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[PointGuard]

Week #8 (Jan. 1-7, 2043)

@Indiana Hoosiers (10-2)—70, Ohio Bobcats (3-8)—52 (Giesen—13 pts, 3 reb, 3 blk; Nicholson—12 pts, 7 reb; Serraville—11 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl; Zinn—10 pts, 7 reb, 2 stl.)

Ramon Montez’ Comments:

Very slow start by both teams. We began hitting our shots about 5 minutes into the game, but our play was uninspired the entire first half even though we led 33-27 at halftime. We got onto the team during halftime. Our defense was stellar in the 2nd half and we moved out to a solid lead and never let the Bobcats get back into the game. Zinn and Nicholson combined at the C position to score 22 points and haul down 14 boards. Serraville played well but none of our other guards did much.

[PointGuard]

Ron Storm, the AD at Indiana University

Our intent in hiring 4 “co-head coaches” was to develop a coaching “team” that would turn around our basketball program’s downward slide and begin an upward progression. While I was optimistic, I must admit that I was also whether it would actually work. Obviously it’s much too early to know, but the early results of getting Mike, Ramon, Ken and Terry to agree to give up their head coaching jobs at minor programs to work together has had excellent initial results. The administration, alumni, students, community, and local media are all exuberant about the team’s play thus far and finishing pre-conference play with a solid 10-2 record that now has the Indiana Hoosiers back in the Top 25 for the first time in more than 15 years. (And it wasn’t a powder puff schedule either, since those 12 teams included: one Conf B team, one Conf D team, 5 an E teams, a Conf F team, two Conf I teams, and 2 Conf K teams). I think that the 4 co-head coaches coming away with 3 very strong transfer players laid the foundation for what’s been a quick turnaround thus far. Serraville’s been a plum addition and Waterman and Zinn have played well. The coaches have done a great job of developing our returning players also, particularly Mixson, Nicholson, and Giesen who each have become good starters.

A big risk in hiring 4 head coaches was that they would have big differences of opinion which would lead to friction and jealousy. But these 4 guys were good friends and have worked well together. These 4 had been supportive of each other and respected on another from when they first began coaching in Division 1 ball. So it wasn’t like hiring 4 strangers or 4 competitors. And while we’re paying them each much more than they were earning at their previous head coaching positions, our total outlay is less than had we hired a big name head coach who would have wanted to have 3 really solid assistants.

Now it’s time for the team to step up and dominate in Conference H to begin our upward progression. I think they’re up to the challenge.

[PointGuard]

Mike McMillan’s Comments Following Pre-Conference Play

Our starting lineup is set and solid as we enter conference play. PG Dwayne Serraville (12.2 ppg, 4.7 apg); SG Walter Mixson (8.8 ppg, 3.0 apg); SF Julius Waterman (6.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg); PF Terrell Giesen (11.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg; C Brian Nicholson (12.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg). Our top subs have been C George Zinn (7.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg); SF Johnny Lubeck (4.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg); PG Jason Friend (5.2 ppg, 1.3 apg); PF Jason Collier (4.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg). SG Troy Henry has been shooting well but hasn’t been getting much playing time, so we plan to try to get him on the court a bit more and see how he does.

We have a 7-game win streak, a NET ranking of 14, and the best pre-conference record of any Conference H team. And we just got into the Top 25 in the polls at #21.

Based on pre-conference play, Iowa State (10-4, NET 60), New Mexico (9-4, NET 11), Colgate (8-3, NET 20), Rutgers (6-5, NET 89), and Rhode Island (6-5, NET 17) appear to be our top competition in the conference. The combined media has ranked Milwaukee (7-5, NET 174) as our top competition, but their starting SG and 2nd best scorer broke his elbow and has missed the Panthers last 3 games and will be out for the first month of conference play. Milwaukee’s\ PG (Derek Seals) is the top scorer (16.2 ppg) thus far for any conference team, though.

[PointGuard]

Week #9 (Jan. 8-14, 2043)

@Rhode Island Rams (7-5, 1-0)—74, #21 Indiana Hoosiers (10-3, 0-1)—65 (Serraville-14 pts, 5 ast, 2 stl; Nicholson-12 pts, 5 reb; Zinn-8 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl.)

@ #21 Indiana Hoosiers (11-3, 1-1)—78, Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-7, 0-2)—63 (Serraville-15 pts, 6 ast, 4 stl; Waterman-12 pts, 3 reb; Nicholson-11 pts, 4 reb; Zinn-11 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; Lubeck-10 pts; Giesen-9 pts, 7 reb, 4 stl.)

Ken Yamoto’s comments:

We continually fell behind Rhode Island and then coming back to get within 1 or 2 points, only to fall behind again…we just never were able to sustain our periods of good play. That and hometown refs putting the Rams on the line more than twice as many times as us. Well OK, Rhode Island totally dominated the boards and ultimately that’s what killed us. Then we again looked bad during the first half of our game against Wake Forest, trailing by 8 at the half. But our starters plus Zinn and Lubeck outscored the Demon Deacons 48-25 in the 2nd half. Our D forced Wake Forest to make 24 turnovers. Nicholson and Zinn continue to split time at C and combine for good production at that position. Against Wake Forest PG Jason Friend took a blow to his shoulder…it’s sore but shouldn’t sideline him.

[PointGuard]

Week #10 (Jan. 15-21, 2043)

#23 Indiana Hoosiers (12-3, 2-1)—84, @Southern California Trojans (4-10, 2-1)—70 (Giesen-23 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast, 2 blk; Nicholson-14 pts, 7 reb; Waterman-11 pts; Zinn-10 pts, 4 reb; Mixson-9 pts, 4 ast, 4 stl.)

#23 Indiana Hoosiers (13-3, 3-1)—84, Rutgers Scarlet Knights (7-8, 1-3)—61 (Nicholson-23 pts; Giesen-13 pts, 6 reb, 2 blk; Waterman-13 pts; Serraville-11 pts, 5 ast, 4 stl; Friend-8 pts, 3 reb.)

Ramon Montez’ Comments:

Nice to win on the road. Very good offense in both games, satisfactory D produced two pretty easy wins. We’re getting different guys to step up to lead us each game it seems…which is good. Thus far this season we have 3 guys averaging in double figures…Nicholson (12.7 ppg), Giesen (11.9 ppg), and Serraville (11.6 ppg). Waterman’s hitting 57% of his FG’s and 58% of his 3’s. We’re tied for 3rd, trailing Milwaukee and Iowa State by 1 game.

[PointGuard]

Week #11 (Jan. 22-28, 2043)

#21 Indiana Hoosiers (14-3, 4-1)—69, @Milwaukee Panthers (12-6, 4-1)—60 (Nicholson-16 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl; Waterman-12 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl; Mixson-11 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl; Giesen-8 pts, 5 reb; Deane-8 pts)

@#21 Indiana Hoosiers (15-3, 5-1)—83, Colgate Raiders (9-8, 1-5)—64 (Nicholson-14 pts, 3 reb, 2 stl; Mixson-11 pts, 2 stl; Lubeck-11 pts, 4 reb, 2 stl; Zinn-10 pts, 3 reb; Giesen-9 pts, 3 reb)

Ramon Montez’ comments:

The win over Milwaukee on the road was a “good win”. I say that because we had the lead almost the entire first half and were up by 12 a couple times. Milwaukee cut the lead to 33-26 at halftime and then chipped away at that lead in the early-going of the 2nd half. The Panthers overtook us with 13 minutes to go and quickly went ahead by 10 points. We looked to be in big trouble. But…our guys crept up and regained the lead with 6 minutes to go and then gradually increased our lead in the concluding minutes of the game. So we never gave in and made a good comeback as the game wound down. It was also good to see Jesse Deane hit all his shots and score 8 points in 13 minutes of play. And the win moved us into a 4-way tie for 1st place. In our game against Colgate, we had a really tough time of shaking the Raiders but finally gained a double digit lead with 15 minutes left and then blew it open late…otherwise not much to say about it other than we shot well (54%).

[PointGuard]

Ken Yamoto

All four of the players we recruited this past fall met our SAT requirements. So our recruiting efforts are finished. We landed a good group of recruits who should help us continue improving the team:

PG Justin Holmes—6’4” HS Sr from Wyalsuling, PG…4 star, 29th ranked recruit, Top 10 player at Big Apple Showcase…Outstanding passer and strong ball-handler, excellent outside shooter and scorer, great rebounder and strong defensively…and a great leader on and off the court who’s a hard worker.

SF Chris Broussard—6’3” HS Sr from Centerline, MI…4 star, 97th ranked recruit, Top 10 player at Chicago Prep Revue…Great outside shooter and scorer who also does well inside, good passer, solid overall…hard worker who doesn’t cause problems.

PF Greg Dye—6’6” HS Sr from Jeffersonville, IN…4 star, 114th ranked recruit…Strong scorer inside, great rebounder, very strong defensively…hard working kid who likes to practice and doesn’t get into trouble.

PF Jamar McKie—6’8” HS Sr from Amanda, OH…3 star, 139th ranked recruit…Excellent shooter from both inside and outside so might do well for us at either PF or SF, very good defender…tremendous work ethic who likes to practice and stays out of trouble.

I’m glad we sewed these guys up. But we’ve done a good job of getting a bunch of other guys, including several 4-star recruits, very interested in our program so that if any of our 4 recruits had not met our SAT minimum, we could have landed a good replacement. That gives us a lot of confidence for our recruiting next year.

[PointGuard]

Week #12 (Jan. 29-Feb. 4, 2043)

#17 Indiana Hoosiers (16-3, 6-1)—84, @Charleston Cougars (4-14, 2-5)—74 (Nicholson-25 pts, 6 reb; Giesen-11 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast; Lubeck-9 pts; Waterman-8 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl; Friend-8 pts, 3 ast)

#17 Indiana Hoosiers (17-3, 7-1)—89, New Mexico Lobos (13-,8 4-4)—85 (Nicholson-16 pts, 7 reb; Serraville-14 pts, 4 ast, 2 stl; Waterman-12 pts, 5 ast, 2 stl; Giesen-10 pts, 4 reb; Mixson-8 pts, 3 ast; Zinn-8 pts, 5 reb, 2 blk)

Mike McMillan’s comments:

We let the Cougars spurt past us early and then spent the entire 1st half catching up. Charleston again outplayed us early In the 2nd half and it wasn’t until the final 4 minutes that we took control and gained a lead we could hold onto. We shot well but our defense was weak. But a strong game by Nicholson. Then we again fell behind early in the game against New Mexico. But we came on strong to begin the 2nd half and looked to have this one in the bag only to let the Lobos get close. While we didn’t let them overtake us, the final 14 minutes were extremely close. We let the Lobos’ C Stan Clark score 33 points. But I guess we should be happy to have won both of these road games. We’re tied with Oral Roberts for 1st place in Conference H with 2 other teams just a game back. Both Oral Roberts and we have 7 game win streaks.

[PointGuard]

Week #13 (Feb. 5-11, 2043)

@#13 Indiana Hoosiers (18-3, 8-1)—72, St. Johns Red Storm (5-15, 2-7)—66 (Serraville-15 pts, 4 ast; Nicholson-15 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; Zinn-10 pts; Giesen-9 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast; Lubeck-8 pts)

#13 Indiana Hoosiers (19-3, 9-1)—77, @DePaul Blue Demons (7-14, 3-7)—61 (Giesen-14 pts, 8 reb; Mixson-14 pts, 3 ast, 2 stl; Zinn-13 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast; Nicholson-12 pts, 4 reb; Friend-9 pts, 2 reb, ast)

Terry Morillo’s comments:

We jumped out ahead of St. John’s and by halftime we held a 14 point lead. We held a nice double-digit lead throughout the first 14 minutes of the 2nd half, but the Red Storm cut into our lead and we had to fight hard in the final minutes to hold onto a small lead. DePaul hung with us for the first 8 minutes but we then locked down our D, spurted ahead, and ran away from them to lead 51-27. Our offense was flat in the 2nd half, but we never let the Blue Devils make a serious run. We totally dominated inside, scoring 46 points in the paint to DePaul’s 12 points. We now won 9 in a row and hold sole possession of 1st place in the conference, a game ahead of Oral Roberts.

[PointGuard]

Ron Storm, the AD at Indiana University

Our team’s 9 game win streak, gaining of 1st place in the conference, and our ascention in the polls to 11th in the rankings has created a lot of excitement amongst our fans. With me too. Our co-head coaches are doing a helluva great job. Best of all, our success is a real team effort…it’s not dependent on one primary player. Coach Ramon Montez has told me they’re intent on developing a deep core of players that will serve as the foundation for even better future success. And given our excellent recruiting efforts this year plus 3 of our 5 starters as well as our key reserves returning next season, I’m optimistic that our team will be even better next year. Later this week we will be hosting 2nd place Oral Roberts and 5th place Iowa State. So taking on two very good teams could give a better indication of just where we are this season.