Hoosiers Keep NCAA Hopes Alive With Big Win over Minnesota
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — They needed it. They got it.
And now, they need one more.
Indiana's critical final week of the regular season got off to a good start Wednesday night when the Hoosiers beat Minnesota 72-67. With the win, the Hoosiers moved to 19-11 overall and 9-10 in the Big Ten. They remain on the good side of the NCAA tournament bubble for now, with more work to do Saturday at home against Wisconsin.
It was a balanced effort as well, as the Hoosiers beat Minnesota for the second time in 14 days. All five starters scored in double figures for Indiana, the first time that's happened all year.
Freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis led the ways with 18 points and 9 rebounds, playing 31 minutes despite being bothered by a sore foot. Indiana coach Archie Miller wasn't sure how much they were going to get out of him — but they got a lot.
"He's done every test known to man. He's fine,'' Indiana coach Archie Miller said. "It's a pain tolerance right now. He is not going to get a lot of rest. We were going to test him out in the first four minutes, kind of see what he was up to. It looked like he was up to being all right. We rode him out, asked him throughout the course of the game if he was OK.
"He said he was good. He played well, and did a good job for us most of the time. ''
The biggest thing in that well-rounded scoring attack was the re-emergence of junior Joey Brunk, who had 12 points and eight rebounds, bouncing back from a rough stretch in the past six games, where he's been ineffective and has lost most of his minutes to Race Thompson. Brunk has averaged only 9 minutes and change the past three weeks.
Wednesday night he was huge, playing 27 minutes and 37 seconds, scoring and rebounding well and doing a great job of defending Minnesota big man Daniel Oturu. He scored 24 points, but he needed 27 shots to do it and was stymied often late by Brunk when the Hoosiers were trying to hold on to the lead.
Brunk, who led Indiana in plus-minus Wednesday with a plus-17, never wavered during the slump. He said he simply kept working, and knew he would bounce back soon enough.
"You've just got to stick with it, stick with the things that got me here, and not really switch that up. it,'' Brunk said. "There was nothing in particular (that I changed). I kept to my same routines and doing my extra stuff at night with (strength) Coach Cliff (Marshall).''
Indiana jumped out to a quick lead, and was ahead by many as 10 points in the first half, but they gave it all away just before halftime, getting outscored 11-3 as Minnesota took a 34-32 lead to the locker room.
But Indiana came out firing, with Brunk, Jackson-Davis and Al Durham all hitting early shots in an 8-0 run. Indiana got ahead by as much as seven, but Minnesota rallied backto take the lead again at 51-50 with 10:44 to go.
A minute later, Jackson-Davis scored again to give Indiana a 54-53 lead, and from there they never gave it up.
Miller was thrilled to get a big game out of Brunk. He knows they are a better team when he's playing well.
"I think the big deal with Joey, he's a thinker. He cares a lot about doing well. But I think he overthinks it sometimes,'' Miller said. "When Joe is at his best, he's running as hard as he can and his motor is great on both ends of the floor in terms of trying to rebound.
"He has great touch around the basket. I think recently he started to worry a little bit too much about making it rather than getting a good shot. He's nervous that it's not going to go in. Once he got a couple to go down, I think he settled in, you started to see him a little bit more powerful around the rim.''
Keeping Brunk's head on straight makes a big difference.
"It's all confidence. But I think Joe cares a lot and he overthinks it a little bit,'' Miller said. "I think tonight he just started to really play hard defensively. I think that was a big key in him being engaged in the game. Typically when you're worried about that, other things sort of go your way which I think happened for him.''
