Hoosiers escape Chaminade with a Win

Granted, it's just over D-II Chaminade, but since we're not going to be in the NCAA at-large bid conversation, this win counts, lifting us to 3-2. The silver lining of the narrow win is that Chaminade is also currently built on transfers and actually had more D-I experience than the Hoosiers.

Tom Pritchard continues to be the surprise of the season for a raw freshman. His performance against Notre Dame was eye-opening. But still, there's obviously a lot of work left to do for Pritch. Verdell Jones has a nice combo of size & athleticism, but doesn't have a good feel for the team game yet. VJ could be a good point guard, but Moore clearly has the better court vision. And a lot of folks were praising Daniel Moore as a better version of Erreck Suhr, but Suhr was a basically an undersized shooting guard who could defend the hell out of the dribble. Nobody got past Suhr, while Moore couldn't stop anyone off the bounce in Maui. I like what I've seen from Malik Story, but he'll be playing out of position most of the year. Nick Williams can rebound and has a nice mid-range jumper, but the turnovers have been a serious problem. Devan Dumes is a natural scorer, but his stroke was off in Maui. I don't know if it was fatigue or lack of confidence, but the Hoosiers need him to get it back when Cornell comes in town. Matt Roth has a beautiful stroke, but has shown little else. Kyle Taber & Tijan Jobe are needed inside, but Crean's clearly not confident in those guys yet. It's a shame, because Taber actually has the complete skill set to really make our offense work. It's been noted that he's not been boxing out sometimes, so that's probably enough to earn him a seat on the bench.

I saw some Hoosier fans guessing that IU gets between 3-6 wins in the Big Ten this season. One win is the reasonable expectation, and anything above 2 conference wins means Crean did an amazing coaching job.

Next up, Cornell will be a tough game. IU needs to hold the turnovers & rebounds even and our wings have got to start hitting threes. A win is definitely possible.