READY FOR PRIME TIME?

[PointGuard]

Feb. 2: Baylor Bears (10-9, 3-4, 9th place tie) @ Indiana Hoosiers (13-6, 6-1, 1st place)

Marcus Wright: With my broken arm, I’m totally out of commission as far as playing or practicing and am not likely to get back into games for another 3 weeks or so. So that sucks. Rather than just have me uninvolved with the team, the coaches have got me working with the interior players in practice, providing them with feedback, tips and encouragement and running drills and mini-scrimmages. The coaches have also had me participating in some of their strategy sessions. So unlike last season when I was at Boston College, I’m very pleased with the coaches here and getting along with my teammates much better than I did last year. Here’s how this game went: The Bears offense centered around 3 players. Our goal was to keep thying timeose 3 from scoring much. Our defensive plan was implemented to near perfection. We made 2 of those 3 guys totally unproductive and the 3rd just moderately productive. Baylor was unable to find anyone to pick up the scoring those guys had been providing in the Bears earlier games. In the first half, although we weren’t hitting shots as well as we usually do, we still finished the half ahead 34-24. Our D continued to shut down the Bears in the 2nd half while our offense got in gear and we blew Baylor away 85-46. By the end of the game our FG shooting had improved so much that we knocked down 54% of our shots for the entire game. C Kirk Reeve—14 pts, 3 reb; SF Chris Broussard—13 pts, 2 blk; PF Lonnie Morrison—13 pts, 6 reb; PF Robert Bowie—10 pts, 4 reb; SF Martin Towers—7 pts, 4 ast, 3 stl. [14-6, 7-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Mike McMillan, co-head coach

At the half-way point of the Conference E season, we are now 1 game ahead of 2nd place Georgia Tech. Wisconsin, which was ranked #11 in the polls when the week began, lost both games this week and therefore dropped into a 5-way tie for 3rd place, 2 games behind us. We’re continuing to play an extremely deep bench, giving extensive playing time to all 13 scholarship players. We’ve now significantly increased PG Terrell Anderson’s playing time in hopes that it will improve his relationship with his teammates and the entire coaching staff. He has tremendous potential so we’d like to keep him from transferring. PG Brian Mosley came down with some food poisoning, but should be feeling well for our next game.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 6: Indiana Hoosiers (14-6, 7-1, 1st place) @ UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (7-12, 2-6, 13th place tie)

Ramon Montez: Try as we might, we were completely unable to break away from the Gauchos throughout the entire 1st half. And after a number of lead changes, we trailed UC Santa Barbara 29-28 at halftime. We shot OK, but made far too many turnovers. The game remained extremely close with more lead changes for the first 12 minutes of the 2nd half, but then we outscored the Gauchos 30-15 over the next 8 minutes to gain a double digit lead and held on to score a 75-68 victory. While not impressive, it was a road game and we hit 60% of our FG’s but got beat on the boards (-5). As an experiment, we started Terrell Anderson at PG. He scored just 3 points but had 5 assists in his 18 minutes on the court. We’ll bring Jonte Edwards back into the starting lineup in our next game. PF Brian Valdez—15 pts; PG Calvin Heard—14 pts; PF Robert Bowie—11 pts, 4 reb; PF Lonnie Morrison—9 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast. [15-6, 8-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Feb. 9: Marshall Thundering Herd (7-13, 3-6, 12th place tie) @ Indiana Hoosiers (15-6, 8-1, 1st place)

Mike McMillan: We ran the Thundering Herd right out of the gym. By halftime we were up 41-28 and then we simply ran away from Marshall in the 2nd half to drub them 88-55. PF Lonnie Morrison—14 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; C Kirk Reeves—13 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast; PF Brian Valdez—12 pts, 6 reb, 4 blk; SF Martin Towers—9 pts, 5 reb; SF Chris Broussard—8 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast. INJURY: Walkon SG Joe Alexander is experiencing back pains and the doctors have said he should rest his back for a week or so. [16-6, 9-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Feb. 13: Indiana Hoosiers (16-6, 9-1, 1st place) @ Utah State Aggies (7-14, 2-8, 16th place)

Terry Morillo: Pretty much a walk in the park for us. We held a small lead throughout much of the first half but pulled away to lead 49-37 at halftime. Out lead widened to 22 points midway through the 2nd half and we took it by a score of 79-66 after playing out entire bench. SF Chris Broussard—19 pts, 4 ast, 2 stl; PF Brian Valdez—15 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl; PG Jonte Edwards—9 pts, 4 ast; C Kirk Reeves—8 pts, 4 reb; PF Robert Bowie—8 pts. [17-6, 10-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Feb. 16: Indiana Hoosier (17-6, 10-1, 1st place) @ Marquette Golden Eagles (14-8, 6-5, 7th place tie)

Ken Yamoto: I was worried about this game. Marquette has had an up-and-down year, but playing them on their court is dangerous. And during the first 7 minutes of the game there were 7 lead changes. But then our guys took charge, cracked down defensively, and by the end of the half had built a 36-23 lead. We expanded our lead to 21 points within 5 minutes of play in the 2nd half and then just held off the Golden Eagles to win decisively 69-54. Grades? Offense: C+, Defense: A- (would have been an A if we hadn’t let their PF’s score 26 points (hitting 12 of 16 from the field) and grab 8 boards); Rebounding: B+; Playing in front of an antagonistic crowd: A. C Kirk Reeves—16 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; SF Chris Broussard—11 pts, 4 reb, 2 blk; PF Brian Valdez—10 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk (Brian’s turning into a great 6th man for our team). We used 4 PG’s and they combined for 14 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists. [18-6, 11-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Co-head coach Mike McMillan

Injury update: C Marcus Wright’s broken arm is mending and he should only miss a couple more games before we get him back on the court. Marcus, who came to us after being labelled as a disruptive force has thus far been a solid and positive force while he was playing and has kept his spirits up during his injury rehabilitation.

Team Chemistry: I think that overall our team chemistry is good. We have a few players who need to improve their relationship (either with we coaches or with their teammates). They include PF Lonnie Morrison, PG Jonte Edwards, PG Terrell Anderson, and walk-on Joe Alexander. Joe is unhappy with us as coaches since he was hoping to get more playing time as a senior, but is doing well with his teammates. The other 3 are all talented freshmen. We hope to strengthen their relationships and improve their attitudes to keep them from transferring. So we’ve been trying to work with them and encourage them as much as possible.

Polls: We finally edged into the top 25 in the polls. We’re #25 in the Media Poll and #24 in the Coaches Poll. Our NET ranking is now 21st best in Division 1. We have 4 games left and probably need to win out to remain ranked in the polls. 3 of those games are at home (which is good), but one of them is against a very strong and talented Texas A&M team. And our remaining away game is against a very tough Pittsburgh Panthers team. In the conference standings we’re 3 games ahead of four teams that are tied for 2nd place. Conference E has 6 teams each with 16-18 wins thus far this season and only 6-7 losses this year so far. Wisconsin is ranked #20 in both polls, Georgia Tech is ranked #21 in the Media Poll and #22 in the Coaches Poll, and unranked Richmond’s NET ranking is 16th best nationwide.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 20: Texas A&M Aggies (17-7, 8-4, 3rd place tie) @ #25 Indiana Hoosiers (18-6, 11-1, 1st place tie)

Ramon Montez: The Aggies jumped out ahead at the start, but we surpassed them 3 minutes into the game and by completely shutting them down defensively, we led 31-16 at the break. We held onto an 18-27 point lead throughout the 2nd half and dumped Texas A&M 72-53. We outshot the Aggies 50% to 32%, outscored them 34-10 in the paint, and forced them to make 24 turnovers. We held their PG Earl Arnold (who had been averaging nearly 11 ppg) scoreless and he turned the ball over 11 times. PF Robert Bowie—16 pts, 7 reb; SG Wayne Rush—11 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast; PG Jonte Edwards—10 pts, 6 ast; SF Chris Broussard—8 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl. [19-6, 12-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Feb. 23: #25 Indiana Hoosiers (19-6, 12-1, 1st place) @ Pittsburgh Panthers (13-12, 7-6, 7th place tie)

Mike McMillan: We countered Pittsburgh’s very strong defense with an even better D. We took the lead for good 6 minutes into the game and had a 29-18 halftime advantage. We ended up beating the Panthers 54-46 by holding their shooting to just 28%. Our shooting (38%) was way below our average, but combined with a +8 rebounding advantage, it was enough to get the job done. SF Chris Broussard—11 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl; PF Robert Bowie—9 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; PG Jonte Edwards—8 pts. Marcus Wright got back onto the court for us and had 3 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 14 minutes of play. [20-6, 13-1, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Feb. 27: Davidson Wildcats (12-13, 5-9, 12th place tie) @ #22 Indiana Hoosiers (20-6, 13-1, 1st place)

Terry Morillo: We were heavy favorites in this game and played like it. We never trailed and led 40-28 at the half and then grew our lead to as much as 26 points in the 2nd half. Our guys totally dominated inside, outscoring the Wildcats 46-22 on points in the paint and scoring with ease inside as evidenced by our knocking down 64% of our FG attempts. We won decisively 85-61. C Kirk Reeves—19 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast; C Marcus Wright—10 pts, 3 reb; SG Wayne Rush—10 pts, 3 ast, 3 stl; PF Robert Bowie—9 pts, 2 blk; PF Lonnie Morrison—8 pts, 3 reb. [21-6, 15-1, 1st place]