[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

• Definitely the best finish I watched in college basketball this season. Amazing game winner by Watford. If there was a reason to storm the court, that was it!
• Indiana was not ranked in either poll (somehow). Will they possibly have the biggest rise in NCAA history for an unranked team? They are 9-0 and they just beat the #1 team in the nation. Will be very interesting to see.
• Back to Watford. He has not had the best season as a junior (averaged 16 ppg as a sophomore, is at 10.4 ppg this year), but he was huge in this game. Sort of a tweener, a la Terrence Jones, but he had to have made scouts notice with his play on this major stage.
• Marquis Teague abused Jordan Hulls in the second half. His shot is incredibly shaky, but he has fantastic speed driving to the basket. Getting a much better idea of how to run the dribble drive.
• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was energetic and amazing as usual. He rarely shoots outside of 15 feet and he gets a majority of his baskets off of slashing, offensive rebounds and hustle plays. I do not know if he is a guy you can run your offense through and I do not see him creating a lot of offense for himself, but he is a bonafide energy 3 man who sure looked like Kentucky’s best NBA prospect after Anthony Davis in this game.
• Yes, Dicky V, Indiana probably should have gotten the ball to Cody Zeller more. He had some fantastic plays near the basket and is even quicker and more athletic than his elder brother Tyler. Still, I felt Kentucky did a great job sealing him off and that he needs to do a much better job of establishing himself in the post. I was just incredibly shocked that Indiana did next to nothing to get the ball to Zeller with Davis getting 4 fouls.
• Couple of stupid fouls by Anthony Davis forced him to miss a lot of time in the second half. His first half foul trouble definitely hurt them as well. He is a monster athlete, though. He also has fantastic energy and he does a solid job crashing the boards. His shot blocking is obviously excellent, though led to that 4th costly foul on a three point attempt block, but he also has active hands. He is so athletic, that even if he gains weight, he should be pretty damn special.
• Victor Oladipo, a sophomore guard on Indiana, has springs. Have been impressed with his athleticism, if he works on his ball handling he is a major problem off the drive. Plus, his dunk on Terrence Jones was super nasty.
• Doron Lamb is an excellent scoring guard. Kept them in the game, huge down the stretch but he has to do a little more than just score.
• Very poor perimeter defense by Kentucky. They have usually been so strong as a team this year, but Indiana did an excellent job of spreading the floor.
• Jordan Hulls should not be left open. Ever. Neither should Will Sheehey. These guys must have taken lessons from Jimmy Chitley (star player for coach Norman Dale in the movie "Hoosiers)
• We get it Dick Vitale, Terrence Jones is an All-American. Most people thought so before the season, though this game was just not his night. I do not know if something was wrong with him or not, but he had an awful game. Poor offensively, poor defensively and I have 0 qualms with John Calipari playing Darius Miller with his other starters instead of Jones at games end. Kentucky is a 6 deep team and are lucky to have the 6 they do. But, Jones, just was not there. This game most certainly made me question whether Terrence can indeed make a transition to 3 at the next level and is not more of a stretch 4. Still, he has the size and ability to make such a huge impact. Seems like he has forgot these factoids after the first half against North Carolina.
• Yes, Dick Vitale, Bobby Knight was a great coach. But, Tom Crean has Indiana back. Bobby Knight is not taking his job and I think that is just fine by Hoosiers fans right now, after landing Zeller and having a lot of hope in the next few recruiting classes.
• On to Dick Vitale. The man drives me mental. He is passionate, he knows peoples names (some a lot better than others), but he is a broken record. But, he hit a couple things on the head. Indiana needed to feed the post when they had the lead to try and foul Davis out of the game. Also, Terrence Jones had a pretty poor game and his 6 turnovers and 1 rebound were pretty darn disappointing. Other than that, Dicky V gets old, fast. You could mute the TV and still hear his shrieking about what each team should do, usually repeating one players name over and over.

I have more, but that is a good start. Anyone else have thoughts on this game, or some others?

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

And just to think, IU is missing Maurice Creek, who is a VERY good player.

IU is back. You have to credit Coach Crean for working hard and doing it the right way. He’s convincing the best prospects in Indiana to come to IU again, which is good to see.

[LoLerScholarParticipant]

Great insights by the original poster; I definitely second everything you said.  Man, I think that was the best college basketball game I’ve seen this year, hands down.  It actually might be the best college basketball game I’ve ever seen; I can’t think of any regular season game in recent memory that really comes close.  From start to finish, the atmosphere was unreal.  This is why I prefer college basketball over the NBA, any day.

 

[B FreeParticipant]

 So they are 9-0 with a win over the number 1 team, if they don’t jump up to at least 15th it won’t be high enough.

[FastAndFuriousParticipant]

 I think Teague needs to play like that ALL THE TIME! Set up the offense and if the ball comes back to you ATTACK, he was rated the #1 PG in the country for a reason, play team ball but at the same time don’t defer! The way he played in the 2nd half, he should have played like that in the first and UK would have won.

Terrance Jones played like a P***y, no All-American candidate plays that way, he didnt even try, no effort, no energy, no nothing.

MKG beast nuff said.

Victor Oladipo is intringuing to me, long,athletic, can put it on the floor, and explosive had that NASTY dunk on Darius Miller. He played very well tonight

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Definitely think 15th should be the lowest. My guess could be 11th or 12th. Hard to rate them above Missouri or Marquette, who are also both undefeated, but I think putting them ahead of Florida for their early season work seems appropriate. Will be very interesting to see how they fare in Big 10 play.

Ohio State looks tops (as long as Sullinger gets healthy), Wisconsin is right there, than a solid group that includes, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State. Those guys look like NCAA locks in a conference that sent seven to the tourney last year. Should be a very interesting season in that conference, they are looking surprisingly deep and strong this year.

[scoutguruParticipant]

Yeah, thats what btph has been saying about T-Jones for a while now. When faced with like athleticism and talent, at times (a lot of the time you can say) he really shows his limitations as a player. No real go to moves, and is proven to be a tweener to the max.

Teague was solid, but I still have reservations about him still moving forward (in terms of immediate nba future). While he was a lil more aggressive, playing against the backcourt of IU, he should’ve had a better showing. But he looked alright making basic passes and drives that IU small/unathletic guards had no chance containing, but for now lets temper the whole nba talk for him.

Great game though, was real fun to watch. Couldn’t imagine being a IU or UK fan watching the game, musta been an emotional roller-coaster throughout.

[NJHooper95Participant]

I agree about Teague. I have been harping on this all of this season, but Im not overly impress with Teague. He is a fast, quick guard, with no jumper, and questionable decision making. Im sorry, I have seen alot of BBall and Im just not impressed considering the hype he gets. I have been more impressed with Ryan Boatright, Trey Burke, BJ Young, and Nick Johnson(even though he is not a pg) as freshman guards, than I am with Teague.   Neverthless, this was a great game Indiana could have really put the game away if they would have kept feeding Zeller, especially after Davis was sitting with 4 fouls. I think Kentucky is still a great still and a favorite to win it all. I think Gilchrist and Lamb are the x-factor of this team. Teague, Davis, and Jones get the headlines, but the biggest plays are usually made by Gilchrist and Lamb.

[raybeasParticipant]

Tom Crean needs to teach his guards how to feed the post. Zeller is the best post player Crean has had in his coaching carreer. I’m not sure he knows how to teach wing players to feed the post. Indiana should have won that game by 10+ points.

*Mikeyv  –  Its Jimmy Chitwood

This is the best Indiana team by far in the past four years, however, they are not great by any means. Zeller is obviously pretty good, Hulls is a good (possibly great college) shooter, but a bad point defender,Olidipo and Sheehey are athletic, but poor midrange shooters. JonesIII and Watford are the keys to this team. When they both have good games, IU will win, when one or the other struggles, they need help. When they are both off, IU will lose unless Zeller blows up (not his game). IU may win twenty games this year, thanks to their added depth but wont go far untill they add interior defense and low post offense (Zeller).

 

[ProudGrandpaParticipant]

I’m a Purdue fan, and , even though I always like to root against the highly-ranked teams, particularly kentucky, I am now gonna have to hear all the IU fans’ crap for weeks.

[kobyzParticipant]

-Christian Watford is a smooth offensive player with great shooting stroke, has nice inside-outside game that could may help him get drafted late second round.

-Doron Lamb has the best hesitation game in the country, not the most flashy but with effectiv and concise moves in that regard and can misleading defenders with craftiness and off ball movement, very good shooter and solid finisher in the paint despite average athleticism, how much do you think lack of strength/athleticism prevent him succeed in NBA? i have to compare him to Vernon Maxwell, a solid SG of the 90s, but also remind a little Manny Harris who was good collage player.

-Cody Zeller show glitches in his game to Kevin McHale, with his post skills, very savvy style of play and perfect motor, Cody Zeller not getting much touches in the second helf should also ascribe to Kentucky picking up their defense and found way to disturb Indiana overall offense as Zeller is a flow of the offense type player.

-Michael Kidd-Gilchrist first rate professional, highly effective defender who can guard multiple positions great team player who play the right way without any nonsense, very fundamental sound, strong penetrator and finisher thanks to top level aggressiveness also underrated playmaker but right now limited some offensively as result of lacking decent outside shot. i see him with keeping work on his game become a Caron Butler meets Shawn Marion type player.

[JayhawkFan23Participant]

How did Kentucky lose this game? I didnt watch the game. I was at the Wichita St vs Utah St game.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

I see that Indiana actually had more turnovers than Kentucky, but I think Indiana did a much better job off of capitalizing off turnovers. Do not want to put all of the blame on Terrence Jones, but he played the worst game I have ever seen him play. He had 6 turnovers and 1 rebound, as Kentucky did a pretty bad job of hitting the boards outside of Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis. Davis getting into foul trouble and forcing Jones into playing extended minutes when it was fairly obvious that Calipari would rather he not be on the court did not help matters.

Indiana just played a very smart game for the most part, they shot 9-15 from 3 and they were playing strong defense for a majority of the game as well. The only people on Kentucky who could create their own shots off of the dribble were Doron  Lamb and Marquis Teague finally came to the party in the 2nd half, but limiting Davis and Jones to a combined 10 points was huge. Both teams look to be only 6 deep right now, and Indiana did not have to limit their rotation due to foul trouble, not to mention every played their role to a tee.

On the other hand, Terrence Jones was clearly shaken by something or just off in lala land. Christian Watford blew by him on numerous occasions, not to mention his being posterized by Victor Oladipo. I was a little surprised Indiana did not attack Davis more with that 4th foul, because when he was off the floor, they were pretty easy to take advantage of with Terrence Jones and Darius Miller facing mismatches. Cody Zeller did very well against Davis, though if he established better post position, he might have been dominant. Davis is still a better prospect, but Zeller is much more polished offensively.

Kentucky still has a ways to go on both ends of the court. They should be, and have at times been, a fantastic perimeter defense. The forwards besides Kidd-Gilchrist, still have to improve on defense. Davis is a fantastic shot blocker and definitely can be a pest on defense, but his being in foul trouble killed them. Calipari has very little faith in Vargas, Wiltjer struggles on defense and Jones showed he can be taken off the dribble. Definitely exposed some weaknesses in the Wildcats. Kidd-Gilchrist and Teague probably had close to their best games for Kentucky, but Davis was over anxious and showed he could at times be pushed around. Kentucky is still super talented and should be tough come March, but even with Indiana barely pulling out the W, they showed that Kentucky is definitely beatable. Guess we knew that already, but Tom Crean’s game plan ended up working against a team full of future NBA guys.

@raybeas: My bad.

[uknationParticipant]

This game worried me more than UNC before the season because it was the first true road game and it was being played at one of the toughest places to play in college basketball. T.Jones should have just stayed home because he was no help, Davis made freshman mistakes on defense and yet we still had a chance to win. Great win by IU and unexpected play from Watford.  still not too worried about Teague since he has been playing before and better as the season has progressed. Shot hasn’t gotten better but his assist to turnover has improved dramatically in the past 4-5 games. The offense is still a work in progress which was expected with this freshman group but I’m sure they will have it together by mid conference. Have to play better perimeter defense but unlike the UNC game we weren’t leaving them wide open as much. Surprisingly i wasn’t too upset about this game because IU deserved it and wanted it more. Free throws still plagues coach Cal teams though and if that doesn’t get fixed it will hurt us come march

[JoeWolf1]

 Vitale drives me insane too.  He would probably sleep with Roy Williams, Coach K or Bob Knight if given the chance.  He may have known something about college basketball at one point in time, but he hasn’t in long enough, I don’t ever remember him being knowledgable (Ive been watching college basketball for 20 years).  He plays favorites more than any announcer of any sport, I can’t stand to listen to him either.  

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