Thoughts on a 103-89 win against the Hawkeyes:

There was Thursday’s slow-paced, every-possession-counts loss to the Badgers.

But tonight inside Assembly Hall? Decidely different. Blink and you missed a bucket. Indiana’s relentless scoring early in the shot clock was reminiscent of the pre-conference season, where it was defensive rebound/force a turnover, pass, push the pace, shot attempt — on repeat. Most of tonight’s offense didn’t even come off the 3-ball (just 4-of-16); it was dunks on dunks on dunks. Indiana would simply draw the defense and find an open man around the bucket — often Mr. Cody Zeller, who finished the game with seven dunks and a career-high 26 points on 11-of-12 shooting. And when the Hoosiers were missing their first attempts on offense, there were plenty of extra opportunities to be had.

Consider this: Indiana rebounded 57.1 percent of its misses (20 total offensive rebounds) and scored 23 second-chance points. Now, this was against the Big Ten’s worst defense. The Hawkeyes were giving up a league-worst 1.11 points per possession coming into tonight’s contest. Still, the Hoosiers were incredibly dominant, scoring 1.34 points per possession to finish with over 100 points in a Big Ten league game. This is rare. In fact, Indiana’s 103 points were the most scored by a team in league play all season. It was the first time the Hoosiers surpassed the 100-point barrier in Big Ten play since March 12, 1995 against the Hawkeyes.

Perhaps rarer still: Derek Elston and Tom Pritchard had strong offensive outings. Elston was hot early; he hit two threes and a jumper during a quick stretch in the first half. The Tipton native finished the night with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting (2-of-2 from three). Pritchard scored in transition with a layup during the first half. He made one of two free throws. He scored a season-high seven points in 11 minutes and also took two charges.

Continue reading this post »