Game Thread: OU vs. IUPUI

[Germane]

34 free throws for IUPUI, 7 free throws total for Oakland. Anyone who saw the game have any comment?

[Grizzfan1]

100 points given up?? Nice defense guys . On another note this will give the guys a serious wake up call and best to have it now then in March. This is very familiar though with another league streak snapped to the Jags in Indy so perhaps we shouldn't be too disappointed by this. I'm still confident that we will beat them in Sioux Falls should we meet up.

[rimwrecker]

Kampe should send the tape to the league. The officials got Benson out of the game with ridiculous fouls. He would have had to play handcuffed to have stayed in that game. Sad to see. How do you encourage athletes to feel that there is justice if you work hard and play well?

[Dan Fenner]

One stat says it all:

34 Free Throw attempts for IUPUI. 7 for Oakland.

[Garry Gilbert]

I listened to the game ... didn't see it ... but the disparity in foul calls seems ridiculous ... Benson and Hudson both foul out ... Kampe gets ejected.

I was clearly wrong in my forecast for this game ... I hope the result motivates the Grizz guys to finish strong.

[Dan Fenner]

I thought the stat about the free throw discrepancy was something, but how about this one?

IUPUI scored 100 points and only hit ONE 3-pointer (1 of 7).

[blackandgold]

I just got back from Conseco and have just a few thoughts to share:

- Obviously the foul differential was a huge deal. At one point in the first half Oakland had 10 fouls and IUPUI had 4. Kampe was working the refs for the entire game and was particularly livid with them when Benson got his third with time left in the first half.

- A lot of those fouls were ticky-tack in nature, but at the same time I feel like IUPUI should be given credit for drawing a lot of shooting fouls. Young and Nobles did not get that many free throw attempts by getting a ticky-tack foul on the perimeter. They took it to the basket. Even though the lead was cut after Benson picked up his fifth foul with like 9 minutes to go, it was mostly due to some heroic three-point shooting by OU. It could have easily been the 20 point blowout we saw last year. That said, major credit to Bader, Hamilton, and Bass for knocking down huge threes that kept the game close down the stretch.

- The worst part of the game was when Benson was fouled out and Will got hurt. It seemed like he was out of the game for like 3 minutes or so and went back into the locker room to get treated. During that time, it was clear how weak OU is without Kito/Will in there in the paint. The guys pressed IUPUI hard during that time with a small line-up and Ilija downlow, but IUPUI was able to break the press repeated times and get really easy lay-ups and a few and-1s during that stretch. It was brutal to watch.

- Even though the points off turnovers stat doesn't really show it, it just felt like this was one of those games where turnovers did hurt the team as it seemed like the Jags got several big buckets off bad entry passes by Oakland.

- Hard to point to any specific player. I just think IUPUI gave Oakland their best punch and it ended up being a knockout thanks to some help from the officials. There was a stretch when Kito was playing aggressive even though he had 4 fouls and got a great block and changed another shot by Young and it felt like OU could get back into the game defensively. But once he went out, it was clear the team lacked that game changer that makes them an undefeated team.

You can blame the fouls, but have to give credit to the Jags for being aggressive and putting themselves in the position where they made the refs make those calls. That goes to Young and Nobles, and Siakam had a couple of big offensive boards and made jump shots that helped them sustain the lead even when Bader was draining treys.

As biglew has said many times, hopefully this one loss will get the guys charged up to knockout a team like IUPUI in March.

[blackandgold]

Also about Kampe getting ejected. Oakland had a decent-sized cheering section, and I think everyone was glad to see him do that. Larry kind of forced a bad three-point shot that missed (though one might argue he was fouled...at least it might have been called that way on the other end of the court) and after that missed the game was pretty much sealed. So Kampe is just going at it with this guy on the sideline who gives him his first technical, then the second guy comes in and t's him up too. He chased the guy out to the center of the court and was just jawing him up. Eventually there was a cop that came out to lead him off the court but by that time he started making his way to the locker room. It was nuts. Really fired up the IUPUI crowd, but it got a nice cheer from the OU folks as well.

[Garry Gilbert]

Thanks, blackandgold, for your first-person observations from Conseco.

It's good to know that most of the foul calls seemed legitimate in your eyes ... although it worries me every time I see that Jerry Sauder is one of the referees.

We've talked so much about foul shooting and turnovers being this team's weaknesses that we overlooked what would happen on a night when both the big guys got into foul trouble against a good opponent.

[blackandgold]

Feb 6, 2011 9:05:35 GMT -5 Garry Gilbert said:

We've talked so much about foul shooting and turnovers being this team's weaknesses that we overlooked what would happen on a night when both the big guys got into foul trouble against a good opponent.

Great point. The only time I can remember where this happened was against Ohio, and the combination of solid minutes from Ilija and a great night by Ledrick offensively and on the glass really made up for the difference. I remember back then feeling like the team could get by without Hudson/Kito both in the game, but alas, it was not the case against IUPUI.

I should just mention about the fouls that I'm far from the best eye when it comes to determining what was and was not a foul, and I generally believe that refs aren't out to get a certain team so that kind of paints my observations.