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Posts Tagged Verdell Jones

Upset bid foiled: Hoosiers fall 64-59

by in Recaps | March 3rd, 2009

The script was set perfectly for Kyle Taber’s final game in Assembly Hall.

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.

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Second half drought sinks Hoosiers

by in Recaps | February 19th, 2009

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.”

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The Morning After: Staying positive

by in Morning After | January 14th, 2009

There are only so many things to say from game to game about the way IU is playing. For example, what was there to say after Illinois? The Hoosiers were destroyed by a far superior (and still underrated) team. Michigan was the real disappointment — a game the Hoosiers should have had, even if most of us suspected a second-half letdown — but one that was ultimately caused by the same systemic flaws that caused IU to lose to Illinois. Youth. Inexperience. Lack of depth. Lack of athleticism. Poor defense. And so on. It gets repetitive listing out these things every third day of the week; what’s worse, it gets depressing.

In the interest of staving off those existential demons, let’s get positive for a few paragraphs here, shall we? Cool. As there is no Shon Morris to take any rage out on this week, it’ll hopefully be a little easier.

(First, let’s do a musical interlude, something to help the mood:

WHOA OH OH. WHOA OH OH. Man, I’m ready now. Let’s do this.)

Ryan touched on much of “The Good” last night, but at least one of his points deserves to be hammered home: Verdell Jones is an improving basketball player. The freshman was set behind by an early season injury, but he seems fully recovered. What’s more, he seems to be learning. His direction of the offense (which at times against Ohio State’s matchup zone stretched the good-faith use of the term “offense”; standing overloading one side of the court doesn’t work if the overloading duo are standing right next to each other) was, as Ryan wrote, competent. His ability to get to the rim is a welcome sight. Jones isn’t a conventionally quick player. He glides, swoops to the lane, takes long jump stops before settling in to his mid-range jumper. He’s far from a perfect player — his defense is a long way away, among other things — but having someone who can both distribute the ball and command the team and also, you know, shoot the ball from time to time (cough Daniel Moore cough) is big.

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Good, Bad and Ugly: Ohio State

by in Good Bad Ugly | January 13th, 2009

THE GOOD:

THE GOOD, CONTINUED:

Verdell Jones looked incredibly competent in the point guard role tonight (I feel like this was the first time all year we didn’t get a lot of Daniel Moore dribbling all over the place, which was somewhat comforting), and it was nice to see Devan Dumes on the court, even if he was still a little hobbled by his ankle injury. For as feast or famine as he can be, we need him on the court. Tom Pritchard hit up another double-double with 16 points and 11 boards, though half those points came in the final five minutes.

IU came out somewhat strong to start the second half and held onto the pace for a bit, but the levee eventually broke for good.

Fifteen offensive boards ain’t too shabby, either.

THE BAD AND UGLY:

Defending the three. A trend is starting to develop early on in Big Ten season here, one in which IU is giving up wide-open 3-pointers all over the place. Michigan just happened to miss a ton in the first half of Indiana’s game against them, and that’s how the Hoosiers were able to amass such a lead — only to see it all come crumbling down. Illinois hit a million against us, and tonight it was more of the same. Ohio State tallied their season high IN THE FIRST HALF ALONE tonight, as they knocked down 11-of-16 in the first frame. Yeesh. When the three wasn’t the go-to shot in the second half, Ohio State continued to make the extra pass, and starting hitting layups and dunks.

Oh, also: We’ve now lost seven straight, the first time since the 1963-64 season, according to ESPN. Raise your hand if you were even born then. Sigh.

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Crean, Jones and Roth talk Illinois

by in Media | January 9th, 2009

Tom Crean, Verdell Jones and Matt Roth met with the media Friday afternoon to talk about Saturday’s matchup with Illinois. Here are a few highlights:

Jones on the rivalry between Indiana and Illinois:

“The whole week, that’s the talk about this big game, Indiana versus Illinois. I’ve grown to see Indiana fans really don’t like Illinois fans and I know for sure Illinois fans hate Indiana fans. So it’s a great rivalry and I hope we keep it going.”

Crean on having Calbert Cheaney around practice the past week:

“He just talked to the team at the end of practice. As a fan, as a coach but most importantly as a man, it’s unbelievable to have him here. He is a wonderful guy. He has been good to me since the first time I talked to him. He loves this university. He loves this state, that’s obvious. He’s got a great future in whatever he wants to do, whether it’s in basketball or outside of it. And for him to come in here and have that presence, he has truly been an E.F. Hutton in this program this week. And he has really observed. He wanted to get a firsthand account, so he hasn’t done a lot (of practicing) but he has definitely been here and he had a point to make. And he’s been good for us as coaches for us to talk to him. Any former player, they (current players) know that those championship banners mean something. They may not understand everything about them but they know that they mean something.”

Roth on the hostile environment expected in Champaign:

“That’s something we are all looking forward to, we like that challenge. We like the challenge of going on the road. We had a great non-conference schedule; going on the road and playing at Wake Forest and places like Kentucky where we played in front of 22,000. So I think we are going to prepared for that.”

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Good, Bad and Ugly: Lipscomb

by in Good Bad Ugly | December 28th, 2008

THE GOOD

Someone else showed up on offense besides Tom Pritchard. Devan Dumes mirrored his scoring prowess from the beginning of the season, and dumped in 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point land. Verdell Jones seems to be rounding back into form as well, as he had 13 points and three assists. The Cream and Crimson raced out to a 35-14 lead and all looked good.

IU was also uncharacteristically low on the turnover end, as the Hoosiers only amassed 13 for the game.

THE BAD

Here’s how we lost this one: free throws, rebounding and points in the paint. For as well as the Hoosiers handled the ball in the second half — only three turnovers — they got out-rebounded by 15. IU also gave up a ridiculous 40 points in the paint for the game, including a good lot late in the match to Adnan Hodzic, who during that one timeout looked like he was about to rip his teammates’ heads off. A 13-0 run for Lipscomb to start the second half doomed IU as well.

But taking all that into account, the Hoosiers were still in this game to the bitter end. But, the free throws. Oh, the free throws. If IU shoots better than their 50 percent on 8-of-16 tonight, they might get the win here. The free throw woes were never more frustrating than when Dumes missed two in a row with IU down four with 46 seconds to go.

When it’s not one thing (the turnovers) it’s the other (free throws).

Big Ten season, here we come.

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