BT Powerhouse is reviewing the 2010-11 season for each team, one team each week. This week is Indiana week.
Since Kelvin Sampson was forced out due to his propensity to join in on three-way calls, Tom Crean has been working to rebuild the Indiana University basketball program. In his third year at the helm, Indiana won only three conference games. Despite not winning too many games on the court this year, many Hoosier fans are optimistic about the future. Crean has great recruits, such as Cody Zeller, coming into the program the next few years.
But this post isn't about the future, it's about the past season. Even though it might not be pleasant for IU fans, let's take a look back at the season that was. We're going to examine the Hoosiers' season by checking out the stats. I got these stats from the excellent StatSheet.com; they have more stats than you can shake a stick at (not sure why you'd want to do that, though).
Indiana University Hoosiers
Overall Record: 12-20
Conference Record: 3-15
Final Conference Standing: 11th
Home Record: 12-6
Away Record: 0-11
Neutral Court Record: 0-3
Record Against Top 25 at end of year: 0-7
Overtime Record: 0-1
Largest Winning Margin: 42 points vs South Carolina State
Largest Losing Margin: 24 points @ Illinois
Best Win: vs Illinois #46 end of year RPI
Worst Loss: Iowa (twice) #169 end of year RPI
Indiana went the whole season without winning a game away from Bloomington. They didn't have any truly awful losses (7-0 vs RPI 200+), but they had a hard time against quality opponents (3-17 vs RPI 1-100). They beat Minnesota just as the Gophers were starting their free-fall, but Illinois was ranked #20 in the AP poll when they lost to the Hoosiers.
Team Statistics in Conference Play (Rank in parenthesis)
Possessions per 40 minutes: 63.5 (5th)
Points per possessions: 1.02 (9th)
Rebound %: 49.4 (8th)
Assist %: 43.5 (11th)
Turnover %: 18 (5th)
True Shooting %: 52.7 (8th)
Points Scored Per Game: 64.94 (7th)
Points Scored Against Per Game: 72.3 (10th)
Fouls On Indiana Per Game: 22.1 (11th, meaning IU had the most fouls)
Indiana didn't rank last in too many stats this year, despite their record. But they the best they could do in these stats was barely rank in the top half of the league. IU's tenth place finish in scoring defense stands out as a major flaw, and their propensity to foul certainly hurt in that regard. As you can see from the scoring margin chart, Indiana started out the season by blowing out some overmatched foes at Assembly Hall. As the Big Ten season progressed, the overall scoring margin steadily decreased, until it ended at almost zero.
Individual Statistical Leaders in Conference Games
Minutes played per game: Jordan Hulls, 33.9
Points per game: Verdell Jones III, 13.1
Rebounds per game: Christian Watford, 5.1
Assists per game: Verdell Jones III, 3.1
Steals per game: Jeremiah Rivers, 1.0
Blocks per game: Tom Pritchard, 0.44
The good news here is that the only senior on the team was Jeremiah Rivers. I don't think it will be too hard to replace his production next season. Victor Oladipo contributed a solid 7.5 ppg and 3.3 rpg while only playing 19 minutes per game as a freshman. Maurice Creek suffered a season-ending injury for the second straight year, which certainly contributed to IU's last-place finish.
Looking at the stats to piece together the puzzle is a great exercise, but actually watching the games is far more rewarding. I'll end this recap with a play that only counted for two points, but was one of the best dunks of the Big Ten season: