ESPN Men's Basketball

Indiana won three Big Ten games during the 2010-11 season. In the months leading up to the 2012-13 campaign, however, Tom Crean’s program has been pegged as a favorite to win the national title.

Crean talked to ESPN.com about next season’s team, his talented recruiting class and the expectations attached to the program.

How do you feel about the lofty preseason projections and rankings for your program?

Tom Crean: It’s really not to me what others would think. We don’t spend a lot of time on it. I spend more time looking at who else is ranked and how many times we have to play them. I don’t think in those terms and we certainly don’t work in those terms. It’s not like I dread it, it’s not like anybody shies away from it.

When you’re immersed in it, you stay in your own reality. And our reality is we’ve got a long way to go to get where we want to go. We’re going to have upwards of eight freshmen and sophomores on this team next year. Obviously, one of them is Cody [Zeller], but still, he’s only going to be a sophomore. And the bottom line for us is we’ve got to get a lot of guys meshed into this team.

If I felt like we had a group of guys who were caught up in that, then I’d be dealing with it a lot differently. But I don’t. I think it’s motivating them and it’s inspiring them to get better.

How will you get your talented recruiting class to blend with the returning players on your squad?

TC: I think for us, it’s going to be a combination of us putting even more on the incoming players this spring. We went into some of their schools in our last recruiting period to really kind of assess where they’re at, watching a lot of film … making sure now when they get here, we’ve got a real plan for how this team really starts to come together.

And that our upperclassmen, even the sophomores, do a great job of getting them immersed and feel a responsibility for them. And not just as buddies and future teammates but a real responsibility for these guys to get here and get immersed in the culture of our program.

What’s the expectation for Victor Oladipo (10.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg) next season?

TC: Just continuing to improve in all areas. There’s no question, his shooting and his range shooting. He’s a very good shooter; he’s got to become a more confident shooter. That the ballhandling continues to improve where his decision-making and his finishing become outstanding. He’s got to become a tremendous decision-maker for us and at the same time, he’s got to be an even better finisher.

He still misses too many shots he should make. Now he’s got to make those things against pressure. He has a flair for the dramatic and he has the ability to make some really tough shots. … The other thing I think he has to become is an even better all-the-time on-ball defender. He should be in the conversation for one of the best defenders in America.

Christian Watford had a great NCAA tournament and flirted with the NBA draft. How did he ultimately reach the decision to return and what’s his potential for next season?

TC: I was locked in the process. We were locked in the process with him of trying to help him be able to get drafted. I knew it was very important to have that opportunity to go. But I also knew he was looking at it with both eyes wide open, as was his family.

And when you look at it sideways and you look at it with rose-colored glasses, that’s when you make mistakes. And I’d have been a lot more concerned if I wasn’t doing that. He was looking at it with both eyes wide open. And that made the process that much smoother.

We got a lot of information from the decision-makers. … He saw every note that I took. He saw every word that I wrote down of what people said. And I really don’t hold anything back from them. Right now, he’s got to continue to get his strength. He had a heel issue during the year that we want to make sure his body continues to heal the right way. ... Take his shooting up another notch. And then, he’s really got to establish that he’s going to be a very, very good rebounder and that that skill will transfer to the next level.

He needs to be a better rebounder for us. But at the same time, he needs to be a proven, legit, tough rebound guy for the next level. And then I think he has to continue to build on what he did defensively this season. … He’s got to prove that he can guard anybody on that perimeter.

You have a talented incoming recruiting class (No. 10 on ESPN 100). How many players from that group will make an immediate impact?

TC: I wouldn’t break it down that way. I wouldn’t do that with them. I think everybody brings something different. And when you look at the rankings and where things are laid out, those rankings are there for a reason. These guys have done some really great things.

It won’t matter once they get here. It’s how they blend. It’s how they fit in. It’s the work ethic that they provide. There’s no doubt that we’re really trying to build a deep team … one where we can really get out and be far better defensively. If we’re far better defensively, there’s no doubt we’re going to be far better offensively.

The guys that figure out that the best when they get here will be the guys that have the best impact on our team.

ATLANTA -- Reaction from Kentucky's 102-90 victory over Indiana in the South Regional.

Overview: Kentucky was built for the Final Four and a national title.

Now the Wildcats have their shot. Kentucky is 40 minutes away from their stated goal of a trip to New Orleans.

The Wildcats withstood plenty of charges from an Indiana team that never quit. But Kentucky proved to have too many options offensively. Whenever it seemed like Indiana was going to go on a significant run, someone else would make a play.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 24, Doron Lamb 21, Darius Miller 19, Marquis Teague 14 and Terrence Jones 12.

Kentucky had tremendous balance and loaded up the stat sheet en route to a 102-point effort, though defense was lacking at times as Indiana scored 90. The Wildcats and Hoosiers are the only teams to score at least 90 points during the tournament.

Kentucky always had the ability to be one of the most impressive teams offensively and finally showed it Friday night. This was the Wildcats' second-highest scoring game of the season (behind a 108-point effort against Marist) and the first time Kentucky has scored 90 points or more in the Sweet 16 since scoring 94 against UCLA in 1998.

The Kentucky-Baylor game is exactly the matchup that should have been in this regional. Even though Duke was the No. 2 seed in the South, Baylor was clearly the better team.

If you enjoyed this matchup, then get ready for an even better one Sunday.

Key player: Darius Miller had moments of being the ultimate glue guy with key buckets, whether he was facing the basket or slicing to the hoop. But the difference maker Friday night was Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. MKG seemed to be in the right spot at the most opportune times and was creating opportunities for himself. Indiana could not contain him. MKG finished with 24 points and 10 boards. He didn’t miss a free throw, either, converting all 10. MKG’s work ethic is hard to match. He plays every possession as if it were his last.

Key stat: The Wildcats got to the free throw line a ton. Indiana did not. Kentucky was creating the contact and Kidd-Gilchrist and Lamb were the biggest beneficiaries. Neither missed a free throw. This was not a case of poor officiating. Rather, the Wildcats forced Indiana to foul. Kentucky was the aggressor throughout the second half. The Wildcats finished shooting 35-of-37 at the free throw line. MKG was a perfect 10-of-10 and Lamb was 8-of-8. Marquis Teague was 6-of-6 and Darius Miller was 5-of-5. Meanwhile, Indiana was 13-of-17. Kentucky’s free throw percentage (94.6 percent) was the highest in NCAA history with a minimum of 35 attempts (surpassing North Carolina's 91.7 percent in 1977), according to the NCAA. It was the most made free throws in a tournament game since Ohio State made 35 against Memphis in 2007.

Turning point: Anthony Davis had been battling foul trouble and a pestering Indiana front line. But the four-award national player of the year winner (he has two more to go) blocked a shot and then converted an offensive rebound at the other end to give the Wildcats a 79-66 lead. The Wildcats would still have to deal with a pesky Indiana, but Davis’ assertion as a dominant presence sent a strong message. The consecutive plays was a huge lift for Kentucky and a bit deflating for the Hoosiers. Indiana cut the lead under 10, but Miller helped stretch it back out to a manageable number. The Hoosiers lost Victor Oladipo to five fouls with more than four minutes left, which ended up being a critical blow.

What’s next: Top-ranked Kentucky takes on No. 3-seeded Baylor in a highly-anticipated Elite Eight matchup. The length and athleticism of both teams on display should provide quite a treat. If the officials let the teams play, this could be one of the most entertaining games we’ve seen at this stage in the tournament. It has a chance to rival that Arizona-Illinois Elite Eight game from 2005.

PORTLAND -- There was 1-17 and Kelvin Sampson and the NCAA investigation and an implosion of a marquee program whose fans love their team because they really love the game of basketball -- and the game had become unwatchable at Indiana.

Misery was Hoosiers basketball over a 10-year stretch since the school last played for a national title in 2002. A proud program found itself cast into the fetid basement of the Big Ten with a 6-25 record in 2008-09.
The return of Indiana basketball from the depths was one of the major stories of this college hoops season. But everyone knew that story would be tested in the NCAA tournament. In college basketball, that's when plots thicken and teams are unmasked, their ultimate truth revealed by the pressure of win-or-go-home.

That the Hoosiers beat a rugged VCU team 63-61 to advance to the program's first Sweet 16 in a decade is meaningful in itself, of course. But the way the Hoosiers prevailed adds heft and substance to the accomplishment.

VCU was pushing Indiana around most of the night in the Rose Garden. It was dictating the pace. And its "havoc" defense forced a stunning 22 turnovers. The Hoosiers' previous worst this season was 18.

There were plenty of reasons to get flustered and to let doubt enter into the team huddle. Only it didn't. And during the final stretch, it was the IU defense, as well as clutch play, that stood out.

"I got to see this game, the last six or seven minutes through our players' eyes," coach Tom Crean said. "And they were so locked in and had such great resolve to never panic and to just truly believe that they were going to win."

Locking in and showing resolve. That sounds a bit like ... Indiana basketball.

Defense? VCU led 57-48 with 12:30 left. The Rams would score just four more points. Sure, some of that was poor shooting. But how can you not credit a defense for yielding that few points over that long of a stretch?

Clutch plays? Indiana scored the final seven points. Cody Zeller made two free throws that closed the gap to three. Victor Oladipo's 3-point play tied the count. And Will Sheehey's short jumper from the side gave the Hoosiers the lead for good with 14 seconds left.

Meanwhile, VCU faltered. Senior leader Bradford Burgess missed a pair of free throws with just under a minute left. Troy Daniels missed a 3 with 23 seconds left. And Rob Brandenberg missed a trey that would have won the game at the buzzer.

Defense often wins championships. But not always. Grabbing 10 steals is great, but VCU needed to be able to produce in the half court. It needed to hit more than 9 of its 30 3-point attempts. And, really, the Hoosiers still shot 52.2 percent, including making 6 of 13 3-pointers (46.2 percent).

"The shots that we got late in the game, I feel good about those looks," VCU coach Shaka Smart said. "I feel good about the guys that were taking them, they just didn't go in. And that's basketball."

Indiana fans know how basketball is. It giveth and it can taketh away. And even during the rise from the ashes this season, there probably was still a pit of worry in most Hoosiers fans' stomachs.

Are we really back? How will these guys react when the screws tighten in the NCAA tournament?

The answers? Yes. And like Indiana basketball players.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Some quick thoughts from Indiana's thrilling 63-61 victory over VCU.

Overview: VCU dictated the pace for most of the game against Indiana, but the Rams scored just four points over the final 12:20 as Indiana used a three-point play from Victor Oladipo and a short jumper from Will Sheehey to advance.

Turning point: VCU led 57-48 with 12:20 remaining, but the Rams could score only four more points. After wearing out the Hoosiers with pressure and a frantic pace, the Rams faltered in the half court. And give credit to Indiana for turning up its own defensive pressure and making clutch shots down the stretch. A key moment? VCU senior leader Bradford Burgess missed two free throws with one minute left.

Key player: Oladipo produced a game-changing three-point play with 46 seconds left. He finished with nine points, six assists and five rebounds, and shot 4-of-5 from the field.

Key stat: Indiana outrebounded VCU 33-20, including a 26-14 advantage on the defensive glass.

Miscellaneous: The Rams hit just nine of 30 3-point attempts. Indiana was 6-of-13. ... VCU forced 22 turnovers, including 10 steals. ... VCU has seven wins as an 11-seed or worse since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. That is the most such wins of any team in that span, one more than Richmond. ... Indiana's Cody Zeller tied for the game high with 16 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds.

What’s next: Indiana advances to the Sweet 16 and will play the winner of Kentucky-Iowa State.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sometimes, I hate sports.

Not the competition but just the fact that one play, one moment, one awkward landing can ruin a season and ultimately erase years of hard work. In Verdell Jones’ case, a freak injury ended his career Thursday.

The senior point guard tore his right ACL in the first half of Indiana’s win over Penn State in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament, the university announced Friday morning.

The pending gratification of Indiana’s first trip to the NCAA tournament since a scandal-ridden 2008 season will not feature a veteran who deserves to participate.

It all unfolded in front of me at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. A funny landing and then, a scream.

The medical professionals who huddled around him knew. Coach Tom Crean, who had to fight tears, knew, too. We all did.

Jones will not get a taste of the NCAA tournament, despite being a crucial member of the 2008 recruiting class that started this rebuilding project at Indiana. He’s in the top 25 on Indiana’s scoring charts. He’s started 103 games.

I followed Jones in high school because he was very high on Tubby Smith’s list at Minnesota. The feeling was mutual, even though Jones ultimately chose Indiana.

But Jones talked about restoring Indiana’s name following a scandal that led to the dismissal of Kelvin Sampson, NCAA sanctions and multiple departures. And this season, anchored by three top-five wins in Bloomington, the Hoosiers have finally realized the vision that started to materialize four years ago.

The bottom line is that Jones walked into a messy situation when he made his debut as a freshman during the 2008-09 season. He was young but he took his share of criticism. He was also hampered by past knee and ankle injuries. But he emerged as a leader (11.5 points per game in his career) for a program that’s become one of the top turnaround stories in the country.

But the Hoosiers have to move forward without him. That’s basketball, players said after their win over Penn State.

As difficult as it might be to keep going at such a crucial point of the year, the postseason doesn’t offer do-overs for sympathetic reasons.

While the Hoosiers lost a key leader and crucial component, they looked like a team that could win the Big Ten tourney in the second half of their win over Penn State. They were fierce. Cody Zeller and Christian Watford recorded double-doubles and Jordan Hulls scored 20 in Indiana’s first Big Ten tourney win since 2006.

This team is still talented enough to advance in both the Big Ten tournament and the Big Dance. But the Hoosiers don’t have time for mourning. And they talked -- and played -- like a team that knew it Thursday.

Players such as Victor Oladipo will have to carry more of the load. They’ll need veterans to step up as leaders, too, because that’s where Jones excelled.

And they’ll need their coach, one who’s experienced a multitude of trials throughout his tenure, to help them stay focused in the final weeks of the season.

The emotional toll of a late-season injury can ruin a team. That’s Indiana’s greatest obstacle right now.

Now that's a Saturday of basketball. Take a deep breath, count to 10 and check out yours truly's observations from the evening's games, including the insane Kansas-Missouri finale.

For a recap of this afternoon's games, click here.

No. 4 Missouri 74, No. 8 Kansas 71: This game was easy to scout. Missouri is small and quick and offensively oriented, with four guards and one big man. Kansas is big and strong and built around forward Thomas Robinson, the national front-runner for player of the year. How would KU stop Mizzou's spread attack? How would Mizzou keep KU out of the lane? These countervailing dynamics seemed destined to determine the outcome of this game. And to some extent, they did.

But if we learned anything from this one, we learned this: Stylistic assessments tend to fly out the window when it's the final minute in a packed house and things are crazy and it's just a player, the ball, the game on the line and a single-possession deficit. It's hard to overthink this: You either execute or you don't. The Jayhawks didn't execute. That simple. And that's why they lost.

Of course, it's not quite that simple. Kansas was not helped by an iffy late charge call on Tyshawn Taylor that just as easily could have been a blocking foul on Michael Dixon. It resulted in two Missouri free throws and a three-point lead for KU to overcome. Even worse, that call wasn't nearly as egregious as the one against Robinson with 1:43 remaining; that easily could have been a block on Mizzou forward Steve Moore, an and-1 bucket for Robinson and a potential six-point swing, given Marcus Denmon's huge go-ahead 3 a few seconds later. Kansas fans are not at all happy about this turn of events, and they have every right to their anger.

That said, the Jayhawks would have been in better shape had Taylor made either of his two free throws with 42 seconds remaining. Despite all the late blunders and questionable calls, Kansas had a chance to take the game to overtime on the final possession. Had Elijah Johnson decided to shoot the ball when he got his first wide-open look as the clock ticked down, he might have gotten a clean shot. Instead, Johnson hesitated. He missed his chance. The clock expired. Game over.

As always, it's about execution, and in big-time rivalry games in heated buildings, the game is so often about execution in the final minutes. As Kansas was suffering shaky whistles, missed free throws, so-so shots and four turnovers in the final three minutes, Denmon was coolly canning two straight 3s, which turned a 71-65 Kansas lead into a 72-71 Mizzou lead in a matter of 30 seconds. Denmon was brilliant all game. He shot 10-of-16 from the field and was 6-of-9 from 3 en route to a 29-point outing. And that's the difference: Denmon was brilliant all 40 minutes. Taylor, Robinson and the Jayhawks were brilliant for about 37 minutes. When the game tightened and crunch time came around, one team consistently executed. The other did not.

For as much as we analyze (and overanalyze) these games, for as much as we talk about styles and matchups and X's and O's, for as much as we'll debate the Robinson charge calls for the next week, when you get to crunch time, that stuff fades away. The game shrinks. It simplifies. Be smart. Get good shots. Play defense. Take care of the ball. Rebound. Make your free throws.

Missouri scored the game's final 11 points. After leading 71-63, Kansas didn't score once.

In the end, the difference between those two sentences wasn't a matter of deep analysis. It wasn't stylistic or strategic. It was so much simpler than that.

Northern Iowa 65, No. 12 Creighton 62: It's not about what we learned in this game. We didn't learn all that much, save for the fact that Northern Iowa might be a bit better than its paltry Missouri Valley record (6-7) would indicate. But forget the new knowledge; this game was all about a reminder of the old.

That reminder: College hoops is an imperfect, frustrating enterprise. But when college hoops is good, it's better than anything else in the world.

Maybe that's hyperbole. Maybe I am the wrong person to levy such judgments, because I happen to love college basketball more than most. (I admit it.) Still, I defy you to find 60 more purely entertaining seconds than the final minute of Northern Iowa's win over 12th-ranked Creighton. College basketball seems to produce exchanges like this more frequently than other games; every week, it feels like something insane happens. But this ending -- which featured two 3s in the final 15 seconds, both of which came in open play, with no timeouts to stop the insanity -- registered an 11 on the 1-to-10 excitement scale.

I won't recap the entire closing exchange. You can see the highlights here, if you haven't seen them already. I've watched five or six times. The moment the shot goes in, well, it's almost perfect, you know? The rush up the floor, the crazy step-back, the swish, the crowd eruption -- this is the fabric of college basketball. Forget provincial rooting interests, alumni loyalty, wonky enthusiasm. The final 15 seconds of Creighton-UNI are why we love this damn game, imperfections and all.

No. 20 Indiana 78, Purdue 61: With 2:23 left and Indiana leading rival Purdue 65-61, IU point guard Jordan Hulls found himself trapped near half-court. Purdue was swarming -- it had been swarming and slapping and clawing at the Hoosiers all evening -- and, rather than risk a turnover, Hulls decided to play it safe. He and his teammates ran to the sideline, with their tenuous, shrinking lead still intact, and regrouped for what was sure to be an arduous finish in front of the Boilermakers' rabid crowd.

Then something strange happened: IU didn't fade away. It didn't suffer its typical frustrating late-game collapse on the road. It didn't bend under Purdue's relentless pressure. Instead, it blew the Mackey Arena doors right off.

Two minutes, 23 seconds later, the Hoosiers' 13-0 run had capped the first non-Penn State Big Ten road win of coach Tom Crean's 3 1/2-year tenure. In 143 seconds, the Hoosiers had gone from "well, here we go again" to their first win over the Boilermakers in their past six tries. For the first Big Ten road fixture this season, or in any of the Crean-era years that preceded it, Indiana looked self-assured and confident, not shaky and timid. The Hoosiers looked eager to go get the win, not anxious to avoid a loss. And so they did.

The game wasn't nearly as one-sided as that scoreline suggests, of course, and for most of the afternoon, even as Indiana built a 33-22 halftime lead, this thing was ugly on both sides. The Boilermakers were unusually scrappy, doing everything they could to make life difficult for Cody Zeller, Christian Watford and the rest, trapping and slapping and angling for jump ball calls from the official. (These attempts were often fouls, and when they were called as such, Purdue fans frequently flipped out. It was exactly what a home crowd should do. Even better, it often seemed to work.)

For most of the game, the Boilers' staunch defense held strong. The only problem: Purdue couldn't keep up with even a marginal offensive pace. The team committed just three turnovers all game, and its first didn't come until the 5:10 mark of the second half. With possession protection like that, you would have assumed the Boilermakers could have posted better than .90 points per trip. But Matt Painter's team couldn't break down Indiana's man or zone defenses with much regularity, and without a true post presence (an ongoing, irreconcilable issue for this team), Purdue was forced to hoist its typical diet of long 2s and 3s. Robbie Hummel & Co. made just five of their 21 3-point field goal attempts. They finished 21-of-71 -- or 29.6 percent -- from the field overall.

So what does it all mean -- that is, beyond the first batch of message-board/water-cooler bragging rights Indiana fans have had in years? It might mean this IU team is making progress in its understanding of how to win on the road. That's a difficult, indefinable quality, something even good teams struggle with each and every season. But if you're the Hoosiers, and you have your sights set on the heights reached in November and December, you have to beat inferior teams on the road in conference play. You have to hold on to those leads. Actually, forget holding on to your lead. Extend it. Sweep the leg. Finish.

The Hoosiers -- for the first time on the road in four Big Ten seasons (against a team not named Penn State, that is), for the first time in six tries against their hated rival -- unleashed their inner Cobra Kai. It wasn't a flawless victory, but it was a victory. For a team that lost so many of these games in 2010 and 2011 and even in 2012, that's a legitimate sign of progress.

One more IU-Purdue note: Guard Verdell Jones missed this game, but most of his minutes went to Victor Oladipo, and Oladipo responded with 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. When Indiana needed buckets, Oladipo always seemed to step in, ready and willing to attack the rim. Impressive performance.

Some other observations from Saturday night's games:

[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Mary Ann ChastainTerrence Jones delivers one of Kentucky's eight first-half dunks against South Carolina on Saturday.
• Kentucky absolutely rolled South Carolina on the road, and Basketball Prospectus writer Drew Cannon summed up my feelings on the Cats with his perfect postgame tweet: "Can you imagine how high people would be on Kentucky if Watford's three rimmed out?" He's dead on. If Christian Watford's shot misses (Kentucky lost to Indiana at the buzzer in December), Kentucky is undefeated, rolling through the SEC with remarkable ease, and we're all talking about whether the Wildcats can make it to the NCAA tournament without a loss. As it is, the Wildcats are still remarkable to watch. For much of their 86-52 victory, they appeared to be playing a different sport than the Gamecocks. UK had eight dunks in the first half, as Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones finished easy buckets at will. Darrin Horn's team never stood a chance. Even scarier: This team, in particular point guard Marquis Teague, is still developing into what it can be. Considering how good John Calipari's team already is -- 23-1, 9-0 in the SEC, No. 2 overall in Ken Pomeroy's rankings, etc. -- that's a frightening thought indeed.
• Colorado got a major home win over Oregon on Saturday night, but in questionable late circumstances. I didn't see the game -- there was the small matter of Kansas-Mizzou, after all -- but here's how the AP recap describes the final play in question: "Nate Tomlinson was fouled with one second remaining by E.J. Singler and sank the first free throw before deliberately missing the second to give Colorado a 72-71 win over Oregon Saturday night." Naturally, the AP isn't going to say whether the foul call -- which came with almost no time left on the clock -- was right or wrong. According to the response on Twitter, it might or might not have been a foul, but the referees should never have made such a marginal call in the final second of a tie game. Oregon coach Dana Altman was furious. Ducks fans are furious. Colorado will feel lucky to escape with the victory and move to 8-3 -- an unlikely 8-3, given this team's early prospectus -- in its first year in Pac-12 play. It sounds like we'll be talking about this call for a while. Should be fun!
• Middle Tennessee lost its lofty perch as the Sun Belt's only unbeaten team when it fell 75-60 at Denver on national TV. MTSU is a fringe bubble candidate, but the loss will make things much more difficult for the Blue Raiders to impress the committee. How much it will help Denver remains to be seen. Either way, the lesson here, as in Wyoming's win over UNLV on Saturday: Altitude kills. As does Denver forward Chris Udofia, who had 27 points, nine rebounds and four blocks in the win.
• Really solid road win for Iowa State, which topped Oklahoma 77-70 and kept its NCAA tournament momentum moving. The Cyclones have had a week to remember, which began with last Saturday's last-second win over Kansas and included this week's two-point home win over Kansas State. Oklahoma has given Big 12 teams legitimate issues this season, particularly at home, and Fred Hoiberg's fighting transfers have to be thrilled to escape Norman with a win.
• Speaking of solid road wins: Iona (19-5, 11-2 MAAC) invaded the turf of one of its fellow MAAC co-leaders, Manhattan, and left with an 85-73 victory. Gaels star point guard Scott Machado continued his hyper-efficient, ball-dominant ways, scoring 18 points on 5-of-7 from the field (and 6-of-8 from the line) to go along with nine assists and four rebounds. A few days after a major contract extension for coach Tim Cluess, his team got one of its biggest wins of the season.
• Murray State's latest extension to its undefeated record -- the Racers are now 23-0 and 11-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play -- came in what is rapidly becoming classic Murray style: It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't definitive, being but a 65-58 win over a team with a 3-21 record before Saturday. But it was a win all the same, another notch on the belt and another potential step toward a remarkable regular-season accomplishment. Stay tuned.
• Harvard didn't look great in its 57-52 home win over a bad Columbia team, but as in the above bullet point, a win is a win is a win. The victory moved the Crimson to 6-0 in the Ivy League and 20-2 overall. Still, if Harvard wants to ensure its first trip to the NCAA tournament in six decades, it will have to muster something more than the disjointed offense it displayed Saturday.
• And in CAA play, George Mason asserted its superiority -- and its position atop the conference standings -- with a 54-50 win over Old Dominion. Neither team is vintage for either program this season, and GMU's at-large case is a major work in progress, but wins like this are always steps in the right direction.

No. 25 Wisconsin 57, No. 17 Indiana 50: This Wisconsin season has been a bit strange. For one, the Badgers have lost three games at home, something they had done just 12 times in all of Bo Ryan's career before this season. Moreover, consider the strange polarity in the Badgers' per-possession makeup between the 2012 season and 2011:

2010-11
Offense: 123.3 (No. 2)
Defense: 95.2 (No. 56)
Adjusted tempo: 58.0 (No. 344)

2011-12:
Offense: 111.5 (No. 32)
Defense: 81.2 (No. 2)
Adjusted tempo: 59.1 (No. 345)

Those numbers are from Ken Pomeroy, and they're a little tricky, because Wisconsin has given Ken's rankings system fits (something Mr. Pomeroy has addressed already). But in any case, you get the drift: Last year, Wisconsin was a decent defensive team that shone on offense. In 2012, Wisconsin is a pretty good offensive team that plays downright staunch defense.

Considering the similarities between this year's team and the 2011 version, that sea change is a little bit surprising. It's also awfully handy. If Wisconsin wasn't quite as good on the defensive end as it is this year -- and it has had its stinkers, as in the Marquette and Iowa losses -- it likely wouldn't be able to weather the storm against teams like Indiana, which gave an impressive effort at the Kohl Center in last night's 57-50 Badgers win. More importantly, it wouldn't be able to work with this still-surprising senior regression from Jordan Taylor.

Last season, Taylor was as efficient a point guard as we've seen in the past decade. He almost never turned the ball over. (Which he still doesn't do, really; ESPN's production staff flashed a stat showing Taylor as the NCAA's all-time career leader in assist-turnover ratio. Incredible.) He made shots at a much higher rate, particularly from beyond the arc. How many games did he win in 2011 by getting a screen on the perimeter, setting up his man with a little dribble move, and then elevating for a 3 over the top? Didn't it seem like that shot always went in?

This season, it isn't. Taylor's percentages are much more meager in 2012; he posted another so-so shooting night Thursday, going 5-of-14 from the field and 0-of-5 from 3. Before the season, if you would have said Taylor's efficiency would take this much of a dip, I would have told you the Badgers were going to be -- well, if not bad, then certainly mediocre. But because this team plays better defense without its former counterparts -- Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil, whose departures have shifted the contours of this team more than any other in the past few years of Badgers hoops -- Wisconsin can withstand simply so-so outings from Taylor at home against a team like Indiana.

For all the legendary consistency of Bo Ryan's program -- slow pace, swing offense, this is how we do things, find guys that fit -- this is a truly different team this season. Not better. Not necessarily worse. Just ... different.

In the meantime, I thought Andy Katz's Indiana analysis on the ESPN2 postgame show was just about spot on: This was a tough game on the road against a team that had won four straight, in which Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo both dealt with foul trouble, and the Hoosiers still had a chance to win. Verdell Jones had a great first half scoring on the dribble, but that was never a sustainable route to score. Christian Watford posted another efficient scoring night. Zeller's foul trouble limited him, of course, but so too does Indiana's inability to enter the ball in the post with anything resembling authority. (It's like Indiana is so scared to commit a turnover they blush at any sign of post pressure. Just throw that man the ball, fellas. You'll be fine.)

No, they did not play well down the stretch. No, there were some calls that probably should have gone their way. No, Indiana coach Tom Crean probably shouldn't have kept Zeller out with his fourth foul from the five-minute mark all the way until the final 60 seconds. That was sort of baffling.

Still, for a team that seems to be so carelessly defined by narrative this season, this performance didn't quite fit. They were good on the road. They lost. Oh well. The sky is not falling, nor is Indiana "back," or whatever other terms you want to use to define this thing. It was just another Big Ten road game, in which a few things went Indiana's way, a bunch of things went Wisconsin's way, a few shots were made, a few shots were missed, you take your lumps, you move on. For Indiana, considering the past two weeks, the doubts about this still-young team's ability to win on the road, and its carelessness late in games -- well, the loss wasn't great. But it was hardly the worst-case scenario.

Coverage links of note: Ol' Roy got his much-desired blowout win over NC State Thursday. Tyler Zeller, Cody's elder brother (perhaps you've heard these two are siblings?) led the way with a 21-point, 17-rebound performance, and our own Robbi Pickeral was per the usual there to break it down -- and get Tyler to discuss it in a postgame video in front of what appears to be someone's cubicle -- with all the pertinent details.

Everywhere else: I caught some flack on the Twitters for putting Florida as high as I did in this week's power rankings, and deservedly so (the Gators don't deserve to be ranked above Michigan State, I just screwed up, and I am fully willing to admit that, you guys), but it helped bolster its case (at least slightly) by toughing out another ugly road performance in a 64-60 comeback win at Ole Miss. ... Saint Mary's got one of the best wins of the night at Loyola Marymount, a team that beat BYU by 16 on the Cougars' own floor just last week; the win keeps the Gaels undefeated and alone at the top of the WCC standings. Randy Bennett's team is rolling. ... Virginia went on a late 22-3 run to seal poor Boston College's fate. ... Wait a second: Iowa can beat Wisconsin at Wisconsin, and handle Michigan easily in Iowa City, but Nebraska can go to Carver-Hawkeye and get a win? Beats me. ... And in late Pac-12 play, Washington survived a tricky game at Arizona State, 60-54, while a dreadful USC team scored .74 points per trip in a 74-50 home loss to Colorado, making it 0-8 in one of the worst seasons for any power-six league we've ever seen. Ouch.

INDIANAPOLIS -- You could have forgiven Indiana for a letdown.

Consider the week the Hoosiers just finished. This past Saturday, they completed the most important upset of coach Tom Crean's tenure at the school, a thrilling, emotional, insert-your-adjective-here, last-second buzzer-beating one-point win over rival Kentucky.

In Bloomington, the party started the second Christian Watford hit the game-winning shot. It began on Branch McCracken Court and moved to the bars and poured out into the streets of downtown, an entire fan base chanting and cheering and holding onto its first legitimate realization that the Hoosiers were once again -- finally, mercifully -- relevant.

The party ended sometime Sunday, and that's when reality hit. Finals week.

Indiana's students, the ones in all those joyous postgame celebration videos, had to sober up in time to make sure they could still get by when their professors handed them those all-important Scantron sheets.

It was no different for IU's players, who had one night to savor the biggest win of their (mostly) young careers before finishing their schoolwork for the semester. Of course, those final exams had to be balanced with practice and film study. Many of the Hoosiers, according to Crean, had to miss portions of practice throughout the week in order to take their tests.

So when IU came out flat against Notre Dame during this Saturday's Crossroads Classic -- trailing 15-6 after a barrage of Irish 3-pointers -- the inevitable murmurs began: Following a week like this, maybe Indiana was due for a letdown.

Distractions. Overconfidence. Inexperience. Any combination of the three could have produced a disappointing effort.

That impulse didn't last long. The Hoosiers quickly forgot their (ahem) forgettable first eight minutes, tightening their defense, forcing Notre Dame into 14 consecutive misses from the field and steadily cruising -- thanks in large part to the dominant post work of freshman Cody Zeller (21 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks) -- to a businesslike 69-58 victory.

"We hadn't experienced getting a win like this yet this season," Crean said. "It's one, probably, in the past we may not have been able to get. It was a very physical game, and our team did a great job of responding to that."

The win moved Indiana to 10-0 on the season, making the Hoosiers the last undefeated team in the Big Ten (following Illinois' loss to UNLV in Chicago). Barring a shocking upset to either Howard or UMBC at home in the coming week, IU will enter its first Big Ten game -- a Dec. 28 trip to Michigan State -- flying high at 12-0.

That mark would match Indiana's win total from the 2010-11 season, which is still the highest in Crean's three-year career at the school. This is a new world for this group of players. The challenge of proving themselves is past these Hoosiers. The new challenge, at least for the moment, is maintaining their focus in the face of newfound success.

Crean was thrilled with his team's practice habits throughout the week, calling IU's first post-Kentucky practice Monday "excellent." He gave his players Sunday off but demanded them back in the gym in the next two days.

"And then Wednesday became a film day," Crean said. "And I think they got a real eye-opener when they looked at the film, to see the numerous opportunities we had in the game. Certainly we wanted to reflect and be proud and excited and reflect on the game, but there were numerous opportunities we had where we could have played better inside the game, especially in the second half.

"I think they understood that. That's the sign of a team that's maturing. An immature team wouldn't have wanted to hear that. But they did. And they responded."

Indiana hardly unleashed a vintage performance Saturday. Then again, it didn't need to. Notre Dame is 7-5 this season and ranked No. 83 in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency rankings thanks to a host of expected and unexpected personnel turnover.

Ben Hansbrough, the 2011 Big East Player of the Year, graduated in the spring. Meanwhile, top returning forward Carlton Scott made a surprising and ultimately ill-advised decision to enter the NBA draft (Scott went undrafted). Then on Nov. 22, leading scorer Tim Abromaitis tore his ACL, ending his season and career and leaving Mike Brey's team with a patchwork lineup that looks almost nothing like the 2010-11 team that went 27-7 and 14-4 in the rough-and-tumble Big East.

The Irish's inability to find consistent scoring has left Brey hoping new little-used pieces such as guard Alex Dragicevich -- whose three 3s gave ND its early lead -- can bring something on the offensive end. But Notre Dame has struggled defensively, too, allowing opponents nearly a point per possession in its 12 games thus far.

In other words, it's not like the Hoosiers took down a vaunted opponent here at Conseco Fieldhouse. Still, the win was impressive in its workmanlike nature.

"It's a great example of a group that has been together, they've been kicked around," Brey said. "Tom has done a great job leading them through the tough times. They've been toughened by it; they stayed together through it. It's really what college basketball is all about. It's that cycle of college sports. You have one of those [periods], and you can grow up out of it and be really good.

"They're very confident right now. And rightfully so."

Indiana guard Jordan Hulls said that confidence is derived in large part from the play of Zeller, the wunderkind freshman who rose to No. 12 on Chad Ford's 2012 NBA draft board last week. Zeller has given IU an easy way to score -- pass it to Cody, let him go to work -- while forcing defenses to choose whether to help on the low block or stay close to any number of the Hoosiers' efficient perimeter threats.

"We've got to play through Cody all the time," Hulls said. "He can just do so many things."

Thanks to Zeller's versatility and the ongoing improvement of players such as Hulls, Watford and guards Victor Oladipo and Will Sheehey, the Hoosiers appear more self-assured than at any point in recent history. For the first time in Crean's tenure -- and any of these players' careers -- Indiana is actually expected to win. Ten wins, then 12, then beyond: Each accomplishment will be territory untrod. Each new challenge will be fresh.

As the wins pile up and the accolades accrue, can the Hoosiers stay focused? They certainly looked that way Saturday. And so now, Crean says, is the time to start asking even bigger questions of his team.

"The more you're successful, the more you win, the more answers you'll be asked to give," Crean said. "The bottom line is, our job [as coaches] is to create a lot of questions. Their job is to have questions, to have -- not to question themselves or to question things, but have the question be 'How do I get better? How do I improve here? How do we improve there?' And that's our focus.

"Our practices, there were some knock-down drag-outs to them, there was some refinement to them, but all week long, there was energy. And if the day comes that there's not energy, we'll start over later that night."

The Morning After is our semi-daily recap of last night's best basketball action. It didn't sleep well last night, and it asks your preemtpive forgiveness for any typos or dumb mistakes. It will definitely try to take a nap before it watches The Throne.

No. 5 North Carolina 60, No. 7 Wisconsin 57: Wisconsin did everything right. Bo Ryan's team averages 60 possessions per game; this game had exactly 60. The Badgers never turn the ball over; they turned it over on just 6.7 percent of their offensive trips Wednesday night. The Badgers aren't big on getting to the foul line, and they aren't a great offensive rebounding team. Instead, they eschew offensive boards in order to get back on defense, and that trait was evident in how infrequently North Carolina was able to embark on its patented fast breaks. The middling marks in those two categories can be forgiven. Wisconsin was never going to outrebound North Carolina. Better to turn away and get back on defense, pronto. That worked, too.

The only thing Wisconsin did wrong -- the only thing it was noticeably worse at than in its six impressive wins that preceded Wednesday's trip to Chapel Hill -- was shooting. That's it. In its first six games, Wisconsin's average effective field goal percentage was a sterling 56.7 percent. On Wednesday night, it was 42.2 percent. There's your game right there.

That this game was as close as it was is a testament to Wisconsin's defense, the leveling effects of Ryan's clock-eating slow system, and UNC's struggles on the offensive end. Frankly, the Tar Heels' inability to grab this game by the scruff of its neck early is a bit disconcerting. A team with that much talent and experience should be able to impose its will on teams like Wisconsin, which can never hope to match up athletically. Instead, it took until the second half, right around the time Harrison Barnes started demanding touches (and just a few minutes before Roy Williams took off his jacket and screamed "let's go" in that "let's go, we're better than this, get it together" sort of way) for UNC to look like the aggressor.

The Tar Heels deserve credit for affecting so many of the Badgers' shots. Surely UNC's length had as much to do with Wisconsin's off night as anything else. But they don't get credit for much of the rest. In many ways, this could have -- maybe even should have -- been a second-straight loss, and at home to boot. Instead, the Tar Heels escaped.

Michigan State 65, Florida State 49: Those who tuned in to Wisconsin-UNC hoping for offense didn't get a ton of it, but the so-so scoring rate and slow pace of the night's marquee finale still seemed like an offensive explosion next to the game that preceded it.

A low-scoring, physical affair was to be expected in East Lansing, Mich. Florida State is the nation's most efficient (or anti-efficient, I guess) defense two years running, and Michigan State has, for its occasional troubles on the offensive end, played truly repellent defense early in the year. The only difference between these two teams was quality scoring from an emerging go-to guard. That guard's name is Keith Appling, a sophomore who posted a career high with 24 points (and tied his career high seven rebounds) and made the biggest shots down the stretch when Florida State had stymied MSU enough to pull within one around the 10-minute mark. Appling is a legitimate breakout candidate; he represents an overhaul from the defensive-apathetic days of former Spartans Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers. Appling can score, but he's also one of the best perimeter defenders in the country, and he rebounds, too. There's very little in his game to dislike.

Of course, it also helps that Florida State is, once again, Florida State. The Seminoles can defend. Boy, can they ever. Their offense, on the other hand, is about as bad as their defense is good. This has been the story for the past two seasons under Leonard Hamilton, and it doesn't look much like changing now. When FSU can keep opposing teams under a point per possession, as they've been doing all year, they're in OK shape. But if an opposing player gets hot, or the opposing team can defend and score competently (radical concept, I know), the Seminoles are bound to struggle.

Indiana 86, NC State 75: When Indiana had finally sealed the first non-Evansville true road win of the Tom Crean era -- a few seconds after guard Victor Oladipo punctuated the victory with a double-clutch reverse dunk -- Indiana forward Christian Watford flung the ball underhand and ran to celebrate with his teammates. It felt like an overwrought celebration for a Nov. 30 win over a team that hasn't gone to the NCAA tournament since the NBA created the one and done rule (2006). Casual fans may have been confused. Why so excited?

The answer is simple: After three years of horrible basketball, and a constant string of promising first-half performances followed by debilitating late-game collapses (especially in 2011; there's a reason why a team ranked No. 75 in KenPom went 12-20 overall), the Hoosiers finally sealed the deal on the road. For a while, it looked like Indiana would let the game fall away: When NC State took a seven-point lead with 7:47 left, it appears turnovers and fouls and all-around shaky defense would doom IU in the closing quarter of yet another game. When IU was able to battle back and eventually finish the game in high-flying fashion, it provided a signal that this team -- with brilliant freshman Cody Zeller and hyper-efficient guard Jordan Hulls leading the way -- was ready to re-enter something resembling college hoops normalcy.

At the end of the season, when Indiana looks back, it won't remember the NC State win for its effect on the RPI, or what it said about how good they were as of Nov. 30. They'll remember the NC State game as the first time in a long time the program was able to stand on the other guy's turf, take a few punches and emerge victorious all the same. That's why Watford threw the ball in the air. In so many intangible, hard-to-define ways, maybe this win really was that big.

Everywhere else: I'll let an early-morning tweet from none other than ESPN Analyst Jay Bilas tell you why you should probably go back and check the tape of that 94-88 double-OT UNLV win over UCSB: "UNLV's Mike Moser had 34 points, 10 rebounds in OT win at UCSB. Orlando Johnson had 36 points and 10 boards for the Gauchos. Strong." That pretty much sums it up. ... Creighton's 85-83 win at San Diego State left no doubt about the BlueJays' toughness, writes ESPN.com blogger Kevin Gemmell. ... In a resilient performance, Minnesota won its first game without Trevor Mbakwe, and Myron was on hand to check it out. ... Gonzaga shot 6-of-15 from three; Notre Dame shot 2-of-14, and that wasn't the only reason the Zags coasted to an easy win over the Tim Abromaitis-less Irish. ... Northern Iowa got a quietly solid 69-62 win at Iowa State. ... Nebraska lost at home to Wake Forest thanks to an uncontested layup with three seconds remaining, which can only be described as a deserved loss. ... Pittsburgh stayed out of trouble and got an 11-point win in the Pittsburgh city rivalry. ... Kansas cruised against Florida Atlantic. ... and Utah State moved to 3-3 after a surprising home loss to the now 5-1 Denver Pioneers who also, it should be noted toppled St. Mary's 70-58 last week. Interesting.

Even as Indiana struggled in Tom Crean's third year, freshman guard Victor Oladipo had a rather promising start to his Indiana career. Oladipo flashed a good deal of raw offensive talent, and he was one of the most efficient players on a team that did, for all its faults, boast a few scorers with the ability to put the ball in the basket. (Offense was never Indiana's problem. Fouls and late-game meltdowns were. But that's an analysis for another time.)

Before today, that's what we knew about Oladipo: good scorer, athletic talent, promising freshman. After today, we know something else: The man can do a rather mean Usher impression.

Performing at the Spirit of Indiana Showcase -- Indiana's new year-end athletics awards ceremony -- Oladipo unveiled a vocally impressive rendition of Usher's R&B pop hit "U Got It Bad." In fact, Oladipo sounds remarkably like Usher; I assumed he was lip-syncing until he paused on the mic to reveal no backing track behind him.

But don't take my word for it: Thanks to a YouTube recording released by Indiana, you can see for yourself:



See? Pretty good! Really good, even.

Of course, Victor didn't recreate any of Usher's trademark dance moves. But hey, the kid's still a freshman. There's plenty of time to expand his game in the offseason. At the very least, Oladipo just became his teammates' go-to singer in any future game of Rock Band.

(Hat tip: Reader Phillip Smith)

If Roy Williams and Brad Stevens were on Facebook, they would "like" this.

The Facebook group, "1,000 Hoosier Fans For Cody Zeller" has been taken down after the campaign to get ESPNU's No. 20-ranked recruit to come to Indiana gained some notoriety -- much of it apparently unwanted.

Upon taking a peek at the page yesterday, listed as "administrators" in the group were Indiana freshman guard Victor Oladipo and Austin Etherington, a recruit in Zeller's class who has already committed to the Hoosiers.

All parties are now denying an active involvement in the since-removed page, according to the Indianapolis Star.

IU spokesman J.D. Campbell said this afternoon that Oladipo had nothing to do with the site.

By Wednesday afternoon, Etherington had pulled his name from the site.

"I had nothing to do with it," Etherington told me this afternoon. "Some guy started it and made me and Victor admins. Anyone can do that. You can just make someone an admin. The only way you can change it is remove yourself. I removed myself because I didn’t want to have any problems."

Tom Crean can't be thrilled about this Facebook foolishness at a time when Zeller, the brother of North Carolina forward Tyler Zeller, is deciding between Butler, Indiana and UNC.

Then again, since Cody Zeller has yet to go Facebook official with any school, there's still an opportunity for IU to lock up a commitment.