Final statistics: 4.3 ppg; 5.2 rpg; 70 percent FT’s; 51 percent FG’s; 29 steals (led team)

Besides Verdell Jones, you can make the case that no other Hoosier improved more throughout the course of the season than Taber. The former walk-on was a solid contributor throughout the season and late in the year, it seemed like Taber actually belonged on the court. That’s saying something for a guy who came to Bloomington with no expectation of ever seeing the floor for more than mop-up duty.

More importantly than his on-the-court contributions was the way Taber handled himself around his teammates and off the court. He was thrust into a leadership role despite not having the playing experience to merit such a title. But he handled the role admirably. When the ink dries on the history books for this season of transition, casual observers will remember all of the losses. But many IU fans will remember Taber’s leadership and his improvement throughout the season. As they should.

Quotable: “I would think that they would still continually remember his improvement. The fans should see the improvement over the period of time he was here. We’ve seen it and we’ve only been here one year. That he was a huge part of laying a foundation and put everything he that had into it, responded day in and day out, change his personality on the court and continued to improve all the way down the line. And if we can look at that with him five years down the road and say, you know what, the guys in that program are doing the same thing. They are getting most out of their talent, they are getting the most out of their mindset, all those different things, then I think that would be a great place to start.” – Indiana coach Tom Crean on Taber.

Family and friends ascended upon Bloomington to say farewell to the senior captain. Chants of ‘Ky-le Ta-ber’ were heard throughout Assembly Hall. And in a game in which IU was a heavy underdog, the Hoosiers had a chance to knock off a legitimate top ten opponent.

But alas, as has been the case throughout most of this season of transition for Indiana basketball, the Hoosiers couldn’t come up with a big play down the stretch. The final result: A hard fought 64-59 loss to Michigan State.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t come out right,” Taber said. “We battled and it was a great game. It was fun to be apart of something like that.”

Despite going 8:43 without a field goal in the second half, the Spartans (24-5, 14-3 Big Ten) clinched the Big Ten title outright for the first time since 1999.

Kalin Lucas scored 15 points to lead Michigan State and Raymar Morgan added 14 points, including a thunderous put back dunk with 27 seconds remaining to give MSU a four-point cushion.

The Hoosiers (6-23, 1-16) cut the lead to two on a pair of Nick Williams free throws with just under 16 seconds remaining, but Lucas answered with a pair of free throws to wrap up the victory.

“It was a great game. Our guys were in it the entire way, to the very end,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said.

Indiana missed eight free throws and several opportunities to tie the game after cutting Michigan State’s lead to two with 3:31 remaining.

Verdell Jones led four Hoosier scorers in double figures with 15 points. Malik Story and Williams added 11 each and Matt Roth had 10.

Taber finished with three points, five rebounds and two assists in his final home game.

“We went down with a fight,” IU’s lone senior added. “I’m proud of what my teammates were able to do for me.”

Up next: Indiana concludes the regular season with a 7PM ET matchup on Sunday at Wisconsin. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Bawa sighting: 7-0 signee Bawa Muniru was in attendance and Jared Poertner of the H-T/Hoosier Scoop talked to the big man.

• Box score
• Postgame Quotes
• Tom Crean Audio
• Malik Story Audio
• Kyle Taber Audio
• Verdell Jones Audio

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+ Senior night is players’ final chance to bid farewell {Indiana Daily Student}

+ Zach Osterman breaks down the improvement Kyle Taber has shown during his senior season {Indiana Daily Student}

+ The debut of the Terry Hutchens trivia challenge. Sorry boys and girls, no prizes. {Hoosiers Insider}

+ College basketball BlogPoll: Week 4. {CBS Sports}

+ Can Michigan State secure a No. 1 seed? {The Detroit News}

+ 25 years later, Michael Jordan still remembers UNC’s upset loss to IU in the 1984 NCAA East Regional. {USA Today}

+ Tipton senior and IU signee Derek Elston is shining in the spotlight. {Kokomo Tribune}

+ Brian Kernan writes that IU target Kyrie Irving may be the best player to ever play at St. Patrick’s. {NJ.com}

+ Jody Demling speculates that a commitment is forthcoming from Marquis Teague to Louisville. {CJ Recruiting Blog}

+ A scouting report on one of the top players in the 2010 class: Harrison Barnes. {Clone Chronicles}

Quotable: “I’m proud to have coached him, and I know we’ve got more time but when it is senior night you want to make sure that everyone understands. I’ve been demanding of him, as our whole staff has and I’ve been hard on him, as our whole staff has because we have always looked at him as being a very, very valuable part of what we are doing here. He has done that. I am proud of the way he has contributed, proud of the way he has continued to improve. And proud he is a part of Indiana Basketball.” – Tom Crean on Kyle Taber.

Barring a miracle, he’s got three more games in an Indiana uniform. But instead of just going through the motions in a season going nowhere fast, Taber has made a point of improving as the year has moved forward. He’s turned himself into a solid contributor. For that and for going through two of the most difficult seasons in the history of Indiana basketball, here’s to a standing ovation for Taber tomorrow night in Assembly Hall.

Here are some thoughts from Taber as he prepares to play his final home game:

On Tuesday night being Senior Night:

“It’s going to be special, sad and exciting at the same time. I’m ready for it though. It’s my fifth year here so I knew it was coming sooner or later.”

On which teammate he learned the most from:

“I learned a lot from D.J. (White). Just how he handles things especially with how big of a star he was around here. He did a lot of good things and you can learn a lot from just watching him and not even talking to him. So that was probably the biggest, but I have learned a lot from everyone that I have been around, all of my teammates.”

On the chance to become a freshman all over again:

“It would be fun to be a freshman again and come in with this group of guys. They are fun guys and it would be a great four years to play ball with them.”

On his plans after graduation:

“Try and finish up my masters in Sport Communication and maybe some college coaching – maybe get an assistant job somewhere while I finish it up.”

On the keys for success Tuesday night against Michigan State:

“Control the middle part of the game, control the fast breaks and get rebounds at the end of the shot clock and then we are going to try and shut down their plays in the middle because they are really methodical. If we can stop those and make the player feed you, we will have a much better chance.”

There you have it, boys and girls. More proof of the awesomeness of D.J. White and the first inkling that you may see Taber on the sidelines in a gym near you.

– Jeremiah Rivers’ plaid shirt.

– Devan Dumes. He was 8-of-9 for the night, including 5-of-5 from 3-point land. He scored 27 points. You can’t ask for a better night than that.

- Kyle Taber looking crafty around the rim on two consecutive possession in the second half with around five minutes to go. I repeat: Kyle Taber looking crafty around the rim on two consecutive possessions with about five minutes to go.

– Only 11 turnovers this evening.

– Closing out a game. Finally. That has been perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this season to date. It wasn’t pretty, but those final two steals helped, as Chubs would say, “ease the tension.”

– WE WON!!!!

THE BAD AND UGLY:

– Free Throws. Horrible. Again. Tom. Pritchard. Dis. A. Ppeared. But. I. Don’t. Care. We. Won. YES.

Compounding the problem are the teams IU is playing. Things will become much clearer next Monday in Maui against Notre Dame — I am not looking forward to seeing who is going to guard Luke Harangody — but for now, what are we to make of IUPUI? Are they occasionally tourney-bound IUPUI? Or are they just bad? Should we be even more worried than we already are? I have no answers. Merely questions.

This was the case after the first game, too. Instead let’s just recap what we saw.

DEFENSE. REBOUNDING. OY VEY.

Again, I can’t emphasize this enough, especially to myself, because sometimes I get a little shortsighted: It’s early. Very much so. I remember last year when the team we all thought was going to the Final Four looked like they couldn’t play a lick of defense, and I was sort of freaked out. Then they got it together, and they were fine. (And then, well, you know what happened next.)

But if there are two things that have been utterly consistent — and utterly frightening — from tonight’s game and Saturday’s, it’s that this time does not rebound, and does not really defend. At all.

Part of it they can’t help. Tom Pritchard does his share, and Kyle Taber is never really out of position, but there’s just no size there. Even at the guard position, IU is incredibly small, and so there aren’t really any athletic guards that can crash the boards and help compensate for the overwhelmed front court. IU is going to be overmatched all over the place this year, and those mismatches will likely manifest themselves most blatantly when the ball clangs high off the rim.

That said, there is still room for improvement here. Box-outs can get better. Guards can use long rebounds to get out on the break. With a little tweak here and a little tweak there, things won’t be so cringe-inducing, especially on the defensive end.

Defensively, it’s much the same story. There are times when IU flashes some defensive chops, but most of the time I feel hostage to the other team’s whims. For example: In the first half, IUPUI seemed content to settle on outside shots, and they made almost none of them, including a stretch toward the end of the half when they missed something like 11 straight jumpers. They shot 25.8 percent in the first half, and IU took a lead into the break.

Then, in the second, half, IUPUI realized they could get layups at will, and so they took them. And took them. And took them. And they shot 60 percent in the second half, and they rushed back into the game, and IU had to fight them off at the last second. All because of the Hoosiers’ limitations — their defensive porousness on the perimeter, their inability to challenge shots at the rim. I don’t know whether these things are systemic, or whether they’re correctable. I just know that Luke Harangody and Kyle McAlarney might combine for 80 points on Monday. I fear for this outcome.

THE “CHIN-UP, SPORT!” PORTION OF THE PROCEEDINGS

I don’t want to be too negative, though. So let’s talk about things that weren’t actually all that bad:

Matt Roth can shoot. It’s nice to have a really, really good shooter on your team. No matter what else happens, at least there’s always the faint glimmer of hope that he could get hot and keep you in a game from time to time.

Daniel Moore is like Errek Suhr, but way better. Daniel Moore, what with being diminutive and white and scrappy and so on, is already drawing comparisons to everyone’s favorite scrappy, diminutive white guy of recent vintage, Errek Suhr. Problem is, those comparisons don’t do Moore justice. Suhr was essentially a short guy with a good long range shot and a tough nose on defense. Moore is a legitimate ball handler. He sees the entire court well, can make needle-point passes from the key or on the break, and just generally has more confidence on the ball than Suhr ever did. Suhr was always jittery. He reminded me of a Chihuaha. He would take three high dribbles and then get rid of the ball, quickly, before anyone could get to him. Moore actually seems interested in handling it, and doing some semi-stylish things in the process. I like Daniel Moore. He’s not exactly going to carry IU to a Big Ten title, but for a walk-on, IU could do a whole lot worse.

Plus, his face gear is pretty awesome.

Tijan Jobe. You think I’m being sarcastic, but stay with me for a — haha. Just kidding again. There’s nothing optimistic about Tijan Jobe, except that for three minutes a game, he looks more baffled on a basketball court than anyone I’ve ever seen, and this entertains me.

Tom Pritchard deserves more time. I was a little too harsh on Tom Pritchard in the first TMA. I guess I was just disappointed — I was hoping for some more athleticism, some more strength, that sort of thing. But those aren’t the only qualities that make a good big man, and a guy like Pritchard can get by on being in good position under the block, finishing consistently around the hoop, and being crafty in mismatches. Again, like Moore, he’s a limited sort of guy … but he’s all we’ve got, and it could be a lot worse, I think.

In fact, that’s the motto for the first two games: I have no idea what’s going on, but it could be a lot worse. Don’t believe me? Wait until Monday.

I’ll admit it: After about five minutes last night, I had to admit something to myself. I didn’t know who was who. It’s sad, I know, but I doubt that I’m alone here, and I hope it’s not too bold of me to admit it. It took me a second to figure out that Verdell Jones was No. 12, that that wasn’t Devan Dumes, that Dumes was the off-guard wearing No. 33, and who is that little dude with the Rip Hamilton facemask on? That’s not Finkelmeier, is it? And oh my God is that Tijan Jobe?! It took me a second to figure it all out, and it required me whipping out the laptop and keeping the roster handy. I’m not afraid to admit it.

Because of that, a lot of stuff blurred together, but plenty stuck out, too. Off we go, then:

THINGS TO BE SLIGHTLY, CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT:

Effort: This is going to be a theme all season, so let’s just get it out of the way early. This team is going to be very likable. They are going to play hard. They are going to have good attitudes. All of that. Even when they’re not playing with a good attitude it will seem that way, because you can’t have worse attitudes than last year’s team, and as long as Matt Roth doesn’t smoke a crack pipe at midcourt and punch a cheerleader in the face, pretty much anything will seem like an improvement. So after every game, the chorus will be the same: These guys sure play hard! Man, they sure seem to care! Bless their little hearts, huh? This is going to get incredibly annoying. But last night? It was true. They did play hard. And they did seem to actually care. Credit where it’s due, both to the team and to Tom Crean for getting them to buy in. The best basketball coaches are salesmen, and Tom Crean could sell me a ticket to Kelvin Sampson: The Broadway Musical. He’s done the same sales job on his team. Effort will not be a problem this year, at least not anytime soon.

Devan Dumes: When I hear Northwestern State, I immediately think “last-second shot over Iowa in the NCAA Tournament,” and then I get a big smile on my face. But after I think of that, I (perhaps wrongly) think of the stereotype of a mid-Major — scrappy, unathletic, hard-nosed, heavily reliant on three pointers. Northwestern State wasn’t really like that at all. They were just sort of bad, especially on defense, where they were genuinely awful in the full court press. So I don’t want to get too excited about Devan Dumes’ night. But it is encouraging, at the very least, to know that the team contains some semblance of offensive talent that can score when allowed to do so. Dumes’ night was like that — impressive, but not overly so. Just solid. But I’ll take solid if it puts the occasional point on the board.

Verdell Jones: I might actually be more excited about Jones than I am about Dumes. For whatever reason, I really like Jones’ game — he’s lanky, deliberate, he sort of glides around. His arms are long enough to make him play bigger than his listed size. Having that kind of athletic ability at the point is a real luxury … even if Verdell has a lot of things to figure out about the position. On a team with minimal size, um, everywhere, Jones is a boost. (He also had kind of a crazy line last night: 18 points, five assists, three blocks, three steals, three turnovers, 10-13 from the free-throw line. That’s like a mini-Josh Smith-on-the-Hawks line. I love it.)

Daniel Moore: It took about five minutes last night before the the friends I watched the game with were already calling him the second coming of Errek Suhr. Fortunately — and no disrespect to Suhr — but I think it’s clear Moore is a much, much better player. I’m sure I missed something, but I don’t know if I saw Moore make a truly bad decision all night. Despite his size deficit, he gets around people in the open floor. He can make open shots, and he’s a great passer. So maybe he’s not a point guard in the Big Ten, but you can do much, much worse coming off the bench than Moore. That’s a great walk-on right there.

Tijan Jobe: Haha. Just kidding. Nothing to be optimistic about here.

THINGS THAT ARE BASICALLY AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER:

The Frontcourt: Speaking of Tijan Jobe, oh boy. The frontcourt. Where to start?

I don’t want to be too harsh, because Kyle Taber seems like a pretty cool dude. Relaxed guy. The kind of kid you’re hoping is your roommate when you move to school — plays video games, probably, not too rowdy, doesn’t do hard drugs in plain sight. (Everyone knows that kid freshman year. He is to be avoided; he won’t last the first semester.) So I think I like Kyle Taber as a person. But as a basketball player, as the captain of this team? Eesh.

Last year, Taber made a living off of one thing: playing opposite D.J. White. White would shoot it, and defenders would crash to him while Taber snuck in, grabbed a rebound, and either tipped it back in or passed to a guard and restarted the offense. He was perfect for that. But when Taber is the supposed to be your “best” big man, well, you’re going to get killed on the interior all season. Just murdered. And it already started last night.

For example: Northwestern State had 27 — 27! — offensive rebounds. Eight Northwestern players had at least two offensive rebounds each. Northwestern State had eight blocks, which doesn’t seem like that many, actually. I would have thought, oh, 30 or so? That’s how it felt, anyway.

As for the non-Taber members of the frontcourt: Tom Pritchard is like Kyle Taber, except left-handed. He might actually be a bit more talented, thank God, but he’s certainly not more athletic, or bigger; he just seems to know how to get the most of his limitations. And Tijan Jobe. Oh, Tijan. Tijan Tijan Tijan. God bless him. He looks incredibly interested in playing hard basketball, in rebounding, that sort of thing. That’s probably the nicest thing that can be said about his basketball ability right now.

THINGS WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT:

Pretty much everything else. But there’s IUPUI Tuesday night, and so goes the season. Another game, another batch of info to learn. And then? The Road to the Final Four. We’re going all the way! 1-0! WOOOO!

This could be a long season.

• Tom Crean Audio
• Brett Finkelmeier/Kyle Taber Audio
• Kipp Schutz Audio

In what constitutes a major news story with IU basketball (the times are a changing), senior forward Kyle Taber is expected to make his return to the court tonight for the Hoosiers’ exhibition game with Bemidji State.

You’re right, Chris. Times are a changing. Last year at this time, we were booking our tickets for the Sweet 16. Now we’re celebrating the return of Kyle Taber. Did I mention it could be a long year?

Also, in case you missed it, Bob Knight is returning to ESPN. Good times.