Immediate Post Game Reaction: IU vs NC State

Rapid Reactions:

• Jordan Hulls was aggressive taking threes and driving the ball. He was the first player on either team in double figures.
  
• Victor Oladipo was solid on defense stuffing his statsheet with steals, rebounds, and a couple of emphatic nice dunks.
  
• Christian Watford looked steady. He didn't throw the ball away as often and made some quality shots.
  
• Cody Zeller was the “savior” that we all thought he would be. Rebounding, hustling after loose balls, and break away dunks led to a very encouraging eleven point lead.
  

Then the wheels came off...
North Carolina State started rebounding everything in sight (or Indiana forgot how to box out). After the final ten minutes of the first half I felt lucky to only be down one point.

The second half started out with Indiana playing with great confidence. Unfortunately, after the first TV timeout, Indiana played like the team in the final 10 minutes of the first half. Verdell Jones III threw the ball away and took fade away shots in the lane, while Oladipo tried to foul out. This earned Victor a nice little session on the bench.

NC State went up seven and the Hoosiers were down and out....

...at least the teams of the last three years would have been done.

But this isn't your same old Hoosier squad! The Hoosiers of the first ten minutes of the game showed up and kicked ass!!! I have not been that excited since the Illinois victory last year. Hulls hit huge shots, Zeller kept up the pressure, and Oladipo was the Oladipo that jumped over the middle schoolers during Hoosier Hysteria.

There were some things to complain about as an alumnus, but this was an all-around amazing game. I am not going to say that we are back like some people are saying on Twitter, but we are back from the embarrassing level that we have been stuck at for the past three years. I predicted that we would finish fifth in the Big Ten before the year started and I think we are right on track for that. Amazing job HOOSIERS!!!!

Next up: vs Stetson on 12/4

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Hoo's Next? - NC State Edition

Who: NC State Wolfpack
What: Big Ten - ACC Challenge
When: Tonight, 7:15pm ET
Where: RBC Center
TV: ESPN 2
Line: IU opened +1, have since moved to -1

The Scoop:
After a successful win against Butler at home Sunday evening, the Hoosiers will be on the road tonight for its first true road game against the NC State Wolfpack for the ACC/Big10 Challenge (I don’t consider IU’s trip to Evansville a true road game, since half the arena was filled with IU alumni and the Zeller bandwagon from a not-so-far away Washington, IN).

This game will be a true test to Indiana’s abilities and a fair gauge of how Indiana basketball may fare once conference play begins. NC State, sitting at 4-1 with one loss to #20 ranked Vanderbilt, proves to be a more evenly matched opponent. NC State’s field goal percentage, while may not be as high as Indiana’s, still ranks high among collegiate teams, with a .489 percentage.

In order to win, Indiana will need to have a more defensive mindset to stop the Wolfpack. IU’s rebounding has been dismal thus far, earning around 38 rebounds per game and averaging only 2.8 more rebounds than their opponents. However, the 74 deflections against Butler on Sunday showed strides are being made in the area of defense.

NC State has a larger pool of talent Indiana has not been exposed to yet this season. The Wolfpack’s starters CJ Leslie (who was predicted to enter the NBA draft after last season, but instead returned to NC State for another year), Scott Wood, and Richard Howell will be among the biggest threats on the court for the Hoosiers.

Leslie has only played three games this season due to violations for improper benefits, but has come out of the gates strong with a 63% field goal percentage. Leslie has a strong drive to the basket that the Hoosiers will need to contain to the outside to prevent him from penetrating the lane.

Wood, who sat out three games ago due to an ankle injury, has shown that when healthy he is a major threat from behind the three-point line. Wood shot 5-6 from behind the arc in their last game against Elon and 5-8 during their season opener against Morehead State. Howell is another threat for the Wolfpack, leading their rebounding efforts with an average 8.8 rebounds per game.

Keys to the Game:
If IU makes NC State play at their own pace and become more aggressive on the boards, IU will likely come out with another win for the Big 10. Indiana basketball is shooting very well right now, which will certainly be a challenge for NC State to stop.

Also check out what Coach Crean had to say about NC State -> Video

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Coach Crean discusses NC State

See what Coach Crean had to say yesterday about IU's matchup with NC State tonight in the Big Ten/ ACC Challenge.

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Sheehey, Hulls and Zeller discuss Butler Win

See what the players had to say after Indiana defeated the Butler Bulldogs!

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Tom Crean Reflects on Butler Game

See what Coach Crean had to say moment after IU's win over Butler in Assembly Hall.

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Zeller goes HAM on Butler (Video)

Zeller threw down a thunderous dunk vs Butler Sunday night. Check it here!

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Gm 6: +/- Player Analysis - Butler Edition

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! IU took it's first step of reclaiming the state of Indiana tonight with their 16 point victory of the Bulldogs of Butler. IU struggled to put the ball away in the first half; a great credit to Butler and their defense. The Hoosiers overcame their offensive struggles in the second half led by Will Sheehey and Cody Zeller.

Key Players:

• Will Sheehey - Will continues to show his improved game. All summer we heard about his solid play and improved jumper. As the season continues, we are seeing Sheehey improve. It's a great thing to see for Hoosier fans.
• Cody Zeller - Cody was a non factor in the first half as the Hoosiers struggled to get the ball to him. The second half was another story as Cody broke out of the funk and Hustled harder than anyone on the court. Great effort out of Cody tonight.
  

With that being said, let's jump into the +/- Player Analysis

+/- Player Analysis vs Butler
*Just in case you forgot, here is a quick breakdown as to what the +/- Player Analysis is looking at.
Example: Here is a quick example of how the +/- stat is determined. Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey start the game for IU. Therefore the score is 0-0. Coach Crean makes his first substitution at 15:00 with the score IU up 15-10. Oladipo comes into the game for Sheehey. For this stint in time, Sheehey would earn a +5 (while Sheehey was in, IU increased their lead by 5 points). The Lineup of Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey also earned a +5. This will continue throughout the game.

Game Overall




Key Takeaways:

• Derek Elston took the title of Best of the Night in terms of Plus-Minus per minute. Elston only played 14 minutes tonight, but he made those count by helping IU outscore Butler by 11 points.
• Just watching the game, you could see Will Sheehey had a major impact. The stats here will back that up. Sheehey was an outstanding +0.71 pts/min.
• Watford had arguably one of his worst games as a Hoosier. His shot wasn't falling (2-10), he had a loose handle (3 TO - (that is the official box score... feels like he had 100)), and he seemed to be stuck on Watford Island tonight. To Watford's credit, he did make some great moves to get to the bucket. He just couldn't finish the bunnies.
  
• I cannot stress this enough, anything in the GREEN, means the player had a positive impact on the game and helped IU get to their blowout win.
  

Lineups of the Night:

Key Takeaways: (click to enlarge)

• Here you can see the game flow throughout the night. The chart reads from the beginning of the game to the end from top to bottom.
• Overall, Coach Crean used 19 different combinations of players in the game (smallest amount used so far this year). Of his 19 combinations, 10 were positive, 3 were neutral (0) and the remaining 6 were negative.
• 7 different units played multiple times these evening. The previous high was 2.
  

Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+8) belongs to Hulls, Sheehey, Oladipo, VJIII and Zeller. This unit played 4 different times throughout the night (the most). They did their most damage at the 18:36 mark in the 1st half. Led behind an Oladipo 3 and a few free throws from Zeller and Oladipo, this unit got IU off to a 6-0 lead.

Worst Lineup of the Night:
This is why I love this analysis. The worst group of the night (-9) just so happens to be Crean's favorite lineup of the year and statistically best lineup of the year (from a +/- perspective). The lineup of Hulls, VJIII, Oladipo, Watford and Zeller takes the honors of worst lineup. You might think they just had one bad stint, that'd be wrong. Coach Crean played them 3 times. Right after Sheehey subbed in for Watford (Best Lineup), Watford came back in for Sheehey. Here the lineup recorded a -5. This group also started the second half and recorded a -4. They also played the first 1:30 of the game (0-0 score).

Season to Date:

As many people like to point out, looking at the +/- for one specific game is not entirely telling. Tracking this over the course of the year, will give a much clearer picture as to what each player brings to the team. Below is the updated season to date +/- for each player.

• In this tough fought battle, only 3 Hoosiers improved their season averages during this game. Elston, Sheehey and Pritchard all improved year to date. This can be referenced from IU's strong performance when they were on the court together tonight.
  
• There wasn't much movement, but Elston moved from 9th best to 6th. Oladipo dropped from 6th best to 8th, and Pritchard moved from 12th to 10th.

Lineup Combinations
Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used through the three regular season games:

• Coach has used 110 different lineups this year.
• Of those 110, only 31 are negative year to date.
• Best lineup is +26 (Also tonight's Worst Lineup. Crean's favorite unit of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• Worst lineup is -6. (Consists of Oladipo, Sheehey, Moore, Abell, Elston)
  
• 21 lineups have been used multiple times this year.

Lineup Creator!
Here is your chance to play Coach Crean!
What you can do is go to this link, and it will open an Excel file for you. Using the filters already on the page, you can filter the lineups for the year to see how all the different combinations of players play together.

For instance, if you wanted to see how the team does when Oladipo and Sheehey are in the game together, filter both their columns. This will return all lineups for the year that Oladipo and Sheehey have been on the floor together!

+/- Lineup Generator

Overall
IU will have a big test this week traveling to NC State for the B1G/ ACC Challenge. I think we will learn a lot about this team from that game. IU was supposed to beat Butler tonight. While the scoreboard said 15 points, the feelings of Hoosiers made it seem like 30. Great win tonight!

Also make sure you follow us on Twitter to be a part of our #IUpickem Challenge!

+/- Analysis for All 2011-2012 Games

Follow Us on TWITTER!

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#IUpickem Results - Butler

Every game day we will tweet out asking for your predictions. We will have a year long competition with some sort of prize at the end (still a work in progress!) Here is how the competition will be scored:

Rules:

• Each week you will submit the winner of the game, and the score for each team
• The top 10 each week will be awarded points (1st= 10, 10th = 1).
• Scoring:
• You will only be eligible to score points if the team you selected wins
• Assuming many people will pick IU all year long, we have a detailed tie breaker.
• 1st Tiebreaker is: Closest to total points in the game
• 2nd Tiebreaker: Closest to total points for IU
• 3rd Tiebreaker: Closest to total points for Opponent
• If this continues to be a tie, you both will split the points for your position.

With that being said, here are the game results!

...and the Current Season Standings!

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Immediate Post Game Reaction IU vs Butler

Rapid Reactions:
In the beginning, I am not sure if it was great defense or extremely sloppy play by both teams. The game turned into a great defensive effort on Indiana’s part in the second half. I was very proud of how Indiana turned up the intensity in the second half.

Statsheet Stuffers:
One of my favorite players from last year, Will Sheehey, came to play tonight. Sheehey and Zeller’s play turned this game from a nail-bitter into a blow out. Hulls showed great leadership and Oladipo continued to show his unbelievable athletic ability.

Not so Great...
Watford and Jones III. What in the world were they doing? They both forgot that this isn't the 2010-2011 season. They didn't pass the ball, they forced shots, and they seemed to pretend as if they were the only players on the court. If I was Coach Crean, I would have sat them down and explained how to play like a team. If they cannot play as a team, they will be sitting the bench.

Overall it was another great win for the Hoosiers. Be sure to check back soon for the +/- Player Analysis. IU will travel to NC State for their next game! Go Hoosiers!

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The Top Five Things I'm Thankful For...

In the time honored, Turkey Day tradition of eating way too much and slipping into an alcohol/tryptophan induced coma while boring ass football games go unnoticed on the television, I'd like to give thanks to my Hoosiers.

Now that I've had five games to process my initial thoughts of the Hoosiers 2011-2012 campaign, which is ironically the same amount of minutes it takes my stomach to process Grandma's pumpkin pie, I've decided to compile a list of the top five things I am thankful for so far in this young season.

Let's take a look at the list.

#1. Cody Zeller - I'm trying to contain my excitement. I didn't want the baby faced freshman from the basketball filled blood line to be solely responsible for the resurgence of IU basketball. Before I referred to him as our Cream and Crimson savior I wanted to see him against some of the talent the Big Ten has to offer. Well dammit, I can't help it. The kid has been an absolute beast. Guard him straight up and he'll punish you in the post. Double team him and he'll find the open man for a wide open look. Foul him and he sinks his free throws. Pick your poison, he's relentless. Did I mention he leads this team in four out of five major statistical categories? (points, rebounds, blocks and steals)

#2. Sheeladipo - How fun are Will Sheehey and Victor Oladipo to watch? Sure, they may be a little flashy. They may not embody that traditional, old school approach some of the ol' Hoosiers faithful have become accustomed to, but unless you drink warm buttermilk while watching reruns of Matlock, who cares? They ignite their teammates. They ignite the crowd. Anybody catch the O-LA-DI-PO chant during the Gardner Webb game? Their energy is infectious. Hell, three years ago the most exciting player the Hoosiers trotted out onto the floor was Tom Pritchard. Tom Pritchard couldn't jump over a Snickers bar. Sheehey and Oladipo have more hops than an Upland IPA. The amount of energy these guys bring on a nightly basis could power the Griswald's house on Christmas. Keep it up boys.

#3. Ball Movement - When this team makes the extra pass, they score, plain and simple. Whether it's Elston cutting to the bucket or Hulls spotting up for a three, when this team moves the ball they get good shots. Crean can roll out multiple lineups and give opposing defenses multiple looks but the offense is predicated on floor spacing and ball movement. Make the extra pass, find the open man, get good looks. Watford and Jones need to buy into this idea before they start see their minutes dwindle.

#4. Tom Crean - The second the phrase "It's Indiana" escaped from Tom's mouth I was sold on him. He's the only non-Indiana alumn that get's IU basketball. Much like Bob Knight's AAU connection Crean has developed quite the recruiting relation with the Indiana Elite squad. We all want the greatest talent possible for our team but let's not kid ourselves, isn't it that much sweeter when a local homegrown talent runs out of the Assembly Hall tunnel with the candy stripes on?

#5. Assembly Hall - I had a chance to attend the tilt with Gardner Webb on Monday. Sorry Champaign, Illinois, the only true Assembly Hall resides in Bloomington, Indiana. It's a 17,456 seat student section. The tradition. The history. The Movement. The Future. It gives me the chills. When I glance up into the rafters at those five championship banners I can't help but think… there's room for more.

That's all for this post Hoosier hopefulls. Jump on B-Town Banners and tell us what are you thankful for out their in Hoosier land. You can join the discussion on Twitter at @BTownBanners or with me at @GaryVengeance. I'll share some of the responses I get on the blog.

It's a pretty big weekend for IU. Saturday we're going to deny Purdue's hopes of a bowl game appearance, keep that Oaken Bucket in its rightful place, get Danny Hope fired (maybe that's not a good thing…) and Sunday we're going to down those pesky Butler Bulldogs. And there's no better way to kick off this Hoosier filled Thanksgiving weekend with Black Out Wednesday! Get out there in your Cream and Crimson gear and represent those Hoosiers! Let’s go undefeated this weekend! No losses, no arrests and no DIUs! YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!

See you next time,

Gary Vengeance

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#IUpickem Results - Gardner-Webb

Every game day we will tweet out asking for your predictions. We will have a year long competition with some sort of prize at the end (still a work in progress!) Here is how the competition will be scored:

Rules:

• Each week you will submit the winner of the game, and the score for each team
• The top 10 each week will be awarded points (1st= 10, 10th = 1).
• Scoring:
• You will only be eligible to score points if the team you selected wins
• Assuming many people will pick IU all year long, we have a detailed tie breaker.
• 1st Tiebreaker is: Closest to total points in the game
• 2nd Tiebreaker: Closest to total points for IU
• 3rd Tiebreaker: Closest to total points for Opponent
• If this continues to be a tie, you both will split the points for your position.

With that being said, here are the game results!

...and the Current Season Standings!

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Oladipo, Sheehey and Elston discuss Gardner-Webb Victory

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Immediate Post Game Reaction: IU vs. Gardner-Webb

Rapid Reactions:
I will start off by informing you that I was not able to give my full attention to the game as it was played on Monday night which happens to be the same night as my bowling league. I actually bowl in the Purdue staff league (my wife works at Purdue) with a Kentucky fan, so please don’t stop reading my post game reactions, but I did watch the game on BTN live stream without the sound.

From what I saw, IU started out fast and blitzed Gardner-Webb from the start. Our offense was clicking and the defense started off locking down all of their shooters. One thing I noticed was Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo picked up where they left off at in the Savannah State game. Both players showed some tenacity and hustle out there tonight.

Also, Verdell Jones III looked like the Verdell Jones III of last year, inconsistent! I am sorry for this short and non-informative reaction, but IU kicked some butt and I bowled a 210.

Next game: November 27 vs. Butler

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GM 5: +/- Player Analysis (Gardner-Webb)

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! IU took on the Gardner-Webb this evening and chalked up their 5th 20+ point victory of the year. IU won in convincing fashion 73-49.

Key Players:

• Sheehey had a stretch in the second half where he made 5 consecutive field goals for the Hoosiers. This scoring spurt helped IU expand on an already large lead. Sheehey finished with 15 points.
• Elston has been a great surprise for the Hoosiers this year. Elston's jumper remains wet and he finished with 10pts and 9 reb.
• Oladipo showed some spirit tonight as he helped IU open the second half by wrecking havoc on the opposition in the 2nd half. Oladipo was a maniac on defense and set the tone for the Hoosiers.

With that being said, let's jump into the +/- Player Analysis

+/- Player Analysis vs Evansville
*Just in case you forgot, here is a quick breakdown as to what the +/- Player Analysis is looking at.
Example: Here is a quick example of how the +/- stat is determined. Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey start the game for IU. Therefore the score is 0-0. Coach Crean makes his first substitution at 15:00 with the score IU up 15-10. Oladipo comes into the game for Sheehey. For this stint in time, Sheehey would earn a +5 (while Sheehey was in, IU increased their lead by 5 points). The Lineup of Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey also earned a +5. This will continue throughout the game.

Game Overall



Key Takeaways:

• Moore, Elston and VJ3 were 1,2 and 3 for the game. All three players have stepped their game up and the Hoosiers clearly benefit from their presence on the floor.
• This is the first game where Zeller wasn't near the top 3. Zeller was quite for more of the game as Sheeladipo took this game over. Zeller still played extremely well and Hoosier fans love the fact that he will dive on the floor for lose balls. Zeller was one reb short of a double double.
• All the significant minute players were in the Green again tonight. A trend that will continue to happen as IU keeps winning.
  
• I cannot stress this enough, anything in the GREEN, means the player had a positive impact on the game and helped IU get to their blowout win.
  

Lineups of the Night:


Key Takeaways: (click to enlarge)

• Here you can see the game flow throughout the night. The chart reads from the beginning of the game to the end from top to bottom.
• Overall, Coach Crean used 23 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 23 combinations, 10 were positive, 6 were neutral (0) and the remaining 7 were negative.
• Only 1 unit played multiple times these evening and they ended with a +/- of Zero. (VJ3, Oladipo, Roth, Watford and Zeller
  

Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+11) belongs to Sheehey and Oladipo.... (Hulls, Watford and Zeller were on the floor as well). The Super Sophs took over in this lineup. Led by Oladipo's defense and Sheehey's 5 straight FGs, this unit increased a 40-25 lead with 15:47 to go into a 55-29 lead with 10:05 to go. This unit played lights out and raised the decibels in Assembly Hall.

Worst Lineup of the Night:
There really wasn't a worst lineup of the night tonight. The worst lineup ended up -4 and closed the game out. They played the final minute and didn't score. No need to look further into this.

Season to Date:

As many people like to point out, looking at the +/- for one specific game is not entirely telling. Tracking this over the course of the year, will give a much clearer picture as to what each player brings to the team. Below is the updated season to date +/- for each player.

• Quick reminder - the far right column shows the difference in Overall +/- from last game to this game. In short, it shows how this game affected their season to date +/-.
  
• 6 Hoosiers improved their season averages during this game. Moore and Elston raised their totals the most.
  
• Remy Abell is the only Hoosier who has seen 35+ minutes who is negative. It's important to note that Abell is still a freshman and will need some time to adjust to the college game. Etherington does not have that much better of a +/- for the year. Rule of thumb, don't focus much on freshman early on. The majority of the time they get in the game is when IU is already winning by a bunch.
  
• Like I mentioned last game, Zeller continuing his +1.00 pt/min is impossible. He regressed some here ,but that could be more to his minutes than anything else.
  

Lineup Combinations
Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used through the three regular season games:

• Coach has used 102 different lineups this year.
• Of those 102, only 27 are negative year to date.
• Best lineup is +35 (only unit to play in all five games, been on the floor together a high 10 times) (Crean's favorite unit of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• Worst lineup is -6. (Consists of Oladipo, Sheehey, Moore, Abell, Elston)
  
• 13 lineups have been used multiple times this year.

Lineup Creator!
I just figured out a way to post this and I figured many people would enjoy this feature. What you can do is go to this link, and it will open an Excel file for you. Using the filters already on the page, you can filter the lineups for the year to see how all the different combinations of players play together. For instance, if you wanted to see how the team does when Oladipo and Sheehey are in the game together, filter both their columns. This will return all lineups for the year that Oladipo and Sheehey have been on the floor together!

+/- Lineup Generator

Overall
IU came out and took care of business. They did what was needed to get the big win. The Hoosiers now have a few days to rest up before Butler comes to town. While I like to say that this isn't your Hoosiers of the past few years... this DEFINITELY isn't the Butler Bulldogs of the last two years. Butler has struggled early this season and if IU doesn't put them away handily, it will be a win for Butler. IU needs to stay focused and get ready to take the state back. Starting Sunday...

Also make sure you follow us on Twitter to be a part of our #IUpickem Challenge!

+/- Analysis for All 2011-2012 Games

Follow Us on TWITTER!

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#IUpickem Results - Savannah State

Every game day we will tweet out asking for your predictions. We will have a year long competition with some sort of prize at the end (still a work in progress!) Here is how the competition will be scored:

Rules:

• Each week you will submit the winner of the game, and the score for each team
• The top 10 each week will be awarded points (1st= 10, 10th = 1).
• Scoring:
• You will only be eligible to score points if the team you selected wins
• Assuming many people will pick IU all year long, we have a detailed tie breaker.
• 1st Tiebreaker is: Closest to total points in the game
• 2nd Tiebreaker: Closest to total points for IU
• 3rd Tiebreaker: Closest to total points for Opponent
• If this continues to be a tie, you both will split the points for your position.

With that being said, here are the game results!

...and the Current Season Standings!

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Gm 4: +/- Player Analysis - Savannah St.

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! IU took on the Tigers of Savannah State on Saturday evening and continued to show why this Hoosier squad is NOT your Hoosiers of the last three years. IU came out and established Big Ten Freshman of the Year Cody Zeller (I realize it hasn't been announced yet... but come on...) and the offense took off through him.

Key Players:

• Cody Zeller - He came out early and dominated Savannah St. The Hoosiers kept feeding Zeller the ball, and he just kept scoring. If you want to know how good Zeller is, think about this second half play: Zeller was on the baseline on defense, went up to contest a shot, Oladipo got the rebound, Zeller beat EVERYONE down the court for an easy layup. Yes, that is your 7 footer out running the team d
  own the court for an easy lay in. Future Freshman of the Year for the B1G and maybe Nation.
  

With that being said, let's jump into the +/- Player Analysis

+/- Player Analysis vs Evansville
*Just in case you forgot, here is a quick breakdown as to what the +/- Player Analysis is looking at.
Example: Here is a quick example of how the +/- stat is determined. Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey start the game for IU. Therefore the score is 0-0. Coach Crean makes his first substitution at 15:00 with the score IU up 15-10. Oladipo comes into the game for Sheehey. For this stint in time, Sheehey would earn a +5 (while Sheehey was in, IU increased their lead by 5 points). The Lineup of Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey also earned a +5. This will continue throughout the game.

Game Overall


Key Takeaways:

• It is pretty impressive the our top 6 (rounding up Hulls) were all over 1 pt/min. That is pretty incredible. When you see that you will see a significant victory.
• Zeller - Are you catching a theme about how good this kid is? Well he led the Hoosier again for +/- on Saturday Night.
• Moore - The love/hate fans for Moore will get to argue again! Moore again showed his value for the Hoosiers recording a solid +13 for his 11 minutes of game time.
• I cannot stress this enough, anything in the GREEN, means the player had a positive impact on the game and helped IU get to their blowout win.
  

Lineups of the Night:



Key Takeaways: (click to enlarge)

• Here you can see the game flow throughout the night. The chart reads from the beginning of the game to the end from top to bottom.
• Overall, Coach Crean used 26 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 26 combinations, 15 were positive, 4 were neutral (0) and the remaining 7 were negative.
• 3 units played multiple times these evening (2 each).
  
• Coach Crean ensured through his subbing, that there were not two straight lineups that gave up points. (were negative)
  

Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+8) belongs to Moore, VJIII, Sheehey, Watford and Zeller. This unit came in at the 7:43 mark in the second half with IU winning 71-47. They played until the 4:16 mark and left with IU winning 88-56.

Worst Lineup of the Night:
The worst lineup of the night came in right before the Best Lineup of the Night. The lineup of Watford, Sheehey, VJ3, Roth and Zeller were -5 in the short span from 8:37 to 7:43. At this point, Crean decided to make a move and brought Moore in for Roth which sparked a +8 stint.

Season to Date:

As many people like to point out, looking at the +/- for one specific game is not entirely telling. Tracking this over the course of the year, will give a much clearer picture as to what each player brings to the team. Below is the updated season to date +/- for each player.
The stats below are only related to Stony Brook, Chattanooga and Evansville.

• Quick reminder - the far right column shows the difference in Overall +/- from last game to this game. In short, it shows how this game affected their season to date +/-.
  
• 8 Hoosiers improved their season averages during this game. This would be expected based on the blow out nature of the game.
  
• The biggest significant drop of the night belongs to Matt Roth. After leading the +/- last week (limited minutes), he fell significantly due to the -11 he recorded for Savannah State.
  
• Zeller is closing in on Moore as the overall leader for the Hoosiers. I wouldn't be surprised to see if Moore can hold on to the title though, due to his limited minutes. Moore will need to continue a +11 for his 11 minutes of game time while Zeller would have to continue +30. One of which is more likely.
  

Lineup Combinations
Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used through the three regular season games:

• Coach has used 83 different lineups this year.
• Of those 83, only 21 are negative year to date.
• Best lineup is +28 (only unit to play in all four games, been on the floor together a high 9 times) (Crean's favorite unit of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• Worst lineup is -6. (Consists of Oladipo, Sheehey, Moore, Abell, Elston)
  
• 11 lineups have been used multiple times this year.
• Cody Zeller is now present in the top 10 lineups for +/- this year. The next highest presence is Watford (8 of 10).
  

Overall
This was the coming out party for Cody Zeller. Another fun stat which I should start tracking, is Technical and Flagrant fouls which Zeller was a part of. So far we have 3 Flagrants and one Technical. Good job Cody!

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Gm 3: +/- Player Analysis - Evansville

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! IU took on the Purple Aces of Evansville on Wednesday evening and put the game out of reach within the first 15 minutes of the game. I've said this in prior games write-ups, but I'll say it again... This isn't the same old team as they won convincingly 94-73.

Key Players:

• Watford - rebounded nicely from a couple of dismle games. Showed alot of heart.
  
• Zeller - I feel like I could say the same great stuff every night. He commanded the low post to start the game. IU looked to feed him early and often. This resulted in a huge lead for the Hoosiers.... A Zelleresque performance
• Hulls - 5/7 from the floor for 14pts
• VJIII - 17pts, 4/4 3pt, 5 reb, 7 ast, 2 blk, 2 TO. The guy was an animal. One of his best performances.

With that being said, let's jump into the +/- Player Analysis

+/- Player Analysis vs Evansville
*Just in case you forgot, here is a quick breakdown as to what the +/- Player Analysis is looking at.
Example: Here is a quick example of how the +/- stat is determined. Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey start the game for IU. Therefore the score is 0-0. Coach Crean makes his first substitution at 15:00 with the score IU up 15-10. Oladipo comes into the game for Sheehey. For this stint in time, Sheehey would earn a +5 (while Sheehey was in, IU increased their lead by 5 points). The Lineup of Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey also earned a +5. This will continue throughout the game.

Game Overall

Key Takeaways:

• Remy Abell - I know this will be a hot topic for Hoosier fans as many fans are frustrated with Abell's play. I have to say once I finished crunching the numbers for this game, I had to go back and double/triple check Abell's +/-. I realized while watching the game that he was struggling, but I never would have imagined he would have ended up -16 in 7 minutes for a team that was up by 33 at one point. That is troubling.
  
• Christian Watford again is right at the top of the list for the second game in a row. Watford really came out and played his game tonight. We can see by the stats above that he had a great impact on IU while in the game.
  
• Cody Zeller -Another top 3 finish for Cody. The trend continues...
  
• Matt Roth - Roth led the team in +/- tonight due to a strong stint in the final 10 minutes of the first half. Roth was a part of the unit that went on a 11-0 run. A 3pt specialist like Roth is always interesting in these anlysis. Generally speaking, he won't get many minutes each game, but can result in getting a very high +/- due to his abililty to shoot the long ball. When Roth is in, we see some plays set up to get him shots. If he hits these shots, he will produce a very high +/- like he did this evening.
  
• I cannot stress this enough, anything in the GREEN, means the player had a positive impact on the game and helped IU get to their 25pt win.

Lineups of the Night:


Key Takeaways: (click to enlarge)

• Here you can see the game flow throughout the night. The chart reads from the beginning of the game to the end from top to bottom.
• In the first two games of the year, IU started out very slow. That was definitely not the case here as 12 of their first 14 lineups were even or positive.
  
• Overall, Coach Crean used 24 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 24 combinations, 11 were positive, 6 were neutral (0) and the remaining 7 were negative.
• Only one unit played multiple times these evening (2). They shared the Best Lineup of the Night award.
• Remy Abell, was on 6 of the 7 negative lineups for the game.
  

Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+11) was a tie between Crean's favorite unit of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller and VJ3, Roth, Sheehey, Watford and Zeller. Crean's favorite unit was the only unit used multiple times again this game. Coach Crean named this group the Starters of the game. They earned a +8 for their first 8.5 minutes in the game. They also started the second half and went +3 in 4 minutes.

The group of VJ3, Roth, Sheehey, Watford and Zeller played one stint tonight that ended +11. This group started their stint at the 7:37 mark in the 1st half with IU leading 31-23. IU exploded over the next 1:53 as IU went on a 11-0 run. The run consisted of 2 Zeller layups, Roth and Watford 3's and a Zeller free throw. This group left at the 5:30 mark with IU leading 42-23.

Worst Lineup of the Night:
The worst lineup of the night came at the end of the game with IU leading 86-59. Obviously at this point of the game, the game was all but wrapped up. This group featured Moore (our previous season leader for +/-, Sheeladipo, Abell and Elston. The group ended their 1 min stint without scoring points while allowing 6. Again this wasn't a big deal as IU had this game soundly put away.

Season to Date:

As many people like to point out, looking at the +/- for one specific game is not entirely telling. Tracking this over the course of the year, will give a much clearer picture as to what each player brings to the team. Below is the updated season to date +/- for each player.
The stats below are only related to Stony Brook, Chattanooga and Evansville.

• I have added another column to the season long stat which shows the change from the previous game. This is the cumulative +/- for the season so you can see how the Pts/Min was affected based on the Evansville game.
• I think the most important takeaway from this chart is seeing 4 out of the top 6 positions belonging to our starters. Crean has shown a lean towards one lineup so far this year, and if they can continue to produce like they have been, it will be a great year.
  
• The biggest significant drop of the night belongs to Remy Abell. His -16 +/- on the night dropped his season to a -11 and his overall +/- dropped .72 pts/min.
• Roth being a part of that 11-0 run benefited the most and improved his specialist +/- for the year. He has now surpassed Daniel Moore (dropped 0.49) as the top player for +/-.

Lineup Combinations
Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used through the three regular season games:

• Coach has used 65 different lineups this year.
• Of those 65, only 16 are negative year to date.
• Best lineup is +21 (only unit to play in all three games) (Crean's favorite unit of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• Worst lineup is -6. (mentioned above)
  
• 7 lineups have been used multiple times this year.
• Hulls, Oladipo, Watford, VJ3 and Zeller have been on the court together 7 separate times this year are statistically the best Lineup for IU right now.
• Cody Zeller is now present in the top 9 lineups for +/- this year. The next highest presence is Watford (7 of 6).
  

Overall
IU put on a show in Evansville tonight. They came out from the get go and showed they were stronger, more athletic, quicker and finally an all around better team. If IU has postseason hopes, they will need to continue this type of play on the road. Check back to the site for a preview of the IU vs Savannah State on the 19th.
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