Hot damn Hoosiers. Held Mega to 2 pts. for the first 5 1/2 minutes of the game during which IU forced 3 TOs, drew 6 fouls and held Mega to 1-7 shooting. Held Mega to 4 pts. the first 8 minutes of the second half on 1-9 shooting while forcing 4 TOs, and after eleven minutes in the half Mega had only scored 6 points on 2-13.
Seriously? That's mildly obscene and more to be expected of playing against The Sisters of Divine Flatulence rather than an ostensibly decent FIBA Team. In watching the game (thanks to a certain true IU fanatic), ball pursuit on D seemed unlike anything seen at IU in a long time. It wasn't just fronting opponents and mucking up passing lanes, closing speed on ball movement (in the second half at least when I began to notice) was exceptional. Mega went 9-32 on twos largely because most of what they put up was intensely challenged (or blocked by Geronimo), they were rarely able to penetrate or get into any sort of motion, and often barely had enough time to catch or rebound without it being contested. Makes perfect sense if ball and the defender arrive more or less simultaneously that it doesn't leave much room for error, but it also just makes it that much harder to 'breathe'. IU just plain stifled whatever Mega's offensive plan was - pretty sure no one expected after losing the opener they'd come out and shoot 17-60 in the rematch. Well maybe Dane...
XJ & RP combined for 13 assists on 3 TOs (all on X) and the Team combined for a whopping total of 6 TOs (against 13 for Mega). Liked Rob's fantastical no-look over the back 'scoophooklayup', but Xavier's 'pardonmewhileIfakeyououtofyourjock' 2nd-half shake and bake was pure poetry. Geronimo robbed them of 4 points on those two monstrous 2nd-half blocks at the rim (and hit a pretty 3), Race was a vacuum (13 boards) while recording the game's highest performance index (and hit a pretty 3), and Parker was again solid despite an off shooting nite (but also hit a pretty 3). Trayce and Trey played tough, Khristian came in late and scored twice on quick drives (again) to the rack, something I don't recall seeing all of last Season and very encouraging. Oh yeah, there's that other guy Bates, Tamar I think - he looks like he might be half-decent. 🍏 🍏
Could go on but too early and they were after all just exhibitions. Still, as TJD said Friday, "That was fun". Oh yeah.
🍎
Seriously? That's mildly obscene and more to be expected of playing against The Sisters of Divine Flatulence rather than an ostensibly decent FIBA Team. In watching the game (thanks to a certain true IU fanatic), ball pursuit on D seemed unlike anything seen at IU in a long time. It wasn't just fronting opponents and mucking up passing lanes, closing speed on ball movement (in the second half at least when I began to notice) was exceptional. Mega went 9-32 on twos largely because most of what they put up was intensely challenged (or blocked by Geronimo), they were rarely able to penetrate or get into any sort of motion, and often barely had enough time to catch or rebound without it being contested. Makes perfect sense if ball and the defender arrive more or less simultaneously that it doesn't leave much room for error, but it also just makes it that much harder to 'breathe'. IU just plain stifled whatever Mega's offensive plan was - pretty sure no one expected after losing the opener they'd come out and shoot 17-60 in the rematch. Well maybe Dane...
XJ & RP combined for 13 assists on 3 TOs (all on X) and the Team combined for a whopping total of 6 TOs (against 13 for Mega). Liked Rob's fantastical no-look over the back 'scoophooklayup', but Xavier's 'pardonmewhileIfakeyououtofyourjock' 2nd-half shake and bake was pure poetry. Geronimo robbed them of 4 points on those two monstrous 2nd-half blocks at the rim (and hit a pretty 3), Race was a vacuum (13 boards) while recording the game's highest performance index (and hit a pretty 3), and Parker was again solid despite an off shooting nite (but also hit a pretty 3). Trayce and Trey played tough, Khristian came in late and scored twice on quick drives (again) to the rack, something I don't recall seeing all of last Season and very encouraging. Oh yeah, there's that other guy Bates, Tamar I think - he looks like he might be half-decent. 🍏 🍏
Could go on but too early and they were after all just exhibitions. Still, as TJD said Friday, "That was fun". Oh yeah.
🍎
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