Gm 13: +/- Player Analysis - Michigan State

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! This was a tough loss for the Hoosiers.  IU had stretches of dominant play mixed in with stretches of horrendous play.  How IU bounces back will be a very interesting question that will be answered on Saturday in Bloomington.

Key Players:

• Christian Watford - Watford came up huge for the Hoosiers again tonight.  Watford scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as he passed the 1000 point scoring mark for Indiana.
• Will Sheehey - This game was built for Sheehey.  I can see Sheehey playing a major role in the IU vs MSU game at Assembly Hall later in the year.
• Jordan Hulls - Hulls had one of his worst games as a Hoosier. His shots weren't falling (2-10 FG), he turned the ball over (4 TO) and he couldn't seem to get the offense moving.

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

+/- 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:

• Being the first loss of the year, it is expected for Indiana's players to be in the red.
• Pritchard and Roth were the only Hoosier players in the green.  Their positive numbers were helped during their stint in the first half with 6:29 remaining with the Hoosiers trailing 14-28.  Led behind two Roth 3's, IU was able to cut the deficit to 7 points at the half.  The lineup of Hulls, Watford, Oladipo, Roth and Pritchard went +7 for this 6 minute stretch.
• Jordan Hulls is an interesting story tonight.  Hulls played all but 5 minutes of the game.  While Hulls struggled and couldn't find his game all night, he didn't hurt the Hoosiers as bad as you might think.  In fact, during the 5 minutes of the game when Hulls was out, IU was outscored by 14 points.
• Remy Abell recorded the worst Pts/Min of the season going -10 in 2 minutes of game time.  Remy was a part of a two minute stretch in the first half where Michigan State increased their lead from 21-14 to 28-14.
• I cannot stress this enough, anything in the GREEN, means the player had a positive impact on the game and helped IU's chances of victory.

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.
• Overall, Coach Crean used 14 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 14 combinations, 4 were positive, 2 were neutral (0) and the remaining 8 were negative.
• Of all the stints in this game (19), there were 6 positive, 3 neutral and 10 negative.
• 3 units played multiple times tonight.

Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+7) belongs to Hulls, Roth, Oladipo, Watford and Pritchard. This group played together once tonight in the first half.  With 6:29 remaining and IU trailing 14-28, Coach Crean subbed in Hulls, Oladipo, Pritchard and Roth for VJIII, Abell, Elston and Zeller (who just went -7). This group went on a tremendous 11-0 run before losing some steam at the end of the half.  

Worst Lineup of the Night:
The worst lineup of the night (-7) belongs to Abell, VJIII, Watford, Elston and Zeller.  This unit played immediately before the best lineup of the night.  The group entered the game at 8:41 remaining in the 1st half with IU trailing 14-21.  This group was replaced with the exception of Watford at the 6:29 mark after giving up 7 unanswered points.

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.

• All players decreased their season averages including Roth and Pritchard (who went positive)
• Cody is still the top guy in the season to date.
• Austin Etherington improved his numbers considerably during the UMBC

Lineup Combinations Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used throughout the season:

• Coach has used 178 different lineups this year.
• Of those 178, only 53 are negative year to date. (Increased 11)
• Best lineup is +71 (went -4 vs Mich St; Crean's favorite unit (31 times) of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• 2nd Best Lineup is +25 (went Even vs Mich St; New Lineup of Hulls, VJIII, Oladipo, Elston and Zeller who went +7 vs Howard)
• New worst lineup is -7. (Consists of Abell, VJIII, Watford, Elston and Zeller.)
• 49 (Increase of 7 this game) 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, "+/- 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
This was one of the craziest seesaw basketball games you will ever witness.  I'm not sure if there was ever a point in the game where IU and MSU exchanged buckets on continuous possessions.  It seemed one team was always on a 10-0, 13-0 or even 20-0 run.  IU showed great poise in the first half to come back from an 18 point deficit.  To start the second half they took an 8 point lead, which most Hoosiers fans figured would spark the Hoosiers to their 13th win of the season.  Michigan State had different plans as they came back on a 20-0 run to put IU out of the game.  The Hoosiers have a lot of questions to answer, and there isn't much time for them to find these answers as #2 Ohio State comes to Bloomington on Saturday.


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Gm 12: +/- Player Analysis - UMBC Edition

This will be a short one as the holidays are approaching and IU completely destroyed UMBC.

Stats for the Game:
Stats for the Season: Lineups used in the game:

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Gm 11: +/- Player Analysis - Howard Edition

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! There isn't really much to say about this game as it was a complete domination from start to finish. Howard didn't stand a chance from the start. Check out Coach Crean and the player's thoughts of the blowout.

Key Players:

• Indiana's entire team. Did anyone play bad?
• Special shout out to Remy Abell who played his best game of the year.

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

+/- 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:

• As you can see, anyone who played significant minutes is extremely high in the green.
• 10 players were +1.0 pts/min.
• Oladipo (Check His Dunk Session) and Zeller were +50 and +48 respectively which is the highest I've ever seen in this statistic.
• Remy Abell - Abell had a great game tonight. This is represented in his +/- for the game. Remy will continue to see more minutes as the competition increases.
• 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.
• Overall, Coach Crean used 26 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 26 combinations, 16 were positive, 5 were neutral (0) and the remaining 5 were negative.
• Of all the stints in this game (28), there were 18 positive, 5 neutral and 5 negative.
• Only 1 unit played multiple times tonight. (Hulls, Jones, Oladipo, Watford, Zeller)

Best Lineup of the Night: The best lineup of the night (+16) belongs to Hulls, Jones, Oladipo, Watford and Zeller. This group played together 3 times tonight going +7, +3, +6. This group was the only group to play multiple times tonight so it makes sense that they received the highest plus/minus.

Worst Lineup of the Night:
Overall, there were 5 lineups that went negative. On a night like tonight, there really isn't any reason to point out which lineups went negative. If you must know, look above at the chart for Red to see which lineups went negative.

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.

• Cody Zeller took over the top spot with his +48 tonight.
• All players improved with the exception of Moore who went negative on the night.

Lineup Combinations Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used throughout the season:

• Coach has used 152 different lineups this year.
• Of those 152, only 42 are negative year to date. (Did not change this game)
• Best lineup is +61 (went +16 vs Howard; Crean's favorite unit (31 times) of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• 2nd Best Lineup is +25 (New Lineup of Hulls, VJIII, Oladipo, Elston and Zeller who went +7 vs Howard)
• Worst lineup is -6. (Consists of Hulls, Watford, VJIII, Sheehey and Pritchard)
• 42 (Increase of 5 this game) 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, "+/- 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 looked incredibly focused tonight for a game that could have easily been an oversight. IU came out and established their game plan and executed at the highest degree. Howard was the worst team IU played so far this year, and it showed on the court. Holding an opponent to 15 points in a half is remarkable. IF IU can continue this type of play, it will be a good year to be an Indiana fan.

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Gm 10: +/- Player Analysis - Notre Dame

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.

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

+/- 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.

Best Lineup of the Night:
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.

Lineup Combinations
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.

Lineup Creator!
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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Gm 9: +/- Player Analysis - Kentucky Edition

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! It's going to be hard to say anything about this game that Hoosier fans don't already know.  IU basketball is officially back to the National Stage!  I have re watched the game twice now and have picked up on things you don't notice during the actual flow of the game.  For instance, Christian Watford practiced his Buzzer Beater shot EXACTLY earlier in the second half.  This game was one for the ages, an Instant Classic.

Key Players:

• Christian Watford - Did he step up or what?  Watford was a man amongst boys in this game.  He scored, he completely shut down Terrence Jones (although Jones appeared to shut down himself), and Watford played Hero for the night.  This was one of Watford's best games of his IU career.  Christian came up big for IU hitting 4 of 6 from behind the arc.
• Cody Zeller - A lot can be said about Dick Vitale's comments about the Hoosiers lack of effort in feeding Zeller all night.  From listening to Vitale, IU shouldn't have won that game since we didn't feed Zeller every trip down the court.  I do however agree with Vitale, IU has struggled at times this year to get Cody the ball down low.  Our future success will depend greatly on our ability to get Cody involved on the low blocks.
• The Fans - That was deafening.  From 90 minutes before the game, to 90 minutes after the game, Assembly Hall was jumping.  If you don't think a crowd can influence a game, ask Kentucky's freshman what they thought.  This was a great crowd and hopefully we will continue to see the early arrival from all fans.

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

+/- 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:

• Close Game - This was the first single digit game the Hoosiers have been involved in.  It's interesting to see that 4 starters remained positive and the one starter in the negative was Cody Zeller.
• Cody played a game high 37 minutes so he was on both sides of the big runs.  This would be expected.  The interesting thing of note with Cody is, during the 3 minutes he was on the bench, IU outscored Kentucky by +4.
• Coach Crean didn't go very deep on his bench at all.  Only 7 players saw significant time.  Coach Crean did say in his post game press conference that Derek Elston was cleared to play medically, but he decided not to use him.  Hopefully Derek will be okay and can continue playing at the high level he was in the early season.
• 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.
• This is where the analysis gets interesting.  IU had two stints in the game (+8, +10) where they dominated the Wildcats for a short period of time.  It was really only those two stints that won them this game.  They got beat during the rest of the game.
• I'll discuss the stints in more detail below.
• Overall, Coach Crean used 13 different combinations of players in the game (the fewest amount to date).  Of his 13 combinations,  5 were positive, 2 were neutral (0) and the remaining 6 were negative.
• Of all the stints in this game (19), there were 6 positive, 4 neutral and 9 negative.
• Only two units played multiple times tonight.

Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+5) belongs to Hulls, Oladipo, Sheehey, VJIII, and Zeller. They only played together once Saturday night. They did their damage at the 8:13 minute mark of the first half where they went +5 in 1 minute 30 seconds. This was actually the 8th time all year Crean has used this lineup.  Only 3 other lineups are used more often.

Worst Lineup of the Night:
The worst lineup of the night (-4) consisted of Hulls, Sheehey, Jones, Pritchard and Zeller.  This lineup played in the first half immediately before the Best Lineup of the Night came in.  This game was back and forth, and judging from the chart above, there were plenty of groups who had some negative splits.

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 a close game like this, there isn't going to be many huge misses.  This game was extremely close and you can see that from the plus/minus data.  
• Every player in this games' Pts/Min decreased, which is expect able.

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

• Coach has used 131 different lineups this year.
• Of those 131, only 41 are negative year to date. (Increased by 3 this game)
• Best lineup is +45 (went -1 vs Kentucky;Crean's favorite unit (19 times) of Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Watford, Zeller)
• 2nd Best Lineup is +22 (went -2 vs Kentucky: Consists of Hulls, Oladipo, Sheehey, Watford and Zeller)
• Worst lineup is -6. (Consists of Hulls, Watford, VJIII, Sheehey and Pritchard)
• 34 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.

Lineup Creator!
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
What an outstanding game this was.  I apologize for getting the +/- Player Analysis out late, but Kirkwood was calling my name Saturday night.  The hall was rocking, IU is back into the top 25, and Kentucky went home a loser.... What a great night!

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Gm 8: +/- Player Analysis - Stetson Edition

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! This was a story of two halves today in Assembly Hall.  IU came out into the game lethargic and nonchalant which allowed the Hatters of Stetson to hang close at the half.  Coach Crean did some lineup adjustments at the half; only returning 2 starters, to start the second half.  This was only the second time this year Coach has opted to start the second half with a different lineup than he did in the first half.  The insertion of Daniel Moore, Will Sheehey and Derek Elston proved to do the trick as the Hoosiers ended with a 84-50 victory.

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Gm 7: +/- Player Analysis - NC State Edition

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! WOW!!!! I don't know about you, but I still have a giant grin on my face. This is the best feeling I've had relating to ANY IU Athletic in the past 4 years. I'm not going to overstate the importance of this game, or declare us a Top 25 team, but I will say this team showed courage on Wednesday night. This team didn't hang their heads when things started going wrong (included "Goal tending" calls!). They stayed focused and came back. This squad is unlike the last three years... they just turned a 7 point deficit with 7:38 to go in the game into an 11 point "We Just Did That" win. That is growth and maturity folks.

Key Players:

• Christian Watford - You might say that Hulls or Zeller should get top billing, and maybe you are right. But I'm giving it to Watford. Watford has been a major talking point all year amongst Hoosier fans as he has struggled to find his new role on this team. I'm not going to declare that he found it, but I will say he played a very solid game for us with 16 pts & 9 rebs. He even had himself a Blk!
• Jordan Hulls - Hulls will continue to lead this team in minutes. IU plays so well with him in the game. Hulls showed up in a big way scoring a season high 20 points. The three pointer he hit late in the second half could be one of his biggest shots as a Hoosier.
• Cody Zeller - Cody, Cody, Cody. He's all he was talked up to be and more. It's still early in the season, but if Zeller can continue to play at this level, Chad Forde won't be crazy for listing him as the #19 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. That being said, I don't think it makes any point including him in those projections until 2014 or 2015 (we hope...)

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

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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!

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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...

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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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+/- Analysis for All 2011-2012 Games

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