Stars of the night?
1* Sanjay - incredibly efficient and smart on offense, and an absolute terror on the defensive end. He's really developed, and I don't care what the stats say it's nearly impossible to overstate his level of activity on the defensive end of the floor, jumping from his man to the ball, overplaying and recovering, bothering Bryant, fighting for rebounds, all without getting fouls (one notable BS call on an obvious steal of his). And two huge plays that got the crowd lit - the steal and flush in Bryant's face, and the spin o rama on Bryant. Sanjay is afraid of no one.
2* BMac - 21 and 8, he still had a couple bad turnovers, but as usual that's partly cause he ends up being responsible for all our bad shot clock situations. I'm sure this was part CC, but he did a very good job of taking advantage of when they'd switch bigs onto him - got 3 good inside looks / floaters on them, did turn it over once against Bryant, but then hit that step up 3. Eventually forced them to go box and 1. Also his defense was quite good tonight I thought - sure he's not as fast or long as our other guards, but he fought hard and most of the time stayed in front of Johnston and the rest of them. The biggest thing though - he really controlled the pacing of the game, and did an excellent job. We never really rushed in the second half, but we also didn't pull back on offense, we kept getting good shots. He also selectively pushed the ball when there were chances.
3* Vic - While he shot poorly, he was what they seemed to design their defense around early on. He kept plugging and got a few baskets, drove into traffic and took the contact and made his FTs. His far bigger impact was on the defensive side of the court - while Dererk Sanjay and the gang played swarm D on Bryant and Davis, he was cutting off drive after drive after drive on the outside, he totally dominated the Indiana guards in his defensive matchup. And then after forcing bad shots, he'd sag back down and snatch boards away from the bigs. A classic example of someone whose shot is not falling still finding a way to impact the game.
Other notes
- Benson and Tap both gave us very solid minutes. Benson had a nice hook and generally was competent on O, then played pretty solid D too, a few quick fouls notwithstanding. Tap also didn't make any obvious mistakes on D, and then hit a big 3 and had a pretty nice drive to the hoop. Those minutes were big given IU's talent inside. We will need them against Swanigan and Haas at Purdue. Hope his ankle heals up!
- Scottie still wasn't 100% I don't think... he didn't have the lift on his shot he normally does. Missed too many short, and a few weren't really close. Also his change of direction on D was a step slow. But the rest of the team picked him up. And Scottie in the fast break was still excellent.
- Not Dererk's best game, that's okay he took his turn on Thursday I guess. He still battled inside, gave 100%. And did a decent job of conserving his fouls on a night he knew we'd need them, aside from that silly over the back on a ball he couldn't get anyways for his 3rd at the start of 2H.
Generally... what struck me the most was just that we played smart, solid team basketball. The team defense was excellent- the execution of the double teams and stopping of drives on the perimeter was very well done. On O we continued to execute our offense- we used the screens to get favorable matchups then attacked, we went after their small guards in the post when Vic got a good matchup, we sprinkled in a couple possessions where we fed our bigs. We didn't go into the dreaded "dribble 20 seconds off before trying to score". And importantly, we pushed when we had opportunities, but then when we didn't have numbers we would hold up and set up the offense. We made FTs, and we beat a team that tried to go big against us 41-37 on the boards.
This team is maturing. Just one after another in a long string of smart, fundamental basketball plays. Also, I was reminded of what Miles said in his post game, we really just have a very well constructed and balanced team, a complete team in that sense of the word. Everyone has a role, and different guys will get you on each night. There's little question the better team won. On to Purdue!!
And a few random tidbits-
- After going down 10-1, I think we went on a 34-13 run to close the 1H, talk about responding
- They shot 17-53, and if you take away Bryant's 7-13 it was 10-40 - excellent perimeter defense by our guards and fantastic job of swarming and then rotating back
- We never blinked once in the second half - I don't think they ever got it inside 10 pts
- I love that CC was rotating bodies on Bryant all night long - Pardon, Sanjay, Benson, Skelly were switching back and forth every couple possessions so that no one got tired
1* Sanjay - incredibly efficient and smart on offense, and an absolute terror on the defensive end. He's really developed, and I don't care what the stats say it's nearly impossible to overstate his level of activity on the defensive end of the floor, jumping from his man to the ball, overplaying and recovering, bothering Bryant, fighting for rebounds, all without getting fouls (one notable BS call on an obvious steal of his). And two huge plays that got the crowd lit - the steal and flush in Bryant's face, and the spin o rama on Bryant. Sanjay is afraid of no one.
2* BMac - 21 and 8, he still had a couple bad turnovers, but as usual that's partly cause he ends up being responsible for all our bad shot clock situations. I'm sure this was part CC, but he did a very good job of taking advantage of when they'd switch bigs onto him - got 3 good inside looks / floaters on them, did turn it over once against Bryant, but then hit that step up 3. Eventually forced them to go box and 1. Also his defense was quite good tonight I thought - sure he's not as fast or long as our other guards, but he fought hard and most of the time stayed in front of Johnston and the rest of them. The biggest thing though - he really controlled the pacing of the game, and did an excellent job. We never really rushed in the second half, but we also didn't pull back on offense, we kept getting good shots. He also selectively pushed the ball when there were chances.
3* Vic - While he shot poorly, he was what they seemed to design their defense around early on. He kept plugging and got a few baskets, drove into traffic and took the contact and made his FTs. His far bigger impact was on the defensive side of the court - while Dererk Sanjay and the gang played swarm D on Bryant and Davis, he was cutting off drive after drive after drive on the outside, he totally dominated the Indiana guards in his defensive matchup. And then after forcing bad shots, he'd sag back down and snatch boards away from the bigs. A classic example of someone whose shot is not falling still finding a way to impact the game.
Other notes
- Benson and Tap both gave us very solid minutes. Benson had a nice hook and generally was competent on O, then played pretty solid D too, a few quick fouls notwithstanding. Tap also didn't make any obvious mistakes on D, and then hit a big 3 and had a pretty nice drive to the hoop. Those minutes were big given IU's talent inside. We will need them against Swanigan and Haas at Purdue. Hope his ankle heals up!
- Scottie still wasn't 100% I don't think... he didn't have the lift on his shot he normally does. Missed too many short, and a few weren't really close. Also his change of direction on D was a step slow. But the rest of the team picked him up. And Scottie in the fast break was still excellent.
- Not Dererk's best game, that's okay he took his turn on Thursday I guess. He still battled inside, gave 100%. And did a decent job of conserving his fouls on a night he knew we'd need them, aside from that silly over the back on a ball he couldn't get anyways for his 3rd at the start of 2H.
Generally... what struck me the most was just that we played smart, solid team basketball. The team defense was excellent- the execution of the double teams and stopping of drives on the perimeter was very well done. On O we continued to execute our offense- we used the screens to get favorable matchups then attacked, we went after their small guards in the post when Vic got a good matchup, we sprinkled in a couple possessions where we fed our bigs. We didn't go into the dreaded "dribble 20 seconds off before trying to score". And importantly, we pushed when we had opportunities, but then when we didn't have numbers we would hold up and set up the offense. We made FTs, and we beat a team that tried to go big against us 41-37 on the boards.
This team is maturing. Just one after another in a long string of smart, fundamental basketball plays. Also, I was reminded of what Miles said in his post game, we really just have a very well constructed and balanced team, a complete team in that sense of the word. Everyone has a role, and different guys will get you on each night. There's little question the better team won. On to Purdue!!
And a few random tidbits-
- After going down 10-1, I think we went on a 34-13 run to close the 1H, talk about responding
- They shot 17-53, and if you take away Bryant's 7-13 it was 10-40 - excellent perimeter defense by our guards and fantastic job of swarming and then rotating back
- We never blinked once in the second half - I don't think they ever got it inside 10 pts
- I love that CC was rotating bodies on Bryant all night long - Pardon, Sanjay, Benson, Skelly were switching back and forth every couple possessions so that no one got tired
