Preview: Illinois Illini at Indiana Hoosiers

Jan 21, 2014; East Lansing, MI, USA; Indiana Hoosiers guard

(11) drives to the basket against Michigan State Spartans guard

(11) during the 1st half of a game at Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

The Indiana Hoosiers need to start stringing together wins starting today. IU is 12-7 but just 2-4 in the Big Ten this season.

Just five days ago, the Hoosiers nearly came away with another big upset win. IU lost at No. 3 Michigan State by five and held a significant lead at points throughout the game.

IU led by five with just over 10 minutes to go, but the Spartans would ride a 21-6 run that lasted over seven minutes to take the 71-66 win. Why couldn’t the Hoosiers score during that stretch? Well, apparently the rim had a vendetta as they missed at least six layups.

It was unbelievably unlucky. IU was able to get within three in the closing seconds, but couldn’t get over the hump.

The Hoosiers were also without Will Sheehey, who has honestly been fairly disappointing this season. Where IU could have used him was in the mid-range game and around the rim.

While there were a lot of factors keeping Gary Harris from IU during the recruiting process, seeing him play makes you wonder why certain players (like Ron Patterson, who never even ended up at IU) were given scholarship offers before Harris made his decision. Perhaps Tom Crean knew from the beginning that Harris wouldn’t end up in Bloomington, but that much talent needed to stay in Indiana.

The MSU game also marked the return of Jeremy Hollowell from his benching on January 4th. He came off the bench to give IU eight points, a pair of rebounds, and a steal. He did turn the ball over twice, but to see him contribute and play hard was encouraging.

IU had two games where they did an exceptional job of taking care of the ball, but that wasn’t the case last Tuesday. The Hoosiers had 18 turnovers. A lot of them were due to carelessness with the ball while dribbling or passing as the Spartans had 12 steals.

Indiana has to start playing with a greater sense of urgency. With 12 games left on the schedule, the Hoosiers are going to have to be road warriors and upset specialist if they still harbor any hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.

Up Next

Illinois at Indiana

Jan. 26th 3:ooPM BTN

The Illini come to Bloomington with a 13-7 record and, much like the Hoosiers, have struggled to find conference wins being 2-5 in the Big Ten. The two teams opened the Big Ten season in Champaign where the Illini pulled out an 83-80 win in overtime.

Illinois is currently on a five game losing streak during a brutal stretch that included Wisconsin, MSU, and Ohio State. There are a lot of similarities between the two teams. Both play very good defense, but have issues on offense.

Illinois struggles to shoot the ball, especially in conference play. They are painfully bad from the three point line, hitting just 31-percent of their attempts, while shooting 47-percent on two-pointers. They are very good at taking care of the ball but struggle to get to the free throw line.

On defense, I wouldn’t be surprised if Illinois copies what Northwestern did last week: clog the driving lanes and force IU to hit jumpers. It worked for the Wildcats, and IU has struggled to hit mid-range shots in Big Ten play. If the Illini choose to go with this strategy, Crean will have to figure out another way to score and just hope his players can hit open shots.

IU did a great job against the Illini in the last meeting and the home court advantage gave Illinois the edge. Were at the point this season where IU can’t drop games to mediocre opponents.

I like home court advantage to push the Hoosiers over the edge in this game. They played very week in East Lansing earlier in the week, and that will carry over to give IU the win today.

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