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The last time Indiana was 4-0 in football, Operation Desert Storm was just beginning as the United States and the UK sent troops to Kuwait. Some of the popular films were Home Alone, Ghost, Pretty Woman and The Hunt for Red October. A gallon of gas cost $1.34. And it had only been three years since Indiana had last won a national championship in basketball. The point is being 4-0 is significant for the Hoosiers. And after hanging on to beat Wake Forest 31-24 Saturday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C., Indiana is 4-0 for the first time since 1990. And 4-0 is a significant milestone for Indiana football. Now the Hoosiers just have to take care of business from this point on and IU fans will have the opportunity to watch their team play football beyond Dec. 1 for just the third time in more than 20 years. Quick quiz: What are the two years since 1994 where Indiana has played football beyond Dec. 1? The answer: 2001 and 2007. The 2007 season was the Insight Bowl. The 2001 season was when the IU-Kentucky game was postponed because of 9-11 and played in the first week of December. That game was also noteworthy because it was Cam Cameron’s final game at IU. But I digress. For as long as I can remember everyone has always had the same formula for Indiana football. Win your four non-conference games and find a way to win at least two Big Ten games and you’ll go to a bowl game. Take a look at IU’s final eight games of the regular season and it appears there are two or three games that IU should be favored in. Rutgers, Maryland and Purdue, you would think any way, would be games that IU could win. And there are other games where the Hoosiers should have a chance to pull off an upset. But once again, none of it matters at all if Indiana isn’t 4-0 heading into next week’s game against top-ranked Ohio State. Saturday, from my birds-eye view from the radio booth at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, I thought Indiana looked particularly impressive for three quarters against Wake Forest. The fourth quarter I felt that the IU defense had a couple of miscues, the IU offense got ultra conservative and Wake Forest made a couple of big plays, none bigger than recovering the onsides kick. But I keep going back to one thing that is different about this Indiana football team compared to the other 17 seasons in which I’ve covered the Hoosiers. This team finds a way to win instead of finding a way to lose. No one is going to pretend that any of the four Indiana wins to date have been a thing of beauty. But no one is also going to argue that in year’s past Indiana would have found a way to lose at least one of these games and maybe more. But this Indiana team just keeps winning. Jordan Howard continues to be a beast. Nate Sudfeld continues to make enough plays. And the defense has done enough good things. Six sacks and constant pressure Saturday were something we haven’t seen a lot of out of IU for a long time. And the Hoosiers just keep winning. Now Indiana plays Ohio State Saturday at Memorial Stadium in a great situation for the Hoosiers to be in. Lose and everyone expected you to lose. In fact, I’ll be surprised at how many people will go out on a limb and pick the upset this weekend. But win and the momentum in this football program would be as high as it has been in decades. The most important thing I think most Indiana fans are hoping for next Saturday is that the Hoosiers can be competitive. Hang around, have a chance in the second half, and most of all don’t let it be a blowout. If those things happen I think most Indiana fans would be pleased. And it wouldn’t hurt if GameDay decided to come to Bloomington either but I’m not holding my breath there.

Fifteen wins in the Big Ten. Think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. Now think about the names on this list: Guys like A.J Guyton, Jason Collier, Luke Recker, Kirk Haston and Michael Lewis. Throw in Jared Jeffries, Tom Coverdale, Dane Fife, Jarrad Odle and Kyle Hornsby. There’s also Bracey Wright, Marshall Strickland, Marco Killingsworth, Rod Wilmont and D.J. White. Here’s a few more: Eric Gordon, Verdell Jones III, Maurice Creek, Christian Watford, Jordan Hulls, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Will Sheehey and Noah Vonleh. What do all of those names have in common? None of them ever won 15 Big Ten games in a single season in their IU career. That’s what makes 15 wins such an impressive accomplishment. No. 12 Indiana’s 15-3 Big Ten outright title accomplishment, capped off by Sunday’s 80-62 victory over No. 14 Maryland on Senior Day at Assembly Hall, puts this team at an elite level in Indiana lore. The last time an Indiana basketball team won 15 Big Ten games was the 1992-93 season when the Hoosiers with Calbert Cheaney, Greg Graham, Damon Bailey and Alan Henderson went 17-1 in conference play. That was the team where Henderson tore his ACL after IU had gotten off to a 13-0 Big Ten start. He tore it in practice the week before the Purdue game going up to catch a long outlet pass. That team was 31-4, which makes it also the last team in IU history to win more than 30 games. The 2013 Hoosiers came close with 29 wins. So it has been 23 seasons since an Indiana basketball team has won 15 or more games in conference. In Indiana history, it has only happened eight times. Along with ’93, IU has won 15 or more Big Ten games in a season in 1953, 1975, 1976, 1987, 1989 and 1991. Three of those seasons Indiana won the national championship. I’m not saying that this team will do that, but just trying to paint a picture here of rarified air. This team is in elite company. The most refreshing thing about this year’s Indiana team, however, is you get the feel as if Indiana is playing its best basketball of the season at exactly the right time. All the naysayers were waiting for Indiana to fold. Great start to the season against a questionable Big Ten schedule, but let’s see how Indiana fares in the second half of the year? After going 8-1 in the first nine games, IU went 7-2 in the second nine. Along the way it beat ranked foes like Iowa (twice), Purdue and Maryland. So we turn our attention toward the Big Ten Tournament which begins Friday with Indiana as the No. 1 seed playing the winner of Thursday night’s Michigan-Northwestern game. The Big Ten Tournament has never been a happy place for Indiana basketball. Perhaps that changes this season. Regardless of what happens this weekend, however, I must say that I think most IU fans will be in an optimistic place heading into Selection Sunday. I think Indiana will either get a 3 seed or possibly a 2 if it really makes some noise at Bankers Life Fieldhouse this weekend. As I’ve said before, it’s all a far cry from where we were Dec. 2 following the Duke loss and sitting at 5-3 for the year. No one could have possibly believed on that day that someday we would be sitting here trumpeting the fact that Indiana had won 15 Big Ten games. Fifteen B1G wins. Just stop and let that sink in for a moment.

Indiana coach Tom Crean was looking forward Tuesday night to seeing how his team had improved since the last time it had faced Ottawa during a summer tour of Canada prior to the 2014-15 season. That year, the Hoosiers had fallen to Ottawa by eight points. Tuesday night, it was a different looking IU basketball team that took the court for its exhibition opener at Assembly Hall. Ottawa head coach James Derouin noticed it, too. IU beat Ottawa Tuesday night 82-54. In doing so the Hoosiers limited Ottawa to almost exactly half of the points it had scored a year ago in a 109-101 victory over the Hoosiers. Tuesday, IU held Ottawa to 22 second-half points and closed the game on a 25-3 run. While Indiana struggled at times with the same issues that plagued the Hoosiers last season – turnovers and defense – IU looked largely improved. Derouin was impressed. “The first thing that jumps to mind (about how this Indiana team is different from last year’s) is the size on the offensive glass,’’ Derouin said. “I thought on the glass especially they were outstanding with 18 offensive rebounds and those extra possessions were huge. And then their defense I thought their rotations and closeouts were much, much tighter than they were a year ago.” So the man who coaches the top ranked Canadian team had some pretty high praise for the two most questionable facets of the Hoosier’s game. While keyboard warriors may be more critical, the facts indicate that head coach Tom Crean’s team has improved markedly in those areas as it outrebounded Ottawa 46-34 and limited the Gee-Gee’s sharpshooting offense to just 19 percent from the 3-point line. Sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. has an idea why the guards were better able to rebound. A lot of the thanks, he believes, belong to Thomas Bryant and Max Bielfeldt’s presence in the game at the same time. “It is so much different with those two in there, it seems like everything is carved out,” Blackmon Jr. said. “It makes it so much easier for us, I go in to crash the glass and it’s wide open.” Crean later said he wasn’t sure that the guards graded out so well in terms of offensive rebounding. Whether or not improved rebounding was the intent of the bigger starting lineup, the fact that it was used is intriguing. Last year fans grew tired of a three guard offense that struggled to find defensive success. This year, Blackmon Jr. says he has been adjusting to a bigger lineup. “We have shot blockers, so I have confidence pressing up on guys,” Blackmon Jr. said. “I know Max and Thomas have our backs.” That faith in teammates is a crucial part of help defense. Crean thinks while having faith in one another is important, the rotations have to improve after this game. “There is no question we got spread out a little too much and had to give too much help, but I liked our recovery,’’ Crean said. The ultimate goal of Crean’s philosophy is to be close to basketball without defined positions. The roster currently has a mix that of players he feels is closer to that goal than in years prior. “They can all shoot, they’re getting better with their handles although it didn’t look like that tonight at certain times,” Crean said. “If we can get to a place where we can guard different positions then that will really lead you to another place offensively.” And in its first exhibition game, the Hoosiers showed the benefits of being in Crean’s desired offensive “place.” The team shot 49 percent from the field with five players going for eight or more points. However, all the positives of this exhibition didn’t come without some negative. Indiana struggled to take care of the ball, throwing several errant passes on their way to 17 first half turnovers. The point was corrected at half time as the Hoosiers only had six turnovers in the entire second half. Crean says the difference is thanks to mostly better defense. “Frankly (it was) better defense for longer periods of time leading to easier baskets for us,” Crean said. If Indiana can do a complete 180 and find offense because of its defense, this could be an extremely dangerous unit. As it was an exhibition game, you should probably take the Ottawa performance with more than a single grain of salt. The rhythm was a bit chaotic as Crean tried several different lineups. There probably isn’t anything conclusive about this year’s team based off Tuesday night’s play. So were IU’s guards more physical rebounding the ball Tuesday night or was it a product of the opponent? “Well we have young guys so it may look like that tonight,’’ Crean said. “I’m not sure its gonna look like that when we play teams in the conference, Maryland, Purdue, Michigan State, Iowa and teams like that.’’ As of now we don’t know much of anything about how this team will compare to last years. Well, other than that Bryant is a whole lot better than last year’s starting center.

I couldn’t help but think as I was watching Indiana play No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday what the Southern Illinois people were thinking when they heard today’s final score. Or when they saw that the Hoosiers were beating Ohio State 10-6 at halftime. They had to figure it was a misprint. Or that ESPN had somehow messed things up when they scrolled that score across the bottom of the screen. I can just see the Saluki fans shaking their heads and saying, “Isn’t that the same team that less than a month ago we put 659 yards of offense against?” They had to wonder if Indiana was suiting up a completely different defense than it had just a few weeks back. They had to wonder how the defense they scored 47 points against could possibly go toe to toe with the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Maybe, they wished they could play the Buckeyes, too. But the reality is that Indiana played some of its best defense in years Saturday afternoon in the 34-27 loss to the Buckeyes. The way that Indiana came out and fought and set the tone for the game was pretty impressive. If the Hoosiers can do that against all competition and not just when they’re hyped up to play the best team in the land, this is a bowl team. Indiana made a lot of plays Saturday. That interception that Tegray Scales had was absolutely huge deep in IU territory. Or the forced fumble that Marcus Oliver created when he wrapped up the Ohio State receiver from behind. Or the play that Rashard Fant made on the fumble recovery on the Ohio State sideline. IU created three more turnovers Saturday. In recent years, Indiana’s defense did not create turnovers. And that made it too easy for teams to drive up and down the field against IU because the Hoosiers were simply not opportunistic. But this team leads the Big Ten in that category. Now, the thing that drives Indiana football fans crazy is how quickly opposing teams can score and how big plays seem to always be the norm when you’re facing Indiana. And there are no two ways around that one. Ezekiel Elliott had touchdown runs of 55, 65 and 75 yards. You simply have to eliminate those big plays in order to have a shot in a game like this. I’m not questioning that. But here is something else I know. Ohio State managed 517 yards of offense on 61 plays. If you break that down, the Buckeyes had 195 yards of offense on three plays and 322 yards on the other 58 plays. And here’s something else I know. In talking with IU players in the postgame, this is becoming a confident bunch of players. This is a team that now expects to play the way it did for much of the Ohio State game every week. This team expects to go on the road and beat Penn State. It expects to come home and throttle Rutgers for Homecoming. It expects to play every game at a high level. That has not always been the case with Indiana defenses. It hasn’t been the case for many of the years I’ve covered the team. I’m not certain it was the case when the Hoosiers looked awful in the opener against Southern Illinois. But I do those this: If Nate Sudfeld and Jordan Howard can get healthy (and I think both will play next week), this could be one of the best Indiana teams I’ve covered in 18 years. And I think that’s saying something.

Revisiting the good and the bad surrounding the Hoosiers after their 31-24 win over Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. THE GOOD 1. 4-0 - Do you have a grasp on exactly how long ago 1990 was? Seriously, a really really long time ago. You'd be lying to say the Hoosiers perfect non-conference slate was any sort of work of art. At times, it more resembled finger paint than any sort of masterpiece. But Indiana currently sits in a spot that it hasn't occupied since the first George Bush was in office, since Calbert Cheaney was a sophomore and since Macauley Culkin was left home in suburban Chicago for the very first time. Making a bowl has proven to be the tallest of orders for an Indiana program that has gone to the postseason once since 1993. The perfect non-conference record is a huge step to making it happen again. 2. Jordan Howard - Water is wet. Bears do their business in the woods. And Jordan Howard pummels another defensive front. Howard became the first player in the past 20 seasons with more than 140 yards rushing in each of his first four games at a school. That stat may make it to the living room of some running back recruits in the future. This time it was 168 yards on 33 carries. The Heisman race seems to be a formality between LSU's Leonard Fournette and Georgia's Nick Chubb at this juncture. Howard could be at least drawing an invite to New York City though with his play thus far this season. 3. Simmie Cobbs Jr. - While Howard has been the mainstay of the early-season rushing attack, a new receiver seems to be emerging weekly as a hero for the IU passing game. This week, it was Cobbs hauling in seven catches for 75 yards and a score. Standing 6-foot-4, Cobbs could emerge as a viable red-zone weapon for quarterback Nate Sudfeld, who needs a receiver with size to emerge with the big-play ability of sub-6 footers Ricky Jones and Mitchell Paige. 4. Another winning effort on D - Erasing the effort of the defense in that 48-47 season-opening win over Southern Illinois will likely never happen - suspended starters and all. But it's at least time to consider that effort as the exception rather than the rule for this team. Wake Forest ran a total of 81 on plays on Saturday and the Hoosier defense allowed 0 yards or fewer yards on 40 of them. And for the third week in a row an underclassman made a play in the defensive backfield as sophomore Tony Fields ran an interception back for what proved to be the decisive score early in the fourth quarter. While the competition really ramps up beginning this week, it's at least a bit soothing for the Hoosier fans soul to think they may not be completely overwhelmed by Big Ten offenses in 2015. 5. Opposing vitriol - While Hoosier fans, students and alumni were having a load of fun putting heat on ESPN to bring its popular "College Gameday" program to Bloomington for this Saturday's game against No. 1 Ohio State, it was fun seeing the extent of bitterness from teams around the Big Ten who scoffed at the mere thought of Indiana garnering recognition on the gridiron. Fans at Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin and others flooded Big Ten Network message boards with talk of how big a joke the idea was. Is Indiana Rose Bowl Bound? Are they in the conversation for the college football playoff? Is it a shoo-in this team will even find two more wins and be bowl bound? No, no and no. But it's less than a month from the start of college hoops practice and legit conversation is still taking place about Indiana University football. That happens as often as Final Four talk in West Lafayette. THE BAD 1. Twitter - It's amazing just how common a person can fit totally absurd statements into a mere 140 characters but the Twitterverse uncovered a real gem this weekend courtesy of a Purdue beat writer whose name I'll omit because I'm simply a nice guy. The bastion of journalistic integrity that he claims to be, he downplayed Indiana's 4-0 start by going as far as to say the Boilers are simply better than IU, would be 4-0 if they played the same schedule as the Hoosiers and that Indiana would be sitting 1-3 if it had faced the same first month they encountered up north. First, hypothetically playing someone else’s schedule is the almost literal definition of pointlessness. You play the games on your slate and let idiots like Bret Bielema bemoan who they aren't playing. But to say with any sort of conviction that Purdue, the program that has more wins against FCS level teams than FBS level squads in the past three seasons, would be perfect against any schedule four games in is using a level of imagination normally reserved for four year olds jumping on couch cushions to avoid lava traps.

There has been a lot of talk regarding James Blackmon Jr. as his future with Indiana after a few people went on Twitter Saturday night with the claim that IU’s sophomore guard was planning to transfer. At Btownbanners.com we choose not to publish articles with rumors and/or unconfirmed reports. Here is a confirmed report, however, from a press release that Indiana put out today where Blackmon Jr. makes it clear that he has no intentions of leaving the IU program. Here is what the release, put out by Indiana University media relations, had to say on the matter. Indiana University sophomore guard James Blackmon, Jr., is focusing on helping his team get ready for the upcoming NCAA Tournament and the rehab of his surgically repaired knee so he can return to full health and resume his playing career next season. “There is no validity to anything being said about my future other than I will be an Indiana Hoosier,” said Blackmon prior to practice on Sunday. “Besides working to get healthier, I’m going to help my teammates prepare for the NCAA Tournament. I’m obviously disappointed I can’t play, but the players and coaches have helped me through my injury and I want to be a leader for them.” He was averaging 15.8 points per game prior to being hurt before the teams Big Ten opener at Rutgers., IU is 21-0 anytime he shot 47.0 percent or higher from the field. He is the Big Ten sophomore class career leader in scoring averaging 15.7 ppg. So now we have a report with substance that we can pass along. The idea never made sense on a lot of different levels but it’s good to have Blackmon Jr. quoted on the topic to put that rumor to rest.

I didn’t expect Indiana to win the Big Ten Tournament. I also didn’t expect the Hoosiers to bow out as the No. 1 seed against No. 8 seed Michigan on Friday afternoon. But unfortunately, of the two scenarios, I would have thought the latter had a better chance of happening than the former. For whatever reason, Indiana basketball has not fared well in the conference tournament. In 19 tournaments, the Hoosiers have been knocked out in the first game 10 times. TEN TIMES ONE AND DONE. The last time the Hoosiers played on a Saturday in the Big Ten Tournament was 2006. And now three times Indiana has lost at the buzzer in the Big Ten Tournament. It started with Iowa’s Luke Recker (when arguably the clock operator in Indianapolis started the clock a split second too slow) and later with Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber in Dan Dakich’s interim season as coach. The third time, and the charm if you will, was Kameron Chatman’s 3 from the right corner with 0.2 seconds to play Friday that eliminated the Hoosiers 72-69. So what was Indiana’s problem Friday and how did the Hoosiers get knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament in the first game? Here are a few takes: 1. Collin Hartman has to be better: He took two shots, both 3’s, and missed them both. He had three rebounds and one turnover in 20 minutes. But he just didn’t make an impact and when Indiana has played well, Hartman has made an impact. He also looked lost on a couple of back door cuts early that resulted in Michigan layups. 2. Indiana was 4 for 17 from 3-point distance: I’m not saying that Indiana has to be connecting from deep but … in the last nine games coming in to the B1G Tournament, the Hoosiers had made at least eight 3-pointers in each game and more than 10 five times. IU relies on the long ball and if that’s not going in, then the Hoosiers simply have to be more efficient inside. And that wasn’t the case on Friday. 3. IU has to be stronger with the ball: In the last 16 games, Indiana has had 15 or more turnovers three times. One of those times was Friday. In those three games, IU was 0-3. In the other 13 games, when the Hoosiers turned it over 14 times or less, Indiana is 12-1. Indiana simply has to be stronger with the ball. So where does Indiana go from here? The answer is that the Hoosiers will likely still be a top 4 seed on Sunday when the brackets are revealed but there’s now a chance that the Hoosiers could be sent out West or somewhere a lot farther away than St. Louis or central Iowa. If that were to happen, IU would only have its self to blame after Friday’s performance .

This is a big perception week for Indiana basketball. The Hoosiers have already locked up a share of their 22nd Big Ten championship in history. IU and Purdue are now tied for the most Big Ten titles all time at 22. Indiana is moving up in the polls and is now ranked No. 12 in the nation, just on the outside of the top 10. Indiana has won three in a row and has a full two-game lead over the pack in conference play with two games to go. In many ways, Indiana is like a program screaming out to poll voters and the NCAA Selection Committee members, “Hey, look at me!” What happens this week, however, could go a long way toward determining what IU’s ultimate seed in the NCAA Tournament will be. The Hoosiers are at Iowa on Tuesday and home against Maryland on Senior Night on Sunday. In today’s Associated Press top 25 poll, the Hoosiers have moved ahead of both the Hawkeyes (No. 16) and the Terrapins (No. 14). But in the latest Bracketology offering by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, Indiana remains a No. 5 seed while Iowa is a 4 and Maryland is a 3. Bottom line: Indiana’s resume still needs a bump or two. Beating either Iowa or Maryland, or both, this week could definitely provide that bump. At the same time, a loss to either or both, could be damaging as well. Prior to this week, I didn’t have a real problem with the No. 5 seed. When I would justify it, I would point out that Indiana was ranked No. 18 in the nation and if you looked at it from a ranking standpoint then the top 16 ranked teams should probably be considered for top 4 seeds. A ranking between 17 and 20 would be about a No. 5 seed. But now at No. 12 I have a more difficult time with the No. 5 seed. Especially if Indiana ends up winning the Big Ten title outright this week and is the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament it just seems to me that the Hoosiers would deserve a top 4 seed. One thing working in Indiana’s favor this week is that with games left just against Iowa and Maryland, it isn’t possible for the Hoosiers to have a bad loss on their resume at least heading into the Big Ten Tournament. Beating Iowa on the road, despite the fact that the Hawkeyes have struggled of late and have lost four of the last five, is still not going to be an easy task. One thing that probably helps the Hoosiers in that one is that Iowa played Sunday on the road and now plays again 48 hours later. Indiana hasn’t played since Thursday. Still, the reality is that Iowa has a lot to play for, too. This one is in the must-win category for the Hawkeyes compared to it being an important perception game for the Hoosiers. But if Iowa lost again, it could easily slip into the middle of the pack range for the Big Ten Tournament and beyond. Which means Indiana will be playing a desperate Iowa team on Tuesday night. The Maryland game on Sunday will be incredibly important for both teams. For the Terrapins it would be a huge road win against the Big Ten’s only unbeaten team at home in Indiana. For the Hoosiers, regardless of how they do on Tuesday at Iowa, it will be big because of attempting to maintain that perfect record at home and the fact that it will be the final home game for a player like Yogi Ferrell. It will just be an emotional day. The one thing we can all agree on is that this week is a huge perception week for Indiana basketball. Find a way to win two games and Indiana will have won 15 Big Ten games for the first time since 1991. That would be a huge accomplishment considering where this team looked to be headed after that 20-point loss at Duke in early December that dropped it to 5-3 on the season. Winning at least a share of the Big Ten title this season is already a huge accomplishment. But that performance could be amped up measurably by winning either one or two games this week. Even at 14-4, standing alone as the top team outright in the Big Ten would be big for the Hoosiers. One thing is certain: There is a great deal of anticipation from Hoosier Nation heading into Tuesday night’s game. The stars have seemed aligned in recent weeks for Indiana basketball. Will that continue this week?

I really believed that Indiana would beat Iowa Thursday night. I said so last Saturday night after IU had looked awful in a 68-63 loss against Penn State. But this was the kind of game that you just knew that Indiana would be playing at a different level. A top 5 ranked opponent, a nationally televised game on ESPN with Purdue Person Vitale in the house, and a packed and raucous Assembly Hall willing the Hoosiers to a win. The result: Indiana 85, No. 4 Iowa 78. Now I’m not sure what I thought the script would end up being but that’s where I was most impressed with Indiana Thursday night. It wasn’t just so much that the Hoosiers won the game but it was how they won the game. This was a total team victory. Ten Indiana players saw the floor and all 10 scored. Juwan Morgan made one bucket but it was a crucial offensive rebound put back with 3:08 to play that put IU on topo 77-68. Harrison Niego made one basket but it was a huge 17-foot baseline jumper with 9:20 to play that cut the Iowa lead to 60-58 at the time. O.G. Anunoby made one shot but it was a first half layup that put IU up by 12. Nick Zeisloft gave the Hoosiers a lift from deep, hitting a trio of 3-pointers. Max Bielfeldt was good around the basket, and with Thomas Bryant in a game-long foul trouble, was needed to the tune of 25 minutes against Iowa. Bielfeldt responded with 10 points. Add it all up, and the IU bench scored 28 points and pulled down nine rebounds. That was 28 more points than Iowa scored off the bench. Iowa’s starters accounted for all 78 of its points. This wasn’t a vintage Yogi Ferrell performance. Ferrell was 2 for 12 from the field and 2 for 9 from beyond the arc. At one point, he missed nine consecutive shots. Bryant was limited to 14 minutes because of foul trouble. Robert Johnson scored 13 points in the first 25 minutes but then didn’t score again. Collin Hartman played really hard on both ends of the floor and finished with seven points in 28 minutes. Troy Williams had enough good Troy moments to negate some Bad Troy moments. He finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. But what stands out about this performance is simply that Indiana won this one as a team. On this night, the better TEAM truly did win. I have no idea how this team will fare Sunday at Michigan State. I’m guessing it will be a very difficult game to win. But what the Hoosiers showed me Thursday night is that this is a team that is going to contend for a Big Ten title right until the very end. And I thought that was the most encouraging part of a big win over a top 5 opponent.

I’ve seen a few references in the last couple of days about Indiana’s big week coming up that includes Iowa on Thursday at Assembly Hall and Michigan State Sunday in the Breslin Center in East Lansing. And yes, it does have the potential to be a big week. But anyone that is just automatically chalking up this Saturday night’s game at Penn State as a ‘W’ in the win column just doesn’t know Big Ten basketball. Should Indiana beat Penn State? Absolutely. Will Indiana beat Penn State? Most likely. But I think many of us have witnessed a disturbing trend at times with this Indiana basketball team in playing to its level of competition. And the Hoosiers simply cannot afford to do that Saturday night in Happy Valley. One of the things I’ve liked about this particular Indiana basketball team of late is that it doesn’t seem to be looking ahead. The loss to Wisconsin looks better all the time when you see that the Badgers are currently on a five-game winning streak. You can’t be ashamed of losing in the Kohl Center. It’s just a difficult place for a lot of teams to play – and especially IU for some reason. Still, the 9-1 start and a tie atop the Big Ten standings is a great beginning to the conference season. But there are still eight games to go and in order for those last few games of the regular season against Iowa and Maryland to have the significance that Hoosier fans are hoping they will, Indiana needs to take care of business against teams like Penn State on the road. This needs to be a business trip for the Hoosiers. IU needs to pack its lunch pail, go out and take care of business against the Nittany Lions, head back to Bloomington and then have a few days to prepare for the Hawkeyes. The problem for me is that I’ve covered Indiana basketball so long that I just know of the dangers of looking ahead. The good news is that I’m 100 percent confident that Tom Crean and his staff view this the same way. There’s no way they’ll allow this IU team to look past Penn State. Now the Hoosiers just have to execute and knock down a few more shots than they have in the recent past. One thing working in IU’s favor, too, is the fact that Indiana has had a pretty impressive track record against the Nittany Lions in history. Indiana is 35-10 all-time against Penn State and IU has won in its last four trips to State College. But I can’t help but remember as recently as the 2012-13 season when the Hoosiers would eventually win the Big Ten title outright on the last day of the regular season with a win at Michigan. That year, the Hoosiers started Big Ten play 8-1. The eighth win was an 81-73 victory over No. 1 Michigan on a day when IU was on College Game Day. IU was No. 3 in the nation before winning that game and moved up to No. 1 the following week. The next game up was a road game at Illinois, a game that IU was expected to win. And that was the game with the debacle on the inbounds play in the closing seconds that led to an Illini uncontested layup at the buzzer and a 74-72 Illinois win. I’m not saying that Indiana was looking past the Illini to a date on Sunday against No. 10 Ohio State, but the point is you can’t look past any team in the Big Ten. So IU needs to buckle down and take care of business on Saturday. If the Hoosiers can get past Penn State and improve to 10-1 in conference play, we’ll have plenty of time next week to talk about that Thursday night matchup with the Hawkeyes in Assembly Hall when you can bet the Hall will be rocking.

Indiana’s luck in tight games against inferior opponents finally ran out Saturday night at Penn State. And the game I was most worried about heading into the big matchup against Iowa next week materialized. Penn State 68, Indiana 63. This is a bad loss. It won’t get better as time goes on. When seeding is done for Selection Sunday this one will come up. But it’s still just one loss. I saw that one of my colleagues on Twitter wrote that Indiana had lost its chance at winning the Big Ten title. That’s a little premature isn’t it. Beat Iowa on Thursday and you’re at the very least back into a tie for first place. When you consider you have two games left with Iowa and one with Maryland, it’s difficult to say your shot at winning a Big Ten title is over. You have all of your goals and dreams ahead of you. You just have to win big games. And mark it down right here: Indiana will beat Iowa on Thursday. I don’t care about Penn State. Indiana plays better against better opponents and the Hoosiers are unbeaten at Assembly Hall. It will be a bright lights game and my guess is that Indiana will come out and take it to the Hawkeyes. I’m not nearly as confident with Sunday’s game at Michigan State. But if Indiana can come out of next week with a split I think you have to be happy with that considering the opponents. Saturday night was a bad game for the Hoosiers. And as bad as the Hoosiers played Penn State was letting IU hang around in much the same fashion as the Hoosiers were treating their hosts. Eventually you let Penn State hang around too long and the Nittany Lions were able to score the upset. I’m not ready to write off the Big Ten title based on one dismal performance but the reality is that Indiana needs to bounce back in a big way against Iowa. Do that, knock off a top 10 ranked team, and you’ll at the very least be back into a share of first place in the Big Ten. On the other hand if this turns out to be the beginning of a three-game skid, then there will be a lot of interesting discussion on this board a week from Sunday night. We’ll see.

UPDATE: Here is a release that came from IU Media Relations today.... BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head football coach Kevin Wilson announced on Wednesday the signing of 21 student-athletes to National Letters of Intent to play for the Hoosiers in 2016. IU signed 12 offensive players, seven defensive players and two athletes. The Hoosiers added four offensive linemen, two quarterbacks, two running backs, two tight ends and two wide receivers on offense, and five defensive backs and two defensive linemen on defense. The class features players from nine different states, including six from Ohio, four from Florida, three from Texas, two from Indiana, two from Georgia, one from Illinois, one from Maryland, one from Mississippi and one from New York. Quarterback Richard Lagow (Plano, Texas/Plano H.S./Cisco (Texas) C.C.) and defensive back Jayme Thompson (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S./Iowa Western C.C.) enrolled in classes this semester and will participate in spring practice. “We are very pleased with this class,” Wilson said. “The coaches did a great job building relationships. There is a lot of trust and communication that goes into recruiting, and we did some good work. Over the last couple of years, the majority of our classes featured players on the defensive side of the ball. We are counting on those players - Jonathan Crawford, Leon Thornton III, Andre Brown, Jr., Tegray Scales, Jacob Robinson and Robert McCray III - to contribute big time next year. You are always recruiting a year or two ahead, and this year was a little more offensive oriented. There are some great defensive players in this class, very good defensive backs, an active defensive end in Allen Stallings IV, and an active guy up front in Jerome Johnson. But the bulk of this class was offensive line and skill guys. As we move on down the line, we expect them to be ready to step up and play for us.” NOTE: The following was the original story that was posted Wednesday morning... The 2016 Indiana University Football signing class is up to 20 names as of 10 a.m. this morning. Here’s the list that includes a former Michigan commit at running back in Kiante Enis, a highly touted junior college quarterback in Richard Lagow, a 4-star athlete in Jonah Morris who was named the No. 1 athlete in the Midwest by Scout.com, a 4-star in-state get in OL Coy Cronk from Lafayette Central Catholic, and several other interesting pickups. The breakdown by position was five defensive backs, four offensive linemen, two each at tight end, running back, defensive line, quarterback and athlete, and one wide receiver. Here’s a look at the complete list as of now. There could be a few last signees still to come: Marcelino Ball DB 6-0 200 Roswell, Ga. (Roswell H.S.) Phil Benker WR 6-2 195 Jacksonville, Fla. (Sandalwood H.S.) Shaun Bonner TE 6-3 250 Moultrie, Ga. (Colquitt County H.S.) Khalil Bryant DB 5-10 200 Jacksonville, Fla. (First Coast H.S.) Coy Cronk OL 6-5 278 Lafayette, Ind. (Lafayette Central Catholic H.S.) Brandon Drayton DB 6-2 170 Largo, Fla. (Largo H.S.) Kiante Enis RB 6-2 205 Saratoga, Ind. (Winchester Community H.S.) Cole Gest RB 5-8 197 Lyndhurst, Ohio (St. Edward H.S.) Jerome Johnson DL 6-3 295 Bassfield, Miss. (Bassfield H.S.) Richard Lagow QB 6-6 240 Plano, Texas (Plano H.S./Cisco (Texas) C.C.) Jonah Morris ATH 6-4 200 Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban H.S.) Tyler Natee ATH 6-0 260 Euless, Texas (Trinity H.S.) Mackenzie Nworah OL 6-4 305 Houston, Texas (Manvel H.S.) Peyton Ramsey QB 6-2 190 Cincinnati, Ohio (Elder H.S.) A'Shon Riggins DB 6-0 162 Hamilton, Ohio (Hamilton H.S.) Ryan Smith OL 6-5 280 Loveland, Ohio (Moeller H.S.) Allen Stallings IV DL 6-2 230 Maywood, Ill. (Oak Park and River Forest H.S.) Grayson Stover OL 6-6 295 Spring Hill, Fla. (Hudson H.S.) Ian Thomas TE 6-5 225 Baltimore, Md. (Digital Harbor H.S./Nassau (N.Y.) C.C.) Jayme Thompson DB 6-2 195 Toledo, Ohio (Central Catholic H.S./Iowa Western C.C.)

It was a big, Big Ten road win and I think the Hoosiers will look back at this one on selection Sunday as a turning point in the season. This could be the game that allowed IU to silence its doubters, proving it can handle whatever the conference throws its way. Finally fans agree on something, this IU team is a lot more fun to watch than the beginning of the season foreshadowed. Yes, Yogi Ferrell had 17 points and Robert Johnson had 16 to lead the way for the Hoosiers. But it has been the fact that they are getting everyone to contribute that is making a difference. At this point, Ferrell, Johnson and Troy Williams leading in the box score is not a surprise, it is an expectation. In my opinion, a more important stat from Tuesday night is that freshman OG Anunoby had 11 of the team’s 26 bench points. Getting guys to contribute all around is making IU a much stronger team with depth on offense and yes, finally on defense. They have found ways to pick up the slack when the starters are in foul trouble or having an off night. Senior transfer Max Bielfeldt admitted it was a little weird walking into the visitor’s locker room at the Crisler Center. It was a unique situation nonetheless, for him to travel back to Ann Arbor, this time wearing cream and crimson. But what was even more unique on Tuesday night was IU’s 25-0 run to close out the first half. This gave the Hoosiers a 21-point advantage going into halftime. A 25-0 run like that is almost unheard of in the Big Ten, but with IU’s ability on offense, I honestly I can’t say I’m too surprised. “We played an incredible team game together,” Bielfeldt said. “Everyone brought something different and it was so much fun to be out there. The energy was great.” The players admitted they had no idea at the time they were on that sort of a run. After starting off trailing 15-4, I have to admit I was a little nervous. But coach Tom Crean said there was no sense of panic. I think this is one way IU has grown over the course of this season. Earlier on, once things started to fall apart, it was hard for IU to get back on track. We saw it in Maui, we saw it at Duke and we almost saw it at home against Minnesota. But lately, IU has shown it’s able to adapt and make changes during in-game situations, and it has proved to work well. That 25-0 run eventually led to an 80-67 win for the Hoosiers, who are now 9-1 in the conference. They have proved time and time again, that once they get going, they are not slowing down. Michigan stood no chance when IU’s offense caught fire, as we have seen many times already. “The defense generates the offense,” Johnson said. “Everyone was in there playing with energy and it translated into the offense side and everyone got a part of the run.” Yes, one can argue that Yogi carries this team, but now he has guys who can back him up. The Hoosiers have realized the importance of defense, and I could not be happier. It has worked wonders for them in conference play and helped them to gain more confidence on both ends. Even watching from home, you could definitely feel the energy during that 25-0 run, and during the course of the game. It’s clear to see the players are focusing on each other and getting better everyday. “We know how good we can be and we really trust each other,” Anunoby said. “My teammates and coaches give me a lot of confidence.” IU looks smooth on the court, in sync, and locked in. And that’s one thing that the Hoosiers have on their side right now, confidence. After that 25-0 run, Crean said his team was just getting started. But after their 19th overall win, I think the Hoosiers are just getting started at what is shaping up to be a successful, yet exciting season to watch.

Picture this scenario for a moment. It will be a little difficult but imagine if you were a Big Ten basketball fan tonight but not rooting for the Indiana Hoosiers. Imagine what that faction of the conference basketball population was thinking when it tuned in to the opening tip between Indiana and Michigan at right around 9:10 p.m. ET. They were all thinking the same thing: That Indiana was about to be delivered a slice of humble pie. Once and for all, they all believed, Indiana’s early Big Ten schedule was going to be shown for what it was and Michigan was going to bring Indiana back down to reality. Now, imagine what those same people were thinking when the Wolverines jumped out to a 15-4 lead. Everything was clicking for the home team and the Hoosiers looked a little out of sorts. Non-IU Big Ten fans were fist-pumping each other and patting themselves on the back. This one was about to get ugly and they were going to enjoy every minute of it. If they were following many IU fans on Twitter, they had to be enjoying those comments, too. People weren’t happy in IU Nation early. And then it all changed very quickly. Indiana finished the first half on a 25-0 run. From the time it was 15-4, IU finished on a 41-9 run. And just like that, non-IU Big Ten fans sunk down in their sofas. Opposing teams in the title hunt couldn’t believe what they were seeing. But to all of the doubters, Indiana served notice Tuesday night. It was just one game, but it was an IU basketball statement game. And that statement, loudly trumpeted for most of the night, is that Indiana is a legitimate Big Ten title contender. In Tuesday’s 80-67 victory (that was much more lopsided than the final score indicated) the Hoosiers came in to the Crisler Center and pushed the Wolverines around like they had never experienced before this season. At one point IU led by 27 in the second half, the largest deficit the Wolverines had faced this season. This was a Michigan team that was 11-1 at home and 4-0 at home in conference play. The conference wins had come against Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State and Minnesota. Michigan’s only home loss on the season had been to Xavier – until the Hoosiers took it to them Tuesday night. This was a Michigan team that had won four in a row and five of the last six. It was a Michigan program that went into Tuesday night’s game completely expecting to finish the night in a tie with Indiana with 8-2 conference records. Instead, the Wolverines fell to two games behind the conference leading Hoosiers. Seth Greenberg said at halftime on the ESPN Halftime Show that one thing was clear with this Indiana group: They’re fun to watch. And he’s right. Indiana is playing defense like we certainly didn’t see early in the year. The Hoosiers are playing really well in transition and when they look like they did tonight, you have to think they can play with anyone in the Big Ten. But most of all, Indiana fans will agree on one thing: This team is fun to watch. It’s fun to watch OG Anunoby grow up before our eyes. The same is true with Thomas Bryant. How much do you think Michigan fans wish that Max Bielfeldt was playing for the Wolverines? Yogi Ferrell is clearly playing his best basketball of his Indiana career. And you have to love the contributions you’re getting from a player like Collin Hartman. He just does it all. It’s a win that Indiana needs to build on. The Hoosiers are now 9-1 in the Big Ten and will be at Penn State on Saturday. That’s a potential trap game especially with Iowa coming to Assembly Hall for a potential battle of the top teams in the Big Ten next Thursday. Indiana has a chance to go into that game with a 20-4 overall record and a 10-1 mark in conference play. If IU can beat Penn State on the road, the Hoosiers would improve to 5-1 away from Assembly Hall in Big Ten play this season. That’s only going to help them on Selection Sunday. Now, forget about imagining what it feels like to be a non-IU Big Ten basketball fan tonight and head back to reality which is you’re proud to be a Hoosier. And proud about something else, too – This is a fun team to watch.

I think if most people had told you that Indiana basketball would be 8-1 at the halfway point of the 2016 Big Ten season that most people would have been okay with that. Actually, everyone would have been okay with that. It would especially be true if you also knew that eight games into the season Indiana was 5-3 and had just really struggled on the road in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Duke in a blowout loss. If you also added the facts that the Hoosiers had won 13 of their last 14 games to reach that 8-1 lofty perch, everyone would have agreed they would have taken that any time. Not to mention that at 8-1, Indiana would be in first place in the Big Ten (by a half game over Iowa) and ranked in the Associated Press top 20 by the end of January. Oh and don’t forget the Hoosiers have won 18 of their first 22 games. And with 18 wins, there are only a couple of teams in the nation that have more wins than IU and those teams have 19. Make no mistake about it, Indiana basketball is in a great place at 18-4 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten. So why do Indiana basketball fans have an uneasy feeling in their stomachs entering the month of February? The reality is that many IU basketball fans are waiting for that other shoe to drop. And it’s completely understandable following IU’s narrow 74-68 victory over Minnesota Saturday at Assembly Hall. This was a Minnesota team that was 0-9 in the Big Ten heading into Saturday’s matchup and was ripe for the upset. And that game came on the heels of Tuesday’s night tough overtime loss at Wisconsin when the Hoosiers were handed their first conference loss. The reality is that fans have short memories. They forget that a week ago, Indiana was sitting there at 7-0 in the Big Ten having just defeated back-to-back Big Ten opponents by more than 30 points. In those two games, Indiana made 32 of 64 3-point field goals and looked like world beaters. No, with college basketball, and rightfully so, it is what have you done for me lately? And lately (the last two games) was not nearly as much fun. All of a sudden here came last week where the shots stopped falling. In two games last week against Wisconsin and Minnesota, the Hoosiers were 9 of 34 from beyond the 3-point arc. They were 2 of 18 Sunday against Minnesota in a building where they usually shoot really well. And face it, when you make 23 less 3-pointers in a two-game stretch than you did in the previous two, you’re not going to look nearly as unbeatable as you once did. The elephant in the room for Indiana is its Big Ten schedule to date. Indiana has played Minnesota twice, Wisconsin twice, Rutgers, Nebraska, Ohio State, Illinois and Northwestern. Those teams have a combined Big Ten record of 19-42. Or another way of looking at it: Indiana has yet to play five teams that are a combined 33-12 in Big Ten play, a group that includes Iowa, Purdue, Maryland, Michigan State and Michigan. The Hoosiers will play those five teams a total of six times over the next nine games. Indiana had no control over its schedule to this point. The Hoosiers played the games that were on the schedule, and frankly they did really well. IU could just as easily be sitting here at 6-3 or 5-4 thinking about the next nine games and wondering what the realistic shot at an NCAA Tournament berth would be. Instead, IU fans are looking down from their current position hoping the Hoosiers can get it all together beginning Tuesday night at Michigan. Let me tell you why I’m still reasonably confident here. Here are three reasons why I think Indiana will win more than half of its remaining nine Big Ten games and be in the top four heading into the Big Ten Tournament and beyond. 1. THOMAS BRYANT: When Indiana needed him the most Saturday against Minnesota, the IU big man responded in a big way. When the outside shots weren’t falling, Indiana did a better job of playing through the big man and he took charge in the middle. He did a particularly nice job of getting his defender on his hip and then taking the ball strong to the basket. He was also big on the offensive glass and had a couple of plays in particular down the stretch that were big in IU finding a way to edge a Minnesota team that should never have been that close to the Hoosiers. But in recent years, if Indiana had a 2 for 18 performance from 3-point range the Hoosiers would have been dead in the water. Because they have Bryant roaming the middle that’s not necessarily the case right now. 2. THOSE 3-POINT SHOTS ARE GOING TO FALL AGAIN: This team has too good of shooters for a slump like that to linger. You have several guys who can legitimately knock down the ball from distance. And when that’s the case you always have a chance. Can I explain what happened Saturday against Minnesota from distance? There’s no explanation. How can Robert Johnson look so good and so confident for the last few weeks and struggle so mightily against the Golden Gophers. Johnson was 1 for 6 against Minnesota but what was worse is that the shots he missed were all good looks. Nick Zeisloft, who has had a few big games of late, missed all four of his 3-point attempts against Minnesota, too. Remember, this is the Minnesota team that Zeisloft was lights out against just a few weeks ago in Minneapolis when he made 5 of 8 from distance including four in a row in a stretch late in the first half. But those shots will all fall again. That’s the thing with shooters. They’re going to keep shooting them and the shots will fall again. 3. INDIANA ALWAYS PLAYS TO THE LEVEL OF ITS COMPETITION: This has been true for a while and it has been true of late for Indiana. I told people Saturday before the Minnesota game that it didn’t matter that this was a matchup of 7-1 versus 0-9. Indiana doesn’t handle those situations well. I would have felt more comfortable Saturday playing Iowa than Minnesota. And I’m sure Indiana would have played a lot better against Iowa than it did against the Gophers. Especially at Assembly Hall where IU rides that wave of momentum it gets from playing before its raucous home fans. But think about it. When Indiana played Ohio State (currently 6-3 in conference) at home, the Hoosiers were fired up and ready to play and led by 30 at halftime. When IU played Northwestern, a team that was playing better and had just taken Maryland to overtime on the road a few days before, the Hoosiers looked really impressive. But in two games against Minnesota and one against Rutgers in particular, IU looked lucky to escape in any of those games. And those two teams are a combined 0-18 in Big Ten play at this point. Go figure. There’s no question we’re going to learn a great deal about Indiana basketball over the next nine games. But the schedule withstanding to date, I think this is a pretty good IU basketball team and I think the Hoosiers will come out of this stretch at 5-4 or better. And myself, I’d take 13-5 in the Big Ten any day of the week.

Here is what I like about Indiana University basketball through the first two games of Big Ten play. The IU bench is emerging and the Hoosiers are proving to be deeper than I think any of us really realized. You expect Yogi to get his points every night. He had 24 Saturday in Indiana’s 79-69 victory at Nebraska as the Hoosiers won for the seventh game in a row. In two Big Ten games, Ferrell has 44 points and should have a decent shot at being in the running this week for Big Ten player of the week. But the thing there is you expect Yogi to get his points. The same is true with Thomas Bryant. Sure, there’s no doubt that the freshman big man needed a bounce back game in the worst way after only playing 6 minutes against Rutgers because of foul trouble. And Saturday he was unstoppable. He made 8 of 10 shots on the way to 19 points. He was aggressive on both ends and blocked three shots. But again, I think IU fans will come to expect big things out its freshman big man. When James Blackmon Jr. get s back in the lineup, the same kinds of expectations are there. The same should be true for Troy Williams although of late he just simply been too much in a hurry with the ball to be productive. Williams has 11 turnovers in the first two Big Ten games. For Williams to rise and be a more consistent player, he needs to take care of the ball. But this is more about those that you weren’t expecting the same level of greatness from. You knew that Max Bielfeldt was going to contribute. As a fifth year senior transfer you knew he was going to have his share of solid games. Now, I’m not sure I was expecting 18 and 14 like he posted against Rutgers, but I wasn’t surprised that he would emerge. Having watched Collin Hartman for two years at IU, nothing really surprises me there either. When he signed with IU I wondered just how big of a role he could ultimately play. But he has been really good and deserves his starting spot in place of the injured Blackmon. The job he did defensively Saturday against Shavon Shields in particular deserves a mention for certain. But a few other guys are surprising me even more. Ryan Burton and his two 3-pointer performance against Rutgers came out of nowhere. And after he didn’t play Saturday against Nebraska, you might look at it and say that he’ll continue to be a situational player who is called on here and there. And that’s fine. But what he showed against Rutgers is that he’s capable of answering that bell. At the very least that should help his confidence moving forward. Juwan Morgan is beginning to show some good signs off the bench. Morgan has been slowed by a foot injury but is starting to look as if he could give you 8-10 solid minutes per game. He played 6 against Nebraska and had two points, two rebounds and a steal. His points came at the free throw line where he knocked down a pair of foul shots with 4:09 to play in the first half which at the time broke a 28-all tie. But the buildup in this analysis, however, is reserved for O.G. Anunoby. The freshman forward looks better and better with each passing game. Saturday, in Indiana’s 79-69 victory at Nebraska, Anunoby scored 11 points in 11 minutes off the bench. He hit all four of his shots from the field, including a 3-pointer, hit 2-of-3 from the line, had three rebounds and two steals without a turnover. The most impressive thing is how you can just see him getting more and more confident with each game. It’s as if he is growing up before our eyes. If he continues to improve at this rate throughout the Big Ten season it’s going to be difficult to keep him off the floor. The first time I ever saw Anunoby play was in the Derby Festival Classic last spring in Louisville. I remember thinking at the time that I believed he could come in and help Indiana right away. But after the non-conference portion of the schedule, I figured he was more of a project than I had initially believed. He simply didn’t look comfortable in the flow of the game. He looked like he was thinking too much and afraid to make a mistake. And that’s what is different about Anunoby after a pair of Big Ten games. He looks confident, he’s always around the ball and he just has great anticipation skills. That sequence he had midway through the first half Saturday showed those things. He scored on a drive to put IU up 60-51 with 10:11 to play and then on the other end he stepped in front of a pass to the wing and went the other way for a steal and a layup to make it 62-51. I’m not surprised that IU has opened the Big Ten at 2-0 given that it started with two winnable games in Rutgers and Nebraska, despite the fact they were both on the road. I’m not surprised that players like Yogi Ferrell and Thomas Bryant are doing some good things for the Hoosiers early in the Big Ten season. But I am surprised that other bench players, most notably Anunoby of late, are progressing at the rate that they are. Keep that up and it won’t be long before Indiana basketball is back in the top 25.

1. Thomas Bryant IU needed a big performance from Bryant Wednesday night if it had any chance at running with Duke, and unfortunately Bryant fell short. Very short. He had just six points. He did add two assists, two blocks and one steal, but the most unimpressive category for him on Wednesday night was his zero rebounds. There were too many times on defense where Bryant was caught standing around and guarding empty space- if you can even call it guarding. Although one can argue size was a factor, he let many Duke players continue to drive and score in the paint. The height of the Blue Devils did not matter. Their guards, centers and forwards all had uncontested layups and were given too many second, third and fourth chances to score with each possession. Bryant wasn’t boxing out, he wasn’t rebounding and he wasn’t playing defense. The lack of his boxing out tonight was something concerning for me. Even if your shots aren’t falling or you’re not getting good looks or if you get lost on defense for a second, the easiest thing to do is find someone to block out to get a rebound. It looked like Bryant had given up after the game started to go sour and no one made any effort to correct him. Against less-competitive teams, he has shown he does have the ability to play a significant part of the IU starting lineup, but against Duke, he was just not a factor. He scored all six of his points during the first half and didn’t help the Hoosiers after things started to drastically fall apart after halftime. Bryant shot 2 of 4 from the field with a short jumper and after receiving a nice pass from James Blackmon Jr., Bryant finished with a dunk. Bryant added two free throws, and now averages 58.3 percent from behind the line. Bryant had spurts of hustle and was fouled into a cameraman on the baseline, but thankfully wasn’t injured. Overall, Bryant moved up and down the court fairly well but at times it was evident he was tired after long stretches of play. I only noticed a few times during Bryant’s 26 minutes of play where he was getting the team together to bring up the tempo. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that it wasn’t shown on television, or just the fact that he didn’t really know how to handle the opposing energy on and off the court. If Bryant is to take away anything from this game, I would hope he realizes how important he is for IU in all aspects- rebounding, defense and offense. When he watches the game film, maybe someone will tell him that feeding a bounce pass to the feet of his teammate cutting backdoor won’t get him anywhere the first time, or the second time. This was Bryant’s first experience with a true road game for IU and maybe it is just bad luck that this first test came in Cameron Indoor Stadium. I’m going to go ahead and give him the benefit of the doubt saying maybe his nerves and inexperience got the best of him. Wednesday night he showed he still has a lot to learn, but the Hoosiers are just eight games into their season. I hope that Bryant is just getting started and that he doesn’t get complacent. With the pressure and high expectations for this season, he will need to show he can handle the pressure. 2. O.G. Anunoby Anunoby entered the game for the first time pretty early on for Collin Hartman with 9:31 left in the first half. In 7 minutes of play, he had a good layup right off the bat and looked promising at times on defense – he was moving his feet. Although on Wednesday night, any attempt at playing defense would look better than some of the performances from IU’s starters or off its bench. 3. Harrison Niego, Quentin Taylor and Juwan Morgan Niego and Taylor did not have any playing time against Duke, while Morgan still remains injured and in a walking boot after IU’s game against UNLV back in Maui.

So what do we know about Indiana Basketball following last week’s disappointing 1-2 effort in Maui heading into tonight’s non-conference game at Assembly Hall against winless Alcorn State? We know that IU has a long way to go before the Hoosiers deserve to be mentioned among the top teams in the Big Ten, much less among the best in the nation. We know that if Indiana continues to play the way it has played on the defensive end in terms of allowing that much penetration that it’s going to be a difficult season to watch. We know that Indiana clearly has to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and committing so many unforced errors. We know that free throw shooting could potentially be an adventure this season. Even the guys you expect to hit them at a high rate don’t seem to have a great deal of confidence in the early going. We know that unfortunately we’re probably not going to know that much more about this IU team after it plays an 0-5 Alcorn State team tonight at home. There’s only one game of the three this week that will provide any kind of a true measuring stick game for this team and that will come up Wednesday night at Duke. Perhaps the most frustrating thing of all is that I expect Indiana to represent itself pretty well Wednesday night because this has been a team that plays better when the bright lights go on. The reality, however, is that Indiana needs to get to be a team that gives you a consistent effort every night. It cannot play to the level of its competition. When it does so, teams like Wake Forest and UNLV have a shot to beat you and that shouldn’t be the case. The good news is that there is still a month to go before IU opens Big Ten play. A lot can happen in a month especially if the Hoosiers have a short memory regarding the trip to Hawaii.

Another week, another loss for Indiana football. It is a familiar story for a program that has struggled to compete for as long as fans can remember. Maybe this season, the sting is a bit more intense because of the optimism that seemed well founded based on a perfect out of conference start. After a five game skid, things are back to how they used to be for the Hoosier football team. Did anybody ever really expect different? After all, like senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld said after their loss to Iowa, “It’s Indiana.” Basketball coach Tom Crean used the phrase at his introductory press conference and it’s still referenced by fans today. “It’s Indiana,” is a standard on the hardwood while for football, it’s more of an explanation for poor play. This team was supposed to be the one that changed that. This wasn’t going to be the same old IU football team. It’s Sudfeld’s senior year. They added a talented running back transfer in Jordan Howard. It’s the second year of a new defensive system. The players know the expectations they had for this year. And they know they face coming up short of those goals if something doesn’t change. “We still have goals to achieve,” senior tackle Jason Spriggs said. “You’re playing for your brothers, for your teammates.” One of those goals has to bowling. To be fair, there is still reason for optimism about this season. In every game except for Penn State, the Hoosiers have entered the fourth quarter with a chance to win. That includes games against undefeated teams like Ohio State and Iowa as well as Michigan State. It also includes a historic defensive collapse at home against Rutgers. At this level of football, moral victories are nice but they’re just that- nice. Not the objective. The objective for this squad is to be the first IU football team to go bowling since 2007. The team has put themselves in position to do that with only one more win thanks to their APR score, but the easiest road to a bowl is to win two of their next three games against Michigan, Maryland and Purdue. “It’s frustrating because we know what we are capable of and we get the loss then watch film and realize one or two mistakes and (if they were avoided) it’s a completely different game,” Spriggs said. “It comes down to a series or a play where we didn’t focus or whatever it is and the momentum changes.” The momentum for the last five games has been shifted against Indiana whereas in the first four games, the breaks went their way. Linebacker Marcus Oliver said after the Iowa loss that the first four games of the season the team expected to win and that is something they are trying to get back to. Does that mean Indiana players thought they would lose once Big Ten play began? Probably not. But in the face of adversity, the team has folded in the last five games. Nobody bats an eye because “it’s Indiana,” may as well be a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point. That is probably only the case for someone who sees scores on an ESPN ticker. Those watching the product on the field know this Indiana team has competed with top 10 teams. In their most recent game against No. 8 Iowa, the team did a few things well. “It gave us some confidence,” Spriggs said of the offensive line’s run blocking. “We finally got to the point where we were running the ball and blocking like we know we can.” Spriggs and his unit knows they are capable of getting the best of one of the nation’s best run defenses. If the passing game fell a bit more in Indiana’s favor, the outcome of that game may have been different. The challenge is consistently bringing that performance through four quarters over an entire season. This team has to finish a ball game the way they start. The Hoosiers’ next chance to do so is against No. 15 Michigan when they come to Memorial Stadium on November 14th. “They’re going to play hard, they’re very physical, a lot like Iowa,” Spriggs said. “They’re going to try to play upfield, we’ve seen quite a bit (of film) and we’ve got our gameplan.” This is the last chance for IU to get a signature win this season. Spriggs said it would be a statement win. At this point of the season, as long as they bring a complete effort against Maryland and Purdue, this Indiana team has shown they have the talent to win and get to 6-6. That is in itself a huge feat for this program. The fact is, Indiana may or may not beat Michigan. If it does, fans may decide that this five game losing streak wasn’t as bad as it seemed. If it doesn't, well, it’s Indiana.

The 2015 Haunted Hall of Hoops featured two 10-minute periods and a third period that was about six minutes. Collin Hartman, Juwan Morgan, Thomas Bryant, Tim Priller, Nick Zeisloft, Yogi Ferrell and Robert Johnson made up the white team while the red team had James Blackmon Jr., Troy Williams, Max Bielfeldt, Harrison Niego, Ryan Burton and Josh Newkirk. This event likely provided a better glimpse of who can provide what this season than Hoosier Hysteria, though it should still absolutely be taken with a grain of salt. With that said, after about 25 minutes of basketball plenty of observations and logical deductions can be made. While Blackmon Jr. was the leading scorer with 17 points, Anunoby stole the show with his active hands on defense and athletic finishes at the rim that netted him 15 points. Bryant and Ferrell also finished with 15 points while Williams had 11 and Bielfeldt scored nine to go along with nine rebounds. What can we expect out of Anunoby this year? He wasn’t highly rated coming out of high school. Most of the fan base has no expectation for significant contributions to be made by him in his first season. But after a scrimmage where he intercepted passes, tipped balls, defended well AND showed the ability to run the floor well, that may change. Associate Head Coach Tim Buckley said for Anunoby to see the floor he must understand his strengths and weaknesses. “The speed of the game is something every freshman has to get used to,” Buckley said. “You see how guys listen and how they understand… I think there will be development thanks to practice, the film room, and things like that.” It would be silly to expect the kind of production he had Saturday afternoon during the regular season, but if he can even just bring the same intensity to the defensive side of the floor, Anunoby could find himself getting quite a bit of playing time. Fellow freshman Bryant scored 15 points as well. He, however, did not have the dominating performance he had during Hoosier Hysteria. There are two ways to look at Bryant’s display at Haunted Hall of Hoops. On one hand, he didn’t play anywhere near his best game and still scored 15 points. He was sloppy at times, committed fouls, and looked a bit uncomfortable. If he can grind out a performance like that during a bad day, he could exceed his freshman expectations. On the other hand, the first game is 13 days away. Bryant is by far the best big man IU has and he was taken advantage of at times by fifth year transfer Bielfeldt who was never overly impressive at Michigan. The question has to be raised: how much of Bryant’s development was stunted by all the time he has missed in the preseason at the hands of a foot injury? For this team to have any success, Bryant must find his groove by the time conference play starts. As previously mentioned, Bielfeldt more than held his own against a five star talent who is taller than him by two or three inches. Any fan who agonized over the Hoosiers’ defensive woes in the paint last season will appreciate a smart player who knows the ins and outs of the Big 10 play. He was one point and one rebound away from recording a double-double against the team’s best post defender. That presence, which Buckley called poise in the post, will be needed to add depth in the front-court. It cannot be understated how valuable the perspective of a fifth year player is in an otherwise very young group. Blackmon Jr. looked smooth bringing the ball up the court against pressure from Johnson. He looked even smoother hitting several threes. Buckley says Blackmon Jr. is still recovering from his injury. “He has done a terrific job bouncing back mentally and physically,” Buckley said. “He is playing more at the point where he is initiating the offense and getting used to guys getting into him, but he has always had a really nice stroke and that hasn’t changed much.” Blackmon Jr. also appeared to be more aggressive, driving with much more strength than he did at times last season. Conversely, Williams didn’t look like the Hoosier Hysteria 3-point shooting contest winner. While he played well by all accounts, fans may want to temper their expectations for him this year. While the athleticism is undeniable, he still doesn’t look to have taken the same sophomore to junior year leap of Victor Oladipo that fans have been clamoring for. The scrimmage also showcased one look that fans begged for at times last year- a press. There was plenty of full court pressing, albeit soft at times. Buckley said it is a strategy that makes the most of Indiana’s athleticism. “We want to be able to use our athleticism and our length,” Buckley said. “But we don’t want to get out of position so we really have to keep our chests in front of the ball handlers and not let them into the paint.” There were plenty of opportunities last year where a press would have been beneficial, but it never came to fruition. This year, Buckley says, it may be an option. “The guys are starting to do a much better job of covering for each other,” Buckley said. “Our guys are understanding those rotations better.” Part of why so many fans wanted a press was the distinct height disadvantage Indiana often found themselves in. This year, that may not be such a problem as the staff believes their personnel allows them to matchup with teams much better. “Basketball is becoming more and more of a matchup game than a position game, so you pretty much are who you can guard,” Buckley added. “You could see Max and Thomas on the floor at the same time along with Collin (Hartman) and I think we have a lot of possibilities to be a versatile team.” At the end of the day, this is another scrimmage and it certainly won’t be indicative of how the season will go. However, there were some refreshing changes in philosophy and a lot of growth in player’s individual games. There is a lot of reason to believe that this team won’t be the same as last year’s with a few different faces. Indiana has two more exhibition games before it kicks off its season against Eastern Illinois on November 13 in Bloomington.

As I sat on the sidelines at Hoosier Hysteria, I got those chills that roll down my spine every time I see the Indiana men's basketball squad enter Assembly Hall. I was on the call for the Big Ten Network with the BTN Student U program, alongside Ben Wittenstein and Karley Marotta. I saw Thomas Bryant, Juwan Morgan, O.G. Anunoby, Josh Newkirk, Max Bielfeldt and Harrison Niego enter Assembly Hall to be formally introduced as Hoosiers to fans and I have to say I was impressed. Thomas Bryant looks massive up close. No question on that one. He's a 6-foot-10, 245 pound monster who will be a big impact immediately in the Hoosier post. Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby are not quite as big of surprises, but they will certainly deliver. The real surprise of the night, however, had to be Troy Williams in the 3-point and dunk contests. A lot of fans believed that Williams was going to take the dunk contest easily, which he did, but the junior also took the 3-point challenge over the prolific shooters on the team. The junior from Hampton, Va. took down Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell, Nick Zeisloft, Robert Johnson, and James Blackmon Jr., the sharp shooters who all averaged 38 percent or better from behind the arc last season. Williams was victorious in both, becoming the first player to win both Hoosier Hysteria events. Williams' outstanding performance in the dunk contest proved his athletic ability for the umpteenth time. A between the legs dunk sealed the victory for Williams, but I was more impressed by his first attempt; a 360-degree windmill slam that brought Assembly Hall to its feet. In the scrimmage, the Cream team came away with the win over the Crimson with a 35-28 win. Bryant, the freshman out of Rochester, N.Y., led the Cream with 13 points in the post, proving that he will quickly jump into the rotation, serving as the center that IU has needed since Noah Vonleh departed for the NBA. Bryant also attempted the infamous Michael Jordan dunk from the free throw line during the dunk contest, but could not quite throw it down. His athleticism was amazing to watch. I could not resist enjoying the introduction of the newcomers. Bryant started off his career at IU in the right way; a dance performance that could not be matched. His personality and charm instantly won over thousands of fans in Assembly Hall. Bielfeldt, the transfer from Michigan, knocked down a guarded three-pointer late in the scrimmage, so I can only hope that he will be a dual threat kind of reserve player. Morgan and Anunoby, a pair of high school foes turned into teammates, will also act as key reserves in the post, as they averaged 18.5 points per game in their senior seasons. Overall, I have good thoughts about this IU men's basketball squad. Bryant will be a great addition, and he has the backups of Morgan, Anunoby, and Bielfeldt. Of course, the shooters have all returned, and we can all trust that all four veteran guards will come back ready to go. The Hoosiers will start off their exhibition season on Nov. 3 against Bellarmine at 7 p.m. on BTN Plus before opening the regular season on Nov. 13 at home against Eastern Illinois.

My first thought following Indiana’s gift-wrapped, come-from-ahead, 55-52 loss to Rutgers at home Saturday was that with Indiana football there have always been a couple of hard and fast truths. 1. It’s never easy. 2. No lead is ever safe. 3. Always expect the unexpected. They all came into play Saturday in Bloomington. Indiana had a 25-point lead with 5:25 to play in the third quarter after the Hoosiers opened the half scoring 28 unanswered points and took a 52-27 lead. At most college football programs, it’s game over. Warm up the Rutgers busses, put in some guys that normally don’t get to play and watch the individual statistics soar. But we all know another truth about Indiana football: IU is not most college football programs. Just when you think you’ve seen it all with the Hoosiers, something like this happens. You can blame Kevin Wilson (and many will). You can blame some poor decisions by Nate Sudfeld late in the game (and many will). You can blame a defense that in key situations simply can’t get out of its own way (and many will). You can blame an inopportune bad snap on a punt that resulted in a touchdown. You can blame lack of recognition on a Rutgers fake punt in the first half. You can blame not getting enough consistent pressure on the quarterback throughout the game. There was plenty of blame to go around. But the reality here is that this game should never have had a chance to get to where Rutgers could come back and win. Good teams and good programs just do not allow that to happen. But once again Indiana football proved that when it comes to those two areas IU is 0-for-2. So who deserves the most blame for this debacle? Wilson? If you are one of those people in the camp that the fifth-year head coach needed to find a way to win this season and if not could potentially be shown the door, then you’d have to think a loss like this could provide the straw that broke the camel’s back. No question about it. This was an epic loss. This was one that should have been in the books and yet you let it slip away. Indiana should be 5-2 right now with five games to play and needing just one win to get bowl eligible. Instead, IU will likely have to beat both Maryland and Purdue on the road to get to a bowl game. While a possibility, that’s far from a sure thing. But back to Wilson. I remember thinking back in 2010 after IU got ripped on the road at Wisconsin 83-20 that that one embarrassment was going to be tough for Lynch to overcome. And he was let go after the season. But I really felt that went IU left Madison that day that Lynch was a dead coach walking. If Indiana fails to win six games this year, when people look back at Saturday’s debacle will they think about it in the same way? It’s very possible. The other one was inexcusable for different reasons. This was simply a game that once you got ahead 52-27 you simply could not afford to lose. And when the Hoosiers did … well, draw your own conclusions. After IU took that big lead, Rutgers came back and scored pretty quickly to make it 52-33. But that should still be a lead, with 17 minutes to play in the game that should be safe. The next time IU got the ball I thought the Hoosiers got a little conservative. Mike Majette, running the ball for the first time in a game this season on Saturday, got the call on running plays on both first and second down. One went for minus-1 and the other for no gain. Now, you’re in third and long and you get an 8-yard completion. On the first play of the fourth quarter, after deciding to punt from the Rutgers 46, there was a high snap over the head of Erich Toth and the senior didn’t have his finest moment on the play. He tried to pick it up but instead the ball was knocked away and eventually returned the other way for a touchdown. Now it was 52-39. When IU got the ball back the next time, it looked as the Hoosiers were going to be aggressive again. Ricky Jones caught passes of 13 and 23 yards to get the ball to the Rutgers 40. But then Sudfeld had an incomplete pass, Devine Redding had a 1 yard gain, and on third down Sudfeld threw a pick. On this play, the defender made a nice break on the ball and made an acrobatic grab. Still, Rutgers got the ball back and scored on the next possession to make it 52-46. This is when I thought Sudfeld really made his most questionable throw of the game. On first down at the IU 25, leading by six points with just under 10 minutes to play, Sudfeld threw a pass in the direction of Mitchell Paige deep down the left sideline. But there were three Rutgers defenders in the area and one of them came up with a pick. Rutgers needed five plays to go 63 yards and the game was tied. Indiana blocked another extra point to keep it at 52-all. But it was only delaying the inevitable. Indiana had a three and out and never saw the ball again. Indiana had a ton of superlative performances. Sudfeld had a career-high passing, the Hoosiers may have found another solid running back with the play of Majette, and three IU receivers had more than 100 yards receiving. But none of it matters because of the ‘L’. That’s the only statistic you could take out of this game. And ultimately it could be the only statistic in 2015 that separates Indiana from going to a bowl game.

Rutgers comes to Bloomington on Saturday for the Hoosiers’ homecoming weekend. Rutgers is coming off a nail-biting loss to Michigan State while Indiana tries to bounce back from a 29-7 defeat at Penn State. Indiana fans have had this game circled as a ‘win’ since the schedule came out. At 2-3, the Scarlet Knights look to be about what opposing fans expected in the preseason. That record may be deceiving however, as they put a scare into the then fourth ranked Spartans of Michigan State. Clearly, Rutgers has the talents to win big games. “Although their record is 2-3, they are a very talented team,” said secondary coach Brandon Shelby. “When you watch film you know it will be a challenge.” The premiere challenge in this matchup will feature the leader of the IU secondary, Rashard Fant, against future NFL draft pick Leonte Carroo. This will be Carroo’s second game after being suspended earlier in the season. He looks to repeat his performance from last week. “Carroo is a dominant player, his first week back he had seven catches and three touchdowns,” Shelby said. “He keeps them in games.” Shelby was critical of Fant’s play to this point in the season. “His first five games I don’t know if he graded out that well, but he did a great job last week,” Shelby said. While Fant is the closest thing Indiana has to a veteran in the secondary, the coaching staff believes he still has plenty of room to grow. Shelby stated that Fant will look to build on his performance against Penn State last week. “His (Fant) first few games I was disappointed in his play, last week he played a full, good game,” Shelby said. “Can he do it again? If he wants to reach his goal he has to do it again and again.” Part of that building process for Fant includes being more aggressive and overall a more physical corner. Fant believes those are the areas of his game where he can improve the most. Shelby shared a similar sentiment. “Rashard needs to be a dominant player for us and part of that is attacking more to get interceptions and make plays,” Shelby said. Everyone in the secondary is excited to meet the challenge. In just three games, Carroo has totaled fourteen receptions, 315 yards and six touchdowns. While Fant is expected to get the majority of snaps against Carroo, fans should expect a mix of players to guard the Edison, New Jersey product. The thought process behind this is that each player in the young Hoosier secondary has a different skillset, so by throwing a combination of looks at Carroo, Indiana can figure the most effective way to minimize his production. “We’ll probably throw everybody at him, let everybody get a chance,” Fant said. “We are all going to go in there and give it everything we’ve got.” Carroo, a savvy veteran, has the potential to take advantage of a relatively weak Indiana passing defense. As a likely future NFL player, he is at the stage of his career where IU’s young secondary may not present much of a challenge. “He’s been doing it for a long time and we have guys like Andre Brown who has been doing this (college football) for a couple months,” Shelby said. But youth won’t be used as an excuse by anyone on the Indiana football team. The team has been taught preparation all summer long, and Fant has been reinforcing the coaches’ message with the younger players. “I watched the whole MSU game and half of the Washington State game and told the younger guys to watch the MSU tape,” Fant said. “We want to see where MSU’s corners could’ve maybe done something differently and take what they did do well and use it, because they are great cornerbacks.” Ultimately, Shelby believes his players know the challenge that awaits them. “I don’t have to say anything, they can look at the film,” Shelby said. “I was watching the tape and I was in awe because that’s a very good defense at MSU and he (Carroo) was all over the field making great plays.” The young Indiana secondary will get a test against one of the best players in the Big Ten and a future NFL draft pick. The unit has grown quite a bit as the season has progressed, but Fant says they have put their development in perspective. “There is a lot of room to get better, we are 4-2 but none of us are satisfied,” Fant said. “We have to get better at our positions, we aren’t happy about 4-2 because we should be 6-0.” Shelby expects homecoming to be a great game, and emphasized that for the team to improve to 5-2, it has to get Rutgers off the field. “Their quarterback has the best third down percentage in the league and they are going to score points if we don’t get them off the field,” Shelby said. After a two game losing streak, a homecoming matchup with Rutgers may be just what the Hoosiers need to get back on track. If they do improve to 5-2, Indiana will be one step closer to going bowling for the first time since 2007.

On paper, Curtis Jones looks like exactly what the Indiana basketball program needed. He’s a shooting guard that is somewhere between 6-2 and 6-4 who is also skilled at the point guard position. He played last year at Huntington Prep where he averaged 15.3 points and 3.9 assists. In announcing on Twitter Saturday morning that he had verbally committed to play basketball at Indiana, Jones chose the Hoosiers over a final four that included Georgetown, Cal and Oklahoma State. Check out some of the other schools that had offered him and it’s an impressive list: Schools like Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, VCU, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia. Jones, from Highland Springs, Va., is an important piece because Indiana will lose Yogi Ferrell, Nick Zeisloft and most likely James Blackmon Jr. after next season. The Hoosiers are going to need a combo guard who plays at a high level. He’s ranked No. 55 in ESPN’s Top 100 recruits in his class and he’s also a four-star recruit by both Rivals and Scout. The big question with Jones is will his commitment have any influence on his Huntington Prep teammate Miles Bridges who is expected to announce his decision in the next few weeks. Bridges has announced a final three of Kentucky, Michigan State and Indiana and sources indicate he’s a Michigan State lean. However, you just wonder if Jones’ decision to attend IU could have any impact on Bridges. This is the second player in the 2016 class that has committed to IU. The other is 6-6 Grant Gelon, a two-star recruit.

Here are a few things I took from Indiana’s 36-22 victory over Florida International Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. · If the Indiana defense can hold opponents to 22 points or less the Hoosiers will win a vast majority of those games. · Jordan Howard is so much fun to watch. You have to love how hard he hits a hole and what he does after an initial hit. And here’s a factoid I like as well: Howard has carried the ball 47 times and gained 304 yards and two games. More importantly, he has only lost 1 yard total in two games. · Indiana has never been known as a turnover creating defense in recent years but the three Florida International miscues Saturday night resulted in 20 Indiana points. · Nate Sudfeld has had a couple of near picks this year but for the most part he’s making great decisions with the ball. His inside fake to Howard at the goal line that resulted in him walking in for a 1 yard TD was a thing of beauty. · If you want to talk about Jameel Cook’s 96-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter you had better talk about the pass deflection that Dawson Fletcher made in the back of the end zone on the play before. One play set up the other. · How about Marcus Oliver’s game on Saturday night? He led the Hoosiers with seven tackles, had a big fumble recovery and pancaked FIU quarterback Alex McGough after that pick 6 play. · Through three quarters Indiana had run 70 offensive plays. It finished with 85. · Indiana has outscored its first two opponents 23-0 in the second quarter. · IU has now trailed at halftime in both games and rallied from at least an eight-point deficit in each game. · Mitchell Paige’s spin move on his 16-yard touchdown catch may not get the same attention that Braxton Miller’s did but I’m looking forward to watching the replay of the game just to play that back a few times. Ricky Jones had a nice downfield block on that play, too. · Some of Indiana’s tackling in the first half in particular left a lot to be desired. IU’s young secondary in particular has to be better in that area. · Eleven penalties for 110 yards is just too much. I know it was getting chippie out there but the five off sides penalties on Indiana in particular were hard to watch. The pass interference calls were close, and at least one of the roughing the passer calls were questionable, too. · I must admit I didn’t expect to hear a referee say into his live microphone during a game, Bob Knight’s favorite word. Looking forward to that on the replay, too. · Indiana had 205 net yards rushing against a defense that only allowed 46 yards rushing a week ago. · The defense played much better than it did a week ago, and having Ralph Green III and Darius Latham inside was significant. Looking forward to seeing what Tegray Scales does next week when he returns to the lineup. · You had to love seeing the tight end position get involved in the IU offense Saturday night. Michael Cooper had three catches for 66 yards and Anthony Corsaro also had a catch. · It was good to see Griffin Oakes bounce back to hit his third field goal of the night (that one from 40 yards) after badly hooking one wide left from 44 yards out two quarters before. Those are some free flowing thoughts off the top of my head. I’m sure there are many other topics to discuss, too. What have you got? I’d like to hear from you the ones you think I missed. Stay tuned to a couple of more stories today and in the morning as Ryan Palencer was also on hand with me at Memorial Stadium Saturday night.