Round 1 of the NCAA tournament. The Hoosiers are playing Arkansas. The first half hasn’t been stellar. Seems like there is a fair amount of standing around by IU. At half time, they trail 37 – 30. The officiating hasn’t been horrible, exactly, but I’ve seen what seemed to be about 3 significantly bad calls or non-calls. The first was DJ White in the lane, making a basket and getting fouled. He was called for a charge, but there was no way that was a good call. On the other end, there was almost immediately a make up call where Arkansas was called for some ticky-tacky offensive foul. But, the damage was done – that was 3 points the Hoosiers wouldn’t get and an unnecessary foul on White. That was the big one.
The last one was White going up for a dunk and missing with a lot of contact in the lane and in the air. There was another one in between those I was fairly annoyed with at the time, but I can’t recall at the moment.
I can’t swear that there haven’t been similar transgressions on the other side for Arkansas; but they’ve shot (and made) 10 from the line. Indiana has only shot 4 free throws. Even worse, they’ve only made 1 of those shots. The Razorbacks have also been pretty strong from behind the 3-point line, shooting 5/12 for 42%. Fortunately, they’re shooting at about the same percentage inside the line; otherwise the score could be really ugly.
IU is shooting about average from 3 — 30%, but very poorly from closer in and at the line (38% and 25% respectively).
For the second half, we’ll see if IU has some life in them or if they’re just going to phone it in and put this season to an end.
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Second Half:
Jeeze, this is frustrating. 16 minutes left, and it seems like IU keeps flirting with getting back into this thing and then making stupid mistakes that snuff out what could be a nice run.
And, as I type this, at the 15 minute mark, a couple of good stops and made threes get this thing a little closer.
Man, that charge way back in the 1st half on White is looking huge. He just got another foul, his 3rd, and now he has to play tentatively, which opens up the lane a little for Arkansas.
Gordon is having a horrible night.
And, suddenly, IU is down by 9 with about 9 minutes to go.
Down by 10 with 4 minutes to go. This sucks.
Down by 12 with 3:10 to go.
Gordon has just disappeared. 2-12 from the field, including 0-5 from three. Also 2-6 from the line. Does this mean we get him for a sophomore year? Commentators just said that he’s 7-50 from three since Dakich became the head coach.
Down by 13 with 2:00 to go.
This wasn’t worth staying up late for.
D.J. White’s last game. Great player. Too bad he never got to play for a great team.
Down by 13 with 1:00 to go. Why are we still fouling? Put this team out of its misery. Maybe we can get a coach, rebuild, and get back to the tournament in 3 or 4 years.
Down by 14 with 40 seconds. Here come the scrubs.
86 – 72. Final.
I felt bad for the IU fans who had to listen to Billy Packer. Talk about adding the final blow to a miserable season.
You’ll recall the players had threatened to quit, and then had wanted their assistant coach to be elevated to head coach. Administration probably should have given them what they wanted. They might have been able to make a run like IU did in Davis’ first year. Instead they played like a bunch of head cases.
Gordon cost himself a few million dollars with his late-season collapse. I imagine he’ll still declare for the draft. Otherwise, will he stay? I can’t imagine he would delay his payday further by transfering.
You’re a better man that I. Liveblogging football, with the constant breaks in the action, is easier than liveblogging basketball. Entirely predictable based on recent play, unfortunately.
As for the interim situation, I think picking against the players’ choice was one of the few things the admin. has done well in recent years concerning basketball. The last thing IU needs is to be strong-armed into hiring someone by the players. Certainly, Ray McCallum is a better coach than Davis, but IU needs an open search. It’s bigger than one season.
I was referring to just the end of this season. Yes, for the permanent position, they need an open search.