02/22/2009 8:54 pm // Alex Bozich
Throughout the season, Inside the Hall will keep you posted on how the six Indiana signees and 2011 commitment Matt Carlino are performing at their respective schools. Here’s our latest update:
+ Jordan Hulls: The future IU point guard led his team to a pair of wins — 91-46 at Perry Meridian on Friday and 73-67 vs. Detroit Country Day on Saturday — and the Panthers moved to 20-0 on the season. Hulls had 14 points in the win over Perry Meridian as Bloomington South completed its second straight undefeated season in Conference Indiana. Hulls backed that up with 27 points on Saturday as South, No. 5 nationally, knocked off No. 4 Detroit Country Day in front of a sold out crowd. Hulls was 8 of 14 from the field and 8 of 8 from the free throw line.
+ Maurice Creek: Hargrave Military Academy improved to 21-1 with a 106-84 win over the North Carolina JV team in Chapel Hill. Creek scored 26 points and grabbed six rebounds. Creek told Inside the Hall over the weekend that he’ll be participating in the Derby Festival Classic in Louisville the weekend of April 11.
+ Christian Watford: Shades Valley dropped the Alabama Class 6-A Northeast Region Finals 53-50 on Friday to Vestavia Hills. Watford scored 17 points, but his 3-point attempt with six seconds remaining didn’t fall.
+ Derek Elston: Tipton, No. 2 in Class 2-A, moved to 18-2 with a 60-47 win over Frankfort on Friday night. Elston had a game-high 21 points.
+ Bobby Capobianco: Loveland moved to 9-0 in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference with wins over Withrow and Milford. In Tuesday’s 64-54 win over Withrow, Capobianco had 17 points and 10 rebounds. In Friday’s 57-55 win over Milford, the 6-8 forward had 10 points and 14 rebounds.
+ Bawa Muniru: No statistical information available, but I did answer some of your questions about Bawa in a piece last week.
+ Matt Carlino: Carlino’s Highland team finished the regular season with a 24-3 record and earned the No. 1 seed in the AIA 5-A Division I tournament. Highland will face Corona del Sol at 7:00 PM local time on Thursday. You can view the tournament bracket here.
02/21/2009 5:38 pm // Alex Bozich
Tom Crean and the Indiana Hoosiers (most of them, anyway) got their first taste of the IU-Purdue rivalry Saturday afternoon in Mackey Arena.
And despite a spirit and toughness Crean felt his team exhibited throughout the contest, the Hoosiers dropped their fifth straight game in a 81-67 loss to Purdue.
“We came to play,” Crean said. “They’ve got a lot of pride and I’m glad they came out here and showed it that way today.”
Indiana trailed by nine at halftime, but cut the Boilermaker lead to six at 41-35 on a Devan Dumes 3-pointer with 17:59 remaining. Purdue responded with four straight points and the Hoosiers never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
E’twaun Moore scored 26 points to lead the Boilermakers (21-6, 10-4) on 10-of-14 shooting. The sophomore from East Chicago scored nine points in the opening seven minutes as Purdue built an early eight-point lead.
Read →
02/21/2009 11:59 am // Alex Bozich
02/21/2009 9:53 am // Alex Bozich
… And here’s the audio of Crean’s press conference from Friday afternoon, courtesy of The Hoosier Scoop:
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02/20/2009 1:52 pm // Alex Bozich
In case you haven’t checked the schedule, IU has just about 24 hours until it’s next game — a big one in West Lafayette. And I’m not the only one who thinks the bizarre timing of the game needs to be addressed in the years ahead. Tom Crean is right there with me:
“I hope moving forward after this year it’s not a situation where we’ve got under 40 hours to prepare for a game. I get it now, I get it for television, but I think some concrete thought has really gotta be put into not allowing this to happen. Wisconsin’s gotta turn around and play. They’re playing on Sunday. I would have loved to see us be playing Purdue on Sunday. I’m not complaining about now as much as I really hope this doesn’t happen in the future. And not just because of where we’re at and where they’re at. Every game is big. Every game to every coach is the biggest game of the year, but there are certain games in all leagues that transcend anything. And I think Indiana-Purdue is one of those games just like I said the other day that Michigan State-Michigan is one of those games. And there’s probably others and I’m gonna learn pretty quick that there’s probably others. I would like to see both teams have the same kind of time to get ready for those games.”
Two quick observations: 1) The fact that IU is turning around in less than 40 hours to play any regular season game is ridiculous. Sure, it’s acceptable in March, but in the regular season, not so much. Especially when the Hoosiers had a break of more than a week earlier in the Big Ten schedule. 2) IU and Purdue need to play twice every season. It shouldn’t even be up for debate. Could you imagine the outrage if the ACC schedule came out and Duke and North Carolina only had one meeting? ESPN would probably run a 30-minute special denouncing it as the biggest travesty in sports. So note to you, Big Ten schedule-maker guy: IU-Purdue twice a season and little preparation time would be nice.
02/20/2009 11:07 am // Alex Bozich
The frustration of a 19-loss (and counting) season might finally be getting to Tom Crean. Our friends over at The Palestra have the story detailing Crean’s shorter than usual press conference after last night’s loss:
02/19/2009 11:20 pm // Alex Bozich
After trailing by just one at halftime, Indiana scored just four points in the first 9:01 of the second half and fell 68-51 to Wisconsin on Thursday night at Assembly Hall.
By the time the Hoosiers (6-19, 1-12 Big Ten) scored their fifth and sixth points after halftime, Wisconsin had built a 15-point lead. The Badgers didn’t let the lead fall below 11 the rest of the way.
The loss was the fourth straight for IU and the 17th in their last 19 games.
“I don’t think we competed or played well in the second half. Our defense really let us down,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “And there is really nothing in the second half that we can hang our hat on. We were much different than the first half and they exposed that. They did an excellent job taking advantage of that.”
Trevon Hughes scored 21 points on 7 of 14 shooting to lead Wisconsin and Joe Krabbenhoft added 18. The Badgers (17-9, 8-6) shot 49 percent, hit 11 of 15 free throws and committed just seven turnovers.
Verdell Jones paced the Hoosiers with 16 points and Devan Dumes added 12 in his first game back following a two-game suspension. IU hit 15 of 19 free throws, but hit just 2 of 11 shots from beyond the 3-point line.
Up next: The Hoosiers travel to West Lafayette on Saturday afternoon for a 2PM ET meeting with Purdue. That game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. “I think we’re thirsty to redeem ourselves,” Verdell Jones said. “Purdue is an in-state rival and we definitely want to go up there and give them our all. We’ll prepare tomorrow for them and just come out and give it our best.”
