IU Pulls One Out Of Its Hat
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
BLOOMINGTON - Fifth-best backcourt in the nation?
Street & Smith College Basketball Magazine and ESPN's Dick Vitale have said the Indiana Hoosiers have this.
They may, but the fifth-best backcourt in the nation did not show up for the first half Saturday against intrastate rival Indiana State.
Fortunately for the capacity Assembly Hall crowd, the Indiana Hoosiers were able to pull off a miraculous second-half comeback to win 76-70.
Not a single guard scored for the Hoosiers in the first half.
Not preseason All-American A.J. Guyton.
Not highly touted freshman Dana Fife.
Not three-year player Mike Lewis, and not a single guard off the bench.
Fifth-best backcourt in the nation?
The Sycamore backcourt turned in a strong showing.
The tone of the game was set from the first play when Fife turned the ball over, and Indiana State came back and capitalized.
The line of the game was Indiana State's three-point shooting, 9 of 14 in the first half. The Sycamores hit 18 of 32 field goals in the first half.
The bright spot for IU in the first half was again the play of red-shirt freshman Kirk Haston. Haston single-handedly held IU together. He scored 10 points and had seven rebounds, but it was the intangibles, setting strong screens and hustle, that earned him praise from IU coach Bob Knight.
"If we wouldn't have had Haston in the first half, we wouldn't have scored 20 points," said Knight.
The Sycamores trailed 9-7 early in the first half, but put together a 12-0 run to go up 19-7. IU would come within two twice in the half. The Hoosiers brought it to 24-26 with 5:48 left when ISU guard Mike Menser, the Batesville product who came up short to Luke Recker in the Mr. Basketball poll two years ago, collided with a teammate at midcourt, breaking his nose and causing a concussion. While trainers worked on Menser, Knight took the opportunity to explain to his team the importance of the next few minutes.
"I told them, 'You are in a point in the game where you can't put yourselves in a position where you have to come back again,'" Knight said. "'I talked about two or three things we could do. I did such a good job it took us from two down to 19 down."
Boos and a 19-point deficit hounded the Hoosiers as they headed into the locker room at halftime.
If there was ever a game where two halves looked like two different games, this was it.
The Hoosiers finally caught up to Indiana State at 59-59 when Recker hit a three with a little more than six minutes left in the game. Haston gave his team the lead for the first time since the 9-7 lead early in the first with a rebound and putback.
The Sycamores refused to give up, scoring twice before Recker was fouled on a lay-up. He would score the free throw to keep things close. The Hoosiers retook the lead at 68-64 with three minutes left after two straight Lewis assists to Recker.
Indiana State stayed in the game with a Nate Green three-pointer to cut the Indiana lead to one, but baskets by Haston, Will Gladness and Recker gave the Hoosiers a four-point lead inside the last minute, without reply from the Sycamores. With 10 seconds left, Haston iced the game at the line.
"The story of the game was not the way we played in the second half, but the way Indiana State played in the first half," Knight pointed out. "I damn near walk off the floor with Royce (Waltman Indiana State head coach and former Knight assistant). We just got our ass pounded in the first half.
"Lay-ups, free throws, rebounds, they beat us in every facet of the game. I enjoyed watching them play in the first half."
"They flat out kicked our butt all over the floor," Recker said following the game. "We can't allow them to do that."
"No team outplayed us like they did," said Guyton, who was benched following an 0-for-5 shooting performance in the first half. "I haven't been playing very good. He benched me, rightfully so."
"A.J. had to do some things other than dribbling the ball and shoot," Knight said.
Knight felt his team may not have respected the Sycamores, who have not been as highly touted as his Hoosiers. "Sometimes kids don't understand just how good other kids are," he said. "At West Point we had kids who weren't recruited very much, kids who played like hell, played together, knew they couldn't make mistakes. Kids who are highly recruited have a hard time understanding that.
"The second half wasn't the story. It's the first half that our team better pay attention to. We just got our ass pounded."
Knight will need to get his team back to the type of ball they played a week ago at the NABC classic. The Hoosiers face the University of Alabama-Birmingham Wednesday night. [[In-content Ad]]
BLOOMINGTON - Fifth-best backcourt in the nation?
Street & Smith College Basketball Magazine and ESPN's Dick Vitale have said the Indiana Hoosiers have this.
They may, but the fifth-best backcourt in the nation did not show up for the first half Saturday against intrastate rival Indiana State.
Fortunately for the capacity Assembly Hall crowd, the Indiana Hoosiers were able to pull off a miraculous second-half comeback to win 76-70.
Not a single guard scored for the Hoosiers in the first half.
Not preseason All-American A.J. Guyton.
Not highly touted freshman Dana Fife.
Not three-year player Mike Lewis, and not a single guard off the bench.
Fifth-best backcourt in the nation?
The Sycamore backcourt turned in a strong showing.
The tone of the game was set from the first play when Fife turned the ball over, and Indiana State came back and capitalized.
The line of the game was Indiana State's three-point shooting, 9 of 14 in the first half. The Sycamores hit 18 of 32 field goals in the first half.
The bright spot for IU in the first half was again the play of red-shirt freshman Kirk Haston. Haston single-handedly held IU together. He scored 10 points and had seven rebounds, but it was the intangibles, setting strong screens and hustle, that earned him praise from IU coach Bob Knight.
"If we wouldn't have had Haston in the first half, we wouldn't have scored 20 points," said Knight.
The Sycamores trailed 9-7 early in the first half, but put together a 12-0 run to go up 19-7. IU would come within two twice in the half. The Hoosiers brought it to 24-26 with 5:48 left when ISU guard Mike Menser, the Batesville product who came up short to Luke Recker in the Mr. Basketball poll two years ago, collided with a teammate at midcourt, breaking his nose and causing a concussion. While trainers worked on Menser, Knight took the opportunity to explain to his team the importance of the next few minutes.
"I told them, 'You are in a point in the game where you can't put yourselves in a position where you have to come back again,'" Knight said. "'I talked about two or three things we could do. I did such a good job it took us from two down to 19 down."
Boos and a 19-point deficit hounded the Hoosiers as they headed into the locker room at halftime.
If there was ever a game where two halves looked like two different games, this was it.
The Hoosiers finally caught up to Indiana State at 59-59 when Recker hit a three with a little more than six minutes left in the game. Haston gave his team the lead for the first time since the 9-7 lead early in the first with a rebound and putback.
The Sycamores refused to give up, scoring twice before Recker was fouled on a lay-up. He would score the free throw to keep things close. The Hoosiers retook the lead at 68-64 with three minutes left after two straight Lewis assists to Recker.
Indiana State stayed in the game with a Nate Green three-pointer to cut the Indiana lead to one, but baskets by Haston, Will Gladness and Recker gave the Hoosiers a four-point lead inside the last minute, without reply from the Sycamores. With 10 seconds left, Haston iced the game at the line.
"The story of the game was not the way we played in the second half, but the way Indiana State played in the first half," Knight pointed out. "I damn near walk off the floor with Royce (Waltman Indiana State head coach and former Knight assistant). We just got our ass pounded in the first half.
"Lay-ups, free throws, rebounds, they beat us in every facet of the game. I enjoyed watching them play in the first half."
"They flat out kicked our butt all over the floor," Recker said following the game. "We can't allow them to do that."
"No team outplayed us like they did," said Guyton, who was benched following an 0-for-5 shooting performance in the first half. "I haven't been playing very good. He benched me, rightfully so."
"A.J. had to do some things other than dribbling the ball and shoot," Knight said.
Knight felt his team may not have respected the Sycamores, who have not been as highly touted as his Hoosiers. "Sometimes kids don't understand just how good other kids are," he said. "At West Point we had kids who weren't recruited very much, kids who played like hell, played together, knew they couldn't make mistakes. Kids who are highly recruited have a hard time understanding that.
"The second half wasn't the story. It's the first half that our team better pay attention to. We just got our ass pounded."
Knight will need to get his team back to the type of ball they played a week ago at the NABC classic. The Hoosiers face the University of Alabama-Birmingham Wednesday night. [[In-content Ad]]