Do you remember the last Indiana team to start a season 11-0? Some of you may. Others, like myself, were not alive to witness it.
The answer is the 1975-76 national championship team — also the last team in college basketball to finish undefeated.
This year’s group of Hoosiers matched the feat last night with a 107-50 clubbing of Howard. An IU victory on Thursday against the University of Maryland — Baltimore County, which KenPom puts at a 99% probability, will match last season’s win total before conference play begins.
This is a start no one, save for the most extreme optimist, saw coming.
The Hoosiers are winning in a manner that suggests the turnaround in Bloomington has arrived a year earlier than expected. The only movement on this team’s mind is into the top 15.
The first sign was a blowout win at Evansville, which was just the second true road win in Tom Crean era. Indiana shot the lights out and their effective field goal percentage has remained in the top ten nationally ever since.
Up next was a grind-it-out statement win over two-time defending national runner-up Butler. Those suggesting Crean could be replaced by Brad Stevens at season’s end received their first call to silence.
IU backed that up with an 11-point win at North Carolina State after trailing by seven late in the second half. This was a game that teams in previous seasons wouldn’t have fought back and won. It also provoked a few votes in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 Poll.
Still, some asked, who has Indiana beaten?
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11-0 start has merit, but work remains for Indiana
Do you remember the last Indiana team to start a season 11-0? Some of you may. Others, like myself, were not alive to witness it.
The answer is the 1975-76 national championship team — also the last team in college basketball to finish undefeated.
This year’s group of Hoosiers matched the feat last night with a 107-50 clubbing of Howard. An IU victory on Thursday against the University of Maryland — Baltimore County, which KenPom puts at a 99% probability, will match last season’s win total before conference play begins.
This is a start no one, save for the most extreme optimist, saw coming.
The Hoosiers are winning in a manner that suggests the turnaround in Bloomington has arrived a year earlier than expected. The only movement on this team’s mind is into the top 15.
The first sign was a blowout win at Evansville, which was just the second true road win in Tom Crean era. Indiana shot the lights out and their effective field goal percentage has remained in the top ten nationally ever since.
Up next was a grind-it-out statement win over two-time defending national runner-up Butler. Those suggesting Crean could be replaced by Brad Stevens at season’s end received their first call to silence.
IU backed that up with an 11-point win at North Carolina State after trailing by seven late in the second half. This was a game that teams in previous seasons wouldn’t have fought back and won. It also provoked a few votes in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 Poll.
Still, some asked, who has Indiana beaten?
Continue reading this post »