The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected.

That way it leaves the door open to either have another positive or negative comment. If an unexpected good thing happens, then add it…if a bad unexpected thing happens, then add it. Most of our bad things are all pretty expected – Turnovers, Free Throws, etc.

So:

Good – We get a solid game out of Devan Dumes and he hits some timely 3s. Verdell Jones steps up and hits big shots, including a 3 after clanking most of them all night. Pritchard rebounds and Elston does his thing in his limited minutes. We never give up the lead.

Bad – We almost let them take the lead after controlling most of the game.

Unexpected – Bawa gets road PT, Daniel Moore hits 2 FTs, Rivers gets into foul trouble.

Dumes played an excellent overall game, maybe the best all year. He played great D on Battles. At one point toward the end of the game Battles was 5-15 from the field. Dumes played him great and was still able to bring energy on offense. The team came out in a fog until he started hitting shots.

I really dont know what to think about the low post guys anymore. I've been as hard on TP as anyone but the fact is IU does not throw the ball in the post ever. I tried to look for this in the game and I don't remember seeing the ball thrown in the post one time. With that said, TP is going to need to improve because Capo is steadily getting better.

The ugly was the entire game, it was not a fun game to watch except for the final score

I think its unreasonable to expect to win more than two in the second category, so that puts us at 14-16, one win away from .500.

The point I'm trying to make is that if this scenario would play out we would have to point to our worst loss, which is clearly the home loss to Loyola.

Good contributions from everyone who played (except Bawa).

I think Pritch gets a bad wrap, He wasn't brought here to score. He came to rebound and screen for Sampson, but was forced into being a scoring threat last year. We don't run as many plays his way and our offense is not set to run through him at all really. His only shot is to get an offensive board and get the points, or get a dump off on a drive. Id say hes doing decent at both of those.

He is very frustrating at times because we all want that dominant big man, but Pritch was never supposed to be that, he was supposed to be Bobby C of this year. Do enough of the little things, give us some good minutes, but we NEED him to be a scorer and great defender and everything else. I can see him doing it, which is why hes frustrating, but he wasn't even supposed to be that until Sampson-gate.

Last point, I know the kid makes dumb fouls, but is anyone seriously the victim of more weak foul calls than TP? He brought it on himself with his reputation of fouling, but against Ill. He could breath on anyone and get a foul. And last night he did everything possible to not fould Taylor Battle on a drive, and still got called even when he didn't touch him. It's gotta be tough to play all out and to your potential when you hold back as to not foul out any quicker than he already does.

Wow, sorry. That was not meant as an attack on you if it came off that way, I just realized I let out all of my frustration from this season and TP not being Scott May on this post. JerryCT, you are a good poster and had some good points on TP, just wanted to offer up another look at TP. Sorry for the frustration showing through, it is not meant for you.

I think the fundamental issue with playing time, be it Pritch, Elston or The Situation, is that we don't have a high level post player, so the flaws of who we do have are routinely exposed. But all of these kids are getting better and its a pleasure to watch.