Indiana 110, Penn State 102 F/3OT: Three things

Anybody else glad that one’s over? Here are the three things that stood out in shorthanded Indiana’s win over Penn State:

The Second Overtime was Thomas Bryant’s moment.

For a lot of the season, Indiana fans have wondered when the mature, dominant Thomas Bryant we saw in flashes last year was going to show up. Turns out the answer was the second overtime against Penn State. The sophomore big man finished with 31 points, eight of which (all eight establishing a new career high) came in the second overtime.

In total, Bryant’s career night was just magnificent. He finished 13-for-18 form the field and have 11 rebounds before fouling out late in the third and final overtime.

Devonte Green’s second and third overtime performance was, well, Troy Williams-ish.

You may have heard, sometimes Troy did good things and sometimes he did bad. . . Well, Devonte Green made two big plays in the second overtime when he stuffed a Nittany Lion shot after a bad turnover that should have resulted in an easy bucket and when he came away with loose ball and dished a dime to Thomas Bryant for a basket.

Then, unfortunately, he clanked two freebies that would have put the game on ice.

But in the third overtime, with the game tied at 95, Josh Newkirk knocked down a 3 to give the Hoosiers the lead and Green immediately stole the inbound pass for a layup to push the lead to 5. The Hoosiers never looked back (although they tried by committing bad fouls and worse turnovers). Green also grabbed a big rebound later in the period.

What it really was was a freshman who played poorly for a chunk of the night, but came up with a couple huge plays, didn’t let himself get discouraged when he had adversity, and then made more big plays. It’s one of the reasons you have to think that Green will do some special things in an Indiana jersey.

Let’s never do that again.

At least not with Penn State. The three overtime thing sounds fun. Hell, six overtimes was fun that one time with UConn and Syracuse. But let’s not do that again. The things mentioned above were nice. The alternative endings that were available at the end of regulation and the first overtime were losses, so the win is nice. And making Purdue fans unable to watch the entire first half of their game was funny. But still, never again.

P.S.

Josh Newkirk’s shot may have still been in his hand, but that’s a very tough call to make in real time and there was no way to overturn the replay. Don’t let any Penn State basketball fans (if such a thing exists) or any Purdue folks tell you otherwise.

P.P.S.

If Indiana commits another turnover on an inbound pass, I’m going to lose my mind.

P.P.P.S.

Also, Robert Johnson and Josh Newkirk had careers highs in points, both with. Johnson was 10-for-17 from the field and Newkirk was 9-for-14.