Will Indiana refuse to win a game by more than 5 points against good competition all season?

Well folks.... it’s hard to say.

Anyway, Indiana picked up a pretty solid victory that should look really nice by the time Selection Sunday rolls around.

Now here are the three takeaways from the game.

Hustle, Hit, Never Quit

One is luck, two is coincidence, three is a trend. Indiana has won their last three games by a combined FIVE POINTS. That speaks volumes of how hard this team works and tells you about the work this team does. IU could reasonably 0-3 over that stretch sitting at the bottom of the B1G. But they aren’t, which is pretty important if you ask me.

Class is in session

And just in time for finals too.

It’s easy to say that Indiana looked pretty frazzled since the Duke game. They managed to get away with a home win against Northwestern and probably should have lost at Penn State if not for poor foul shooting from the Nittany Lions. But today, the Hoosiers certainly earned their victory and played some incredibly smart ball.

They did a phenomenal job of staying out of foul trouble for the entire game when considering Louisville is #1 IN THE NATION according to KenPom at getting to the foul line. They were also able to limit turnovers, and did a tremendous job finding the open man and cutting to the basket.

IU seems to finally back to playing like themselves.

And sure, the free throw shooting is still terrible, but you knew that already.

BUY BUY BUY

There were two players that really stood out to me today besides Romeo and Juwan that have their stock value, one being obvious and the other one not so much.

I’ll start with the obvious, Rob Phinisee. The freshman PG had the best game of his young career so far by hitting the shots when they were desperately needed. Phinisee went a productive 3-5 from deep and finished the game with 10 points. 6 rebounds, and 2 steals.

The other one though would have to be De’Ron Davis. Davis came off the bench and went a solid 3-4 from the field and put up 8 points along with an assist, a steal, and three rebounds. He finally looks like he’s returning to pre-Achilles tear form, and for IU to develop a second post threat along with Romeo’s driving ability could make IU one of the most dangerous teams in the offensive paint. But in all, I’m really happy to see De’Ron back on the court and I’m really happy seeing this team play good basketball.

IU will take the week off for finals and return to the court on December 15 when they play Butler at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the Crossroads Classic.