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I understand the theory about slowing the game down when you're playing on the roadin a hostile environment and, oh, there was no shortage of hostility in Champaign. Even Bruce Weber, who still has his panties bunched up over losing out on EricGordon, displayed hostility. Did you see the perfunctory handshakes with KelvinSampson before and after the game? The only way he could have created more distancebetween Sampson and himself would have been to extend a stick with a glove at theend.
The Hoosiers' guard and wing play lost this game. Sampson had them walk the ball upcourt to slow the pace of the game, which is a good strategy when you want to keepit tight and deflate the crowd, but once you cross the ten-second line, you can't betentative. You have to create something and that means having some motion in theoffense--some cuts, some screens and some curls. I didn't see much of that.
The guards and wings are the ones who have to get the offense moving. If thatdoesn't happen, you wind up doing what Indiana did last night.--running the shotclock down to desperation time and throwing up something that vaguely resembles ashot. Of course, doing that only feeds the crowd. With the shot clock at10...9...8...and only then you start working for a shot, the crowd is hooting andhollering and the defense reacts to by racheting up the intensity and pressuring theball. Bad things happen in that hurried situation--a poor shot, a turnover, acharge.
As always, the Hoosiers looked to DJ for points. Against Illinois, though, he wassmothered and pushed out of position. I lost count of how many times DJ got theball behind the three-point line and, on the few other occasions the Hoosiers threwit to him inside the arc he was still 10-12 feet from the basket. That's okay oncein awhile, but that can't be the Hoosiers' offense. DJ has to set up lower in theblock. He has to work to establish position and then maintain it if he's going tomake any sort of power move to the rim. Pruitt had his way on defense and DJ lacksthe ball handling skills to get to the rim from 10-12 feet.
All in all, the Hoosiers had little inside presence against Illinois. Lance Stemleris a hard-nosed, gritty kid, but definitely not a player who can outmuscle thetypical power forward. Mike White, on the other hand, is a banger. He got the ballin the paint a few times off feeds or the rare offensive rebound, but then failed tofinish. If you wind up with the ball at pointblank range, you've got to do one oftwo things--make the basket or draw the foul. He did neither.
Free throws or, more accurately, the lack of them hurt Indiana. When your outsideshots aren't dropping, you have to get in the paint. The guards have to penetrateor someone on the weak side has to flash into the paint for a pass. You can't becontent to keep throwing the ball up there hoping something eventually drops.
Indiana played well enough on defense to win this game, although the Hoosierscommitted way too many fouls (20) and got outscored at the line by nine points,i.e., one more than the margin of victory. They also allowed the Illini more secondchance points than they got. Still, holding the opposition to 51 points on 40.5%from the field, including 23.9% from the three-point line, puts a team in goodposition to win.
I've got a theory on why the Hoosiers played flat against Illinois. Oneword--Connecticut. Scheduling that game in the midst of Big 10 season wastantamount to conceding the Illinois game. After beating Iowa on Tuesday, theHoosiers, had they not played the Huskies, would have had six days to prepare forIllinois. Six days. You can dissect a team down to the managers in six days. Instead, Indiana spent the rest of the week getting ready for UConn, left on Fridayfor Connecticut, played a tough, physical Husky squad in an emotion filled game onSaturday afternoon, got back to Bloomington on Saturday night, had just one day ofpractice at Assembly Hall on Sunday and then took a three-hour bus ride toChampaign on Monday. Anyone see any sense--besides dollars and cents--in that? Isure don't.
--Ed Anderson
