Monday, December 29, 2008

Lipscomb 74, Indiana 69.

IU's recent results have served to end any expectations that IU fans had for this season, however modest those expectations might have been. For the second straight game, IU jumped out to a nice lead against a mow-major program but ultimately was manhandled for the last 30 minutes of the game. Here's the box score. IU led 35-14 win 7 minutes remaining in the first half and was outscored 60-34 for the rest of the game.

Oddly enough, this loss came in a game in which IU improved on some long-standing flaws. IU's 19.8 turnover percentage was the best of the season against a D-I opponent. IU's 1.05 points per possession was among IU's top four outcomes of the season. Unfortunately, the previously respectable IU defense fell apart. IU allowed 1.12 point per possession to Lipscomb, third worst outcome of the season after Notre Dame and St. Joseph's, and worse than against Gonzaga and Wake Forest. Other than Northwestern State, no team has done better against IU than Lipscomb's offensive rebound percentage of 41, and IU's defensive OR percentage of 25 was the second-worst of the season. Despite shooting reasonably well and taking care of the ball, IU simply gave Lipscomb too many opportunities, most of which manifested themselves at the free throw line, where Lipscomb shot 16-20 to IU's 8-16. Also, Lipscomb did not turn the ball over very often.

A week ago, entering the Big Ten season with a 7-5 record seemed a reasonable expectation. Instead, IU now stands at 5-7 and will be an underdog in each of its remaining 19 games. There are no easy answers. Iowa is next.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Lipscomb?? A team that put up 50 points against Samford???? Beating Indiana?? Unreal. Dumes and Malik really need to shoot less, a lot less. At least the Hoosiers have a good recruiting class next year because they're faltering earlier than usual this year.

We're looking for Indiana bloggers at www.collegefanz.com, the largest college sports site on the net. I think your blog would work well there; our discourse is intelligent and reasonable and your blog seems to utilize some interesting, thoughtful stats to get points across. I haven't found many people analyzing PPP (a hugely underrated stat; like OPS was in baseball 10+ years ago).

Take a look at the site and let me know what you think at mgleeson@collegefanz.com

Can't wait to hear from you.

Mike