READY FOR PRIME TIME?

[PointGuard]

Mar. 2: California Golden Bears (11-15, 4-11, 14th place tie) @ #22 Indiana Hoosiers (21-6, 14-1, 1st place)

Ken Yamoto: Our final game of the regular season. We’re assured of being promoted since we’re going to finish atop the Conference E standings. There are two other teams in this conference that are in the Top 25 in the polls. Second place and #20th ranked Georgia Tech will also be promoted, but #18th ranked Wisconsin is in danger of failing to be promoted since they’re presently in 5th place in the standings, but could move up into a tie for 3rd with a win and losses by Richmond or Minnesota which are presently tied for 3rd, a game ahead of the Badgers. We cruised to a 75-49 victory over the lowly Golden Bears. It was our 10th consecutive win. We buried California in the first half which ended with us far ahead at 42-17. There was never a threat in the 2nd half. We held Cal’s shooting to just 26%, out-rebounded them 42-25, and scored twice as many points in the paint as did they. Sf Chris Broussard—21 pts, 2 ast; SG Wayne Rush—11 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; PG Jonte Edwards—9 pts, 6 ast, 2 stl; C Marcus Wright—9 pts, 11 reb, 3 ast; PF Robert Bowie—8 pts, 6 reb. [22-6, 15-1, 1st place]

Injury report: PG Terrell Anderson injured his knee—appears to be minor and he shouldn’t miss any conference tourney games.

[PointGuard]

Conference E Final Standings

#18 Indiana: 15-1, 22-6, NET: 14
#16 Georgia Tech: 12-4, 22-7, NET: 19
Minnesota: 11-5, 20-8, NET: 27
Richmond: 10-6, 18-9, NET: 25
#19 Wisconsin: 10-6, 20-7, NET: 18
Tennessee: 8-8, 17-11, NET: 44
Marquette: 8-8, 16-11, NET: 97
Baylor: 8-8, 15-13, NET: 125
Texas A&M: 8-8, 17-11, NET: 69
UC Santa Barbara: 8-8, 13-14, NET: 169
Pittsburgh: 7-9, 13-15, NET: 158
Florida State: 6-10, 13-14, NET: 112
Davidson: 6-10, 13-14, NET: 145
Marshall: 5-11, 9-18, NET: 230
California: 4-12, 11-16, NET: 240
Utah State: 2-14, 7-20, NET: 279

[PointGuard]

Conference E Tournament

Day 1

#19 Wisconsin—79, Florida State—74
Tennessee—76, Pittsburgh—55
Marquette—93, UC Santa Barbara—82
Baylor—79, Texas A&M—76

Day 2 (Quarterfinals)

#18 Indiana—71, Baylor—60 [C Kirk Reeves—15 pts, 3 blk; SG Wayne Rush—12 pts]
#16 Georgia Tech—71, Marquette—56
Minnesota—84, Tennessee—75
Richmond—66, #19 Wisconsin—58

Day 3 (Semifinals)

#18 Indiana—95, Richmond—74 [C Marcus Wright—16 pts, 6 reb; SG Wayne Rush—12 pts, 4 ast; PG Calvin Heard—10 pts, 3 ast]
#16 Georgia Tech—81, Minnesota—74

Day 4 (Championship)

#14 Georgia Tech—68, #15 Indiana—60 [PF Brian Valdez—14 pts; C Kirk Reeves—13 pts, 8 reb]

[PointGuard]

Co-head Coach Terry Morillo

We moved up to #15 in both the Media Poll and Coaches Poll and then lost to Georgia Tech in the conference championship game. Our season record is now 24-7 and our NET rank is still 15th best. We averaged 76.5 ppg while our opponents averaged 64.0 ppg this season.

Player stats:

Scoring (ppg): Reeves—9.5, Bowie—9.3, Rush—8.8, Broussard—8.8, Wright—7.7, Edwards—6.7, Valdez—6.3, Morrison—6.2, Richardson—3.9, Towers—3.6, Heard—3.1, Mosley—2.9, Anderson—1.7, Kincade—0.9, Alexander—0.8

Rebounding (rpg): Reeves—5.0, Bowie—5.0, Wright—4.0, Broussard—3.2, Valdez—3.1, Morrison—2.9, Towers—2.2, Rush—1.9, Edwards—1.5, Richardson—1.4, Heard—1.2, Mosley—0.5, Anderson—0.5, Kincade—0.3, Alexander—0.2

Assists (apg): Edwards—3.7, Broussard—2.4, Rush—2.3, Heard—1.6, Anderson—1.5, Mosley—1.3, Bowie—1.2, Wright—1.2, Towers—1.2, Reeves—1.1, Morrison—0.8, Valdez—0.7, Richardson—0.7, Kincade—0.4, Alexander—0.3

Injury report: While not an injury, Jonte Edwards has come down with bronchitis. Unless we have a very early game in the postseason tournament, he should be recovered.

Selection Show: We are the #4 seed in the South Region and will take on #13 seed UMASS (19-10) in the first round.

[PointGuard]

Co-head Coach Ramon Montez

NCAA Tournament

Round 1

#13 seed Massachusetts Minutemen (19-10) vs #4 seed, #15 ranked Indiana Hoosiers (24-7)
Our D was stellar the entire first half as we soared to a 45-19 halftime bulge. We loosened it up in the 2nd half during which we extensively played our entire bench and still came away with a resounding 78-58 victory. We outshot the Minutemen 53% to 36% and were +5 on the boards. PG Jonte Edwards—14 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast; SF Chris Broussard—12 pts; C Kirk Reeves—10 pts, 11 reb; SF Martin Towers—9 pts, 3 reb; PG Terrell Anderson—7 pts, 5 ast.
Injury: C Marcus Wright—sprained finger.

Round 2

#5 seed, #17 ranked Georgia Bulldogs (22-10) vs #4 seed, #15 ranked Indiana Hoosiers (25-7)
Unlike the past game, D was no where to be found in this game. The first half went back and forth but we came on strong in the final 4 minutes to take a 51-43 halftime advantage. The Bulldogs slowly crept up on us and we again exchanged the lead several times during the middle of the 2nd half. But after 15 lead changes in the game, we finally edged ahead and held onto an exceptionally small lead to come away with a hard-fought 94-89 win. We hit 56% of our FG’s while Georgia knocked down 52% of theirs. PG Jonte Edwards—22 pts (career high), 3 ast; SF Chris Broussard—17 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk; PF Robert Bowie—10 pts, 11 reb, 2 stl; SG Wayne Rush—9 pts, 3 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl; SF Martin Towers—8 pts.

Round 3 (Sweet 16)

#4 seed, #15 ranked Indiana Hoosiers (26-7) vs #1 seed, #2 ranked Arizona Wildcats (31-4)
Arizona took the lead on the first possession. We kept trying to catch up but could only stay close and trailed 35-28 at the break. We continued to hound the Wildcats throughout the 2nd half but just could never overtake them and wound up losing 62-56. We played a strong game, but Arizona was a little more than we could handle as they showed they deserve their #1 seed and high ranking in the polls. C Kirk Reeves—10 pts, 6 reb, 2 blk; PG Jonte Edwards—10 pts; SF Chris Broussard—8 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl; PF Brian Valdez—7 pts, 3 reb; C Marcus Wright—5 pts, 6 reb, 2 blk; PF Robert Bowie—5 pts, 8 reb.

We were the only Conference E team to make it as far as the Sweet 16. We wound up with a solid 26-8 record with all of our scholarship players returning except Kirk Reeves and Brett Mosley. Our regular season co-MVP’s were senior C Kirk Reeves and sophomore PF Robert Bowie, while our NCAA Tourney MVP was freshman PG Jonte Edwards.
After coming out on top of the Conference standings, getting to the Sweet 16 in the Big Dance, improving Indiana’s basketball program prestige higher than it’s been in the past 16 years, and earning yet another promotion to the next higher level conference, the board rewarded us with a nice increase in our budget.

In a rather unusual happenstance, the four #1 seeds all made it to the Final Four.

Illinois—100, Syracuse—76
UNLV—82, Arizona—71

NCAA Tourney Championship Game: UNLV—72, Illinois—59

In the NIT, Conference E’s Marquette won the championship.

[PointGuard]

2046-2047 SEASON

Co-head Coach Terry Morillo

We had two scholarships to fill last season and did so by recruiting a 5-star PG and a high 4-star PF. We got the news that ours was the 22nd best recruit class within Division 1.
We were promoted together with Georgia Tech, Minnesota, and Richmond to Conference D.

Our roster for this season is loaded with excellent players. To our great surprise, none opted to transfer. We had figured that a couple would move on in search of surefire starting roles elsewhere. So no messing with the Transfer Portal for us this year.

[PointGuard]

Ken Yamoto, co-head coach

We’re losing SF Chris Broussard, SG Wayne Rush, and PF Brian Valdez to graduation after this coming season. So we’ll have 3 scholarships to fill this year. Our primary needs will be to recruit a SF and a big man and then fill the 3rd scholarship with the strongest recruit we can get, regardless of position.

[PointGuard]

Mike McMillan, co-head coach

We focused on getting 5-star and 4-star recruits interested in Indiana University. We were successful in doing so, but our scholarship offers to a couple 5-star recruits were for naught since they chose higher prestige basketball programs. We did get three very good 4-star recruits to commit to playing for us:

C Alvin Botts, 6-9, Lexington, SC. #42 ranked, excellent rebounder and inside shooter and good passer and shot blocker. Averaged 15.3 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 1.6 apg, 2.6 bpg and 2.5 spg as a junior last year.

SF Jeff Haywood, 6-6, Brimfield, IL. #54 ranked, excellent rebounder and outside shooter plus a a good passer. Averaged 14.6 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.8 apg last year as a junior. Top 5 player at Chicago Prep Revue.

SF Jalo Sarpaneva, 6-8, Finland. #73 ranked, excellent outside shooter and good inside shooter, shot blocker, passer, and stealing. Averaged 19.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.4 bpg, and 2.6 spg last year.

[PointGuard]

Terry Morillo, co-head coach

We’re ranked #25 in the pre-season Media Poll. We’ve set up a very tough pre-conference schedule:

@ California
Tip-Off in Paradise Tournament (our opening game will be against Northwestern)
#14 CREIGHTON
VIRGINIA TECH
#15 GEORGIA
ARIZONA STATE
#18 KANSAS STATE
#23 MARQUETTE
#7 VILLANOVA
#20 UNLV
@12 LOUISVILLE

[PointGuard]

Ramon Montez, co-head coach

We finished our fall practices. Usually at this point we’d be letting you know who our starters will be. But we could start any of our 13 scholarship players and I think they’d perform well. While we’ve initially ranked our players, there’s some really close competition amongst our guys still. So in the early part of our pre-conference schedule, we’re going to start different guys and play different combinations and see how each of our players do and which guys shine.

We’re ranked #25 in the pre-season poll and we’ve been picked to win Conference D. Both are nice honors, but we have to play and perform well to determine if we deserve those.