I knew we had it all along. Heh. IU, as in many games over the last two seasons, most infamously in last Saturday's Illinois game and last season's Michigan game, blew a huge lead, but with Tom Pritchard and Bobby Capobianco on the bench, fouled out, the Hoosiers overcame a five point overtime deficit and took the lead for good on a Verdell Jones jumper with 32 second remaining. They were guttier as players than I was as a fan, but that doesn't take much.
I'll have much more on that later tonight, and the last 10 minutes of regulation were brutal. Still, for the first time in the Crean era, IU withstood a rally from a good team. Hopefully the Hoosiers will remember how they played when they were down in overtime, when they had nothing to lose, and play that way when they have a lead. With 13 games plus the Big Ten Tournament remaining, the Hoosiers are two wins beyond last year's total and they have now exceeded last year's Big Ten win total (doubled it, wow!). This is painful to watch, but IU is making progress, and now has two winnable games directly ahead on the schedule.
I could have lived without seeing the students on the court. It's been a long two seasons, but it's Indiana, guys. No big deal. I'm not advocating explusion for the students who were on the court. I'm sure a semester suspension will suffice.