Heck of a win tonight in Happy Valley.

Sure, Penn State was a meek 0-5 in the Big Ten heading into this game, but a young  Hoosiers team like this isn’t supposed to get conference road wins, no matter whom the opponent is. And unlike we’ve seen in previous road adventures, IU came out of the gate tonight and controlled the game from the onset. They hit shots early — was that Jeremiah Rivers hitting two jumpers? — didn’t look scared, and  played with a swagger and confidence we’ve yet to see outside of Assembly Hall in conference play.

It was really just the perfect set of circumstances for the Hoosiers tonight: they came off arguably their biggest win of the year against Minnesota on Sunday, and their next game just happened to be against a team that had yet to win in conference play. They had confidence, and showed it tonight.

But what was even more impressive to me this evening was not the double-digit lead IU was able to mount in the first half thanks to a hot start, it was withstanding Penn State’s run in the second half, especially when you factor in Jeremiah Rivers was basically a non-factor with his foul trouble. (Sidenote: how great is Rivers at that chase-down block on layups? Love that.) When the score got to 40-40 with 13:44 to play, and the momentum shifted in the Nittany Lions’ favor, IU held court.

Watford came down, made a nice move in the post and scored. Penn State came up empty, then Verdell Jones — who along with Devan Dumes were big keys on the offensive end — hit a three and suddenly IU was up 45-40. And though there were a few moments where I thought Penn State might have a shot to get back into it after that, there was never any real OH CRAP IS IU GOING TO WIN THIS OR WHAT moments tonight.

Calm, cool and collected on the road? I can get used to that.

THE BAD AND UGLY: BLANK SLATE.

I’ll leave this one up to you guys. I wasn’t expecting a win on the road this year, especially after how the Hoosiers looked against the Buckeyes and Wolverines earlier Big Ten season. Therefore, no gripes from me tonight.

There are plenty of things this young Hoosiers team has yet to master, yet to grasp, yet to learn. And so far this season — and especially as of late in losses to Illinois and Michigan — one of their Achilles Heels has been finishing out the close game and winning. But If IU can replicate the effort and performance we’ve now seen in three Big Ten home games the rest of the way, and take the next step as they did today by rallying back in the OT frame, maybe this afternoon’s game is one we can point to say this is where they figured it out.

I know there will be harder challenges at home for the Hoosier up ahead, as Wisconsin, Michigan State and Purdue loom in the coming weeks. But given the way IU has competed in their first three home conference games, IU fans should feel confident that the Hoosiers have a shot to win, that they’ll be in every single home game. This isn’t to say they’re going to run the table at Assembly Hall. Far from it. And it’s not to say they’re suddenly going to take what they’re doing on their home court and suddenly replicate it on the road. That would be foolish.  But it is to say that this group of players has discovered that aggressive play on both ends of the floor — a floor they now know well — with a raucous crowd behind them is a recipe for good things.

Let it be known, Big Ten: When you come into Assembly Hall this season, there are no free passes, no easy wins.

On to some particulars:

1) Rebounding, especially on the offensive end, was key for Indiana tonight. IU simply out-worked and out-hustled Minnesota in that department. In the first half, IU grabbed 21 boards (nine offensive) to the Golden Gophers’ nine, and it allowed the Hoosiers several second-chance opportunities. Couple that with the hot hand of Devan Dumes from downtown and IU shooting 70 percent from the charity stripe (14-of-20), and it’s a large reason the Hoosiers went into the the locker room with a lead at halftime. For the game, IU finished with 43 boards (a whooping 20 on the offensive end) to Minnesota’s 31. Big ups to Bobby Capobianco and Tom Pritchard for snagging a combined ten boards before they both fouled out — and to Bobby C. for nailing that three, as well as that jumper as time was expiring on the shot clock in the second half — and to Christian Watford who had 10 boards, none more important than the one he grabbed on Devoe Joseph’s miss with four seconds left in OT.

2) Without Maurice Creek the rest of the season, some have worried about IU finding a go-to scorer in crunch time the rest of the way. But that man may have emerged this afternoon in the form of Verdell Jones III. He’s been important this season at the right times before, but this was on another level. Simply put: The Hoosier do not win this game without VJ3. In the overtime frame, when Joseph was raining threes and IU was lacking assertion or a plan, Jones put the team on his shoulders and willed them to victory. Outside of Watford’s important two made free throws after he snagged that aforementioned board and a layup by Jeremiah Rivers, Jones had the remaining six points in OT and he hit the biggest shots at the biggest times.

With IU trailing by five with just over two minutes left in OT, Jones grabbed an offensive board on a Derek Elston miss, got fouled, and sank both free throws. On IU’s next possession, Jones hit a jumper in the lane to bring IU within a point. And with IU trailing by one and not much going on, Jones took it upon himself to step up, make a move and take that fall-away jumper and hit it. Huge game for him — 24-points, seven boards, 13-19 FTs) — and his ability to step up and execute in overtime was the reason IU won this game.

THE BAD: SCORING DROUGHTS.

Minnesota is a very good defensive team, and the Hoosiers deserve credit for doing a good job with the press. They also only had 14 turnovers, which is under their season average. And for a team that is scoring the second-lowest points per possession in the Big Ten, throwing up 70 in regulation on the Golden Gophers is commendable. But IU also was stuck on 59 points for almost five minutes in the second half, and it allowed Minnesota to crawl back from a 15-point deficit and cut it to seven. IU also had close to a six-minute scoring drought from the 6:38 mark to the :46 mark at the end of the second half, and with Joseph and Paul Carter hitting, the game become a nail-bitter with under a minute to go.

IU was able to respond in the middle of those two scoring droughts to pad their lead a bit again. But around 11 minutes of scoreless action — something we’ve seen from the Hoosiers before this season — usually isn’t going to cut it. This afternoon, though, the Hoosiers were able to escape with a victory.

THE UGLY: STORMING THE FLOOR.

I know this tradition jumped the shark a few years back, but come on: IU beat an unranked Minnesota at home. Did the IU students really have to do this?

THE GOOD: IU WAS IN THE GAME, FOR 35 MINUTES.

For as much as Indiana struggled, and boy did they ever, the Hoosiers were in a conference road game with under six minutes to play. This, if my memory serves me correctly, was not the case last week in Columbus against Ohio State. Had you not watched the game and only looked at the final score, you would be shocked to learn Indiana was down just 48-43 at the 5:54 mark.

In a season that’s clearly headed in the direction of more losses than wins, progress must be measured in baby steps. And tonight, if Tom Crean and company need something to hang their hat on, it’s that they competed on the road for 35 minutes, as ugly as it was.

Also deserving of a mention in this space: Christian Watford. The freshman forward came to play and led IU in scoring with 16 points and also pulled down eight rebounds. Watford has a long way to go, but he continues to show flashes of talent that could make him an all-conference type of player down the road.

THE BAD AND UGLY: COHESION ON OFFENSIVE/SCORELESS STRETCHES, 3-POINT SHOOTING, TURNOVERS.

For as awful as Michigan played in the opening 20 minutes, Indiana was equally dreadful. Consider these facts: The Hoosiers had a scoreless stretch of five minutes and 13 seconds. Their first free throw was not attempted until the 6:50 mark. And they missed eight of nine 3-point attempts. (This did not improve in the second half as the Hoosiers missed all six attempts from behind the arc.) But none of these numbers are going to win games in the Big Ten, especially on the road.

But beyond the poor output on offense, even more concerning was the difficultly in which IU struggled to find any cohesion in its half court offense. IU scored just two points — two! — in the final 6:32. A night like tonight magnified how much this team lacks a player that can create offense. Maurice Creek was developing into that guy, but with his injury, the Hoosiers are now struggling to find that go-to-guy.

Turnovers. 19 of them. Most of the unforced variety. It’s a little bit easier to understand turnovers from the guard position, but a combined nine turnovers from Watford, Tom Pritchard and Derek Elston is head scratching. Elston, the recent subject of a playing time debate amongst fans, had three turnovers in just 10 minutes. And Pritchard, who had a couple of nice moves in the post but committed three turnovers as well, only saw 21 minutes due to foul trouble (and failed to record a rebound).

Finally, free throws continue to be a problem. Although IU only got to the line 12 times, they missed half of their attempts. The bottom line is that with their small margin for error, this is an area in which the Hoosiers must improve if they hope to win more than two or three conference games.

The Good Hoosiers showed up tonight in Bloomington. After the Bad Hoosiers lacked any sense of urgency in Columbus earlier this week, IU was a completely different squad this evening. They played like they wanted to win, like they deserved to win.

Perhaps this is just what we’re in for this season: a bit of deer-in-the-headlights-what-are-we-doing play on the road, while on its home court, Indiana plays with the utmost confidence. If the Hoosiers can give this kind of effort inside Assembly Hall every time out, they’ll be in most, if not all, of their home contests.

IU rattled off 41 points in the first half, and looked like a team on a mission. They were executing at both ends of the floor. One thing I want to point out during that impressive first 20 minutes: there’s a reason Jordan Hulls is starting alongside Jeremiah Rivers in the backcourt: his spot-up shooting ability. When Rivers is at his best on the dribble-drive and can draw help defense, Hulls stays at home on the wing or corner and has enough spacing to elevate and hit the three. And Rivers is athletic enough to take it all the way to the hole as well.

But when you’re hot, hot, hot, in the first half, you’re bound to cool in the second. Sure, the Hoosiers lacked some of that aggression and allowed Illinois to mount a comeback with their fouling, but IU’s shooting numbers tell a hot and cold tale: first half (14-of-25, 56 percent; 5-of-6 from three for 83.3 percent), second half (8-of-28, for 28.6 percent, 1-of-7 from three for 14.3 percent).

I expected Illinois to come back tonight, because it’s what they’ve done all season long: mount a comeback on a double-digit lead, get it close, and then go to war in the final few minutes. The Illini simply executed better down the stretch. Bruce Weber drew up a play for freshman D.J. Richardson when they were down one with 1:22 to go, and he hit the jumper. They hit their free throws down the stretch as well. IU didn’t, and hit a horrific scoring skid the last 8:28 of the game, getting outscored 18-3. They only scored 19 points in the second half.

Simply put, the better, more experienced team found a way to win this game this evening, because that’s what those kind of teams do. IU is still figuring that out, and it was frustrating to see all the good the Hoosiers did in the first half come in a losing effort. The IU team of a season ago gets routed in this game. This current incarnation plays well enough, but can’t finish. Future incarnations find a way to win this game.

In due time, they’ll get there.

THE BAD AND UGLY: FOULS.

I’m not here to complain about the refs. There were only a few calls I wasn’t a fan of, and they really could have gone either way. But Indiana was so foul-happy tonight — and it wasn’t just on shot attempts, it was reach-ins, and moving screens, and fouls off the ball — that Illinois got a whopping 38 attempts at the line. And it was a big chunk of their first-half offense: Illinois took 23 fouls shots, and hit 16 of them. They had 28 points at half, so only 12 points came in other ways besides the charity stripe. IU also got crushed on the boards in the second half, getting out-rebounded 24-13.

The Illini were in the bonus early in the second half, and it allowed them to chop away at the lead without any time coming off the clock. They hit 11 of their 16 second-half attempts from the line, including some key ones in the clutch.

There’s a fine line between being aggressive and being over-aggressive when playing defense, and the Hoosiers crossed it at points tonight. Yet, this was just a Big-Ten bruiser of a game: it was physical, it was heated, and you saw some jawing and pushing on the court.

Perhaps the younger, less experienced team played into that a bit too much with all the fouling going on this evening.

Do you know what we learned tonight? Because I’ll tell you what we learned tonight. This Hoosiers team is trending as such: good performances buttressed by bad ones. Really, really bad ones.

Where one could take pride in games like IU’s victory over Michigan, or Pittsburgh or even their work against Kentucky in a loss, they’ve underachieved in Puerto Rico, looked woeful at home in a loss to Loyola (Md.) and looked equally bad against Ohio State in Columbus this evening.

We wanted to look to the Michigan game as a sign this team has turned the corner, that they were going to be OK without Mo Creek. But they are young. Young teams will do that to you. They will emblazon your heart one moment with the promise of better things on the horizon, only to regress to a middle-school turnover fest the next.

If you watched the game this evening — IU’s first real road test of the season in a stadium that wasn’t even full and was pretty lifeless — you know what happened here. Turnovers were the story. Unforced, dribbled-off-the-leg turnovers. Fourteen in the first half, coupled with the length and athleticism of Ohio State’s man defense that left IU stagnant on the offensive end, and there was just no turning back. Christian Watford had six of those 14 turnovers in the first half. (IU finished with 24 for the game, by the way.) And where Devan Dumes came in and saved the day against Michigan last week, he instead air-balled a three upon his arrival.

Ohio State hit 5-of-10 threes and grabbed 12 points off all those turnovers in the first half, while IU ended it with their lowest point total of the season heading into the locker room (20).

Up 18 to start the second half, Ohio State got out in transition for a couple buckets early, and the lead eventually ballooned all the way to 32. Evan Turner was not needed this evening, that’s for sure.

IU just had no answers tonight. The road is always a tough journey in the Big Ten. Add in a young, inexperienced team to the mix, and it becomes that much harder.

THE GOOD: VJ3, FREE THROWS, TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY.

Can’t say enough about Verdell Jones. The kid brought it for 20 points against Michigan last week, and then topped it tonight, pouring in 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting, and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. IU was an impressive 14-of-17 from the line for 82.4 percent tonight as well.

You hate to see IU play like this, because you know they’re capable of so much more. But this team has proven so far that its a wildly inconsistent performer. Until they string solid performances on top of each other and don’t go into a dark regression again, it’s hard to gauge which IU team is going to show up on any given night.

Oh baby, what a win. With Mo Creek out for the season, and Indiana fans a bit down, a bit defeated, IU proved this afternoon inside Assembly Hall that your leading scorer does not an entire team make. Sure, Michigan isn’t that great a squad right now, and some dumb fouling kept Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims off the court for some time, but when Harris was in the game, Jeremiah Rivers did a good job keeping him in check.

Devan Dumes filled in great for Creek in the first half, hitting 3-of-5 threes for nine points, and flashing some defense as well. He was a big reason IU lead at half. Jay Bilas had the line of the afternoon when giving Dumes props for his first-half performance: “Sometimes a kid just needs to be needed.” Incredibly fitting for a player like Dumes.

And then there was everyone else filling in their roles as well: Verdell Jones continues to be a rock, and hit some big shots in both halves when IU needed them. He finished the game with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting. He played with purpose. He wanted this game. Bad. And Watford was right there with him, as he went 7-for-12 for 19 points this afternoon. If those two, along with Dumes can continue to lead the way on offense with guys like Jordan Hulls, Derek Elston and Rivers picking their spots and contributing as well, IU might be OK.

And how about Hulls? Kid wanted to be on the line at the end of the game when it counted. He’s been there before. He’s a winner. IU had an advantage because they went into the bonus with around 15 minutes to go, but after Rivers missed two straight free throws with just over two minutes to go and a chance to extend the lead to five — and Hulls fouling Zach Novak on a three and him making all three free throws (why is IU always doing this?) to tie the game — the Hoosiers turned their hopes over to Hulls on the line in the final minutes of the game, and he hit all four of the crucial ones. Those other two he hit at the end were just an added bonus with the game all but decided. I don’t want to pick on Rivers too bad, because he was otherwise great, with no play more important than when he saw an opening in the middle of the lane, slashed through, hit the athletic layup, was fouled and made the free throw — finally! — to put IU up three with 1:12 to go. That should not go unnoticed; it was huge play at a crucial time in the game.

Even more crucial was the way these Hoosiers took care of the ball this afternoon. In the second half, they only had one — one! — turnover, and it was from Tom Pritchard. No ballhandler turned the ball over. They only had nine for the game. Impressive stuff.

Simply put: the Hoosiers executed at the right times late in the game. They showed poise. It just looked like they wanted it more. And with the home crowd behind them, they pulled through for the win. This was the first game I found myself really feeling like the outcome was life or death; I hung on every play. That’s what Big Ten season will do to you. It seemed like the crowd raised their intensity level up a bit today, too.

Great day to be a fan of the Hoosiers, eh?

THE BAD AND UGLY: EMPTY.

It’s New Year’s Eve, the Hoosiers just picked up a nice win, and I’m feeling lazy. No bad or ugly today inside Assembly Hall, just a feel good win all around. Happy New Year’s everyone.

If there was anything Indiana needed to key on in this game, anything Tom Crean likely would be pleased to see, it was a good start by the Hoosiers. I know this is Bryant College, a team that’s only entering its third season as a D-I school, a team that’s now 0-13, but the Hoosiers’ good start — well, save for those six turnovers in the first 10:30 — was so crucial to this team’s overall makeup after their atrocious first half against Loyola (Md.) last week.

Heading into Big Ten play Thursday against Michigan, this young team needed a bit of a confidence boost, and going into the locker room with a 45-17 lead did just that. Jordan Hulls was solid in his start — I know Jordy has been playing well off the bench, but anyone else thinking Jeremiah Rivers’ rough game last time out had anything to do with him riding the pine to start? — and Tom Pritchard continued to return to form by bruising down low, getting fouled and getting to the line. He only hit 3-of-9 from the charity stripe, but it’s encouraging to see he got there that many times. He finished the game with 11 points and eight boards, and if he can keep up that kind of production, that starting spot should remain his. I love Derek Elston, but his energy is perfect in a sixth-man role.

IU also shot well from three-point land making 9-of-22 for 40.9 percent. And it was a team effort on the offensive end: four other guys scored in double figures besides Pritchard, as Christian Watford led the way with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Verdell Jones also had 15, Devan Dumes added 12 and Hulls had 12 as well.

Other than that, it’s sort of hard to glean much out of this one. No offense to Bryant, but they were such an inferior opponent and it was so out of hand in the second half — IU did win by 48 points tonight, after all — what we saw might not be all that telling of how the Hoosiers are set up heading into Big Ten play.

THE BAD AND UGLY: MAURICE CREEK’S INJURY.

There are injuries you know are bad out the gate. A guy lands wrong, goes down instantly, he clutches the limb in question, and he lays there, writing and writhing and writhing in pain.

That wasn’t the case with Creek tonight. It was slow moving. As he came down on his legs after he was fouled on the layup, Creek barreled a little, fell, then did a bit of a somersault into the row of photographers. But as he tumbled back over and righted himself on the court, he clutched his left knee and began the writhing.

Yet, he remained mostly calm as the training staff attended to him.

But when Tom Crean came out onto the court, you knew it wasn’t good. And when subsequent replays seemed to indicate his knee had popped out of place, you knew it might be worse. And when the stretcher made it’s way on the court, you knew it was really bad.

Initial indications were that Creek had a dislocated knee. But now it’s been reported that Creek has a fractured knee, he’ll have surgery and is out for the season.

I don’t need to tell you this, but this is a huge blow for the Hoosiers. Creek was the team’s leading scorer, the third-leading scorer in the Big Ten and the leading freshman scorer in the nation at 17.6 ppg entering tonight’s game.

Best of luck on the surgery, Mo.

Some other observations:

+ Anyone else have to do a double-take on Bryant’s black and gold unis? IU could have been playing Purdue for all I knew.

+ Bawa Muniru got in somewhat early in the first half, and you wonder if he’s starting to show a little bit of improvement in practice to warrant that. During the second half, he had a nice block, something we’ve looked for, but haven’t seen much of yet.

+ Rivers got a haircut. Lookin’ good:

I started this game a bit late, so I had to play catchup on DVR. Because I always need to have my laptop open — always, always — I caught one of Alex’s Twitter updates that said IU had cut the lead to 11 with just under 12 minutes to go. At the time, I had just started the second half, and as the half wore on I became increasingly shocked by this fact: after all, IU showed no signs of really putting a dent into Loyola’s lead. They still trailed by 20 with 14:10 to go, and though they were taking care of the ball better — there was only one turnover in the first seven minutes of the second half — Loyola was hitting their shots, and IU wasn’t able to inch any closer.

But then the barrage hit. Maurice Creek knocked down two threes, Verdell Jones hit another, Creek hit a layup, got fouled and hit the free throw, Jones hit two free throws off a Creek steal, and suddenly the Hoosiers were only down six with 10:18 to go.

Another big part of IU’s comeback? Tom Pritchard. In the second half, he really reminded me of the Pritch of old: he was gobbling up rebounds, had a real knack for the ball and was a productive scorer. He had six offensive boards and eight total, and chipped in seven points. It wasn’t an amazing effort by any stretch, but he kept a lot of plays alive during the Hoosiers’ comeback run, and it was an integral part of why they were able to make this a game.  IU, with their thin frontline, could use this kind of effort out of Pritch every night.

Yes, of course, there was plenty to gripe about in this game. (Just what until you get to The Bad.) But IU could have laid down and died in this one. Instead, they turned up the defensive pressure in both the full and half court, were aggressive and got to the line, and hit some big shots to bring them right back into this game.

This is what good teams do when they find themselves at a crossroads: They will themselves back into the game with good play on both sides of the ball. But good teams also find a way to win these games against an inferior opponent at home. And well, we all know that didn’t happen tonight.

THE BAD: OH, THERE WAS PLENTY.

I’ve seen some bad basketball in my day. I’ve played some bad basketball in my day. I know last year’s team turned the ball over at a freakishly high rate. But man, this has to rank up there as some of the most terrible basketball I’ve seen in recent history. It was a like a middle school game between two unskilled, uncoordinated teams. The game was basically a reversed course. Where Loyola feasted off IU’s turnovers for 20 points thanks to its full-court press in the first half,  IU got back into this game on the strength of its three-quarters court trap in the second half. Both teams finished the night with 23 turnovers. Early in the first half, when IU actually was able to break the press (which was rare), every possession just seemed to be guys trying to drive — be it Maurice Creek, Christian Watford, Devan Dumes — and falling over themselves.

There was also a ridiculous 58 free throws shot in this game — 32 for IU; 26 for Loyola — which seemed to be to IU’s advantage. They hit a nice 10-of-12 in the first half, and were hitting early in the second.

But it killed them down the stretch:  Jones missed two with 8:21 to go, Jeremiah Rivers missed four straight in the last 2:03, none more important than the two he missed with IU down 69-67 with 37 seconds to play, which essentially sealed the game for Loyola. In the second half, IU only shot 12-of-20 from the line, good for 60 percent. In a game that’s so close, one that you were once down 24 in, you have to do better than that.

And if you’re wondering why, when the shot clock and game clock were nearly identical after those last two missed free throws, the Hoosiers waited 20 seconds to foul, it’s because Brett Harvey happens to be the best returning free-throw shooter in the country from last season. When he didn’t give up the ball, IU had to eventually foul. And all it did was give them less time to mount a comeback. Down four with 17 seconds to go is a lot harder than down four with 35-36 seconds to go.

And ugh, the four-point play with just under two minutes to go in which Rivers fouled Harvey on a 3-point attempt that he made? A four-point lead with just under two minutes to go quickly became a two-point deficit. In a game like this, you can’t let that happen. You just can’t. And it was the second time it happened; the first play of the second half was a four-point play from Harvey, in which Rivers fouled him on a 3-pointer.

The worst play of the night? With 11 minutes to go in the first half, Watford looked to inbound the ball under Loyola’s basket. Hulls and Rivers were covered in the backcourt very near to him on the baseline. Dumes, the next closest Hoosier, was near the 3-point line down on IU’s side of the court. So what does Watford do? He throws it right to — literally it hit him chest high — Robert Olsen of Loyola, a guy that was standing pretty much at center court.

That play pretty much epitomizes how this game went.

THE UGLY: WHEN THE TIE COMES OFF, YOU KNOW TOM CREAN IS ANGRY.

Tale of two halves this evening in Bloomington. After a lack of defensive presence coupled with some lackadaisical play in the first half, IU came storming out of the gate in the second half, and never looked back. Blame the first half on finals, or a week off, or whatever you want, but Tom Crean must have lit a fire under his team in the locker room, because they took it to another level after the intermission. NC Central shot 40 percent in the first half, and only 28.1 percent in the second half.

IU was able to get points in transition, nail some threes (though, they were only 6-of-18 in the second half), push the pace and dictate the game  — something they should do against an opponent like this.  IU’s point guards combined for 16 assists — Jeremiah Rivers had eight (seven in the first half) and Jordan Hulls had eight — and what else can you say about Maurice Creek? He went off for 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting (5-of-10 from three) and even chipped in seven rebounds. The kid just has a knack for putting the basketball into the hoop. I think early on this season, Hoosier fans thought Christian Watford was going to be IU’s go-to scorer and super freshman, but at this point, it’s all Creek all the time.

Tom Pritchard also deserves some recognition here. After many of you thought Elston should get the start in front of him — and rightfully so — Crean did just that, as the freshman started this evening. Pritchard has struggled with foul trouble in several games this year, and has looked sluggish. But he was able to play 21 minutes tonight, hit 4-of-5 from the floor for eight points, and snatch six rebounds.  An amazing line? No. But the non-start seems to have lit a bit of a fire under him, and he was in the conversation tonight — something that’s important to this squad heading into Big Ten season.

THE BAD AND UGLY: CONSISTENCY.

Even though IU shot 56 percent in the first half, their defense — a mix of man and zone — just wasn’t there, and they let a team they eventually beat by 23 hang around. Against a better team, the Hoosiers might have found themselves in a hole at half instead of up three. Sixteen turnovers is a little concerning, though it could have been worse. IU shot 14-of-21 from the line for 66.7 percent, which isn’t going to cut it.

But bottom line: IU brought it in the second half, won big, got the scrubs in — Kory Barnett, anyone? — are .500 on the year at 5-5 and a win away from matching last year’s win total.

First, the big picture: It got a little too close for comfort at the end of the game, and it took longer than some IU fans would have liked, but the Hoosiers finally have a signature win under Tom Crean. Yes, Pitt isn’t at full strength. Yes, they are projected to finish in the bottom half of the Big East this year. But this was still a team that came in to the game 7-1, and was favored to win the game on a court they’re far more comfortable with than IU. Congrats are also in order to Tom Crean, who notched his 200th career win with the victory.

The story of this one? IU outworked and out-hustled Pitt the whole night. They deserved to win this game. Their zone was active around the arc; they closed in quick on open shooters. But, the Hoosiers also seemed to have caught Pitt at the right time: they only scored 47 points Friday in a win, and tonight their offensive woes continued. Sure, IU’s D deserves some credit, but Pitt only shot 31.4 percent from the floor tonight. They were sloppy at points, and had 15 turnovers on the evening. It’s clear their halfcourt game is a work in progress right now, and the Hoosiers capitalized on it. They had a plan, and executed it.

Big ups to Verdell Jones. He had 20 points on the night, and hit some key shots. Sometimes Jones get lost in the shuffle when we talk about Maurice Creek and Christian Watford being able to score in bunches, but when Jones in on, when he’s pulling some crafty moves out of his pockets like he did tonight, he’s a joy to watch.

The Hoosiers only had 12 turnovers tonight, and they finally shot well as they hit 24-of-54 shots from the floor for 44.4 percent. (They were only 1-of-7 from three-point land, though.) Good things happen when you shoot a respectable percentage from the field and take care of the ball. They dominated in the paint, too: 40 points for them, while Pitt managed half that at 20. And they were able to dominate the free-throw game as well: the Hoosiers converted on 25 of their 34 attempts, good for 73.5 percent. Pitt had 17 foul shots on the night, and converted 12 of them.

This was the type of display IU fans were hoping to see in Puerto Rico and against Maryland, but didn’t get. If the Hoosiers can build off this win and the confidence they’ve gained from it, they should be able to stay competitive in Big Ten play, and maybe even surprise a bit.

THE BAD AND UGLY: THE END.

On nights like tonight, it’s hard to gripe much about this team, especially where they’re at right now with so many new faces and schemes. But Indiana did have some trouble finishing this game out. They were up 18 points with 2:58 to play, and saw the league shrink to six with 58 seconds to go. In two minutes, a blowout became a game that was too close for comfort. Part of Pitt’s comeback was because they finally started hitting shots. But Indiana had some trouble with Pitt’s pressure, they had some lapses on the defensive end and they didn’t seal up on the boards. The Panthers ended up out-rebounding IU 45-39, including 21 offensive boards. They had some key offensive rebounds late, and it helped keep them within striking distance. If Pitt converts more of their second-chance opportunities, this game may have ended up in the loss column for IU.

But alas: it did not. IU moves to 4-4 on the season with a big win over Pitt.

Bring on the Wildcats.