Listen to the audio from the 25-minute senior day ceremony earlier this afternoon at Assembly Hall in the embedded media player below. Steven Gambles, Brett Finkelmeier, Devan Dumes, Tijan Jobe and Tom Crean addressed the crowd following IU’s 88-80 overtime win over Northwestern:
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Winning on the road is never easy. It’s made even tougher when the only player on your roster that’s experienced a conference road win is a walk-on named Brett Finkelmeier.
But in what will be looked at down the road as a valuable learning experience for this rebuilding Indiana program, the Hoosiers went to Penn State Thursday night and left with a 67-61 victory. Even more impressive was this: Indiana never trailed en route to victory.
“They’re gaining conference,” Indiana coach Tom Crean told Don Fischer on the postgame radio show. “If you don’t have a win like Minnesota, the way that we won it, maybe they don’t feel like they can win this one. We held on. We got big stops. We attacked in press offense.”
The Hoosiers (9-9, 3-3 Big Ten) hit 9-of-20 from behind the 3-point arc, 10-of-14 free throws and committed just 12 turnovers to 15 assists. Devan Dumes, IU’s leading scorer last season, had a season-high 15 points.
“He really, really stepped up,” Crean said of Dumes. “I’m really proud of the way that he played. He made some big plays in 26 minutes of basketball. He answered the challenge of Talor Battle when Jeremiah (Rivers) had some foul trouble.”
After Indiana led 35-28 at halftime, Penn State (8-10, 0-6) opened the second half with a 12-5 run to tie the game at 40 with 13:44 remaining.
But unlike previous road games at Ohio State and Michigan where the Hoosiers had lengthy scoring droughts, Thursday was different: Indiana immediately answered with six straight points.
Penn State, which shot just 37 percent and got little offense besides 22 points from Battle, never got closer than three the rest of the way.
“Again tonight just like Minnesota, we went and earned the game,” Crean said. “We never lost the lead and that’s the key. We never had to play comeback on it. They bought into the fact that it’s not about running good offense, it’s about executing good offense.”
Verdell Jones had another game in double figures with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists and Christian Watford added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Devan Dumes certainly could make headlines last season. No, they weren’t always the kind you cut out and pin up at your desk, (or were they?) but Dumes’ confidence at least made for some memorable moments in a season mostly devoid of them.
So where did he go?
Last season’s leading scorer, it made sense when Dumes’ numbers came down in 2009 with the influx of fresh talent. And an injury to begin the season kept him from fighting for a starting place and visibly hindered his ability to get into an offensive rhythm once he was healthy.
But Dumes, who averaged 12.7 points per game last season, has seen that average fall by more than half, and his minutes-per-game average has been reduced almost as much. Worse, Dumes has lost nearly nine points off his overall field-goal percentage from last season to this one, and his 3-point shooting is down from 38.1 percent to 32.6 percent through 14 games.
Of course, none of this looked like more than an unexplained anomaly until Maurice Creek was lost for the season, cutting more than 16 points and the Hoosiers’ best offensive option out of the gameplan. And yet, in the two games since Creek’s injury, that open starting spot has gone to Jordan Hulls, not Dumes.
THE GOOD: RESOLVE.
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.
That’s A Wrap: Devan Dumes
Final Stats (30 games): 17.8 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 2 rpg, 1.1 apg, 33.3% FG, 1.8 tpg.
It certainly wasn’t a banner year for Devan Dumes. Early-season injury woes lost him his starting spot, Maurice Creek’s emergence meant he stayed on the bench and for most of the season, Dumes was nothing more than an empty suit who liked to shoot the ball. After averaging 12.7 points per game last season, Dumes only broke double figures in 10 of 30 games this year. He did not start once.
Dumes was, fairly so, a disappointment to many fans, who had hoped that the unregulated emotion he let control his actions at times in his first season at Indiana would translate into fiery senior leadership this year, for a team that really could have used some. With the right mentality, it was supposed, Dumes could be the “edge” guy, the senior with enough personality and desire to force the same out of his teammates on a consistent basis.
Instead, Dumes was relegated to a) a lot of bench time and b) a lot of griping from fans who complained that he hadn’t matured and that he shot too much. (Which he did.)
The problem was, that disappointment did gloss over some serious high points. It’s easy to forget that Dumes had 11 points in Indiana’s home win over Michigan, including some lights-out shooting early that, at least in part, set the tone. In fact, in the Hoosiers’ four Big Ten wins, Dumes averaged better than 10 points per game.
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