Hoosier Daddy

In what might be our only remaining chance this season to legitimately use the title phrase (and I do love it so), Indiana ran out to a 20-point lead and this time managed to hold on for their first Big Ten victory, 68-60 over the freefalling Iowa Hawkeyes. This game was played at Iowa’s pace – 59 possessions – but the huge surprise was Indiana’s suddenly effective offense. The Hoosiers have now posted an efficiency above 109 in each of the past three games, and that includes games against solid defenses in Ohio State and Northwestern. How have they done it?

Well, suddenly and inexplicably, Indiana has morphed into a perimeter-oriented team (POT). Check out Indiana’s POT-related stats over the past three games compared to the previous 18:





On the backs of Devan Dumes (14 for 23) and Matt Roth (14 for 24), Indiana is suddenly taking - and making - tons of threes. As you’d expect in this scenario, offensive rebounding and turnovers have dropped a bit - the usual tradeoffs for a POT. Is Tom Crean onto something, or is this just a temporary blip? Obviously, you’re not going to hit 53% from downtown as a team for an extended period, but maybe Indiana’s young offense is starting to figure itself out a bit.

In this game, Dumes carried the torch nearly singlehandedly, scoring 27 points on just 9 shots (including 5 for 5 from downtown). On the other side, a hot second half for Matt Gatens wasn’t enough to bring his team back, but he did finish with 22 points on 15 shots. Box score.

Fresh off a thrashing of Illinois, Minnesota was humbled in turn at Michigan State, falling behind by as many as 35 points before losing 76-47. This one was over from the outset, with the Spartans jumping out to a 13-1 lead and never looking back. Michigan State still had a bit of a turnover problem, but they shot, rebounded, and defended so well that it didn’t really matter. Durrell Summers posted 21 points on 10 shots - mostly in the first half - making it three out of four games in which the emerging sophomore scored at least 21 points. Box score.

With the win, the Spartans are still firmly in the driver’s seat for the conference title, but have much to prove with a visit to Illinois and two games against Purdue still looming. This race is far from over, but Michigan State is still looking like the favorite, especially with the news that Robbie Hummel has a stress fracture in his back and will be dealing with it for the rest of the year.

Finally, in a nonconference game, Northwestern defeated Chicago State 75-63. This was actually a 1-point game with 4 minutes left in the first half, but the Wildcats outscored Chicago State 31-10 over the next 14 minutes to put them away. Northwestern, as usual, had nice balance offensively - Kevin Coble, John Shurna, and Craig Moore each scored 15 to 19 points on 11 or 12 shots. It was a welcome return to relevance for Shurna, who is averaging just 3.6 points per game in Big Ten play. Northwestern fans can only hope that some of that confidence will carry over into Saturday’s game at Iowa. Box score.

Tonight, Michigan hosts red-hot Penn State (6pm CT, Big Ten Network), while Wisconsin hopes to end their 6-game skid with a home game against Illinois (8pm CT, ESPN).