READY FOR PRIME TIME?

[PointGuard]

Dayton Flyers (13-12, 7-6, 5th place tie) @ #8 Indiana Hoosiers (23-3, 13-0, 1st place)

Terry Morillo: George Zinn has finally recovered from his broken foot and started tonight at C. We had a completely shut-down defense the first 15 minutes of the game, Midway through the half we were ahead by 27 and only allowed 14 points by the Flyers in the first half. We relaxed the D the 2nd half but our offense continued to outpace Dayton so that we scored a very easy 74-55 victory. Dwayne Serraville—17 pts, 6 ast; Brian Nicholson—11 pts, 9 reb, 2 ast; George Zinn—11 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast; Justin Holmes—9 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl; Kevin Reeves—8 pts, 5 reb; Chris Broussard—8 pts, 2 stl. [24-3, 14-0, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

#6 Indiana Hoosiers (24-3, 14-0, 1st place) @ Vermont Catamounts (18-8, 8-6, 5th place tie)

Ken Yamoto: We’re in pretty rarified air, getting all the way up to #6 in the polls. Going into this game, I was worried we’d let down. It wouldn’t take much since Vermont is a very good team and playing them on their court is a big challenge. But our guys came onto the court with a purpose and grabbed the lead and never let it go. By the end of the half, led by Chris Broussard’s 14 points, we were up 38-29. Then in the early going of the 2nd half, our defense closed the door and by the midpoint of the 2nd half we were up by 27 points. We then coasted to a 77-54 beatdown of the Catamounts. Chris Broussard—18 pts, 5 reb; Justin Holmes—11 pts, 3 reb, 10 ast, 4 stl; Brian Nicholson—11 pts, 7 reb; George Zinn—10 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast; Dwayne Serraville—8 pts, 3 reb, 10 ast, 2 blk. [25-3, 15-0, 1st place]

#6 Indiana Hoosiers (25-3, 15-0, 1st place) @ Sam Houston State Bearkats (7-19, 2-13, 16th place)

Terry Morillo: Big challenge for the 4 of us co-head coaches was to drum into our guys head NOT to overlook Sam Houston State. I wasn’t too impressed with our effort. There were 6 lead changes in the first half but we ground out a 36-32 lead at the intermission. Brian Nicholson took the lead in the locker room at getting the team to step up their effort. Both teams shot well in the 2nd half, but we won the battle of the boards (+10), and that was enough for us to gradually increase our lead and come away with an 80-68 victory that gave us an unblemished Conference G record. Dwayne Serraville—23 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl; Justin Holmes—15 pts, 4 ast; Brian Nicholson—13 pts, 9 reb; Kirk Reeves—8 pts, 4 reb. [26-3, 16-0, 1st place]

Announcement: The Hoosiers moved up to #5 in both the Media and Coaches Polls. The team’s NET Rank was also 5th best in Division 1.

[PointGuard]

Conference G Final Standings

Indiana: 16-0, 25-3, NET Rank 5
Richmond: 13-3, 20-8, NET Rank 35
Milwaukee: 11-5, 18-9, NET Rank 47
Tennessee: 11-5, 17-10, NET Rank 70
New Mexico: 9-7, 18-10, NET Rank 48
Oregon State: 9-7, 16-11, NET Rank 61
Dayton, 9-7, 15-13, NET Rank 101
Louisiana-Lafayette: 8-8, 15-12 NET Rank 56
Vermont: 8-8, 18-10, NET Rank 104
Louisiana Tech: 6-10, 11-17, NET Rank 203
George Washington, 6-10, 15-12, NET Rank 155
Louisiana State, 6-10, 9-19, NET Rank 173
Nevada: 5-11, 12-15, NET Rank 164
Oral Roberts: 5-11, 14-14, NET Rank 236
Purdue, 4-12, 10-17, NET Rank 274
Sam Houston State, 2-14, 7-20, NET Rank 238

[PointGuard]

Conference G Tournament

Quarterfinals

Louisiana Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (8-8, 16-12) vs #5 Indiana Hoosiers (16-0, 26-3)

Mike McMillan: Louisiana-Lafayette held the lead for the first 4 minutes but then after 8 lead changes, we got out on top, but it remained close and our lead at the half was just 44-40. We were able to make it difficult for the Ragin’ Cajuns to score in the 2nd half. We gradually increased our lead and picked up an 86-69 opening game victory in the tourney. We connected on 58% of our FG’s and made just 3 turnovers. Dwayne Serraville—20 pts, 3 reb, 6 ast; Brian Nicholson—15 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast; Chris Broussard—12 pts, 3 reb; Justin Holmes—11 pts, 6 ast, 2 stl; Jason Friend—9 pts; George Zinn—8 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast. [27-3]

Semifinals
T
ennessee Volunteers (11-5, 18-10) vs #5 Indiana Hoosiers (16-0, 27-3)

Ramon Montez: The lead throughout the first half went back-and-forth and at halftime the game was tied at 31-31. Our defense again came on strong at the beginning of the 2nd half and we quickly pulled away. Our lead grew to as much as 17 and we finished the game with a 68-55 victory that propelled us to the championship game. Brian Nicholson—20 pts, 6 reb, 2 stl; Chris Broussard—17 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast; Justin Holmes—8 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl. [28-3]

Championship

Richmond Spiders (13-3, 22-8) vs #5 Indiana Hoosiers (16-0, 28-3)

Terry Morillo: Appropriately the championship pitted the two teams that had finished the season with the best records. The game was close for the first 8 minutes but we then spurted to a 42-29 halftime advantage. We never let the Spiders get closer. We dropped in 56% of our FG’s and 42% of our 3’s and dropped Richmond by an 80-60 win to gain the Conference G championship. We played all 13 players who suited up and all 13 scored. Kirk Reeves—13 pts, 5 reb; Brian Nicholson—12 pts, 7 reb; Justin Holmes—9 pts, 5 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl; Dwayne Serraville—9 pts, 5 ast; Johnny Lubeck—9 pts, 2 blk. [29-3]

[PointGuard]

Ken Yamoto

We move on to March Madness with a 21 game win streak. We move up to 4th in the final poll and our Net Ranking is 5th best.

Here’s the Top 10 in the Media Poll: 1. North Carolina (Conf B, 28-3); 2. Arizona (Conf A, 26-6); 3. UNLV (Conf B, 27-5); 4. Indiana (Conf G, 29-3); 5. Illinois (Conf A, 26-5); 6. Kansas (Conf B, 23-8); 7. UCLA (Conf B, 23-8); 8. Wright State (Conf D, 26-4); 9. Duke (Conf A, 22-9); 10. Temple (Conf B, 23-8)

Two of our players aren’t 100%. Greg Dye has a strained hamstring and the athletic trainers say it’ll be another 8-10 days before he’s completely healed. Kirk Reeves came down with a bout of bronchitis, but he’s nearly kicked it and will be ready to go for post-season play.

We’ve averaged 77.8 ppg (13th best in Div.1) and given up just 62.7 ppg (10th best). We’ve hit 50.3% of our FG’s this season (9th best). The bulk of our offense has come from 6 players: PF Brian Nicholson—13.5 ppg; PG Dwayne Serraville—11.8 ppg; SG Justin Holmes—11.0 ppg; SF Christ Broussard—10.3 ppg; C George Zinn—9.6 ppg; C Kirk Reeves—9.2 ppg. Our top 5 in rebounding have been: Nicholson—7.7 rpg; Zinn—54. Rpg; Reeves—4.6 rpg; Broussard—3.4 rpg; Holmes—3.2 rpg. Leading in assists have been: Serraville—5.1 apg; Holmes—4.9 apg; Broussard—2.0 apg; Zinn—1.6 apg; Nicholson—1.5 apg.

We knew we’d get a good seed for the NCAA Tournament and we did: #2 seed in the West Region. We’ll be up against #15 seed Tennessee-Martin (22-8) in the 1st round.

#1 seeds: North Carolina, UNLV, Arizona, Illinois

[PointGuard]

NCAA Tournament

Round 1

#15 seed Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks (22-8) vs #2 seed Indiana Hoosiers (29-3)

Ramon Montez: With both teams hitting a high percentage of their shots the lead moved back and forth for the first 7 minutes. We then grabbed onto a small lead and held onto a 2-5 point advantage for the next 10 minutes. We stepped it up in the final 3 minutes to move ahead 48-36 at halftime. Chris Broussard and Brian Nicholson combined to score 25 of our points plus pull down 12 boards, and Zinn and Reeves totaled 15 points between the two. But we let the Skyhawks SG Toole score 13 and C Boyd add 12 points. Tennessee-Martin scored the first 7 points of the 2nd half and took a single point with 16 minutes remaining. We fought back and edged away. With 8-1/2 minutes to go we had regained a double-digit lead at 78-67. The Skyhawks came back to get within 4 points, but we spurted in the final 5 minutes to knock them off 98-84. Both teams hit well over 50% of their shots. But we were +7 on the boards and made 4 fewer turnovers. Chris Broussard—23 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast; Brian Nicholson—17 pts, 11 reb, 2 ast; George Zinn—13 pts, 4 reb, 2 stl, 3 blk; Kirk Reeves—12 pts, 5 reb; Justin Holmes—9 pts, 9 ast, 3 stl , Brett Mosley—9 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl. [30-3]

[PointGuard]

NCAA Tournament

Round 2

#10 seed Saint Mary’s Gaels (20-10) vs #2 seed Indiana Hoosiers (30-3)

Terry Morillo: There were 13 lead changes in the 1st half, but we trailed more often that we led. But led by Dwayne Serraville, we came on strong late in the half to jump ahead 40-34 at halftime. Our D improved in the 2nd half and we were up by 16 with 14 minutes remaining in the game. We held onto a double digit lead the rest of the way to win decisively 75-60. We outscored the Gaels 28-12 in the paint. Dwayne Serraville—21 pts, 2 stl; George Zinn—12 pts, 8 reb; Chris Broussard—12 pts, 3 ast, 2 stl; Brian Nicholson—8 pts, 12 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk; Jason Friend—8 pts, 3 ast. [31-3]

Announcement: Jason Collier suffered an injury to his shoulder and the pain is likely to limit his effectiveness for the next week.

[PointGuard]

NCAA Tournament

Round 3 (Sweet 16)

#3 seed Duke Blue Devils (24-9) vs #2 seed Indiana Hoosiers (31-3)

Mike McMillan: Duke jumped out ahead and stomped us. We never led. At the half we trailed 49-36 as they ate up our defense. Our D was much better in the 2nd half, but the Blue Devils took a 21 point lead with 14 minutes to play and while we cut into the lead, we never seriously threatened enroute to an 81-67 loss. Duke did an excellent job of controlling our inside game and the Blue Devils’ PF Nyah Charity was too much for us…he scored 28 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. So…the end of a good year for us. Kevin Reeves—16 pts, 6 reb; Justin Holmes—12 pts, 3 reb, 6 ast; Dwayne Serraville—11 pts, 2 ast, 2 blk; Julius Waterman—8 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl. [31-4]

[PointGuard]

Tournament Champions:

CIT: Appalachian State
CBI: Baylor
NIT: James Madison
NCAA: Arizona

Season Awards For Indiana Players:

Justin Holmes: Conference G Freshman of the Year
Brian Nicholson: Conference G 1st Team All-Conference

[PointGuard]

Ken Yamoto

We were successful this spring in filling our two remaining scholarships with strong and talented recruits. So all four of our incoming freshman this coming season are 4-star recruits.

PG Calvin Head, 6-3 HS senior from Crosby, TX. He averaged 15.8 ppg, 12.3 apg, 7.6 rpg, 1.9 bpg, and 4.6 spg this season. Outstanding passer and ball-hawk. Excellent outside shooter and rebounder. We rate him as an A+ recruit and he’s the 32nd highest ranked recruit. He had a decent, but not spectacular showing at the Houston Classic camp.

PF Andrew Watkins, 6-7 HS senior from Rochelle, IL. He averaged 18.5 ppg, 2.9 apg, 8.8 rpg, 2.9 bpg, and 1.6 spg. Excellent inside shooter and scorer. Great rebounding skills and strong defensively as well. We rate him as an A+ recruit and he’s the 36th highest ranked recruit. While he didn’t stand out at the Indy Elite camp, he was in the top 25 at the Chicago Prep Revue.

SG Ray Richardson, 6-4 HS senior from Englewood, TN. He averaged 18.1 ppg, 3.1 apg, 2.9 rpg, 1.6 bpg, and 1.3 spg this season. Excellent scorer who shoots well from both outside and inside. Good defensively. We rated him as a B+ recruit and he’s the 98th ranked recruit.

SF Martin Towers, 6-5 international player from England. He averaged 15.0 ppg, 2.6 apg, 7.1 rpg, 0.0 bpg, and 1.6 spg this season. Outstanding inside shooting skills and very good scorer. Excellent rebounder and good defensively. We rated him as a B+ recruit and he’s the 101st highest ranked recruit.