Big Shot Rob wins it for Indiana
By Tyler Smith (@TylerSmith_ISL)
ISL Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — ‘Big shot Rob’ did it again.
The Hoosier freshman buried a 3-point shot at the buzzer to defeat the Butler Bulldogs on Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in the Crossroads Classic. The Hoosiers won by a final score of 71-68, making it four straight close wins by a combined eight points.
“He’s got confidence in himself,” Head Coach Archie Miller said of Phinisee. “He’s very competitive. It’s a quiet competitiveness that he has about himself. He’s not afraid to take and make a play.”
“Obviously, that’s not how we drew it up,” Phinisee said. “I saw Romeo (Langford) was being denied, and I just came back to the ball and got it up. Thankfully, it went in.”
Only a play like that could have overshadowed the monster performance of Juwan Morgan. Morgan scored 35 points on a terrific shooting night (12-of-14 FG, 4-of-6 3’s, and 7-7 FT’s). He also became the 52nd member of Indiana’s 1,000 point club in the process. If that’s not enough, Morgan also broke his own record (set last season) for the most points in a Crossroads Classic game. He also tied the game and gave the Hoosiers their first lead with 3 minutes to play.
“He’s the same guy every day,” said Coach Miller. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a practice or a game. He brings the same energy every day. Very few players can do that.”
Indiana trailed by 11 points in the first half. After cutting the lead to four, Butler went on a run to push the lead to double-digits again at 49-39. The Hoosiers would go on to outscore the Bulldogs 32-19 from that point on. No matter how Indiana has looked at certain points in the last four games, they’ve found a way each and every time.
“We’d like to have some games where it doesn’t come down to the final 10 seconds,” said Morgan. “But at the same time, it feels good to grind out wins. And especially come March time, that’s going to be big. We trust each other.”
His coach agreed: “Our guys are confident. We never feel out of the game. Under eight and under four, we feel okay.”
Butler came in averaging 3 1/2 more 3’s per game than Indiana. It looked like the 3-point shot was going to lead them to victory. But in the end, Butler made 10-of-25 from deep, while the Hoosiers connected on 9-of-21.
The Hoosiers (9-2, 2-0) find themselves in a good position to close out 2018. Two more non-conference games are up next, followed by a home game with Illinois in early January. If Indiana takes care of all three games, they could find themselves in the top 20 in the rankings before playing at Michigan.
This is the Archie Miller era of Indiana basketball. The offense may not always be pretty. There may not be very many high-scoring games. But Miller’s teams grind out wins, and a lot of them. If the last four games are any indication, this season could be a wild ride.
