Quick Illinois State recap.

Here's the box. The big story, which will have implications for tonight's Xavier game, is the second half absence of Armon Bassett. It's unclear exactly what sort of injury he has, but Bassett has been a force thus far and will be missed.

IU's offense had its first less than stellar game, with 44 percent shooting for the game. IU attempted an unusually low 9 three point shots on the game. The Hoosiers had 14 assists on 26 made shots and 16 turnovers. This was about a 67 possession game, meaning IU turned the ball over on nearly 25 percent of its possessions, and IU scored barely more than a point a possession. Fortunately, the Hoosier defense has been as good as it has been all season. ISU shot only 37 percent for the game and managed way less than a point per possession. IU's rebounding was much improved in this game. IU managed to rebound 18 of its 32 misses, by far the best percentage of the season. The IU box score doesn't seem very reliable on this point: there are way more rebounds than missed shots listed, so let's take this with a grain of salt. Still, IU did substantially outrebound ISU.

Chris Korman of the H-T has some good observations, not the least of which is the less than spectacular play from DJ White. Eric Gordon was very good again, scoring 30 points on 18 shots. White managed only 4 points on 2-6 from the field. White is averaging less than seven attempts a game and is IU's fourth leading scorer (behind Gordon, Bassett, and Jordan Crawford). Not surprisingly, a tougher game than thew first three, and tonight's game will be tougher still.