by taking bad shot after bad shot. Killer even hit a 3 and IU was up 37-20.

Then IU let up and it was 37-28. Then Vaden hit another 3 and Charlotte hit a 15 footer at the buzzer and IU led 40-30 at the half. Charlotte took away the inside game and IU was 10-14 from 3 point land in the first half. Nice shooting.

The second half saw the 49ers start out with some patience and ball movement and got 2 wide open looks for an early 5 pts. IU also got 2 wide open looks for a quick 5 points for a draw. Charlotte cut the lead to 8 on a Weathers shot over Vaden, then Davis went nuts on the sideline for I don't quite know what and got a T. IU by 6 and it was a game again.

White came in for Marco and things stablized for a bit until DJ was involved in one of the most blatent no calls I've ever seen. DJ went up for a rebound with a Coleman grabbing one arm, DJ got the rebound and went up for the shot and was pulled down by the arm and no call. It was the most obvious foul I've ever seen and no official saw it. Bizarre!!!! Charlotte couldn't take advantage as they took 3 consecutive bad shots and Ratliff hit a 3 and Calloway a layup to put IU back up 11 at the 12 minute time out.

The next 8 minutes were uneventful as IU maintained the lead at 12 with neither team scoring a whole lot

A few late 3s provided the final separation.

IU 71 - Charlotte 54

2 main observations...

Offensively IU was better off when either White or Marco were in the game, but not both at the same time. When both were in, the 3 guards just stood around and watched. When only 1 was in, the ball was moved around the perimeter and reversed well to get wide open looks. Defensively they were better with both in as Vaden is way too undersized to play the power forward at the defensive end. It will be interesting to see how Davis handles this throughout the season.

Poor Vaden had to battle Weathers, a 6'8" 250 lb horse, inside for most of the game. Dude's got heart... reminds me of Moye... if only he had another 4 inches. Or Davis would play him as a guard instead of a power forward.

Oh and give Davis a contract extension now! Save us from the pleading in the Media that we will be hearing shortly.