Tobacco Road Report

To watch this entire game, you were either: (1) a big IU fan, (2) a big SIU fan, (3) a basketball purist, or (4) someone with a broken remote control who was too lazy to get off the couch and change the channel (the staff at TRR is a combination of each). This game was not artistic, but it did feature two of the top defenses in college basketball this season. Indiana is a work in progress, but their transformation into a good defensive unit has been enjoyable to watch so far this season.

For IU, Kelvin Sampson used his 8th different starting lineup in 9 games. IU was led by the bench on Sunday with 14 points from AJ Ratliff and 11 points from freshman Armon Bassett. SIU was led by Jack Tatum with 17 points. Tatum appeared to be the best player on the floor and we’re left wondering why SIU didn’t run more clear-outs for him in the second half.

Tempo-free statistics reveal why Indiana eventually pulled away to win. Indiana simply won the defensive battle last night by forcing a turnover to possession ratio of 30 percent for SIU. SIU shot the ball at a higher effective rate (50 percent to 45 percent), but IU took more shots by taking better care of the ball. This was the product of better defense.

The other key to victory for IU was two solid coaching moves by Sampson. In the first half, SIU opened a nice lead over the Hoosiers by exploiting the size advantage at the 4 position. Matt Shaw had the size edge over Lance Stemler and the Salukis were able get a few easy looks from Shaw sealing Stemler midway up the lane.

Sampson’s first move was to give major minutes to freshman Xavier Keeling, who had the size and athleticism to stop Shaw. In the second half with a tight game, Sampson’s second move was to unveil a 1-3-1 trapping zone that resulted in a 6 minute scoreless drought from the field for SIU.

We continue to be under-whelmed by D.J. White. His recovery from persistent foot problems appears slower than projected. That’s both good and bad news for IU. The bad is obvious—he’s not as explosive as he should be and his footwork is clumsy—but the good news for Hoosier fans is that this makes him likely to hang around Bloomington for his senior year.

For TRR, it was nice to watch one game with great half court defense by two scrappy teams. However, we do not want a second helping. Give us the up-tempo styles of UNC and the rest of the ACC any day. We would suggest that Paul Hewitt and the Yellow Jackets take a look at the game film from last night and see how to play half court defense. We’re still in shock at the 1.38 points per possession allowed by the Jackets in their opening ACC game at Miami.