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Archive for December, 2010

Pomeroy Preview: Penn State

by in Commentary | December 27th, 2010

As Alex tweeted earlier this morning, AccuScore (83 percent), RealTimeRPI (70.4 percent) and Pomeroy (76 percent) all favor the Hoosiers this evening. And as ChronicHoosier added, Vegas is favoring Indiana by 6.5 to 7 points. Penn State (7-4) just lost at home to Maine (184th in Pomeroy’s ratings) by 10. The Nittany Lions only managed 39 points in a loss to Maryland earlier this season.

So, on paper, this is a game the Hoosiers are trending towards a W – especially with this being a home game. But as we saw with last week’s trip to Vegas, being favored and actually winning are often two different things.

Yet, this might be the perfect team for Indiana to get back on track with their shooting percentages from both the field and 3-point land. Penn State is 189th in defensive eFG percentage (49.5 percent) and among the worst teams in the nation (300th) in defending the three (38.9 percent). If Jordan Hulls can get good looks early and Christian Watford is also able to establish himself from the onset, it might give the Hoosiers some early momentum — which could be crucial after the Vegas bombs.

Penn State doesn’t get to the line all that much (274th in free-throw rate), so that may work, in part, to combat Indiana’s tendency to put its opponent on the line at a high rate.

Now, the Nittany Lions are still in the top third in adjusted offensive efficiency (72nd, just a little behind Indiana at 67th) and defensive efficiency (102nd), so it’s not as if this team is of the South Carolina State variety.

But it’s a matchup the Hoosiers could exploit to get pick up their 10th win of the season and get off to a 1-0 start in what promises to be a challenging Big Ten slate.

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Report: D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera back on the board

by in Recruiting | December 26th, 2010

Update: Smith-Rivera told Greg Rosenstein of The Indiana Daily Student that’s he’s considering the following schools: Florida, Miami, Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas and Ohio State.

When asked about IU, here’s what DSR told Rosenstein: “Maybe they’ll continue to recruit me, but who knows. I really like the atmosphere there and they’ve shown a lot of love.”

—

According to a report by Brian Snow of Scout.com, 2012 North Central guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera has decided to re-open his recruitment.

Smith-Rivera committed to Xavier back on October 24, which was not exactly surprising given the relationship he had built with both Chris Mack and assistant coach Travis Steele.

The 6-3, 210-pound guard spoke openly in the past about his desire to play with two of his AAU teammates, Hanner Perea and Peter Jurkin, but it’s unclear how the Hoosiers might fit into his recruiting picture this time around.

Smith-Rivera, rated the No. 25 prospect nationally by Rivals.com and No. 22 nationally by Scout.com, described himself as “wide-open” to Kyle Neddenriep of The Indianapolis Star.

Indiana currently has commitments from Perea, Jurkin, Yogi Ferrell and Ron Patterson for its 2012 class.

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The return of Pick To Click: Penn State

by in Pick to Click | December 26th, 2010

For those unfamiliar with the Pick to Click, you can read the ground rules and how it all works at this link.

This year’s contest will include all eighteen Big Ten games and a prize ($100 gift certificate to Amazon.com) will be awarded to the overall winner.

There is, however, a twist in this year’s contest. Rather than giving free reign on who you’re able to pick, we’re instituting a pool system. Each game, there will be a pool of players to select from. This is being done to prevent picking the same player each game, which became a problem last year.

Pool for Penn State: Victor Oladipo, Will Sheehey, Jordan Hulls, Maurice Creek

A few other things to remember:

  • Please make sure you are using a valid e-mail address if you are not registered.
  • Please make sure you are using the same name each time to pick if you are not registered. Once the contest begins, we’ll be tracking wins by the name you use to submit your pick. If your name changes on a game-to-game basis, credit for your pick will be given to the name used to submit the pick.
  • Please state who you are picking as the first thing in your comment. We could potentially have a couple of hundred picks per game. It’s more difficult to keep track of everyone’s pick if it’s not the first thing in your comment.

Picks are due by 6:15 PM ET on Monday.

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IPSAC Midwest Challenge: Jeremy Hollowell

by in Recruiting | December 26th, 2010

2012 Lawrence Central wing Jeremy Hollowell met with the media following a 64-55 win over Cincinnati Aiken last Wednesday in the IPSAC Midwest Challenge. Hollowell scored 22 points.

Joe Eberhardt of Inside the Hall and IndyHSHoops was there as Hollowell talked about Lawrence Central’s play early in the season, his recruiting picture and more:

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The time for improvement is nigh, as Big Ten season looms

by in Commentary | December 24th, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, IN - NOVEMBER 23: Tom Crean the Head Coach of the Indiana Hoosiers gives instructions to his team during the game against the North Carolina Central Eagles at Assembly Hall on November 23, 2010 in Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana won 72-56. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)Until about 24 hours ago, the doubt was cautious, compartmentalized. It’s now more general, and it’s spreading.

When we started talking about Indiana’s 2010 non-conference schedule, the conversation generally split games into two categories: the eggshell-soft home slate and the foggy tests away from Assembly Hall. Trips to Boston College and Kentucky, and games against Northern Iowa and either Colorado or New Mexico — that, it was reasoned, was where we would be able to form some sort of opinion about this year’s Indiana basketball team.

For two years, Indiana faithful lamented a schedule far too grand for its charges. In addition to its two ACC games and the annual rivalry with Kentucky, Indiana played in the Maui Invitational, a tournament in Puerto Rico, Gonzaga in Indianapolis and Pitt in Madison Square Garden, in addition to competing in an ever-improving Big Ten.

And the Hoosiers didn’t always come out better on the other side. But there were bright spots, like the home win against what we now recognize as a strong Cornell program, or winning the aforementioned game in New York.

Now, did this season’s non-conference home schedule weaken Indiana to the point of failure on its bigger stages? It’s doubtful that it’s so black-and-white, if only because nothing is.

But there’s evidence to at least suggest it hasn’t overly helped. Too many of this team’s strengths are bound, right now somewhat irretrievably, to its weaknesses.

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Around the Hall: Las Vegas aftermath

by in Media | December 24th, 2010

LEXINGTON, KY - DECEMBER 11: Tom Crean the Head Coach of the Indiana Hoosiers gives instructions to his team during the game against the Kentucky Wildcats on December 11, 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew. So go ahead, get your read on.

+ Not a link, but worth mentioning: Tom Crean was asked about Derek Elston’s playing time in the second half — only two minutes — in his postgame press conference and here was the response:

“There was no decision that really went into that other than I was giving us the lineup that gave us the best chance to be in the game. So that’s the bottom line. I think Derek was spent after last night. This is a little bit of a fallback on a guy that has been injured, missed some time and now is back going full speed. And so he wasn’t his normal self. But it really wasn’t about positions. It really wasn’t about personnel. It was about having pressure on that ball. And transition defense was a problem for us throughout the game. So we had to get that corrected. Like I said at one timeout, ‘we’ll figure everything else out when we get home. Let’s go win the game.’ And they could have easily packed it in down 19 and our guys brought it all the way back to three, but we made some mistakes defensively that hurt us at the end and allowed them to build out a margin. Because if that doesn’t happen, we win the game. You saw the same game I saw. The pressure was bothering them and all we had to do was keep it on. And they made a couple of big plays at the end.”

+ This is not something we’d traditionally put in this space, but since it’s two of the guys who cover the team best reacting to IU’s play in Vegas, I recommend giving ScoopTalk a watch.

+ Rick Bozich of The Louisville Courier-Journal writes that it’s a season on the brink at Indiana:

Before the season started there were four non-conference games away from Assembly Hall that were likely to shape the arc of Tom Crean’s third basketball season at Indiana: At Boston College. At Kentucky. Northern Iowa in Las Vegas. Then either Colorado or New Mexico in Las Vegas.

To show substantive progress, Indiana needed to split the four games — the only Top 100 teams on the Hoosiers’ non-league schedule. One win was the minimum requirement for an upgrade over last season.

0-for-4? Expect a long, cold winter in Bloomington in the unforgiving Big Ten.

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