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Mississippi Rebels 89, Indiana Hoosiers 71: turnovers doom Hoosiers again.

Here's the box score.  It was a 78 possession game.  IU's 21 turnovers amount to 26 percent.  The good news?  IU committed 14 turnovers in the first half, so they did cut the giveaways in half inthe second half.  IU led 20-11 with 14:10 left in the first half and then turned the ball over on 7 of the next 9 possessions, Mississippi was ahead 23-20, and it only got worse.  IU threatened, playing reasonably well at the beginning of the second half, and had a chance to pull to within six late in the game, but turned the ball over.  I really don't know what to say about the turnovers.  It has to get better. The good news?  IU had 24 offensive rebounds in 52 opportunities.  Very good.  And Ole Miss turned the ball over 19 times, which is a very high number for a team that doesn't turn the ball over very often.  It's not that hard to see the Izzo influence on Crean, and how IU could win games by crashing the boards and playing aggressive defense.  But we can't keep gacking up 25 percent of our possessions.

Even worse?  12-27 from the foul line.  Mississippi shot 62 percent in the second half.  This is a scattershot preview because there will be a quick turnaround.  The individuals:

 

  • Christian Watford struggled, scoring 5 points on 2-10 from the field.
  • Tom Pritchard was decent: 8 points, 3-5 from the field, 8 rebounds.
  • Maurice Creek scored 18 points on 15 shots.
  • Verdell Jones scored 17 points but needed 15 shots to get there.
I'm more disappointed than I should be.  I wasn't expecting to make the NCAA Tournament this year, but this team looked every bit as bad as the 2008-09 product for most of the game.   I know that they really aren't that bad.  The 2008-09 team would have been able to make some of the runs or some of the plays that IU made tonight.  As i write this, Kansas State leads Boston U. by 5 in the second half, so it's still not clear which team IU will play in tomorrow's untelevised game.  I'll write it up one way or another.