Rants and Raves: Hoosiers Survive Scare In Lincoln 70-65

Happy New Year, everybody. What a win for the Hoosiers in Lincoln to start off the Big Ten season at 1-0! I’ve come to expect that the Hoosiers will always find a way to make a game interesting, regardless of the opponent, and last night, they certainly didn’t disappoint. After giving Hoosier fans all a scare in more than one occasion, the candy striped brigade brought home a 70-65 win. Now that the dust has settled, and the new year is upon us, I give you today’s edition of “Rants and Raves.”

In a game of runs, Last night’s contest resembled a fight from a Rocky movie. Indiana game in with a furious combination of punches and drew first blood, accumulating a 16 point lead. Emitt Holt provided a huge spark to the Hoosier attack with back-to-back-to back buckets coming off the bench in the first half. Circus shots were falling in for Crean’s team at a rate that would have won a game of Horse in a matter of minutes. Indiana seemingly good do no wrong.

Round two: Then the Huskers punched back, and boy, did they punch. Fueled by a few untimely IU turnovers, and some key buckets down the stretch, Nebraska managed to claw its way back to a single digit deficit going into halftime, 40-32. So, I’m sitting at Yogi’s in B-town, and the whole place is like, “how are we only up by eight points?” In a hostile road environment, first true road game of the season, with a young team, and momentum starting to swing the other direction, needless to say the Hoosier faithful were getting nervous. The Heart Attack Hoosiers always seem to find a way to have you so far on the edge out your seat, that at any moment, you’ll fall flat on the floor. Thankfully I didn’t, because hitting my chin on the edge if the bar would not have been pleasant, although somewhat entertaining to all the other patrons.

It seems not too long ago when Tom Crean took a #1 ranked Indiana team into Lincoln and lost a heartbreaker to the Huskers after giving up a double-digit lead. Most IU fans have a long memory for those kind of things, so last night’s contest caused some old wounds to flare up. Hoosier Nation braced for the worst.

A balanced attack spurred the Hoosiers. In a night that saw the home standing Huskers give IU a run for their money, there were several Hoosier heroes. Led by Robert Johnson’s 14 points, Indiana had 13 double figure scorers, including Hanner Mosquera-Perea’s surprising double-double performance. Nine of the 10 players that saw the court for IU scored in the ball game.

Speaking on Hanner, the 6’9 Hoosier big man donned a superman cape in Nebraska. He jumped out of the gym for some very impressive rebounds, had some highlight reel dunks, and made some moves around the basket most Hoosier fans had never seen him make. In the first half, Emmitt Holt game off the bench to really bring a lot of much-needed energy to the game, and was playing some of his best basketball. I must admit, I was questioning early in the second half why Emmitt wasn’t seeing more time on the floor. After a while, it became pretty obvious. Mosquera-Perea was in full-on beast mode in the second half for IU, tallying 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Hoosiers in the road victory.

Indiana proved they could win a game when they didn’t shoot lights-out from the perimeter. The Cream and Crimson shot just 29% from three-point range for the game, well below their season average. Take away Robert Johnson’s 3-6 performance from long-range, and the rest of the Hoosiers shot 4-18 for the night. Indiana’s leading scorers, Yogi Ferrell and James Blackmon Jr., combined to score just 13 (23 below their season average), on 4-16 shooting. Yet somehow the Hoosiers found a way to win the ball game. They just had to age me 10 years in he process.

In in a game that saw his playing time limited by foul trouble, Troy Williams still produced. Although Troy saw only 23 minutes in the court, he scored a very efficient and much-needed 13 points for the traveling Hoosier squad, while yanking down 6 boards.

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The Hoosiers continued to own the boards. Going into the season, Hoosier fans, including yours truly, were probably resigned to the fact that this team was going to find it very hard to compete for rebounds underneath. Their lack of size, especially once they reached the rigors of the Big Ten, was simply going to get them manhandled. Not so fast… The Hoosiers have not been out rebounded in a single game since losing to Louisville. Last night was no exception. Against a bigger, more physical Nebraska team, the Hoosiers bullied the Huskers, winning the rebound battle 44-31.

Nebraska forwards, Petteway and Sheilds, lived up to the hype, combined for 43 points, but that didn’t matter, as aside from Walter Pitchford’s 11 points, the rest of the Huskers squad combined for just 11 more. Crean’s Hoosiers at least kept the two stars from “going off” and managed to keep Nebraska from finding a surprise “x-factor” performance from someone else.

The elephant in the room: Tom Crean and Tim Miles had a little “scuffle” at mid court in the second half, following a hard foul that sent Hanner Mosquera-Perea to the floor. Earlier in the first half, a similar foul sent Hoosiers guard Robert Johnson to the hardwood as well. Apparently Tom took exception to the Huskers’ physical fouls, and had some harsh words for his Nebraska counterpart. In case you missed the issuing chaos, see the result <here.>

Was Crean wrong to address the opposing coach in the middle of the game? Probably so. There have been quite a few media mentions of what might or might not have been said in the exchange. Based on the video, however, it would certainly appear as though the officials gave Tim Miles quite a bit of latitude there in not giving him a technical foul for his antics, be they reactionary or not. Neither coach would give serious comment on the matter in the post game press conference, although Tim Miles mentioned in jest (in typical Tim Miles fashion), that he and Crean “Just kind of talked about the weather, and tulips and flowers.”

Truth be told, I think it would be hilarious to see these two in a cage match. Maybe we could resurrect the old MTV claymation “celebrity death match.” I used to love that show. Oh, the memories.

The bottom Line: The Hoosiers gained a much-needed conference victory, in a hostile road environment hat has not been kind to them in the past. The early conference schedule for Indiana is quite the meat grinder, to say the least. The Hoosiers are set to visit East Lansing on January 5th, and then host Ohio State on the 10th. Starting off with a tough win in Lincoln will help this young Indiana squad build the necessary confidence to better weather the upcoming Big Ten storm. It only gets tougher from here.

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