Season in review: Tom Pritchard.

by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Apr 2, 2009 8:00 PM EDT Comment 1 comment

Pritchard, one of two Kelvin Sampson recruits (the other is Matt Roth) remaining on the roster, began the season strong, but as the competition improved and the season wore on, his numbers really suffered. In some respects, he was the anti-Verdell Jones. I feel as if I should add a caveat to each of my posts about this season mentioning that more was asked of any given player than is reasonable. That is certainlly true of Pritchard.

Through January 25, the date of IU's close home loss to Minnesota, Pritchard had scored in double figures in 14 of 18 games. He scored in double figures only twice in the remaining 13 games. This wasn't all that hard to see coming. Pritchard struggled in IU's toughest earlier games, shooting 1-7 at Wake Forest and 2-8 at Kentucky. While Pritchard averaged 9.7 points per game on the season, he averaged only 7.8 in Big Ten games and shot 43 percent from the field in-conference.

Still, he had some highligts:

Although IU lost badly, Pritchard hung in against all-American Luke Harangody, scoring 14 points and 6 remounds (although on only 6-15 from the field) against Notre Dame;
He scored 13 points on 4-6 from the field against Gonzaga;
At Purdue, Pritchard scored 12 points and had 8 rebounds;
He scored a career-high 23 points on 7-7 from the field in a win against Cornell, IU's only win against an NCAA Tournament team;

The lowlights:

Despite playing 27 minutes, Pritchard was held scoreless on only 1 field goal attempt and had only three rebounds in a loss at Minnesota;
He scored only 2 points in 31 minutes in the tough senior night loss to Michigan State;

Pritchard, like all Hoosiers, played more of a role than most comparable players in IU history. He seems likely to remain a solid contributor throughout his time in Bloomington.