Indiana 73, Penn State 54: the losing streak is over.

I commented on it in the open thread. We seemed to be literally booing everything. I think that has something to do with the worst and most inconsistently officiated game I’ve seen this season, but in general I believe our fans have become more hostile as well. I have noticed a trend that we expect every call and boo if we don’t get it. It is concerning.

I hope you and your boy escaped with an overall positive afternoon, but there certainly is a disturbing trend over the last year of overly hostile home crowds. There was definitely a negative mood to start out and it played itself out through the game.

Your site is always a great read, but especially when the General Assembly is in session.

I think a few things are at work.

1. I think it’s generally a bit rougher than it was back in the Knight era, which I know was the time you probably spent the most time at Assembly Hall. It often surprises younger IU fans to learn that Knight had the student section on a pretty tight leash and was quick to grab the mike or scold the students in the north end, even for waving their arms during opponents’ free throws.

2. I think there is quite a bit of frustration among IU fans both with the lack of homecourt treatment over the last few years, and with the three game losing streak in particular. I think it’s true that IU hasn’t received the same level of deference during the struggles of the last three years than in the past. As long as such homerism exists, I would like IU to get its “fair” share.

3. Some of the stuff AJ mentions about a lack organized student section. I’ve always found named and organized student sections to be cheesy, contrived Duke impersonations. And having an official student organization isn’t a cure-all (Exhibits A—ZZZZ are the behavior of the Orange Krush at Illinois in 2008). But I’m starting to think that an organized way of allocation lower seats and trying to keep behavior under control might not be a bad thing.

you don’t take a shot clock violation. No team in that situation takes a violation. In fact, there was a baseline layup if Hulls (?) chose to make that pass. IU took the lowest percentage shot they had available to them without a shot clock violation. If you’re going to play high pressure and not let us dribble out the clock we’re going to burn you on an open shot. That’s Penn State’s fault. You can’t be upset at someone beating your pressure defense instead of just giving you the ball. I would never expect an opposing team blowing IU out to just lay down if IU insists on playing to the final whistle.

Reminiscent of a Colts-Texans blowout a few years ago when Houston thought the Colts were running it up because they were throwing the ball with the game decided. Dungy’s response was basically (parahprased), “we would have been fine running out the clock, but don’t stack eight men in the box and expect us to hand the ball off.”

1. Regarding Jordy and Oladipo, I wonder if fatigue might be an issue, or maybe a very minor injury. I know both have played a lot of minutes in years past, but honestly neither has played the kind of minutes they’re getting now – that is, tense play in close games against good teams. That may sound dumb, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a factor. On the other hand, I also agree that we need to do more to get Hulls open, or convince him to start taking shots like the ones Roth takes. I wonder if Hulls will develop into a better version of Roth next year, if Yogi takes over the 1 and Hulls moves more to the 2, if Hulls doesn’t feel as much like he needs to “run the offense.”

2. I think with Abell it’s more about matchups than any issues he has. It’s also possible that Crean doesn’t want to overload him with minutes as a freshman and get him tired and hurt. I haven’t seen or heard anything that would lead me to believe Abell is anything other than a stand-up guy and a hard worker, so I’ll assume until presented evidence that he is one. I will say, though, that I also have been surprised that he hasn’t gotten much time. I think he would do well in a slightly expanded role.

can expect to be the epitome of college basketball conferences while having the absolute worst refs. If anything it’s getting worse as the season goes on.

At least we’re still ranked.

Although I think the team feeds off of both Watford and Oladipo. But with Oladipo being a little ‘off’ lately that responsibility most definitely lies solely with Watford.