Oladipo leads way as rolling Hoosiers top Michigan State
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Most players are fortunate to accumulate six steals and three blocks in a week.
Indiana forward Victor Oladipo needed just one joyous Sunday afternoon.
With the National Football League playoffs on a one-week hiatus, Oladipo provided national television viewers a reasonable facsimile of a cornerback in their usually-reserved-for-pigskin 1 p.m. time slot.
“I read the passer’s eyes,” Oladipo said.
Much to Michigan State’s dismay.
Oladipo snatched the ball from Branden Dawson just nine seconds into the game and raced downcourt for a dunk. The fun was just getting started.
Oladipo wound up with 21 points and seven rebounds to compliment constant defensive playmaking in No. 7 Indiana’s 75-70 victory over No. 13 Michigan State.
The Hoosiers won for the ninth time in 10 tries and positioned themselves alongside Michigan as the only Big Ten teams to lose just once in conference play. The Wolverines played at Illinois later Sunday and will visit Bloomington next weekend.
“That’s just Victor,” Indiana forward Christian Watford said. “He’s a part of our offense now. He gets us open by the way he attacks the basket. He did a great job tonight. This is a big game that will help us down the road. Michigan State is a great team. That’s how it’s going to be in the Big Ten tournament. Teams aren’t going to give up.”
Oladipo poked gaping holes in the Spartans’ strategy.
“Our whole deal was to keep them out of the lane and not turn the ball over,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “We didn’t do either one of those very good. We got tired.”
If anyone can wear a team out, it’s Oladipo.
Here’s how it went down inside a Sunday-best Assembly Hall:
IN A NUTSHELL: Indiana (18-2, 6-1 Big Ten) led for all but 63 seconds. And other factoids also paint the image of a runaway. Point of amazement No. 1: Michigan State attempted not a single free throw in the second half, and committed exactly three times as many turnovers (18) as free-throw attempts for the game (six). Point of amazement No. 2: The Spartans’ bench missed 12 of 15 shots. Point of amazement No. 3: Keith Appling, arguably Izzo’s best player, was disqualified with 5:17 remaining. And yet Michigan State (17-4, 6-2) stayed in striking distance and assured a respectable final score. Once Oladipo got rolling, the rest of the home team followed. For the Spartans, chalk it up as a good loss – a good loss to a team that is championship material and was playing in its own euphoric arena. Lately, the Hoosiers aren’t used to losing around here, and 20 wins in 21 tries at home is pretty good proof.
STAR OF THE GAME: The player with the most improvement this year? It’s Oladipo, and he showed why yet again Sunday. The charismatic junior is shooting an incredible 66 percent from the field and has upped his scoring average by nearly three points a game in the same amount of minutes. Oladipo said he’s impacting games at both ends of the floor at a high level. “My freshman year,” he said, “I wanted to, but wasn’t capable.” Indiana coach Tom Crean spoke with amazement at how the Hoosiers staff credited Oladipo with 15 deflections in the first half. “We watch a lot of film as a team,” Crean said, “but he always watches more. He’s getting a knowledge base to go with those instincts and talent and athleticism.” Oladipo’s fingerprints were all over Sunday’s game, and that ended very badly for Izzo.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Crean fielded an interesting question in his news conference about how he designs defensive game plans and sets matchups. Oladipo, surprisingly, is not the fulcrum of the coach’s thought process. “We start with who our guards are going to guard in the sense of Jordan (Hulls),” Crean said. Essentially Crean admitted publicly that Hulls is a liability who requires an easier assignment. Oladipo might have the inside track on the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year award, but he’ll block shots and swipe steals from any spot on the floor. Crean said it’s not standard procedure to simply stick the charismatic small forward on the opponent’s top scorer. What matters more is where Indiana can find a home for Hulls, who tends to get beaten off the dribble. If there’s a reason to trust this approach, it is Crean. Indiana ranked 274th in defensive efficiency in Crean’s second season but has steadily improved under his watch – it was 148th last season and is currently seventh this season.
CAUSE FOR CONCERN: What has happened to Cody Zeller? His first five games in Big Ten play were outstanding. But the last two? Violin strings. He’s gone for 11 points on 2-for-11 shooting. It’s as if someone took him aside and said, “You’re too good. You’ve got to lay off your scoring to make it fair.” All kidding aside, while his performance in the Penn State blowout was easy to brush aside (the Hoosiers didn’t need him), Zeller’s lackluster showing against Michigan State portends greater implications. The 7-footer still has one big problem, and he’ll find it hard to address on the fly. When Zeller takes a bit of a pounding, as he did Sunday, he finds it more difficult to go about his business. When he doesn’t have an overwhelming size advantage, as Michigan State’s centers prevented, Zeller isn’t as big a star as fans perceive him to be. “People might say he’s had two bad games,” Oladipo said, “but he’s been playing phenomenal (this season) and closing out games.” Zeller split Derrick Nix and Adreian Payne for the lay-in with 1:39 left that put Indiana ahead 74-70. Had the preseason All-America been a force throughout the second half, late-game heroics would have been unnecessary.
YOGI-ISMS: Indiana point guard Yogi Ferrell thoroughly outplayed Appling, who fouled out with a season-low three points. “We kept him out of the middle, kept him toward the sideline,” Ferrell said. “My teammates helped as well.” For his part, Ferrell played a solid, if not spectacular, game. He ended up with 11 points on 4-for-9 shooting. One of those dealt a mental blow to the Spartans. After the men in green used a 12-2 run to assume their only lead at 31-30, Indiana restored most of a nine-point advantage thanks to Ferrell’s long ball right before the half. Ferrell said he didn’t begin the possession looking to hit a 3, but with time winding down, he was fine with being the one to take it. Entering the day at just 30 percent, Ferrell is not a good 3-point shooter, though Crean said Ferrell’s stroke is improving. Despite Appling’s importance to Michigan State, Crean said he wouldn’t evaluate Appling’s woes in terms of the matchup with Ferrell. “It’s more situational basketball,” Crean said.
NEXT: Indiana visits Purdue on Wednesday night to write the next chapter in the schools’ longstanding rivalry. The Boilermakers match up differently against Zeller than they did a year ago because of the presence of 7-foot, 280-pound freshman center A.J. Hammons.
