Indiana routs Penn State on quiet night for Zeller
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Cody Zeller typically finds points at will. At 7-feet, he can get his shot off against nearly any post defender in the country.
For an entire game, Zeller rarely looked for offense. And yet No. 7 Indiana breezed past Penn State 72-49 in spite of Zeller’s career-low two-point night.
“Cody did a lot of other things to impact the game,” Victor Oladipo said. “That’s why he’s such a great player. He’s doing what it takes to win. It’s big for our team. Hopefully, he keeps doing it.”
Oladipo shouldered the scoring load, repeatedly absorbing contact in the lane and earning an incredible 12 attempts at the free-throw line. The junior small forward ended up with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists. Oladipo only needed seven field-goal attempts in 34 minutes of playing time to lay waste to the hapless Nittany Lions.
“The big thing was that we played zone,” Penn State coach Patrick Chambers said. “Sometimes that means giving up certain things, and they found our weaknesses by making the extra pass.”
Zeller had a few of those.
“He facilitates for others,” coach Tom Crean said. “He really didn’t look for many opportunities to score. I’m not concerned about that. He knows he can be as aggressive as he wants to be.”
Indiana knocked down 11 of 20 3-point attempts and shot 46 percent overall. Zeller didn’t directly contribute to all that offense, but he added eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks as the Hoosiers rolled.
Here’s how it went down inside a not-totally-full Assembly Hall:
IN A NUTSHELL: Indiana (17-2, 5-1 Big Ten) jumped on Penn State from the opening tip and dominated a subpar, rebuilding squad missing its star player. In other words, the Hoosiers lived up to their No. 7 ranking and seized a prime opportunity to win before the schedule gets tougher. Indiana led 33-19 at halftime, showing why it entered the day with the conference’s top field-goal percentage defense. Jermaine Marshall was the only beneficial offensive player in the half for Penn State; nobody else could make a shot. After intermission, Indiana silenced critics who lamented the Hoosiers’ inability to put together two solid halves of basketball. An 8-0 run out of the locker room immediately cemented the outcome. Penn State shot 33 percent from the field. The Nittany Lions (8-11, 0-7) could scarcely pick up even garbage-time scores, as the 49 points Indiana allowed was its second-best defensive effort of the season.
STAR OF THE GAME: Sixth man Will Sheehey entered Wednesday with just 14 points in his last four games, which included two of the three scoreless outings he’s endured in his college career. That all changed in a major way against Penn State. Sheehey had a team-high eight at halftime and finished with 12. Consider the slump history. “If I’m open, I’m going to shoot,” Sheehey said. “I’m not worried about it.” An encouraged Crean said Sheehey’s stroke was money. “He’s one of our best players,” Crean said.
BEHIND THE SCENES: In the second half, Crean morphed into a mad scientist, mixing and matching lineups with the game well in hand. At one point, Indiana tested a huge combination that included Jeremy Hollowell, Christian Watford and Zeller in the frontcourt with Sheehey and Oladipo as the guards. Later on, Crean used Yogi Ferrell and Remy Abell together in a two-point guard alignment. Experimentation in a game situation was possible because Indiana finally succeeded in protecting a big lead. On Sunday at Northwestern, the Hoosiers allowed a 17-point lead to drip to five. The week before, a 23-point halftime edge on Minnesota dwindled to three. No such lapses occurred this time. “It’s a big emphasis on our team,” Oladipo said, “because everybody in the country thinks we don’t have good second halves. That’s their opinion. That’s what they see. We’re going to do whatever it takes to finish strong. It’s going to help us down the road.”
CAUSE FOR CONCERN: In the midst of a rout, Indiana somehow found the time to commit 18 turnovers and struggle at the line (21-of-37, 56.8 percent). A pessimist would fret that Penn State outscored the Hoosiers 24-14 in the paint. Those stats, from a January home game against a team winless in the Big Ten, carry precious little long-term meaning. What raises the eyebrows more is how the bench didn’t exactly have a superior performance. Derek Elston oddly never saw the court, reminding that Crean’s second unit has suffered a run of injuries. Crean said Maurice Creek, just back from a right foot injury, is not at full strength. Creek played 13 minutes and didn’t score. “He’s got to be a shot-maker,” Crean said. Abell, Hollowell and Hanner Mosquera-Perea combined for just six points and did little else but bide time. “Right now, we don’t have a lot of synergy when we go to the bench,” Crean said. “Over time, we will get it.” But asking the backups, sporadic at best in recent weeks, to hit their stride against Michigan State, Purdue and Michigan in the next 10 days is a tall order.
YOGI-ISMS: Ferrell scored five of Indiana’s first seven points, looking for his own offense far more than in a passive four-point performance at Northwestern. The freshman point guard responded with a season-high 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting. Perhaps the coaching staff instructed Ferrell to fire away more often. Ferrell didn’t think twice about releasing a 3 when the rotation found him, and he readily took advantage of an opening to make a 6-foot floater. In the first two minutes of the second half, Ferrell hit two more 3s, both assisted by Oladipo. “I was open,” Ferrell said. “I was taking what the defense was giving me.” Yet if Ferrell is a scoring threat, he adds another dimension to Indiana’s attack because of his quickness and solid handle. It’s not likely Crean dials up a bunch of plays for Ferrell, especially because the screen-and-roll is not a large component of the offense, but Ferrell remains a critical option when Indiana needs to create something late in the shot clock.
NEXT: Indiana wakes up early Sunday morning for a 1 p.m. start at home against No. 13 Michigan State. Tom Izzo has the Spartans on a roll at 17-3 (6-1 in Big Ten play). They are explosive on the wing (Keith Appling, Gary Harris and Branden Dawson) and big inside (Derrick Nix and Adreian Payne).
