Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your
2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! To be considered a good basketball team, you must be able to win the ugly games. This would qualify as an ugly game. Indiana started the game off shooting 0-6 from the field while allowing ND's Alex Dragicevich to start 3-3 behind the arc. IU finally started to settle into their game, and put Notre Dame away.
Key Players:
- Cody Zeller - The Hoosiers went to Cody early and often. Without Cody in this game, The Hoosiers probably would not have kept the game close enough to make a comeback and win. It was nice to see IU feed Cody the ball as much as they did this game.
- Derek Elston - Elston had a beautiful arching pass from 40 feet with 6 seconds left in the 1st half that bounced nicely off the backboard and rim into Remy Abell's hands who completed the assist with the buzzer beater jumper. That's not exactly what happened, but it was nice to see Derek still have the explosion he has had earlier this year. Many fans were concerned when he did not play against Kentucky that he was injured again and wouldn't come back the same.
- Will Sheehey - This might surprise you to see Will in the Key players for the game. While he did shoot 1-7 from the field, he grabbed 9 rebounds (4 offensive) which led to IU's 17 second chance points. Will did a great job on the defensive end for the Hoosiers this game and that is reflected by his +/- for the game.
+/- Player Analysis vs Stetson
*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:
- The first lineup of the game (Hulls, Jones, Oladipo, Watford, Zeller) started the game with a -7 from a +/- perspective in the first 6 minutes of the game. This means, over the final 34 minutes of the game, Cody Zeller went +23, Hulls +15, Watford and Jones +11, and Oladipo +7
- Cody Zeller - In Cody's 27 minutes, he accumulated a +16. Cody was outstanding in every facet of this game. The true test for the Hoosiers will be when Cody gets in foul trouble.
- Derek Elston - Elston came back with a solid contribution of +!0 in his limited 11 minutes. Elston came in and provided some energy for the team which is reflected in this statistic.
- Christian Watford and Verdell Jones - Both did not have their best games, as reflected above. Watford couldn't seem to find his game from last Saturday going 2-9 FG as Verdell went 1-5 FG.
- It's interesting to see Victor Oladipo as even from a +/- perspective. Normally VO scores relatively high in this measure. His low minutes due to foul trouble could play a primary role in this.
- 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:
- 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.
- It is important to note, at the end of the game starting in lineup 255, Coach Crean when Offense/Defense with Zeller and Sheehey. This would increase Zeller's +/- and decrease Sheehey's +/- for the game.
- Overall, Coach Crean used 19 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 19 combinations, 9 were positive, 5 were neutral (0) and the remaining 5 were negative.
- Of all the stints in this game (33), there were 16 positive, 8 neutral and 9 negative.
- Five units played multiple times tonight.
The best lineup of the night (+5) belongs to Hulls, Sheehey, VJIII, Elston and Zeller. This group played together 4 times tonight going +4, 0, -1, +2. They did their damage at the 12:13 minute mark of the first half where they went +4 in 2 minute 30 seconds. They entered with IU trailing 8-15 and left with IU trailing 12-15.
Worst Lineup of the Night:
When you have a lineup that starts the game at -7, you would expect them to be the worst lineup of the game. That definitely was the worst STINT, but not the worst lineup. The starting group of Hulls, VJIII, Oladipo, Watford and Zeller bounced back from their -7 start to go Even (0) for the game.
The worst lineup of the night (-4) consisted of VJIII, Oladipo, Sheehey, Elston and Pritchard. This lineup going the worst should not surprise anyone as this doesn't appear on paper to be a solid lineup. This lineup came in during the second half with IU winning 48-35 with 9:27 remaining in the game. They didn't last long, only playing 85 seconds and going -4. Coach Crean quickly subbed Zeller and Hulls back into the game.
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.
- Tom Pritchard is moving closer back to even for the year after his -4 against Notre Dame.
- Cody Zeller continues to impress in this stat as he is +210 for the year. The next closest to him in points is Hulls with +164.
- Daniel Moore played for 1 minutes this week and went +2 so his Pts/Min increased again.
Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used through the three regular season games:
- Coach has used 138 different lineups this year.
- Of those 138, only 42 are negative year to date. (Increased by 1 this game)
- Best lineup is +45 (went Even (0) vs Notre Dame; Crean's favorite unit (31 times) of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
- 2nd Best Lineup is +22 (DNP vs Notre Dame: Consists of Hulls, Oladipo, Sheehey, Watford and Zeller)
- Worst lineup is -6. (Consists of Hulls, Watford, VJIII, Sheehey and Pritchard)
- 37 lineups have been used multiple times this year.
- The top 4 used lineups contain these players: Hulls, Oladipo, Sheehey, Jones, Watford and Zeller. Only Hulls and Zeller are in all 4 lineups together.
Here is your chance to play Coach Crean!
What you can do is go to this link, "+/- Lineup Generator" 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!
Overall
IU came out and did something they had to do... Beat a team they should beat. This was another great step for this ball club as they continue to improve. There were many questions going into this game on how IU would fare, it appears those questions were answered Saturday afternoon. Look for IU to improve their rankings in the next weeks leading up to the big showdown in Bloomington vs top 5 team Ohio State.
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